Day 41. Numbers 7-8

We wonder as we read these passages how exactly the LORD speaks to Moses. In today’s reading from Numbers 7, we are told that when Moses went into the Tent of Meeting, “he would hear the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the covenant from between the two cherubim” (8:9). The ark formed a throne upon which the LORD sat in state and made his decrees. His speaking, however, was probably an interior conversation between him and Moses.
The Tabernacle was the place where creation was restored to the situation of Eden, where God spoke directly to Adam and walked with him. The sacred seven branched candlestick—the “menorah”—which gave light to the place was a symbolic recreation of the Tree of Life. And the Levites represented a new and restored humanity.
Their ordination ritual which involved washing and the shaving of their entire bodies (8:6) was symbolic of their restored innocence. They were presented to the LORD as “an elevation offering” (8:11). Ordained and purified they were worthy to stand between People of Israel and God enthroned in his sanctuary.
Their job was not an easy one, physically and well as spiritually, which is reflected in the early age of their retirement (8:25). Their whole lives were regimented by the rituals of the Tabernacle and dependent upon it. Forbidden to hold land, the ministry was all they knew or were able to do. They were often underemployed in later times. So in later times the Levites were a vulnerable minority in need of protection.