Free Daily Bible Study Podcast

Numbers 8 | Psalm 44 | Song of Songs 6 | Hebrews 6

In Numbers 8, Yahweh prepares the Levites for their service by cleansing them. The first thing we see in Numbers 8 is that the Levites were actually cleansed during this process with sprinkled water of purification, the shaving of their bodies, and washed clothes (Num. 8:7). This was a spiritual process to qualify them for spiritual duties in the worship and service of Yahweh, but part of that process required a physical cleansing with water. In many ways, this cleansing foreshadows Christian baptism, where our physical washing with water corresponds with the spiritual cleansing we receive through the blood of Jesus.

Also, we find blood sacrifices here in the cleansing process for the Levites. Part of their purification required a sin offering and a burnt offering “to make atonement for the Levites” (Num. 8:12). Sin offerings were made for the purpose of removing guilt for specific sins (Lev. 4:1–5:13), and burnt offerings were consumed completely in the fire to symbolize the complete dedication of the worshiper as a “pleasing aroma to the LORD” (Lev. 1:9).

The bulls and the grain offerings were not the only sacrifices offered to Yahweh. Interestingly, the Levites themselves were offered as a wave offering. Partially, this means that the Levites belonged to Yahweh (Num. 8:14–18), dedicated to him through the wave offering.

But it also means that Yahweh has “given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the people of Israel” (Num. 8:19). God gave the Levites as a gift to serve the priests, who served all Israel. Again, the primary responsibility of the Levites was to guard the tabernacle “that there may be no plague among the people of Israel when the people of Israel come near the sanctuary” (Num. 8:19).

Then, when the cleansing process was complete, the Levites began to do the work that Yahweh had prepared for them (Num. 8:22), up to the point that they must retire from service because of old age (Num. 8:23–26).

In Hebrews 10:19–25, we learn that we receive the sprinkled blood of Jesus and the washing of our bodies with the pure water of baptism for largely the same reasons that the Levites were cleansed. First, we are cleansed so that we can draw near to the Father in worship through Christ (Heb. 10:22).

But second, we are cleansed so that we, like the Levites, can engage in the ministry to which our Lord calls us: “And let us consider how to stir one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Heb. 10:24–25).

The blood of Jesus and your baptism equip you for worship and for ministry. Don’t waste them.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Numbers 7 | Psalms 42–43 | Song of Songs 5 | Hebrews 5

Yesterday, we looked at the non-priestly class of holy people in Israel: the Nazirites. Today’s reading in Numbers 7 addresses two other issues regarding holiness within Israel’s camp.

While priests and Nazirites were the only holy people, the tabernacle was filled with many holy things. Obviously, everything used in the tabernacle had to come from somewhere, and Numbers 7 is a record of how all of the tribes of Israel contributed their share in the consecration of the temple. The chapter is repetitive, since every tribe gives precisely the same offering (which is recorded in full every time), but there are a few really interesting highlights that we want to point out along the way.

First, the word for “approached” in Numbers 7:2 and “brought them before” in 7:3, as well as the word for “offer/offered/made an offering” (Num. 7:10, 11, 12, 18, 19) are all the Hebrew word qarab, which we looked at in the meditations for Numbers 3 and 5. This was the word used to describe the crime of outsiders “coming near” (Num. 1:51), as well as the strange fire that Nadab and Abihu offered before Yahweh (Lev. 10:1; Num. 3:4)—and we should remember that both crimes were punishable by death.

As we have seen, it is a sacred, serious thing to bring near an offering into the presence of a holy God. It is not a foregone conclusion, then, that Yahweh will accept these offerings through Moses (Num. 7:4–5), but by grace, Yahweh receives the offerings that his people bring near to him.

Second, Moses is the other major exception beyond the Nazirites to the general rule that only priests were classified as holy. Moses is not a priest, since only Aaron and his descendants qualified to become priests (Ex. 28–29). Moses does perform priestly functions at times, but he really falls more under the categories of mediator and prophet than priest.

