Daily Devotion | Numbers 8:1–13 | 2026 April 21

Title: Daily Devotion | Numbers 8:1–13 | 2026 April 21

Scripture: Numbers 8:1–13 (ESV, reference only)

Date: 2026 April 21

Speaker: Rev. John Chen

Transcribed, translated & edited by: Joseph Wang (Yufan)

All right, dear brothers and sisters, peace be with you. We thank God for His grace that we have come to a new day to study our daily spiritual nourishment. The passage we are studying today is Numbers chapter 8, verses 1 through 13. Let us pray. God, we thank You. We thank You for leading us, Lord, to the service of the sanctuary, and we also thank You that You continually show us mercy, Lord, so that we may know how we ought to walk before You. Lord, we ask You to grant grace in our midst, that we may follow You and truly be able to understand Your will. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

All right, thanks be to God for His grace. We have come to a new day to study our daily spiritual nourishment. We have come now to chapter 8, Numbers chapter 8. First, verses 1 through 4 speak about how the lamps are to be lit. The Lord spoke to Moses and said that when the lamps are set up, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lampstand. Aaron then did so. He set up its lamps on the lampstand so that they gave light in front of it, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. So what does this mean? What does it mean that the lampstand gives light toward the front? In ancient times, if you look at the form of the lampstand, its design did not have anything like a way to turn its direction. It was not like the desk lamps we have today, where I can adjust it this way, move it forward, move it backward. It did not have that kind of adjustment. So how can it be said to shine toward the front?

What this means is that this lampstand could in fact be adjusted, but not in direction. It could be adjusted in brightness. I do not know whether all of you have seen this before, but when we were children, we all used kerosene lamps. The flame of a kerosene lamp could be adjusted. It could be turned very high, and it could also be turned very low. It had to do with the length of the wick. So we can imagine that this lampstand was actually a very precise piece of workmanship. It was hammered out. Inside it there was a wick, and oil had to be poured in. And it had some kind of switch, probably something by which the brightness could be adjusted. So that is what it means for it to shine toward the front. Then what does this adjustment of brightness mean? The Lord told Moses that when the lamps were set up, the brightness of these seven lamps had to be sufficient. Sufficient for what? Sufficient to shine on the table opposite it. That is what it means. What was opposite it? Opposite it was the table of the bread of the Presence.

So the meaning here is that the brightness of the lampstand had to be adjusted properly, so that the priest serving at the table of the bread of the Presence on the other side could see clearly. To put it in ordinary human language, do not be stingy. Do not turn it down so low that it is dim. So the control should not be set so dark. It should be adjusted bright, bright enough. Bright enough for what? Bright enough to see what is in front of it. The service taking place opposite it—opposite it was that table of the bread of the Presence—it had to be brightened. That is what is meant. This is what it means for it to shine toward the front: you must turn the brightness up high enough. That is the meaning. And the lampstand was made of hammered gold. This was an extremely advanced piece of workmanship. Even now we still cannot quite figure out where the switch was or how the wick could be adjusted, but there is no need for Scripture to tell us that. In any case, the point is that it had to be adjusted to a brightness that was sufficient.

There is a lot of meaning here. First, I think this shows that God is sufficiently loving and very detailed in caring for man’s needs. Because if the lamp were too dim, too dark, just think about it: that place was already completely dark. If you were groping around there and stumbled, what would happen? If you stumbled, that would be a serious matter, would it not? So the fact that it was adjusted to be bright enough shows God’s generosity, God’s blessing, and God’s concern for His people and for the priests. He cared very much about their need for light. That is the most direct and literal meaning of the text.

Then secondly, it tells us that this lampstand typifies Christ. We all know that very clearly. Jesus is that golden lampstand. The brightness of the lampstand is sufficiently bright, able to shine upon all those in the world who are in need. All of God’s elect will be illuminated by this lamp. This lamp is sufficiently bright. So the Lord Jesus is not only the light of Israel; He is also the light of the Gentiles. This light is to shine into the whole of humanity. That is the meaning of the golden lampstand. We have already spoken about this in detail earlier.

