Kohath & Holiness

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together. We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2024 Lord willing, we'll make it through Numbers, Deuteronomy and Hebrews. So glad to be with you today. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for your word, and we thank you for the blessing of being able to come to you this day to read your word. Lord, it's a blessing we have. Many people don't have to have your word in a language that is spoken and written down, and we are grateful for that blessing. Lord, we pray now that as we read your word, your spirit would apply it to our hearts. In Jesus's name, amen.
Alright, so Numbers chapter 4. Numbers chapter 4. We had just picked up last time in Numbers chapter 3 kind of a brief overview of what the different tribes or the different families of Levi, what they were going to be doing with the tabernacle. That was largely to just introduce us to it. And it was going to also show us where they were camping around the tabernacle. Now in chapter 4, we get more granular, more nitty gritty with what's going on with each of these families of Levi.
So we start with the Kohathites. So let's go ahead and read verses 1 through 20. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Take a census of the sons of Kohath from among the children of Levi by their families, by their father's house, From thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, all who enter the service to do the work of the tabernacle of meeting. This is the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of meeting relating to the most holy things. When the camp prepares to journey, Aaron and his son shall come, and they shall take down the covering veil and cover the ark of the testimony with it.
Then they shall put on it a covering of badger skin, and spread over that a cloth entirely of blue, and they shall insert its poles. On the table of showbread they shall spread a blue cloth and put on it the dishes, the pans, the bowls, and the pitchers for pouring, and the showbread shall be on it. They shall spread over them a scarlet cloth and cover the seam with a covering of badger skins. and they shall insert its poles. And they shall take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand of the light with its lamps, its wick-trimmers, its trays, and all its oil vessels with which they service it. Then they shall put it with all its utensils in a covering of badger skins and put it on a carrying beam. Over the golden altar they shall spread a blue cloth, and cover it with a covering of badgerskins, and they shall insert its poles. Then they shall take all the utensils of service with which they minister in the sanctuary, put them in a blue cloth, cover them with a covering of badgerskins, and put them on a carrying beam.
Also they shall take away the ashes from the altar and spread a purple cloth over it. They shall put on it all its implements with which they minister there, the firepans, the forks, the shovels, the basins, and all the utensils of the altar. and they shall spread on it a covering of badger skins and insert its poles.
And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is set to go, then the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them, but they shall not touch the holy thing, lest they die. These are the things in the tabernacle of meeting, which the sons of Kohath are to carry. The appointed duty of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, is the oil for the light, the sweet incense, the daily grain offering, the anointing oil, the oversight of all the tabernacle, of all that is in it, with the sanctuary and its furnishings.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, do not cut off the tribe of the family of the Kohathites from among the Levites, but do this in regard to them, that they may live and not die when they approach the most holy things. Aaron and his sons shall go in and appoint each of them to his service and his task, but they shall not go in to watch while the holy things are being covered, lest they die. Okay, so Kohathites, that's what this is talking about. A, what's this about? The Kohathites have a job, right?
Their job is to carry the stuff, right? All the most holy things they're carrying, right? The lampstand, the ark, the table with the showbread, the altars, right? All that type of stuff, they're carrying all of it. That's their job. But there's something that we often see in pictures that's just outright wrong, right?
When they were to carry the ark, when they were to carry all the stuff for the tabernacle, nobody would typically see it. It was covered over in scarlet cloth or blue cloth and badger skins. All the kind of material around the tabernacle would be laid over and put over, wrapped around all the holy articles. And the Kohathites would then lift them up with poles through the rings, put it on their shoulders, and walk it through. All the other stuff, put on carrying beams, put on their shoulders, and walked around.
And God says specific times here, right? It is the job of the priests to make sure that he protects the people. Right? The Kohathites, if they even see, this is the amazing thing, right? But they shall not go in to watch while the holy things are being covered, lest they die. Right? And in verse 15, it said, if they touch the holy things, they could die. And then it says, even if they see the holy things, they could die.
And so, I mean, this is where we see pictures and it's just like they're just carrying the stuff and the ark is open in the wind, you know, and everybody could see the lamp stand and stuff. That's not the way it was supposed to be. And, you know, that's actually one of the things that David gets frustrated with the Lord about. He doesn't understand. He has to go back, I think, to the law and find out because one of the people, when they have the ark, they're excited about it. They're bringing it up to Jerusalem. The ox starts to, you know, trip and fall.
Guy puts out his hand to stabilize the ark and as R.C. Sproul describes in his book, The Holiness of God, he points out the audacity of that man thinking that the ground was more unclean than he was right the earth obeys man is not they're not treating God's things the way that God has prescribed and the Lord doesn't treat his holiness lightly The Lord doesn't just, we can't just go to the Lord in a cavalier way. There's this amazing truth as we look at our calling here. Jesus Christ brings us into the holy place and yet we can become so comfortable with that that we forget that in the holy place in heaven the people bow. And they sing of God's holiness and they have reverence because he has done these wonderful things.
Too often we treat Jesus like the shirt used to say when I was growing up, Jesus is my homeboy. There's songs about it. It's got to be more than just an allegiance. It's got to be a relationship. We've lost the sense. the almightiness of God, and the reverence we ought to have that the King of kings, the master and maker of the universe does love us. He brings us into his family. He adopts us as his children. That doesn't mean that we lose reverence and awe for his holiness. We worship him in holiness and in truth.
I hope as we continue to work through this, that you see God, right? The new covenant, beautiful, right? There's pointing to in shadows and types. But I hope that as we go through this, that you are encouraged, that your God is holy, holy, holy. And that he invites you to worship him in holiness. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much. that you, though Christ's holy God, you have invited us into your presence, not in a cavalier way, but to worship you in the splendor of holiness. Lord, please let us love you and follow after you in Jesus's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace that comes from Jesus Christ.
And I'll see you next time. Bye. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 2 p.m.