So, as covenant mediator, Moses is able to go into the tent of meeting to speak with Yahweh in the holy of holies, where the ark of the covenant was located, and as prophet, Moses hears the voice of Yahweh speaking to him from above the mercy seat (Num. 7:89).

But where Moses was a great mediator whom God used to renew his covenant with Israel and a great prophet through whom God gave Israel his law, Jesus was far better. Not only did Jesus come to inaugurate a new covenant better than the covenant of Moses (Heb. 8:8–13), and not only did Jesus become Yahweh’s last, greatest prophet (Heb. 1:2), but Jesus also came to take up two roles that Moses was not permitted to hold: to serve as our great high priest (Heb. 8:1–7) and to reign as our king forever (Heb. 1:8).

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Numbers 6 | Psalms 40–41 | Song of Songs 4 | Hebrews 4

One major theological distinction that comes up repeatedly in the book of Numbers—and one that we are likely to miss unless we are looking for it—is the difference between clean and holy. The words are not interchangeable. We had talked about this distinction in our meditation from Leviticus 11–12, and the subject arises again in our reading today from Numbers 6.

For Yahweh to dwell in the midst of his people in his tabernacle at the center of the camp, he commands that everyone in the camp be clean so that uncleanness would not “defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell” (Num. 5:3). Clean is the minimum requirement for general proximity to a holy God, and so everyone in the camp must be clean.

But not everyone is considered holy. Holy is a different category altogether. Even among the Levites, only the priests are called holy. The other Levites are only cleansed (Num. 8:5–22), while the priests are consecrated (lit., “made holy”; Ex. 28:41) and declared “Holy to the LORD” (Ex. 28:36) to execute their duties.

What all this means is that, under the Mosaic Covenant, holiness was not an option for any but the priests—with one major exception. This is where the Nazirite vow from Numbers 6:1–21 comes in. With a Nazirite vow, anyone (male or female) could voluntarily undergo a vow of separation unto Yahweh, during which time that person is “holy to the LORD” (Num. 6:8), the exact title that priests were given.

We don’t read anything to suggest that the Nazirites were allowed into the temple as the priests were, but the Nazirites were nevertheless holy. In spite of the strict divisions, separations, and classifications of Israel’s camp in Numbers, the Nazirites were given direct access to Yahweh through their holiness in a way that the other Israelites did not share.

Of course, Yahweh’s intention was never to create an elite division of Israelites in order to separate the dedicated from the insincere. To keep us from getting that idea, Yahweh moves straight from speaking about the Nazirites to telling Aaron how to bless all the people by putting his own name on them.

The picture that continues to unfold illustrates Yahweh’s care to guard his own holiness, while at the same time extending the original boundaries in order to dwell in the midst of his people. In yesterday’s reading, Yahweh pushed lepers out of the camp and taught how to test a woman’s innocence from adultery. In today’s, Yahweh creates a means for becoming holy and places his name upon his people through a special, high priestly blessing.

And in this way, the theology of Numbers teaches something important about who Jesus would be: Our Lord came both to associate with unclean sinners and to make them radiantly holy through his sovereign grace.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Numbers 5 | Psalm 39 | Song of Songs 3 | Hebrews 3

In Numbers 5, Yahweh continues to establish physical boundaries, instituting three new policies to keep his own holiness free from any contamination that the people of Israel might cause.

First, Yahweh commands that anyone with disease, discharge, or uncleanness from contact with the dead should be put outside the camp (Num. 5:1–4). While Yahweh had already commanded that the lepers dwell outside of the camp (Lev. 13:46), this is the first place we read that people with other kinds of uncleannesses were to be excluded from the camp. Now, while leprosy and discharges and contact with the dead are not sins, all disease and death comes as a result of sin, and Yahweh cannot allow a product of the curse to remain in his presence.

