Sacrifice (8) Dangerous Place

The spirit called Wrath made tabernacle of God a dangerous place to be.

The Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that there will be no Wrath on the Israelite community. So the Levites shall keep charge of the tabernacle of the testimony (Num 1:53).

God dwelt in the Holy of Holies because the Covenant with Moses gave him the right to be there.

The spiritual powers of evil hated this intrusion because they thought the earth belonged to them. They didn’t want the children of Israel being close to God, so they gathered there and did their best to harm those who went near. These evil powers were led by a spirit called Wrath.
God had put spiritual protection in place for the Priests and Levites, by specific sacrifices and keeping them away from activities that could open them up to spiritual attack. They camped around the tabernacle, because they were the only ones who were safe in this dangerous place. They put up their standards to mark the safe area (Num 1:52).

The time when the tabernacle was being packed up was a dangerous time because the boundaries and safe places were less clear.

Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall do it. Anyone else who approaches it is put to death (Num 1:51).

It is usually assumed that God would put them to death, but that is wrong. Wrath and his evil angels would put people to death, if they got caught in the wrong place.

When Samuel was a boy, the Philistines captured the covenant box, but they experienced terrible sickness. People in the vicinity came out with awful tumours (1 Sam 5:1-10). They had been attacked by the Spirit of Wrath, so the sent the covenant box back to Israel. At Beth Shemesh some men looked into the covenant box, but many were killed.

Then he struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the covenant box of the Lord (1 Sam 6:19).

They thought it was God, but they were most likely struck down by the spirit called Wrath. This spirit hated people drawing near to God’s presence.

When David was taking the covenant box back to Jerusalem, he forgot to involve the Levites. Uzzah touched the covenant box, when the oxen stumbled, and he died beside it. Most English translations imply that God struck him down, but that is misleading. The Hebrew text says that Wrath of God struck him, because he was careless with the things of God. David had failed to follow the instructions that God had given Moses, so the powers of evil got at one of his men.

The spiritual powers of evil hated the covenant box, because it was the place where God met with his people. They wanted to make the people fear it and be unwilling to meet with God.

This raises an interesting question. If the covenant box was so dangerous, how were Moses and David able to draw near to it without being harmed. I will answer that question in my next post.