At the same time, this also reminds us that as Christians, we too must become light. We must be light and salt, as we have often said before. If a person is light but does not shine, or salt but is not salty, then that Christian is a very failed Christian. The light of Jesus is certainly bright enough. But is our light bright enough? On this point we need to be careful. Are we so dim that people cannot tell at all? Are we like hidden Christians, like spies, deliberately not letting people know who we are? Or does our light shine before men in this way, and is this light bright enough? Bright enough to be seen, not hidden away?

When we believe in Jesus, people should be able to tell. Some people say, “Those who believe in Jesus have believed themselves into confusion.” Well, if you have not believed to that point, then this is not really called believing in Jesus, because your worldview has not changed. It is still the same as everyone else’s. Of course, such people may be mocked, they may be despised, and because we believe in Jesus it may even bring injury or opposition from our family members. But all these things are the cost we ought to pay, because our Lord has already been nailed to the cross. We should not expect this world to treat us especially well. So we must be light, and this light must be sufficiently bright, in order to shine on the people around us.

Then again, the fact that this light shines on the service at the table of the bread of the Presence has even richer meaning. It speaks of God’s provision for man. We have said that on the table of the bread of the Presence there were twelve loaves, representing Israel. God loves Israel. God constantly keeps them on His heart and remembers them. At the same time, through the bread of the Presence, God also supplies the needs of His people. How greatly God loves His people. And all of this must be done while walking in the light. So once you have this passage, Numbers 8:1–4, then you can understand in the Gospel of John and in 1 John what it means to walk in the light, to serve at the Lord’s table in the light, to minister at the altar of incense in the light. The light is bright enough so that we may serve all these needs of the sanctuary without hindrance, and in this way the people of God may receive blessing. That is the teaching concerning this section about the lampstand.

All right, next let us look at the consecration of the Levites. Actually, the rest of chapter 8 is all about the consecration of the Levites. Because there is quite a lot of content here, we will divide it into two parts. Today we will cover verses 5 through 13. First of all, after the Levites were set apart, they had to be cleansed. Remember this: being set apart as holy was not enough. They also had to be cleansed. Of course, the regulations for the cleansing of the Levites were much simpler than those for the cleansing of the priests. How were they cleansed? Since there were many of them—several thousand people, close to ten thousand—their method of cleansing was relatively simple. First, water for purification from sin was to be sprinkled on them, that is, the water for removing uncleanness. Then they were told to take a razor and shave their whole body. Third, they were to wash their clothes. The cleansing rite for the Levites was like this. First, atonement from sin: the water sprinkled upon them represented their ceremonial cleansing. Then, from the human side, they used a razor to shave the whole body, mainly the hair and the beard. Then they washed their clothes and cleansed themselves. In other words, when the Levites were to be presented to God, they had to undergo such a cleansing ceremony, so that they might be wholly given over to God.

This makes us think of something that Chinese people are more familiar with, namely Buddhist monks. Monks shave their heads. Shaving the head, shaving the beard—these things signify that one is a monk. So you can see that all false religions are clumsy imitations of the true faith. The Levites had to be cleansed in this way, and these false religions, these evil religions, under the leading of the powers of darkness, also learn to imitate such a form. But what they have is evil. Only this way, the way God appoints, is pleasing to God. So the Levites all had to shave their whole bodies and cleanse themselves.

And from this angle, you can also see that all these things found in false religions—well, we should say false religions, because they cannot all be called cults. A cult is that more extremely evil kind of false religion. When we speak of false religions, we mean things like Buddhism and Islam. These are false religions. And within these false religions, they are in fact imitating true faith, true religion. False religion always steals certain things from here and then treats them as its own truth. In other words, false religion is plagiarized. And in Buddhism, for example, those monks shave their heads and shave their beards. According to the doctrine of Theravada Buddhism, they also think that a woman must be reincarnated into a man, and that a man must then become a monk before he can enter what they call nirvana. They too have this sort of idea of rank or order. Of course, that whole idea of rank is nonsense, but from it you can see that it is a clumsy imitation of the true faith. The Levites had to shave the whole body.