Second, for cases when Israelites did sin, Yahweh clarifies here how sinners could make restitution when the people they defrauded had no next of kin (Num. 5:5–10). Since the guilt offering required making restitution (Lev. 6:1–7), Yahweh explains here in Numbers 5:8 that a priest would receive the restitution if no next of kin could receive it. In this way, Yahweh both provided for his priests and made a way for worshipers to make restitution under any circumstances.

The third provision that Yahweh establishes in Numbers 5:11–31 is easily the strangest to modern readers. Why should the adulterous woman be singled out, while the adulterous man is nowhere to be found? Why this bizarre ritual, and why such a strange curse?

The text, however, does not answer those questions—not directly, at least. Instead, notice that Numbers 5:16 says: “And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the LORD.” The phrase “shall bring her near” is a form of the word qarab, which we looked at in our meditation on Numbers 3. In other words, the function of this whole process is to bring someone who may or may not be guilty of the sin of adultery into Yahweh’s holy presence.

Because we have been studying the significance of coming near to Yahweh through the book of Numbers, we can get some perspective on this passage. If the woman is innocent, then nothing bad happens to her. Her cleanness in the presence of Yahweh protects her. But if the woman is guilty, then her sin in the presence of Yahweh brings a very specific curse on her, leaving her incapable of having more children.

It is a dangerous thing to dwell near to God while remaining in your sin, but hear the promise of the gospel of Jesus: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus…let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:19, 22).

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Numbers 4 | Psalm 38 | Song of Songs 2 | Hebrews 2

As we continue to read through the book of Numbers, we need to keep in mind that Israel is still encamped at Mount Sinai at this point, just as they have been since Exodus 19. The second half of the book of Exodus, all of Leviticus, and the first several chapters of Numbers together comprise one long scene in the Bible.

But by Numbers 10, Yahweh will instruct Israel to break camp. We see in Numbers 4, then, the instructions that God gives to his people about how to move the camp.

First, the priests were to prepare the tabernacle for transportation by carefully covering up the holy things (Num. 4:5–14). This was important since it would be the Kohathites who would carry the furniture to the next campsite (Num. 4:15), and the non-priestly Kohathites were not allowed to touch or even look upon the holy things in the tabernacle, even briefly, lest they die (Num. 4:15, 17–20).

Before the Kohathites gathered the furniture, however, the Gershonites came to gather the fabrics of the tabernacle, and the Merarites came to gather the supporting pegs, bases, poles, and so on. After the first three tribes—Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun—set out (Num. 10:14–16), the Gershonites and the Merarites followed (Num. 10:17) while the Kohathites were gathering up the furniture, giving the Gershonites and Merarites time to pitch the tent of the tabernacle before the Kohathites arrived with the furniture (Num. 10:21).

Yahweh had brought the Levites near to himself (Num. 3:6), not to serve as priests, but to assist the priests with protecting and preserving the sanctity of Yahweh and his tabernacle by camping directly around the tabernacle (Num. 1:53), by guarding the entrance of the tabernacle from any outsider (Num. 3:10), and by tearing down, transporting, and re-pitching the tabernacle from one campsite to another (Num. 4).

The many intricate, detailed rules for organizing the physical space of Israel’s camp teach us two things. First, we learn (again) that Yahweh is a holy God, whose holiness must be carefully guarded for the protection of the people, because God’s holy wrath would consume the unclean sinners who violated it. Second, we learn that it is the highest privilege possible to be brought near to Yahweh, as the Levites were (Num. 3:6).

This is the reason that Jesus came into the world: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13). Brothers and sisters, we enjoy privileges in Christ that the Levites could not have imagined.

Rejoice! You have been brought near to God, not by rules and regulations that you must keep, but by nothing less than the precious blood of Christ that he has shed for you!

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Numbers 3 | Psalm 37 | Song of Songs 1 | Hebrews 1

Not all Levites were priests. A priest had to be a male descendent of Aaron, who was a Kohathite. The lineage of the priests looks like this (Ex. 6:16–25):

Levi —> Kohath —> Amram —> Aaron —> Priests

So, none of the Merarites or Gershonites were priests, and only some of the Kohathites were priests.

