“Be my Valentine,” “I’m Yours”, “Love you”, “Love me back”!  All these short phrases are stamped on candied hearts.  As kids, we would buy the small boxes with the cellophane window by the dozens to hand out to those in our class at school. To be known as belonging to someone, even in friendship, is a gift among humans.  Psychologists will tell you that beyond the four basic, physical needs of air, water, food, and shelter to survive, is the need to belong.  We don’t really want to be alone.  We want to belong to someone.  When that Someone is God; we are never alone.  We are His and He is ours when we love Him back with all our hearts, minds, and souls.  Jesus made that connection possible. Pause to give Him praise and thanksgiving!

Moses consecrated and anointed the completed place of worship. The people brought gifts and offerings for the tent of meeting.  Now, the emphasis is on the Levites clan that God has chosen to be set apart as His.  “The Levites are mine,” says the Lord.  The Levites are appointed, anointed, dedicated, consecrated, and assigned to all tasks involving the Tent of Meeting.  God has given them the details of how to perform every task along with the assignment of “doing the Lord’s work”.  The Levites are “gifts” to Aaron and his sons to help them do the work of sacrifice that atones the sins of all Israelites—a sojourning group of thousands.  The Levites will as lead the people in worship to their God—our God.  To truly know God, we must worship Him for who He really is, our great, powerful, and awesome God.

Numbers 8

Setting Up the Lamps

The Lord said to Moses, ² “Speak to Aaron and say to him, ‘When you set up the lamps, see that all seven light up the area in front of the lampstand.’”

³ Aaron did so; he set up the lamps so that they faced forward on the lampstand, just as the Lord commanded Moses. ⁴ This is how the lampstand was made: It was made of hammered gold—from its base to its blossoms. The lampstand was made exactly like the pattern the Lord had shown Moses.

The Setting Apart of the Levites

⁵ The Lord said to Moses: ⁶ “Take the Levites from among all the Israelites and make them ceremonially clean. ⁷ To purify them, do this: Sprinkle the water of cleansing on them; then have them shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes. And so they will purify themselves. ⁸ Have them take a young bull with its grain offering of the finest flour mixed with olive oil; then you are to take a second young bull for a sin offering. ⁹ Bring the Levites to the front of the tent of meeting and assemble the whole Israelite community. ¹⁰ You are to bring the Levites before the Lord, and the Israelites are to lay their hands on them. ¹¹ Aaron is to present the Levites before the Lord as a wave offering from the Israelites, so that they may be ready to do the work of the Lord.

¹² “Then the Levites are to lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, using one for a sin offering to the Lord and the other for a burnt offering, to make atonement for the Levites. ¹³ Have the Levites stand in front of Aaron and his sons and then present them as a wave offering to the Lord. ¹⁴ In this way you are to set the Levites apart from the other Israelites, and the Levites will be mine.

¹⁵ “After you have purified the Levites and presented them as a wave offering, they are to come to do their work at the tent of meeting. ¹⁶ They are the Israelites who are to be given wholly to me. I have taken them as my own in place of the firstborn, the first male offspring from every Israelite woman. ¹⁷ Every firstborn male in Israel, whether human or animal, is mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set them apart for myself. ¹⁸ And I have taken the Levites in place of all the firstborn sons in Israel. ¹⁹ From among all the Israelites, I have given the Levites as gifts to Aaron and his sons to do the work at the tent of meeting on behalf of the Israelites and to make atonement for them so that no plague will strike the Israelites when they go near the sanctuary.”

²⁰ Moses, Aaron and the whole Israelite community did with the Levites just as the Lord commanded Moses. ²¹ The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothes. Then Aaron presented them as a wave offering before the Lord and made atonement for them to purify them. ²² After that, the Levites came to do their work at the tent of meeting under the supervision of Aaron and his sons. They did with the Levites just as the Lord commanded Moses.

²³ The Lord said to Moses, ²⁴ “This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years old or more shall come to take part in the work at the tent of meeting, ²⁵ but at the age of fifty, they must retire from their regular service and work no longer. ²⁶ They may assist their brothers in performing their duties at the tent of meeting, but they themselves must not do the work. This, then, is how you are to assign the responsibilities of the Levites.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

TAKE NOTE:  It is interesting that when the tabernacle was dedicated to the Lord, God’s glory moved in (Ex. 40:34, 35) and God’s fire consumed the sacrifices on the altar (Lev. 9:23, 24). But God didn’t light the seven lamps on the gold lampstand in the Holy Place. Why not, we might ask?  God wants us to join HIM in His work to declare who He is.  Worship of God includes doing the work of the Lord as He commands.  Those who belong to God trust and obey God.  So, this assignment by God became the obligation of Aaron, the high priest, for he and his sons and their descendants would have the solemn responsibility of caring for the lampstand, trimming the wicks, adding the sacred oil, and making sure the light was shining. They “belonged to God.”

FOR CLARITY: “If Aaron and his sons were the “official clergy” in the camp, serving at the altar and in the tabernacle, then the Levites were the “dedicated laity” who assisted the priests in their ministry. They were taken and “set apart from the rest of the people of Israel” as substitutes for the firstborn males who belonged to the Lord. The Levites belonged to the Lord (Numbers 8:14), and He gave them to the priests as His special gift (v. 19). The Levites cared for the tabernacle, took the structure down for each march, carried it during the march, and then erected it again in the new location.”         —Warren Wiersbe Study Bible

EMERGING PRINCIPLES OF SERVICE: 

1. God who chooses, equips, and consecrates His people for spiritual service, and we must accept His will.
2. The priests oversaw the tabernacle ministry and the Levites assisted them. Every priest had to come from Aaron’s family, and no Levite was allowed to take the place of a priest.
3. Levites were not permitted to serve at the altar, wear the priestly garments, or enter the sanctuary.
4. Those who serve must first serve the Lord and then serve His people. God’s servants must be living sacrifices, an “offering to the Lord,” Romans 12:1-2.
5. We serve the Lord by serving His people, but our orders must come from God. “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5).
6. No matter what task the Lord assigns to us, it is important to His work, and we must do it cheerfully and carefully.  “Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” Ephesians 6:7-8, NLT

PRICIPLES OF GOD-LED LEADERSHIP:

The priests and Levites camped around the tabernacle in designated areas to serve as protectors against those who wanted to invade the holy area and invite the judgment of God.

Today, leaders in local churches must be diligent to protect the flock from “wolves in sheep clothing” who would destroy it. “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock,” was Paul’s warnings to the leaders of the Ephesian church (Acts 20:28).  He cautioned them that dangerous enemies would arise from both outside the church and within the congregation (Acts 20:29–31). God’s servants must ever be on the alert and courageous to confront the enemies of God’s truth.

We are not alone, however.  No, Never Alone as the old hymn reminds us.  For we belong to God through Jesus work on the cross for our redemption from the Enemy.  Belonging to God means we are more that conquerors and become overcomers with the chief Overcomer, Jesus!  Yes, we are His and He is ours—what blessed assurance!

Lord,

Thank you for focusing our thoughts on belonging to You this morning. Thank you for your love, care, compassion, faithfulness, mercy, and grace that forgives us of all our sins!  Thank you for keeping watch over your beloved. Thank you for teaching us the truth as our daily manna for today.

In Jesus Name, Amen