Numbers

9.1-23

The two sections or topics covered in this chapter should make many impressions on you as you read them. But more obvious among them is 1) the direct relation between Passover provisions and the path to repentance through Christ in vv2-14 and 2) the clarity seen in obedience to God's direction for staying or moving ONLY as He commands in vv15-23. Look for these things as you read: The opportunity for inclusion even when not part of the group to whom salvation was first offered. The opportunity to become clean, even when contaminated by death. Condemnation if the opportunity to receive salvation was ignored (participation in the Passover was the salvation of the firstborn of every household). The body of the lamb unbroken (prophecy about Christ the Lamb). The lack of distinction between the Jew and the Gentile for participation in the means of salvation. As you read on to the second half of the chapter, note the meticulous attention to the descriptions of when the people would stay or move. The thing that mattered - Yahweh directed it. The thing that didn't matter - anything else. It did not matter whether they had been in a place for a year or only overnight. It didn't matter whether they had become very comfortable or not even unpacked for a meal. Whatever Yahweh directed, they unquestioningly followed. The alternative was to be left behind. When God moved, the people moved. That is the principle we must apply to our lives today - and every day.

CHAPTER 9

The Passover

1 Thus Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
2 “Now, let the sons of Israel observe the Passover at its appointed time.
3 “On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you shall observe it at its appointed time; you shall observe it according to all its statutes and according to all its judgments.”
4 So Moses told the sons of Israel to celebrate the Passover.
5 And they celebrated the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that Yahweh had commanded Moses, so the sons of Israel did.
6 But there were some men who were unclean because of a dead person, so that they could not celebrate Passover on that day; so they came near before Moses and Aaron on that day.
7 And those men said to him, “We are unclean because of a dead person. But why are we restrained from bringing near the offering of Yahweh at its appointed time among the sons of Israel?”
8 Moses therefore said to them, “Wait, and I will listen to what Yahweh will command concerning you.”
9 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
10 “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If any one of you or of your generations becomes unclean because of a dead person, or is on a distant journey, he may, however, celebrate the Passover to Yahweh.
11 ‘In the second month on the fourteenth day at twilight, they shall observe it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
12 ‘They shall leave none of it until morning nor break a bone of it; according to all the statute of the Passover they shall celebrate it.
13 ‘But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and yet neglects to celebrate the Passover, that person shall then be cut off from his people, for he did not bring near the offering of Yahweh at its appointed time. That man will bear his sin.
14 ‘If a sojourner sojourns among you and celebrates the Passover to Yahweh, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its judgment, so he shall do; you shall have one statute, both for the sojourner and for the native of the land.’”

The Cloud Covering the Tabernacle

15 Now on the day that the tabernacle was erected the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony, and in the evening it was like the appearance of fire over the tabernacle until morning.
16 So it was continuously; the cloud would cover it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.
17 Now whenever the cloud would go up from over the tent, afterward the sons of Israel would then set out; and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the sons of Israel would camp.
18 At the command of Yahweh the sons of Israel would set out, and at the command of Yahweh they would camp; as long as the cloud settled over the tabernacle, they remained camped.
19 Even when the cloud lingered over the tabernacle for many days, the sons of Israel would keep the charge of Yahweh and not set out.
20 If sometimes the cloud remained a few days over the tabernacle, according to the command of Yahweh they remained camped. Then according to the command of Yahweh they set out.
21 If sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning, when the cloud was lifted in the morning, they would move out; or if it remained in the daytime and at night, whenever the cloud was lifted, they would set out.
22 Whether it was two days or a month or a year that the cloud lingered over the tabernacle, dwelling above it, the sons of Israel remained camped and did not set out; but when it was lifted, they did set out.
23 At the command of Yahweh they camped, and at the command of Yahweh they set out; they kept the charge of Yahweh, according to the command of Yahweh by the hand of Moses.

Legacy Standard Bible (Three Sixteen Publishing, 2022), Nu 9.