But, even if they weren’t all priests, the three clans within the tribe of Levi—Gershon, Kohath, and Merari—are given by Yahweh special work assignments not shared by any other tribe within Israel. When the nation of Israel moved to a different campsite, Yahweh gave the Gershonites the privilege of moving the fabric of the tabernacle—the coverings, screens, hangings, and cords (Num. 3:21–26). Then, he gave the Kohathites responsibility for the holy furniture within the tabernacle, including the ark, the table, the lamp stand, the altars, and the vessels (Num. 3:27–32). Finally, Yahweh entrusted the Merarites with the tabernacle’s infrastructure, such as the bars, pillars, bases, pegs, and cords (Num. 3:33–37).

These unique work assignments were privileges, but they were also holy responsibilities. In Numbers 3, we find the first two uses in Numbers of the word for “bring near” (qarab). This word had occurred ninety-one times in the book of Leviticus, usually to describe the bringing near of a sacrificial offering before Yahweh, which is exactly how the word is used in Numbers 3:4: “Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD when they offered [lit. “brought near”] strange [zarah] fire before the LORD in the wilderness of Sinai.”

This reference takes us back to the story in Leviticus 10, when Yahweh struck down two of the priestly sons of Aaron who had brought something strange near to Yahweh. To bring something near to Yahweh is a sacred, holy act. In fact, the other use of the word qarab in Numbers 3 describes the special place of privilege for the whole tribe of Levi: “Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him” (Num. 3:6).

But to bring near something “strange” (zarah; i.e., foreign, unauthorized) was egregious. The same Hebrew root word for “strange” is used to describe the outsider who must be put to death: “If any outsider [zûr] comes near [to the tabernacle], he shall be put to death” (Num. 3:10). Just as Yahweh had struck down Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire before him, he now charges the Levites as his guards with striking down any outsider who attempted to breach God’s tabernacle.

In this light, we see a glorious irony within the gospel: At the cross, Yahweh treated his perfect, spotlessly righteous Son as the ultimate stranger, striking him down with the fullness of his furious wrath against our sin, so that we could be brought near, not as strangers, but as God’s children.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Numbers 2 | Psalm 36 | Ecclesiastes 12 | Philemon 1

Yesterday, we began to discuss the way God was at work arranging the physical space inside Israel’s camp in the book of Numbers. In Numbers 1:47–54, God laid out the basic seating chart: the Israelites were to set up their camp with the tabernacle at the very center of the camp, with the Levites directly surrounding the tabernacle to form a barrier between the tabernacle and the other tribes of Israel, “so that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the people of Israel” (Num. 1:53).

Now, in Numbers 2, God organizes the other tribes in the camp in an arrangement that doubled as the marching order for when Israel moved from site to site. On the east side of the camp—and the tribes at the front of the line when Israel marched to a new campsite—was first the tribe of Judah, and then Issachar and Zebulun (Num. 2:3–9). The east side was a place of primacy, not only because it was toward the sunrise (Num. 2:3), but also because the tabernacle itself faced east.

Then, on the south side (the second set of tribes to march) were Reuben, Simeon, and Gad (Num. 2:10–16). On the west side (the third set) were the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin (Num. 2:18–24). Dan, Asher, and Naphtali (the fourth set) camped on the north side (Num. 2:25–31).

But again, why does God arrange the camp this way?

As we have seen since the beginning of our study, God is a holy God who cannot dwell in the midst of a sinful people, lest his holiness be defiled. On the other hand, God loves his people and he wants to dwell in their midst. In Numbers, God is organizing the space, boundaries, and varying degrees of proximity required for his people to dwell near to him around his tabernacle without being consumed by his holiness.

