Levites Not Numbered

We're good to go now. I don't think the camera's going to fall anymore. Let's go ahead and pull you over here. 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 lot of tea, coffee. We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from numbers, deuteronomy, and through Hebrews. Hebrews, that's right. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for what an amazing God you are. We thank you for your Word and we pray that you would please help us to understand it. We thank you for inspiring it, giving to us the history of it. And please God help us, in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so we are at the book of Numbers chapter 1 beginning at verse 47. Numbers chapter 1 beginning at verse 47. There's my spectacles. Alright, my glasses are there. Deborah, you want to read? How about you just read until you're tired?
But the Levites were not numbered among them by their father's tribe, for the Lord had spoken to Moses, saying, Only the tribe of Levi shall you not number, nor take a census of them among the children of Israel. But you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, over all its furnishings and over all things that belong to it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings. They shall attend to it and camp around the tabernacle. And when the tabernacle is to go forward, the Levites shall take it down. And when the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites will set it up. The outsider who comes near it shall be put to death.
The children of Israel shall pitch their tents, everyone by his own camp. everyone by his own standard according to their armories but the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony and that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the children of Israel and the Levites shall keep charge of the tabernacle of the testimony thus the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so they did.
Alright. You never got tired of reading, huh? So, what was that about? The Levites... The Levites, right? So we went through last time and we talked about all the different tribes, right? Tribe, tribe, tribe, tribe, tribe, tribe, tribe. Their numbers, their numbers, their numbers, their numbers. They all recited their genealogy, saying which tribe they're from. Now we come to this point and what number, what tribe was not numbered? Levi. Levi. Why would Levi not be numbered?
Because they're not supposed to go to war. They're supposed to do the tabernacle, and... Yeah, right, so it's like they're set apart for a different type of work, aren't they? Yeah, their job is put apart for a different type of thing, and so what types of stuff are they in charge of then? When everybody else is marching out, what do they do? They set up the tabernacle or take it down. Yeah, they set it up, they tear it down.
What about when they're going between places? What do you think happens to the tabernacle when they're going between places? It says verse 50 It's right in the middle of verse 50 They shall attend to it and camp around it Okay, well that's after what I'm looking for. They shall carry the tabernacle and all of its furnishings, right?
Somebody's got to carry the stuff. Somebody's got to carry the lampstand. Somebody's got to carry the showbread table. Somebody's got to carry the altars. Somebody's got to carry the wasp basin. Somebody's got to carry all the poles and all the coverings and all the aldas, right? Who's going to do all that?
The Levites? The Levites. That's their job. Their job isn't to carry the stuff for war. Their job is to carry the tabernacle of their covenant king with them. Themself. Then at night they camp around it to make sure nobody... Yeah, now what happens if somebody goes into the tabernacle who's not supposed to be there? They're to be put to death, right? That's how seriously God takes His holiness, right?
He set apart And so do you think you could just walk up to the White House? No. They have electric gates. Nope. They have all sorts of stuff, but one of the things at the White House is just a wrought iron fence, but that fence wasn't always there. It used to be just a low stone fence. Yep, just a low stone wall. And then what do you think people did? Everyone would just hop over it and walk to the White House. Yep. And so now it's like, no, no, no, no, no. Right?
That's not supposed to happen with the Lord's Tabernacle. Or you don't just walk up to the King of the Universe. You don't just go into the holy place, right? This stuff doesn't happen. And so his sanctimonium, his God's sanctuary is so holy that if anybody came near... Done. Pretty serious, huh? Okay, so you got one sentence to summarize this entire paragraph, what it's about. What would you write? What's this about?
Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number. Okay. Don't number the tribe of Levi. Good. I would probably make it a compound sentence. The Levites are not numbered because they carry the tabernacle. I'd give one of those long sentences like, I just told you not to write in your writing. I think we just like carrying. Yeah, well, I think it's part of what they're doing, right? Caring and attending to it. So what do you think you would underline as the best verse to summarize this?
49. 49. Okay, good. I'm guessing you'd do 50. You think I would do 50? Actually, I have 47 and part of 51 underlined. Close. So, what do you think is the connection to our calling as Christians, or the covenant, or to Jesus Christ? I don't know. Okay. Are there Levites anymore for a tabernacle? No. So who does carrying on of the Lord's work now? All of us. All of us. That's right. All of us.
So we're a nation of priests, a royal priesthood, right? And so what are you to consider holy now? The church. Okay. Well, maybe the church or life in the church. What about your life period? What do you need to present your body as? There's a verse for this. A living sacrifice? A living sacrifice, that's right. You're not your own, but you were bought with a price. So now we live our body, we live with our bodies as to the Lord. We're His. And so we follow after Him. Easy peasy, right? Sort of. Sort of, yeah. It's going to be hard to do this, isn't it? Yeah. But, you get to now.
We don't bear the tabernacle, but we bear the name of Jesus Christ. And so the tabernacle was going with them always to be a remembering of God's presence with them. Is God always with you? Yeah, His Spirit is always with you, isn't He? For lo, I am with you, even unto the ends of the age. Pretty good news? Yeah. You ready to pray? Okay.
God, we thank you so much for the presence of your Holy Spirit in the midst of our lives. Lord, we pray that you would Let us, as we are now the church militant, as we fight for holiness, as we fight to put to death the sinful desires of our own lives and hearts and flesh, Lord, we pray that we would know that we don't go into this battle alone, but that your Spirit is with us. Please help us, Lord, to fight from a position of strength. Lord, we pray that you would please sanctify us.
And let us be conformed more and more to the image of our King Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen. Alright, well may God bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace that comes from Jesus Christ. And we'll see you next time. Can you say bye bye? Bye. 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 in 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 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.