March 13, 2021
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Reading along with us in Numbers? Here’s today’s reading:
Numbers 18 (NIV)
Duties of Priests and Levites
1 The Lord said to Aaron, “You, your sons and your family are to bear the responsibility for offenses connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons alone are to bear the responsibility for offenses connected with the priesthood. 2 Bring your fellow Levites from your ancestral tribe to join you and assist you when you and your sons minister before the tent of the covenant law.......Continue Reading
This chapter showed me how important it is to God that we honor Him with our giving. While a 10 percent tithe is expected He also expects a part of everything we have and do. Our lives are to be a sacrifice to God both in our actions and our material things and He will always provide for our needs when we trust in Him.
The Lord gave Aaron and his sons a great responsibility in ministering to the Levites, and also the care of the sanctuary and altar. The Lord gave Aaron the gift of priesthood and told him how he would Bless him and his family if he did what the Lord had instructed him to do with holy offerings and tithes.
The priesthood and the service of the Levites brought great responsibility and great blessing. I liked when it says that the Levites were given as a gift to Aaron and the priests and the priesthood was given as a gift to Aaron and his sons. The priests and Levites would be sanctified to God. They would not have a portion of the inheritance the other tribes would have but God would be their inheritance. But God would take care of them well from the offerings the Jews would bring. The priesthood would certainly fall on hard times if the people were unfaithful to God. But what the priests would receive would be fairly generous. And what an honor it was to be given what the people gave to God. What an opportunity there was in this for integrity and holiness and avarice and misuse. It’s not unlike other aspects of God’s economy. Work hard and do right and you will be blessed, but there will always be an opportunity to misuse power and privilege and make it more about ourselves than it is about the God who has directed and provided. It is a grave thing to stand before God and the people and protect them from the wrath of God and make it so they did not have to interact with the tabernacle and die. So grateful that due to the work of Christ on the the cross, no human being performs that role anymore! But Jesus does and has done the work!
God further confirms His choice of Aaron and his sons as priests and the Levites as servants of the tabernacle work by outlining their duties before Him and His provision for them from the offerings of the people.
I was struck by the statement of Aaron and his sons attending to the priesthood “behind the veil”.
“Therefore you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything at the altar and behind the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood to you as a gift for service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death.” I immediately thought of the veil tearing after Christ’s death.
Matthew 27:50-53
“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, 52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.”
We now have access to the holy of holies through Christ’s blood.
Numbers 18
5“You are to be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar, so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelites again. 6I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the Lord to do the work at the tent of meeting. 7But only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary is to be put to death.”