Then after that there was to be one young bull, or rather two bulls in all—one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering—and the Levites were to be brought before the tent of meeting, and all the congregation of the people of Israel was to be assembled. The people of Israel were to come before the Lord. And what were they to do? The people of Israel were to lay their hands on the Levites. As for how exactly this was done, the text does not say in detail. Perhaps the elders, the leaders representing all twelve tribes, laid their hands on them, and then they were presented before the Lord. In this way they were offered before the Lord on behalf of the people of Israel as a wave offering, so that they might do the service of the Lord.

We know that a wave offering was to belong to the priest. The meat of the wave offering was for the priest to eat. So after these Levites were given as a wave offering to the priests, what were they to do? They were to come and help the priests in the service of the priesthood. Then, after the laying on of hands, the Levites were to lay their hands on the heads of the two bulls. One was for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering, offered to the Lord to make atonement for the Levites. In this way the Levites could stand before Aaron and his sons, and offer themselves as a wave offering to the Lord.

So the passage we are reading here tells us that for the Levites in Israel, there were certain procedures they had to go through before they could serve God. The reminder here for us is that when a person is called out by God, he must pass through a certain process. The process for priests was even more complicated, but the Levites also had to go through these procedures. Water for purification from sin, shaving the whole body, washing their clothes—and after all that cleansing, was that enough? No, not yet. It was not the case that once they were cleansed, they could immediately be used. They still had to offer a sin offering, and they also had to offer a burnt offering. Then the people of Israel had to lay their hands on their heads, and the Levites had to lay their hands on the sacrificial animals. So here we see a kind of order, a level, one stage of cleansing after another, continually being raised.

First, for the people of Israel, they could not directly draw near to God, nor could they directly serve God. A group had to be taken out from among them—the Levites—and these were brought out so that they might serve God. Then among the Levites, these men could serve only with regard to the outer furnishings. And then from within the Levites there had to be chosen the priesthood, that is, Aaron and his sons, as those who were more holy, to enter into the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place to serve God. There were these degrees of holiness, and at every degree, when they were to serve, there had to be this procedure of laying on of hands. Notice this: the laying on of hands signified that the sins of the people of Israel were transferred onto the Levites. Then the sins of the Levites were transferred onto the sacrificial animals. Then the sacrificial animals were slain, and only then could they serve.

So here, again and again in the Old Testament text, we see this kind of pattern of substitutionary death. We know that all of the Old Testament points to Christ. So how does this point to Him? We need to look at it step by step. Here it points to this matter of substitution, that is, we discover here a kind of model: when one group sins, the way for that group to become holy is for another group to stand in its place, and then that second group is itself represented by animals standing in its place. So when we read the Pentateuch, we ought to have this concept in mind—a concept of substitutionary atonement. Substitution. What happens to your sin? Sin will not simply disappear on its own. Nor can sin be removed as if I can repay it by doing something, especially after we have sinned against God. We have no way to remove our sin. So what is to be done? This sin has to be removed by means of substitution. The people of Israel place it upon the Levites, the Levites place it upon the animals. So this model very clearly lets us know the concept of Jesus’ substitutionary death, this idea of substitution.

This concept is continually developed in the Old Testament, so that Israel would know that the final true atonement, the final true sacrifice, refers to Jesus Christ. So all that came before was training them constantly, teaching them how sin is dealt with. Sin requires sacrifice. Of course, for them it was a culture, a ritual, but in fact it pointed to something deeper, namely that the way sin is dealt with is through the idea of substitution. That is what we need to grasp here. And that is why today we have not covered the entire chapter, but only this first part. On this point we need to stop and think: the concept of substitutionary death is something that the Old Testament keeps developing. It is telling us that the way sin is dealt with is through substitution. There must be a ransom price. There must be a person or an animal to take the place of another, otherwise there is no way for sin to be removed. So this concept is continually developing throughout the Old Testament, until finally in the New Testament it becomes the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Why is the New Testament so much shorter when it comes later? The New Testament is quite short, is it not? Why is it only a little bit? Because in the end the New Testament is making the decisive point. It is like the finishing touch of the brush, showing you what the Old Testament has been saying. It is not that the New Testament is giving a new doctrine. The New Testament is not a new explanation. The New Testament is not a new tradition. The New Testament tells you how to interpret the Old Testament. So in the New Testament there are really methods of interpretation, and then when you turn back again, you see that all these things in the Old Testament completely point to Christ. When you understand this point, then as you read the whole Bible, you can receive nourishment from it, and not only when you read the New Testament.

