Chronological Reading Plan for Mar 2, Num 18-20

After Korah's rebellion and the consequences are described in Num 18, the priesthood is reaffirmed. The Levites will guard the outside of the Tabernacle while Aaron and his descendants will guard the innermost places. This is to protect any outsiders from approaching and causing judgment to fall. There is an obvious structure with the high priests standing between God and the camp, in touch with both, and then the Levites serving the high priests and maintaining the purity and holiness of the house of God. Their jobs are to bear the burden of the sins of the people. In return, the entire nation honors them with their tithes. 

Num 19 provides cautions against coming into contact with corpses. It also details the guidelines for cleansing those who do. This is to emphasize the spiritual separation between life and death. Life has nothing to do with death. Death, the result of sin, taints life. God intends to cleanse His people of death and the consequences of sin. He gives them a picture of what that looks like in the physical world. Death and life must remain separated. 

Num 20 begins with a notable death and the people complaining again. God tells Moses to speak to the rock at Meribah (Num 20:8). God will provide water from the rock. Reading carefully, we see that Moses says he and Aaron will provide the water and strikes the rock instead (Num 20:11-12). For his disobedience, Moses will not enter the Promised Land, another indication that God's people can suffer real-time consequences for their sin without being eternally disenfranchised by God. 

Edom’s king refuses passage to the Hebrews. This will have its own consequences further down the road. God promised Abraham (Gen 12:3) that He will bless those who bless him and his descendants and curse those who curse them. 

God tells Moses to bring Aaron to the top of the mountain to ordain Aaron's son as his replacement. Aaron will die there, just as God said he would.