Numbers: An Exodus Through the Holy Place

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]We followed Israel from the bondage of Egypt to the thunder at Sinai.

[00:00:04]We've seen them cleansed by the sea and fed bread from heaven.

[00:00:08]But at Sinai, the journey didn't end. It transformed. If the first journey from Egypt was about escaping the world and preparing to enter the mountain temple of the Lord, the second journey, outlined in the book of Numbers, is about walking with God.

[00:00:24]A journey that prefigures the movement of the high priest through the holy place towards the Holy of Holies. It is a path that reflects the higher way of heaven's code.

[00:00:39]On the first journey, Israel was fleeing toward holiness. [music] On the second, they are expected to carry holiness with them. The tabernacle wasn't just a destination, it was the constant center of their moving camp. Further, though they did not fully become a kingdom of priests due to their lack of readiness for the higher law that Moses had brought to them, God did establish a priesthood among them.

[00:01:03]The centrality of the tabernacle and priesthood in their second journey was a constant reminder that the people were expected to strive towards a higher path of holiness. As the magnitude of the journey increases, so does the teachings and expectations along the way. This higher journey began with another sacrifice, a second Passover, but this time there is a shift in the nature of the sacrifice.

[00:01:27]Rather than the firstborn of Egypt and the lamb of God being slain to deliver the Lord's firstborn or people of Israel from bondage, a symbol of their deliverance from sin, the Levites are given to God as a substitute [music] for Israel. But the nature of this substitute sacrifice is one of consecration, more reminiscent of the altar of incense inside the temple, rather than the blood sacrifice of the lamb at the altar of sacrifice outside the temple. Numbers, chapters 5 and 6, seems to take the laws of the courtyard for being clean and the higher laws of the holy place such as chastity and consecration outlined in Leviticus >> [music] >> as discussed in our previous episode and expands them to the whole camp. A reminder that God intended for all the people, not just the priest, to be holy, a kingdom of priests. For example, according to Numbers chapter 6, any man or woman could consecrate themselves like a priest was consecrated [music] via a Nazarite vow. They, like the priestly restriction outlined in the holiness code of Leviticus 21, were also to abstain from wine and having contact with the dead.

[00:02:32]>> [music] >> The existence of this vow suggests that holiness was not reserved solely for the tribe of Levi, but any man or woman could voluntarily adopt a priestly level of sanctity for a time. It is as if God is providing ways for them to practice becoming a kingdom of priests as he originally intended. The concept of consecrating or making holy all things to God is most fully symbolized by the altar of incense in the holy place.

[00:02:59]Numbers chapter 7 verse 80 mentions golden spoons filled with incense that were used to consecrate the altar. The Hebrew word translated here for spoon is kaf, [music] the same word for the palm of the hand.

[00:03:12]A spoon, after all, is an extension of one's cupped palm. In Revelation chapter 8 verses 1 through 5, an angel or a priest burns incense at the altar of incense inside the temple >> [music] >> and verse 4 explicitly states that the smoke of the incense ascended up from the angel's [music] hand. Hand-shaped incense cups or cups of incense in the hand are attested in the ancient world.

[00:03:35]The word consecrate in the Bible is often translated from the Hebrew which means literally to fill the hand. The altar of incense is largely a symbol indicating the higher law or requirement to consecrate or make [music] everything holy to the Lord in order to enter his presence. The position and product of this altar inside the temple suggests that it is a different higher sacrifice in comparison to the altar of sacrifice in the [music] courtyard. There were other signals that the second journey of the Exodus was to be a higher, holier path. For example, the spiritual needs of the people were growing, so Moses grew the leadership during this time.

[00:04:15]While they appear to have had tribal leaders overseeing the people of Israel during their first journey, Moses formally sets up a hierarchy of leadership, [music] like calling 70 elders in Numbers chapter 11, as part of their second journey.

[00:04:30]All this organization of priesthood and offices is akin to the establishment of a church and kingdom, which the holy place of the temple represents. These leaders received the spirit of prophecy and began [music] to prophesy.

[00:04:42]Moses teaches the ideal that all the Lord's people should be prophets. Many of the rebellions during the second journey, like Korah's rebellion in Numbers chapter 16, are attacks upon the leadership and priesthood that Moses established. They claimed that they were themselves holy and therefore able to enter the holy place like a priest. But when they offer incense at the door of the temple and attempt to enter into the holy place without preparation and authorization, the leaders of the rebellion were swallowed up beneath the earth.

[00:05:14]A clear symbol that they would not stand as kings or priests [music] or heirs upon the earth, which the holy place represented. Even the house of Israel's nourishment in the second journey is different and elevated. The seemingly one-time gift of quail and the daily manna thereafter of the first journey were simple gifts of survival.