When I read the New Testament, I may be moved and say, “Jesus loves me.” But in fact, in the Old Testament too, every line and every sentence is still God’s love toward us. The only thing is that we must understand its manner of narration. We must find what it is chiefly telling us in the Old Testament. So what do verses 5 through 13 of this passage tell us? They tell us the concept of substitution. Sin needs to be substituted for. Sin cannot be handled in some other way. It is not by some method of sacrifice as though you were trying to please God, as if you were giving God some benefit and then God would forgive you. No. What this passage is conveying is a concept of substitution. It is conveying the fact that the sacrificial animal has to die. This is what we must hold fast to.

It is not like false religion. False religion, or those who have not received theological training, how do they understand sacrifice? I believe they think of it as something like this: “Oh, you have offended God. What should you do? Get some good things, some fine food and drink, offer them to God, and then God will forgive you.” That is probably their transactional way of thinking. And in false religion too, this is the line of thought: you burn the first incense, you donate money to build a temple, you buy incense, you support these so-called monks, and by these means they try to please their god. In false religion, that is the mode of interaction between the worshiper and the one being worshiped. It is a mode of bribery.

But what we read here is completely different. In the whole of Scripture, as we have studied the Pentateuch up to this point, we ought to be very clear in seeing that within these Old Testament ordinances and laws, what is being pointed to is not at all the concept of trying to please God. Its concept is this: what does the laying on of hands represent? The laying on of hands represents that guilt is transferred to the next one. And that next one must fully bear the result of your sin. Then that next one is represented by the animal. So this concept of bearing, this concept of imputation, and then once the guilt falls on the animal, what is to be done with it? That animal must die. This is the concept of sacrifice we are seeing here. And this concept is not found in false religion. Or, to put it another way, even many Christians have not paid much attention to why sacrifice had to be offered. In the end, it is pointing to substitution.

Then in the New Testament, the matter of substitution becomes very clear. The book of Hebrews is the clearest book showing the connection between the New Testament and the Old Testament. What it tells us is the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. All the Old Testament points to Christ. That high priest points to Christ, and that sacrifice also points to Christ. He is the perfect sacrifice. He bears our debt of sin. And that perfect High Priest offers Himself as the sacrifice, and in the end bears the sins of all His elect, all those who trust in Him. Those who trust in Him are those who lay their hands upon Him, and they can obtain holiness.

So only when you clearly understand this Old Testament process of atonement through the laying on of hands, and have a clear grasp of its theological meaning, can you know why one may be justified by faith in Jesus, and exactly what Jesus accomplished. This is a theological concept that was developed within the Old Testament. So if you read only the New Testament, you will not understand it. You will not know why Jesus could be the substitute. Of course, you may speak of covenant theology—the covenant of grace, the covenant of works—and that is true. But in the Old Testament there are already rich types and shadows showing you this logic. This theological logic runs all the way through the whole Bible. And because of this, we have even deeper gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why? Because our sin actually cannot be removed at all by ourselves. The result of our sin is death. So must we die? Jesus says, “No, I will die in your place.” So Jesus bore for us the result of death. This is the result brought about when we lay our hands upon Him. Our sin has already been transferred onto Him. So here, through the consecration of the Levites, we are led to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was nailed to the cross for us. I think we have now, roughly speaking, understood this theological logic.

At the same time, in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are Levites. We too are Levites. So what should we do as Levites? Then the answer is very clear. We ought to live a holy life, should we not? We ought to live a life that glorifies God. We are to live like priests. We are to be like a golden lampstand, giving forth light. In our daily life we are to earnestly obey God’s statutes and rules, to love God and love others, so that we may glorify His name. So let us not neglect these ordinances in the Old Testament that may appear very simple. Let us not neglect how they point to Christ. We must read all these Old Testament passages within the background of Christology. Then we will receive a different kind of light. We will be able to see God’s love toward us. All right, our sharing today will stop here simply. Thank you, everyone.