Our Church Family

Dear church,

The story of the Levites was the story of the divine prerogative. They were given their tasks by God himself. The Kohathites carried the sacred contents of the tabernacle. But only the priests were tasked with preparing those things for travel.

The Gershonites and the Merarites could load up on their own the things they were given to transport. Those things were less holy. Male Levites from 30 to 50 years old were given these tasks. 

All of this was directed by God himself – just as God instructed the men of the 12 tribes, from 20 years old and upward, to be ready to serve in battle when called upon. 

God established these things. And God’s people were to work with seamless precision, fulfilling the greater body’s mission as a holy nation, chosen and set aside by God.

You have been given a gift and a calling as well. The principle remains the same in the New Covenant. “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7).

God first appointed the apostles – another set of 12 – to carry out the mission of the kingdom. Then came the prophets, evangelists, elders, and teachers (Ephesians 4:11). They build up the body of Christ. And you are part of that body. 

You do not select your gift, and it may have nothing to do with your acquired skills or natural talents. It is a divine gift for you to discern and then to carry out – so that “the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:16).

As with the Levites, this service is a service of “bearing burdens.” The new tabernacle, the church, requires maintenance and support – willing hands and feet. “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

The church languishes when its people do not recognize their gifts and when each part is not working “properly” – when burdens aren’t being carried along by those who were designed to carry them. Sometimes, it is appropriate to ask God, “To what ministry have you called me?”

And then do what God says.

Chris

Dear church,

The Levites were stewards of the things of God. From time to time, they moved the tabernacle and its contents – a holy and heavy burden. But the most pressing and constant job was that of “keeping guard.”

This was a matter of life and death. “But if any outsider comes near, he shall be put to death.” The holiness of God was so pure and so severe that the unclean and unholy could not come near the tabernacle. To disregard the holiness of that place would be to put the entire congregation at risk (Leviticus 10:1-2).

In reality, it seems the Levites were guarding the people from the tabernacle – from the holiness of God – and not the other way around. “To protect the people of Israel,” God had told them. The people, too, were the things of God.

These holy guardians, we would hope, were revered. Without them, the people were in grave danger of transgressing God’s holiness. 

Did you know you have this role today as a royal and holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5, 9)? In a New Covenant kind of way, we must watch out for each other with all gentleness, and our church leaders have the sacred task of keeping watch over all of our souls (Galatians 6:1; Hebrews 13:17). 

The stakes remain the same, even if instant physical death is not necessarily the punishment. The holiness of God cannot be transgressed by sinners. The blood of the Son of God was spilled so that we could draw near – and that blood is altogether holy (Hebrews 10:29).

Are we treating the things of God in this way? The holiness of the tabernacle has now been infused into the congregation of God. Are we sufficiently guarding the good deposit entrusted to us – that is, the Spirit-powered church (2 Timothy 1:14)?

Chris

Dear church,

As a Christian, if you were to dig down into the very center of your life, you would find Jesus Christ. His influence and his power would be overwhelming. This is what it means to say “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). 

If the center is Christ, then the “outer” layers of our lives ought to reflect the one who has made his home in our hearts. Our thoughts and actions – and our reactions – ought to emerge from our life with Christ. Everything is organized around the Center.

The ancient Israelites shaped their camp as a square, organized around the Center, the place where God’s glory dwelt. Each tribe was oriented toward the tabernacle – “They shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side.”

The people never were to forget God, the one who brought them out of Egypt. They were to watch for the movement of God, to know which way to go – when to start out marching and when to stop. And even in the marching, God remained the Center. He was the very heart of the life of Israel. 

So it is with us. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us …” (John 1:14). That is, the Word “tabernacled” among us. This Emmanuel, God with us, has made his home in the very center of our lives. We orient every aspect of our lives around the Center. We go when he goes. We stay when he stays. We face the Center.

It will be this way now and forever. Someday, the New Jerusalem will descend in glory – a great cube out of heaven. The old Israelite camp will become three dimensional (Revelation 21:10-21). But the Center is the same. “The glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:23). 

Chris

Dear church,

The first thing we know about the life of Jesus Christ is the counting. His parents took him to Bethlehem to be counted in the census (Luke 2:1-7). 

A census isn’t anything unusual in a nation or a kingdom. We are responsible to those who rule over us and to those who live around us. We are counted because we must serve – in war or in wallet. 

Every Christian is counted. Every Christian steps forward to be registered – to have his or her name written down in the book. Every Christian must be prepared to “fight.”

Too many Christians find this uncomfortable. We would rather nothing be asked of us by God. We enter into the kingdom, but we don’t want to be “soldiers.” We’re not ready for battle. Someone else should do this kind of fighting. We are peace-loving folk, after all. 