But at the same time, God’s holiness is protected and guarded by the Levites, who surround the tabernacle. Just as the cherubim had been placed at the entrance of the Garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life (Gen. 3:24), so the Levites here guard (Num. 1:53—same Hebrew word as in Gen. 3:24) the way into the tabernacle.

Merely by free grace does God condescend to dwell in the midst of his people, but God’s grace always upholds his holiness. By sending Jesus to die in our place, as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sin, God was guarding his holiness. God is not a corrupt judge who perverts justice when he forgives us because Jesus has already paid the penalty in full.

Through Christ, Yahweh both guards the purity of his holiness and opens up the way to the tree of life to those who believe upon him for salvation.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Numbers 1 | Psalm 35 | Ecclesiastes 11 | Titus 3

Students in most any kind of classroom, if they pay careful attention, can learn a lot about the teacher within the first few minutes of the very first day of class. For example, some teachers allow students to sit anywhere they like, while others come prepared with a detailed seating chart for every person in their class. And if you have a seating-chart teacher, everyone intuitively understands right from the beginning that rules, structure, and order will play an important part of your relationship with your teacher.

In the book of Numbers, God is like a seating-chart teacher, arranging Israel’s camp around his tabernacle as they move through the wilderness toward the Promised Land, and in this way, Numbers exhibits continuity with many of the themes that we have seen so far in our study. But Numbers also places a different emphasis than we have seen in Genesis, Exodus, or Leviticus. It is still the case that God is holy and that the people of Israel are sinful, but here God’s chief concern is to organize the physical space within the camp of Israel.

The book of Genesis traced the story of God’s raising up one man, whose family would bless all the nations of the earth. In Exodus, God redeemed his people Israel out of slavery in Egypt, renewed his covenant with them, gave them his law, and instructed them to build a tabernacle so that he could dwell in their midst. In Leviticus, God set the rules and regulations that would govern the purity and cleanness of Israel as they dwelt near to Yahweh.

But in Numbers, God begins his lessons for his people by rolling out a detailed seating chart. The tabernacle would be placed at the very center of the camp, and the members of the tribe of Levi would directly surround it (Num. 1:53). All the other tribes would set up camp around the Levites (who were themselves camped around the tabernacle), tribe by tribe (Num. 1:52). God gives more specific instructions for which tribe would camp in which position around the tabernacle in Numbers 2, but Numbers 1 functions as the overview for the whole arrangement.

For now, don’t miss the gravity of this arrangement: “When the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down, and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. And if any outsider comes near, he shall be put to death” (Num. 1:51).

And again: “But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the people of Israel. And the Levites shall keep guard over the tabernacle of the testimony” (Num. 1:53).

What’s the big deal? Why is this arrangement of the camp so important to God?

We’ll begin to answer those questions tomorrow.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Leviticus 27 | Psalm 34 | Ecclesiastes 10 | Titus 2

In context, the final chapter of Leviticus is a bit of a puzzle. Leviticus 26, yesterday’s reading, seems like a perfectly fitting close to a single book, with an overarching summary of the blessings and curses that Yahweh would give for obedience or for disobedience, respectively. Wouldn’t these laws about vows, then, fit better earlier in Leviticus?1 So, why would Yahweh inspire this material for the concluding chapter of Leviticus?

The first thing we should keep in mind is that Leviticus is not one isolated book. In fact, the entire content of Leviticus takes place while Israel is camped at Mount Sinai to receive the law from Yahweh, a continuation of the narrative that began in Exodus 19 and continues until Israel leaves Mount Sinai in Numbers 10. Seen in this broader context, we can view this chapter as one more piece of the entire law that Yahweh gave his people.

Second, the themes of Leviticus 27—vows, the dedication of property to Yahweh, and the redemption of that property under specific circumstances—matches the larger context of the story of Yahweh’s bringing his people out of Egypt into their inheritance in the Promised Land. So, just as Yahweh redeemed (i.e., purchased back) his own people out of Egypt, now Yahweh provides guidelines as to the types of property that his people may redeem (at a 20 percent higher purchase price) for themselves.

