Numbers Chapter 18
Good morning you guys!
In this chapter God spells out the responsibilities of the priests and Levites. It's a reminder of how holy God is and how his people are to be holy in everything they do. If the priest disrespected God's holy place they would die. What a huge responsibility!
For the priest to serve the Lord, God said it was a gift, in other words a privilege. Can you imagine how differently we would serve the Lord if we saw it as a gift or a privilege? Think how excited, as a kid, we were on Christmas morning to open our gifts. We couldn't wait to get our gifts and play with them or use them. We should have that same attitude with the gifts God has given us. Think how we would live if we couldn't wait to use our gifts to serve the Lord and to serve others and love others. Think how many more lives would be impacted for the Lord.
Plus, what the priests ate was to be holy. What they put in their mouth was to be holy food. Once again, think how differently we would live our lives if we were really concerned about the food we fed our spiritual bodies. Think of the music we would quit listening to because we wouldn't want it to be a negative influence on our spiritual lives. Think of the movies we'd quit watching. Think of the TV shows we'd shut off. Think of the books we'd quit reading. And a whole motive to stop it would not just be so we could stop it but it would be because we would want more opportunity to feed ourselves with God's food. We would want to be in his word more, or read books that would influence and encourage our faith, or see shows that would help us be reminded of how great our God is. The more we feed ourselves God's food the more we make ourselves better equipped to serve God and serve others. To love God and to love others. The more we feed ourselves spiritual food the wiser we become and better able to stand against any attacks the enemy puts against us.
Just to recap 2 points:
- It's a gift and privilege from God to be able to serve him and serve others, to love God and to love others.
- If we love the Lord truly with all our hearts then we will want to feed ourselves holy spiritual food. We will be so willing to give up that which contaminates our spiritual bodies so that we have more opportunities to feed ourselves with that which will enable us to look more like Jesus and to serve and love others like Jesus would.
Have a great day!
God spoke directly to Aaron. How awesome!! God told him that he WAS his brothers’ keeper – as far as the priests go because they were in his ministry. Think he had a lot on his shoulders?
The tithing principle applied to the Levites as well as the congregation. God expects all His followers to meet the material needs of those who devote themselves to meeting the spiritual needs of the faithful. And we are not to give him leftovers but first fruit. Over and over again in the Word, the Lord says that we are to give Him our best and then watch and see how He gives back to us and our families. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” Matthew 6:33.
God gave Aaron and his sons sacred duties and He gave them the rest of the Levites as support. He warned them to remain in their calling and not to step beyond the gifts and calling He gave them. This is an important distinction that we need to heed. It’s one thing to step out in faith and follow the Lord’s calling. But, if we step ahead of the Lord, take on responsibilities we aren’t called to do, we can “burn out” and worse. Ministry then becomes a burden and not a blessing. Lord, let me always listen to what you lay on my heart and obey.
I received some great reminders today! Here’s a few points that stuck out to me.
1. Always give God the best of what we have.
2. Take in the best that God has for us, the spiritual food. What the world has to offer may look appealing, but God’s food for us is always so much better!
3. We should have joy in serving, if we don’t, then something is wrong.
A few questions to ask:
Am I serving where God has called me to serve?
Am I serving for the right reasons?
Am I serving to bring glory to God?