N16-11: Numbers Sixteen Teaches Us That NOT Everyone Is Permitted To Approach God

First, read this verse:

“Is it for you a mere trifle that the God of Israel has separated you from the community of Israel to bring you close to himself, so that you can do the work in the tabernacle of Adonai and stand before the community serving them?”-Numbers 16:9

Now compare and contrast that verse with this verse:

“Then fire came out from Adonai and destroyed the 250 men who had offered the incense.”-Numbers 16:35

When you compare and contrast these two verses, do you have any idea what foundational God-principle I may be hinting at?

You have no idea?

Okay, so here it is:

NOT EVERYONE IS ALLOWED TO COME NEAR TO HASHEM.

Numbers 16 demonstrates in pretty crystal clear detail that ONLY the Priests were allowed to approach the Lord.

But having said that, even the priests were limited in terms of how near they could come to God.

It all depended on one’s status before the Lord.

For instance, ONLY the High Priest was allowed to come closest to HASHEM’s glory and enter into the Holy of Holies.

But even that event only occurred once a year on Yom Kippur.

We also learn that it is God’s Chosen Mediators who have the closest intimacy with God to the point where God’s mediators are considered to be one with the Father and are given the authority to speak for the Father.

This reminds me of the following quote from the Talmud I came across the other day.

“A person’s emissary is as the person himself.”
-Talmud, Berachot 34b

Remember that Moses was as an ELOHIM or God before Pharaoh and that he also spoke face-to-face with God.

Everybody else, in other words, those who were not authorized to approach God’s HOLINESS and be in His Divine Presence were destroyed.

Now what about us common people?

How are we to come near to God.

The answer is simple.

We have to go through HASHEM’s Chosen Mediators.

In Moses’s day, there was no access to God without going through Moses.

In our day, it is Yeshua.

Anybody who attempted to ignore, deny or go around God’s Mediator was summarily destroyed, no questions asked and no trial held.

Again, in this day and age, it is ONLY through Yeshua that one gains access to the Father.

One must go through Yeshua to come close to God (and notice how a mediator has to be a SEPARATE BEING from God).

Remember, it was Moses who had to anoint the Levitical priests in HASHEM’s Name.

And it is under the name of Yeshua that believers today all around the world are anointed, a process we call being “born again“.

However, the New Testament does say that even though we’ve been born again, our bodies are still corrupt and speaks of a time in the future when we will be given new bodies that are not corrupted.

We are told when that happens, we will truly be one with the Father.

To close, understand that Numbers 16 makes it clear that ONLY the Levite priests (and God’s Chosen Mediators) can come near to God.

What is debatable and the point that I’m still trying to iron out is whether or not Yeshua believers today are as priests to the Lord.

There are quite a few verses in the New Testament that seem to draw the analogy that disciples of Yeshua today are like priests.

This is something I’m still studying and discussing with other people much more learned than me.

However, what is NOT debatable is the HOW of how one is to approach HASHEM.

And the logistics concerning this point is established right here in TORAH.

We must go THROUGH His Chosen Mediators.

Period.