In this message we will cover chapter nineteen of Numbers, which deals with the water for impurity. However, before I come to this matter, I would like to say a word about the way the book of Numbers is sectioned.
The first section (1:1—9:14) shows the formation of the children of Israel into an army. From 9:15 they began as the army to set out on their journey. They traveled only a little more than three days before the troubles, turmoils, and rebellions came in. These things began to take place in chapter eleven.
Chapters eleven through fourteen form one group, in which we see four aspects of rebellion. First, the people on the border, on the edge, of the camp murmured evil against God (11:1-3; cf. Deut. 8:2). Second, the mixed multitude, those who were not clear about their status and family, lusted according to their fleshly desires (Num. 11:4-35). Third, Miriam and Aaron, who were very close to Moses and in the center of the administration, rebelled (12:1-16). Fourth, the children of Israel were unbelieving concerning entering into the good land. That was a rebellion out of the unbelief of a fleshly people (13:1—14:38).
Chapter fifteen is an insertion in which ordinances were given in three directions: concerning God's provision of different offerings, which are aspects of Christ; concerning the keeping of the Sabbath, which is to receive what God has done for us; and concerning the people's dress, which signifies that our living should have some beauty and that our conduct should be under a heavenly ruling.
Immediately after the three ordinances were given, in chapter sixteen a nationwide, universal, popular rebellion occurred. Two hundred fifty of the top leaders and well-known men from among the children of Israel rebelled to such an extent that there is no word to describe it. In the whole Bible we cannot see another occasion where God was so angry with man that He judged the leaders of the rebellion by causing the earth to open its mouth and swallow them up with their families and possessions.
It is noteworthy that some of the children of Korah did not join the rebellion. Rather, they departed from it. Eventually, Samuel, a descendant of Korah (1 Chron. 6:33-37), became a great prophet and a Nazarite priest. Samuel's grandson, Heman, became a psalmist and a holy singer in God's temple under the Levitical service arranged by David.
Chapter seventeen records that at the end of that vast, terrible rebellion, God vindicated Aaron by the resurrected Christ in His resurrection power. This power was displayed in a dead and dried up piece of wood that budded, blossomed, and bore fruit, even unto maturity.
Chapters eighteen and nineteen are another insertion. Apparently chapter eighteen is a regulation that reconfirms the compensation, or reward, given to the Aaronic priesthood and the Levitical service to the priesthood. Actually it is a strong vindication added to the previous vindication, the budding rod.
Because a company of the Levites had rebelled against the priests, the people became confused. Thus, after the turmoil, God reconfirmed the priesthood. God had already confirmed the priesthood in the books of Exodus and Leviticus. Now, in Numbers, God reconfirmed the reward to the priesthood and the Levitical service. This was a strong vindication against the rebellion.
If we read chapters eighteen and nineteen in a superficial way, we will not be able to appreciate the background and atmosphere that remained after the rebellion. A particular kind of atmosphere was created among the children of Israel toward the priests and the Levites. Both had nothing as an inheritance to live on. They lived solely on what the children of Israel would give them in the way of tithes. The practice was that the people gave tithes to the Levites, the Levites in turn gave tithes to the priests, and the priests then offered something to God. This means that the priests, the Levites, and even God Himself lived on the mercy of the children of Israel. The Levites lived on the giving of the sons of Israel; the priests lived on the giving of the Levites; and God lived on the giving of the priests, the Levites, and the sons of Israel. If the people had refused to give, all three—the Levites, the priests, and God Himself—would have had nothing to eat. Therefore, at this juncture God came in to reconfirm His reward to the priests and to all the serving ones of the priesthood. This became a covenant, a perpetual statute, for the children of Israel to keep throughout their generations (18:11, 19, 23).