If you were an ancient Israelites, your whole life would revolve around the covenant relationship

you made with the Creator God.

You have your ancient law code that you follow, including a list of behaviors that keep

yourself truly pure.

You're observing annual feasts that remind you of who you are, and right at the center

of camp is the sacred tent.

The place where heaven and earth unite, the place where God Himself dwells, and you are

invited to bring offerings that connect you with the life-giving presence of God.

The tent becomes a little symbolic microversion of the whole biblical story, which is about

Yahweh, reopening the gateway to the Eden blessings so that humans can return back to Eden.

So Israel had at its heart this little ritual drama being played out where one representative

is relight would enter into Eden on behalf of the many.

The one representative is relight are the priests.

The priests come from the tribe of Levi.

This is the tribe in charge of the tent.

They maintain the tent, they pack it up, and move it when Israel is on the move.

But only a select few Leviites get to be priests.

And so today we're going to read a story about a rebellion of the Leviites.

You see a few of them think this setup isn't fair.

Maybe there's some self-dealing going on, and they rally a group to voice their frustration.

That whole crib assembles together against Moses and Aaron and said,

you've gone too far.

...