Pam Padgett ... teacher
In the first month of the second year after being led out of Egypt,
God instructed the children of Israel to keep the passover ...
Numbers 9:1 And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of
Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of
the land of Egypt, saying, 2 Let the children of Israel also keep the
passover at his appointed season. 3 In the fourteenth day of this month,
at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the
rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep
it. 4 And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should
keep the passover. 5 And they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of
the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all
that the Lord commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.
Some men, however, were unable to keep the passover on the fourteenth
day of the first month as God had instructed because they were defiled
by the dead body of a man. They did not have access to God as we do
today, so they went to Moses and Aaron asking what they should do ...
Numbers 9:6 And there were certain men, who were defiled by the
dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day:
and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day: 7 And those men
said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man: wherefore are
we kept back, that we may not offer an offering of the Lord in his
appointed season among the children of Israel?
Moses did not try to answer the men by his own reasonings or assumptions. Instead, he told them to do nothing until he heard from God what to do ...
Numbers 9:8 And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you.
God gave instructions for those unable to keep the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month because of being defiled by a dead body or being on a journey ...
Numbers 9:9 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 10 Speak
unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your
posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey
afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the Lord. 11 The
fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat
it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They shall leave none of
it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the
ordinances of the passover they shall keep it. 13 But the man that is
clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover,
even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he
brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season, that man
shall bear his sin.
Moses turned to God, and waited to hear from HIM to know what should be done.
Today under the new covenant we have access to turn to God in
prayer. As the example Moses gave, we turn to God with questions about what to do in various situations so we can do what is right in His sight,
trusting Him to show us according to His will.