Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

I bet you're happy we're back in some narrative sections. We still have some bits of loss

sprinkled throughout the rest of numbers, but today marks the place where we start to round the corner into some of my favorite spots in the book. God has been dealing with

the cleanliness of the people of Israel for the past few days. We started with the external

purity, then he moved to the internal purity, then yesterday felt like a bit of a deviation,

but it fits into the storyline because internal purity and righteousness will result in expressing

it externally. Today in God's conversation with Moses, he gives orders to purify the Levites.

He's already addressed the people in general, and here he addressed the Levites specifically.

As you would imagine, their position of leadership required them to undergo an even

more thorough cleansing process. God reiterates his plan for the Levites and their position as

his firstborn among Israel, who is also his firstborn. So I guess they're kind of like the firstborn

of the firstborn, which is maybe like winning the Super Bowl and also being named MVP or something.

I don't know. The people put their hands on them, which is usually what was done to an animal before it was sacrificed.

The people were symbolically offering the Levites up as something they were giving back to God.

This symbol is repeated again, but in a different way when the Levites are given as a wave

offering. Whatever item was waived in a different way when the Levites are given as a wave offering. Whatever

item was waived in a wave offering always belonged to God afterward. I think of the Levites every

time I see people doing the wave in a stadium. I don't know if that's what it looked like for them

to be offered as a wave offering. Probably not, but that's the only thing I can picture. And that

concludes today's sports references.

As a reminder, we're still a little more than a year past Egyptian slavery, which means it's time

to celebrate Passover for the second time ever. God gives instructions about this requiring

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