David said, “I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great treasure” (Ps 119:162). You’ll find it here, too!
We wouldn’t want to skip Numbers 9 in our Bible reading! Why? Because it gives two beautiful illustrations of the grace of God to His people and the guidance of God for His people. They involve the Passover (vv 1-14) and the Pillar cloud (vv 15-23). God has good reason to be particular about how things were done. Why? Because all these little details would be thrown up on the big screen of history and magnified greatly. When people make things, magnifying them shows flaws. But if you magnify God’s wonders, you keep seeing more beauties. So let’s look first at the Passover. It was originally discussed when it actually happened, recorded in Exodus 12, then again as God laid out their seven annual festivals in Leviticus 23. But Numbers 9 gives more details, especially God’s gracious exceptions. We begin: “Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight” (vv 2-3). Why is the appointed time so important? Because that would be the very day that God’s Passover Lamb, the Lord Jesus, would die! So that’s the day Israel kept it in the wilderness (vv 4-5). But wouldn’t you know it—someone died just then, and some men had to handle the corpse. Thus they were disqualified from partaking. When they came to Moses about it, he asked the Lord (vv 6-8). In responding, the Lord added another exception on His own. “If anyone of you or your posterity is unclean because of a corpse, or is far away on a journey, he may still keep the Lord’s Passover” (v 10) When? Exactly one month later. This was not for carelessness or unconcern (v 13); such a person must be judged. But God is always gracious because “He remembers that we are dust” (Ps 103:14).