I read this chapter this morning. It’s all about the assignment of responsibilities to the Levites for various aspects of the work of the Tabernacle. As I was reading it, another Scripture came to mind. This one (underlined in the passage below) I can never recall except with the accompanying music from Handel’s Messiah:
Malachi 3:1–4 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
This prophecy clearly talks about the coming of John the Baptist, followed by Christ. He will come to His temple, the place of His dwelling and the center of His worship, and He will come to purify and to refine. And He will refine the sons of Levi. They will be refined like silver and gold (in a crucible) and as a result they will bring offerings to the Lord in righteousness. So the question is, who are the “sons of Levi” who will be purified by the work of Christ and will make an offering to Him in righteousness. And the answer is, it is us! It is the church - all who believe in Christ and trust Him alone to save them! They are purified from their sins through His shed blood. We are the ones who can and who will offer a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name (Heb 13:12-16).
This gives us a lens through which we can look at the service of Levi in Numbers 4. I think we can see it as a picture of the service we as a church are to render to the Lord. With that in mind, what do we see in this passage?
First, there is a tremendous sense of privilege that percolates through the chapter. The Levites were chosen for this work. They received no land inheritance in Canaan, because God Himself was their inheritance. This is a statement that extends throughout the chapter. It didn’t matter what the actual task was which a given Levite had to do, they were chosen for that work and it was an honor and a privilege for them to do it. Needless to say, we need to regard our service in the church in the same way.
Then look at the variety of tasks that had to be done. The work of the Kohathites involved the “most holy things” - the ark, the table of the bread of the Presence, the Lampstand and so on. The Gershonites’ job centered on the curtains of the tabernacle and the tent of meeting. The Merarites had to focus their efforts on all the frames which held up the curtains to form the tent.
Note, though, that although some of these assignments dealt with those things that are most holy, they were all essential to the proper functioning of the tabernacle and therefore to pleasing and acceptable worship of God. What would the Gershonites have done with all their curtains if there had been no bases and frames set up to hang them on? Where would the Ark have been placed if all the frames were there but the Gershonites decided to take a day off, or felt their work was unimportant or unappreciated, so that there was no tent? What kind of service would have been possible if the Kohathites had grown tired of their work and left the Ark, the Altars and the Tables in the wilderness somewhere?
It’s also clear that there was a lot of hard work involved in tearing down the tabernacle, carrying it on their shoulders and then putting it back up. Everything had to be done in the right order - everything had to be put in the right place and in the right orientation so that the entrance to the tent of meeting faced eastwards. It’s a lot like the set up and tear down each Sunday for our service, isn’t it? We need to understand, though, that the picture here extends beyond physical activity to cover our spiritual service of the Lord.
Finally, the work had to be done with great care. God holy, and treating Him and His worship in a careless and worldly manner was something that He did not accept. The Levites (especially the Kohathites were warned about this (see v 17-20).
Of course, it’s exactly the same in the church as we offer service to God. Some aspects of service are more public and revolve around the central aspects of God’s public worship (preaching, singing, prayer etc) whereas other aspects are done behind the scenes (calling in to check up on a brother or sister, supporting the work in prayer and financially). We all have our gifts and our responsibilities in the body, and things don’t tend to work as well as they might (or in some cases, they may not work at all) unless we play our part. It may be difficult. It may be hard work. It may be done so that only the Lord and one or two others know about it. But it is an offering and a sacrifice that is pleasing to our God! Paul picks up this very idea but uses the metaphor of the body instead of the tabernacle in 1 Cor 12:12-31).
This truth is no less applicable to us in coronavirus days. We can still minister, we can still serve. We can still offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness as the New Covenant sons of Levi!
