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

We're in a section right now that probably won't be your favorite, but persevere. This is setting us up to

understand a lot about God and his story. When we have passages like this,

as we will from time to time, don't try to remember all these details. There isn't a quiz. Just try to

come away from this with an overall idea of the function and purpose and meaning of it all.

Try seeing what ties all these details together and asking yourself what those details revealed to you

about God. First of all, why would he pay this kind of attention to detail? And second of all,

why would he include these things in a book that would long outlive the use of the things he's

describing? Whatever these difficult passages show us about him is still in effect, even if the

offerings and sacrifices and garments aren't.

By the way, if the idea of animal sacrifice bothers you, here's something that may be helpful to

remember. God isn't the one causing it. Man's sin is. Hebrews 922 says, under the law, almost everything

is purified with blood, and without the shedding of

blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. This is his provision. We should never be angrier at God's

provision for our sin than at our sin itself. Before we unpack today's reading, let's back up a

little bit. Do you remember the 12 sons of Jacob? Not all of them. I'm not asking you to list

them, but I'm just asking if you remember that there were 12 of them, the 12 tribes of Israel.

Back in Exodus 2, we learned that Moses and Aaron were from the tribe of Levi. You may remember Levi

as one of the two brothers who, along with Simeon, killed all the men of Shechem to avenge their sister Dina's rape.

And yet here we are, with his descendants being appointed as priests unto the Lord.

Talk about redemption.

The descendants of Levi are called Levites.

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