Purified To Serve - Numbers 5-8

Numbers 8:5-8 (ESV)

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Take the Levites from among the people of Israel and cleanse them. Thus you shall do to them to cleanse them: sprinkle the water of purification upon them, and let them go with a razor over all their body, and wash their clothes and cleanse themselves. Then let them take a bull from the herd and its grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, and you shall take another bull from the herd for a sin offering.

Prior to the above instructions, we have read in Number and in Leviticus  we have read the above thoughts.  The Levites were to be the representatives to God for the people.  Aaron and his sons, specifically, were to be those who entered the Holy of Holies to approach God with the necessary offerings.   God, in the above lines, is simply reiterating that prior instructions.  The key thought is that as representatives for the people, the Levites had to be pure.   They were not, of course, pure in the sense that Christ will be when He represents us on the cross, but nonetheless they need to be pure ceremonially, at least.   This not unlike our service today.  We do not go through this formal right of purification for service, but we are to be living out our lives in a way that reflects the God we serve.  We don’t have to be washed and shaven for service (something that did happen with these Levites).  For that we can be thankful. We don’t have to offer a bull for our service. For that we can be thankful.  But the point of purification for service cannot be ignored.   We, as believers in the New Testament, are to also present ourselves before God as an acceptable worship sacrifice:

Romans 12:1 (ESV)

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

 1 Peter 2:5 (ESV)

you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The method of purification may have changed but the necessity for it has not.  Before we come to God we are to be washed in Christ’s blood and walking in the Holy Spirit.  

Hebrews 9:14 (ESV)

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.