“Moshe, Aharon and the community leaders took a census of the descendants of K’hat by their clans and families, all those between thirty and fifty years old who were part of the corps serving in the tent of meeting. Registered by their families, they numbered 2,750. These are the ones counted from the K’hat families of all those serving in the tent of meeting, whom Moshe and Aharon enumerated, in keeping with the order given by Adonai through Moshe.”-Numbers 4:34-37
Today we’re going to finish Numbers Chapter 4.
The content was pretty straight forward I think.
Numbers 4 was essentially a census of the non-priest Levites.
For those of you who are just joining, understand that the Lord divided the tribe of Levi into priests and non-priests.
The priests consisting of Aaron and his sons were to of course handle the priestly duties which comprised of officiating over the sacrifices etcetera.
And the non-priest levites were responsible for the blue collar work at the Tabernacle.
Of the three non-priest Levite clans, the clan of KOHAT was assigned a slightly higher status than the others.
Thus, the Kohathites were given the honor of transporting the HOLIEST items of the sanctuary including the Ark of the Covenant.
However, they were still prohibited from having direct physical contact with any of these HOLY items.
Now although the contents of Numbers 4 is quite straight-forward, there are many important spiritual principles woven into the text that we would be remiss to overlook.
One important principle and we also see this in the opening chapter of the book of Genesis is that the God of Israel is a God of strict organization.
He is anything but a whimsical God of chaos.
Recall the AS-IN-HEAVEN-SO-ON-EARTH principle.
The Tabernacle and how the tribes are organized are a reflection of a hierarchy that exists in the heavens.
We also learned that God assigns higher and lower level of HOLINESS to different humans to achieve His objectives.
Why?
Simply for the reason that there are a variety of tasks requiring different talents that need to be taken care of.
The congregation of Israel was to be a God-ordained organized structure.
Moses was God’s chief spokesman who took the Lord’s instructions to Aaron and his sons (the priests) who in turn took them to the common people.
The priests were to be the keepers and teachers of the TORAH (teaching) of HASHEM.
The common (non-priest) Levites were to support and serve the priests.
All of the duties among the priests and common Levites were also broken down into smaller tasks.
Some served as temple guards, some maintained the sacred furniture while others did all the heavy lifting and carrying of tabernacle items.
And even though some of the tasks were of a higher status than others, each task no matter how menial was critical to the smooth operation of God’s congregation.
The takeaway here is that in God’s economy there was no task considered to be unimportant except in the prideful hearts and minds of men.
So don’t whine like a baby just because you’ve been assigned to usher, hand out pamphlets or wash the dinners after a congregation dinner.
Another important takeaway is notice that God’s established worship system is not about the majority sitting on the sidelines observing while only a small select few do the serving.
If worshipping and walking with God were a sport, it would be like participating in football game complete with a helmet and pads.
You’re gonna get bruised and dirty and you may sustain injuries.
The truth is serving God can be dangerous, very dangerous in fact.
Just ask any missionary who went to serve in a third world country.
Sitting out on the sidelines wasn’t tolerated in ancient Israel, it wasn’t tolerated in Yeshua’s day, and it’s certainly not tolerated today.
What work do you feel the Lord calling you to do for the Kingdom?
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Now there are different kinds of gifts,
but the same Spirit gives them.
Also there are different ways of serving,
but it is the same Lord being served.
And there are different modes of working,
but it is the same God working them all in everyone.
Moreover, to each person is given the particular
manifestation of the Spirit that
will be for the common good.”
-1 Corinthians 12:4-7
“Now you together constitute the body of the Messiah,
and individually you are parts of it.
And God has placed in the Messianic Community
first, emissaries; second, prophets; third, teachers;
then those who work miracles;
then those with gifts of healing;
those with ability to help;
those skilled in administration;
and those who speak in various tongues.
Not all are emissaries, are they?
Not all are prophets, are they?
or teachers? or miracle-workers?
Not all have gifts of healing,
not all speak in tongues, not all interpret, do they?”
-1 Corinthians 12:27-29
NEXT TIME WE BEGIN NUMBERS CHAPTER FIVE
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