[00:05:35]But in the second journey, God promises a great feast of quail, so much so that it would overflow. "Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither 10 days, nor 20 days, but even a whole month until it come out of your nostrils. And soon the Lord swept quail into the camp two cubits deep on the ground. But the Lord speaks of this feast in negative tones until it be loathsome unto you. Because the people have been murmuring about only receiving manna over and over.

[00:06:08]That miraculous kindness of God had become common and even despised by the people.

[00:06:13]Nevertheless, this great feast of the second journey prefigures the table of showbread in the holy place. A higher, grander feast meant for those who are holy. But [music] it became a curse upon the house of Israel who were not grateful and who lusted.

[00:06:28]>> [music] >> Near the end of their second journey through their symbolic holy place, the Israelites spoke against God and against Moses. In response, the text indicates the Lord unleashes upon them fiery serpents or seraphs, which appropriately are the symbolic guardians of the holy place in the temple. As if to say that the people are not being holy, not worthy to be there. As a gesture of mercy, the Lord tells Moses to fasten one great seraph, one of the heavenly host of the holy place, on a pole and if those who are bitten will simply look to it, they will live. The fact that Moses creates this seraph from copper or bronze, the metal of the temple courtyard, is a beautiful reminder that those in the holy place must always rely upon the courtyard sacrifices, laws, and covenants >> [music] >> in order to remain in the holy place.

[00:07:21]Wielding a serpent in the hand against other destructive serpents is an image that [music] has deep roots in scripture and in the cultures of the ancient world. For example, a standard scepter of authority in Egypt, the was scepter, can appear intertwined with serpents or serpentine shaped with a fork at the bottom for pinning the heads of dangerous serpents that are attacking.

[00:07:43]Likewise, recall that Moses' rod in his hand became a serpent that swallowed the rods made serpents of the Egyptian priests prior to the Exodus. Wielding serpents or scorpions in the hand was also a symbol of a god's word used [music] for healing against the poisons of other serpents or scorpions. We learn from 2 Kings 18 that the brazen serpent likely became part of the temple courtyard because we read that the children of Israel were burning incense before it during the time of Hezekiah.

[00:08:15]It was probably set there to be a reminder to the people that they needed to rely upon this greatest of the seraphim, literally burning ones in Hebrew, from inside the temple.

[00:08:26]This seraph would cleanse and heal any who desired to [music] enter the holy place.

[00:08:32]Unfortunately, the object itself became an idol of worship to many rather than just a symbol. So, King Hezekiah had it destroyed.

[00:08:41]The final chapters of the book of Numbers focuses on the division of the promised land into inheritances for the house of Israel, a symbol of God's desire to fully establish them in the holy place of his kingdom so that what is on earth can ultimately become a heaven or holy of holies for his people.

[00:09:00]This ancient higher path of the Exodus found in the book of Numbers finds an echo in the ministry of Jesus Christ.

[00:09:08]In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus comes down from the Mount of Transfiguration and launches his own second journey towards Jerusalem. Like Moses, Jesus begins to raise expectations among the people, one that requires full consecration, telling one man that a person having put his hand to the plow and looking back is not fit for the kingdom. Or telling a rich ruler that keeping the commandments alone was not enough, but that he needed to sell all that he had and follow him.

[00:09:38]During the second journey of his ministry, Jesus, like Moses, expands the organization of his church and calls 70.

[00:09:44]His parables focus on wedding and royal feasts and the need to have humility and gratitude to be welcomed at that table.

[00:09:52]He rebukes the rebellious who entered not in and prevented others from entering in. His parables and teachings in the second journey speak of the lost being brought home or being in [music] the house and what is necessary to inherit eternal life. The second journey of the Exodus, their 40-years of wandering from the mountain to their promised land outlined in the book of Numbers, and the final path of Christ from the mountain of transfiguration towards Jerusalem are more than just historical travelogs. They are standing invitations to every soul to walk a higher, holier path. [music] While the first journey is about being clean, escaping the bondage of our past, and being healed from those wounds, the second journey is about becoming holy as God is holy.

[00:10:40]It is a call to leave the ironic courtyard of the world and step into [music] the Melchizedek vision inside the temple. This higher way cannot be paid with rebellion or self-assertion, but with the quiet strength of humility and the deep resonance of gratitude. We are invited to sustain those called to lead and to come with hearts broken and spirits contrite to the great royal feast. For the destination of this journey is not just a land or a city, it is a home. It is the promise that we are no longer merely servants in the courtyard, but heirs [music] in the house, prepared at last to sit at the king's table and eventually roll on into our final rest in the holy of holies.

[00:11:23]Until then, keep asking, seeking, and knocking to better understand heaven's code.

[00:11:32]>> Mhm.