Then, Yahweh specifies types of property that may neither be sold nor redeemed because of the fact that they belong to Yahweh in a special way. For example, the firstborn of animals may not be dedicated (Lev. 27:26) because Yahweh purchased every firstborn on the night of the Passover (Ex. 13:2). So, part of what is happening in this chapter is a reaffirmation of what Yahweh possesses and what he gives to his people by grace.

This, then, is probably the key to understanding the unique role of Leviticus 27 as the concluding chapter of the book. Allen Ross summarizes the theme of the chapter this way: “Since the LORD is faithful to his word and keeps his promises, then his people must also be true to their word.”2

Although so much of Leviticus focuses on what Israel must do in order to maintain their holiness and their cleanness so that they may dwell in the presence of Yahweh, it is important to remember that Yahweh’s presence is not an imposition but an act of extraordinary faithfulness. Yahweh was faithful to redeem his people out of Egypt so that he might dwell with them, and so he calls his people to be holy, as he is holy.

This principle holds true today: if Yahweh was faithful to keep his promises even by sending his own Son to die for us, then shouldn’t we reflect his faithfulness by keeping the vows we make to other people and to him?

1 Gordon J. Wenham, The Book of Leviticus, NICOT (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1979), 336.

2 Allen P. Ross, Holiness to the LORD: A Guide to the Exposition of the Book of Leviticus (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), 495.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Leviticus 26 | Psalm 33 | Ecclesiastes 9 | Titus 1

The promises of the old covenant were a two-edged sword. On the one hand, Yahweh promised to establish paradise on earth for Israel if they obeyed all his statutes and commandments, but on the other hand, Yahweh promised hell on earth if his people refused to listen to him and spurned his laws. In Leviticus 26, Yahweh lays out the two paths that his people could take: blessings for obedience or curses for disobedience.

Yahweh promises specific material blessings side by side with their corresponding material curses. For obedience, Yahweh would bless Israel with abundant rains and good crops (Lev. 26:3–5), peace (Lev. 26:6–8), and prosperity (Lev. 26:9–10). For disobedience, however, Yahweh would send wasting diseases (Lev. 26:16, 25), crippling military defeats (Lev. 26:17–19, 25, 33, 36–39), famine (Lev. 26:16, 20, 26), and attacks from wild beasts (Lev. 26:21–22).

But Yahweh also makes promises about spiritual blessings and curses in this passage. In fact, the most breathtaking phrase in this entire chapter comes in Leviticus 26:12: “And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.” This is a special form of the verb that is probably best translated as “walk back and forth.” This is the same form of “walk” used to describe Yahweh’s walking in the Garden of Eden immediately before Adam and Eve were cursed for their own disobedience (Gen. 3:8).

If we wonder why the punishments Yahweh promises are so harsh, we might consider the intimacy that Yahweh was offering to Israel here: nothing less than the intimacy Yahweh enjoyed with his people in the Garden of Eden. In the same way, Yahweh was promising to be Israel’s God, so that Israel would be his people. And on the flipside, he was promising to react like a betrayed husband with jealous rage if he discovered Israel’s infidelity to him.

So as we keep reading the story of the Bible, we learn two things. First, Yahweh will rage against the faithlessness of his people with a righteous jealousy, since he is a jealous God whose very name is Jealous (Ex. 34:14).

But second, we will also read that, while Yahweh may cast away his people for a time, his deep love and compassion for them makes it impossible for Yahweh to abandon his people forever (Hos. 11:8). The rest of the story of the Bible tells us the deep tension between Yahweh’s jealous wrath against his people for their infidelities and his great love and compassion that moves him to forgive them and reconcile them to himself.

And at the cross, that tension comes to full force. On Jesus—God’s own Son—the Father poured out the wrath of the covenant curses of Leviticus 26 so that, through Christ, we might receive God’s covenant blessings instead.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.