The “fight” will come (Ephesians 6:10-20). But the first step in the long march toward the Promised Land was the counting – “all those listed of the people of Israel.” The people had to show up. They had to lift their hand. They acknowledged their place in the kingdom.

And so the first step is to say, “Yes, please write down my name. I will go. I will serve.”

Much of the Old Testament is the story of the failure of the army of God – a failure to follow. Later, at the Bethlehem census booth, the family of Jesus was counted. There never was a more faithful soldier than the one in Mary’s womb. 

Now, we follow Him. Our aim “is to please the one who enlisted (us)” (2 Timothy 2:4).

Chris

Dear church, 

God makes promises, and he keeps them. Every Christian is a beneficiary of God’s willingness and ability to keep his word. The eternal life you experience today came after God went to unimaginably great lengths to keep his promises to Abraham – “and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). The Father handed over the Son to death on the cross so that the blessing could become a reality.

The sureness of God’s promises mean God’s people also are to be men and women who are as good as their word.

“If anyone makes a special vow to the Lord …” God’s people were to keep their vows. God graciously allowed a way for them to fulfill vows that were made rashly or unwisely. But everything was to be done in order. No fudging of values or rules was allowed. 

God’s people were to reflect his character. This is so much so that Jesus warned his followers against swearing oaths (and presumably making vows) at all. “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’” (Matthew 5:36). It is not that such oaths and vows are necessarily always sinful – see Acts 18:18; 21:23 – but that God’s people are to fully truthful and fully given over to Him. 

The chapter that closes the Book of Leviticus puts before the people the necessity to reflect God’s character. And the key point of God’s character is the fact he embodies the Truth. God reminded his people they were to be people of truth in a world so often filled with deception. 

Have you made any vows to God – such as at your baptism or at your wedding or when your children were born? If so, fulfill them. 

I hope you enjoyed our reading of Leviticus. Tomorrow, we start the Book of Numbers. 

Chris

Dear church,

Our walk with Christ is marked by our taking up the “easy” yoke that he gives us and allowing our hearts to be circumcised by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 11:28-30; Romans 2:25-29). 

The ancient Israelites had to learn this lesson. It was not enough to undergo physical circumcision, to have a portion of their bodies removed as a sign of their covenant relationship with God. Their hearts also needed to be circumcised. 

Likewise, it is not enough for us to perform endless rituals if our hearts are not circumcised – that is, set apart – for God. This needs to happen before we can experience the spiritual and physical blessings of our lives with God, where he walks among us. 

Our hearts must be circumcised. 

The uncircumcised heart walks “contrary” to God. It rebels. Over and over, it hears warnings and sees warnings and learns God’s ways, and over and over, it goes in the opposite direction. The uncircumcised heart looks not, as Paul said, to the ways and the “praise” of the world – but only to God (Romans 2:29). 

The blessings and curses for Christians are not altogether different than those put forward by God for the ancient Israelites in Leviticus 26. On one hand is everlasting peace. On the other is certain destruction – “eternal fire” (Matthew 25:31-46).

The difference may be in the way these blessings come to us. Jesus said physical prosperity may be delayed for his followers. We may face forces that speak and act against us. This does not mean there is no physical blessing for the children of God. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).

Our physical blessings – reserved for those with circumcised hearts – will only come in fullness at the resurrection of the dead. And so we put our hope in the return of Christ. 

In the meantime, nothing stops us from receiving the spiritual blessings of God. God reminded the Israelites he brought them out of the land of Egypt. He set them free. “And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.”

Jesus makes the same promise to us. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29-30).

And so our walk with Christ is indeed marked by our taking up the “easy” yoke that Jesus gives us and allowing our hearts to be circumcised by the Holy Spirit. All it takes is faith. Out of that faith comes a stubborn resistance to setting ourselves apart for anything or anyone other than God (James 4:7-8).

Chris

Dear church,

Life in the church is a life we hold in common. 

Our walk as Christians is not something we do alone. We do this with God. “For you are strangers and sojourners with me,” God told the Israelites. As Christians, we know Jesus is Emmanuel – that is, Christ with us. Everything that we have – the food we eat, the places we live, the clothes we wear, the eternal life we experience now and forever – come from God. 

At the same time, our walk with Christ is something we do with others. We have “brothers” and “sisters” in the faith. The apostle Paul said we “are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). And so we have fellow travelers in our walk with God. 

God had this in mind from the very beginning. When he called the Israelites into a covenant relationship with himself, he did so while wanting them never to forget that God was with them as the Giver of all good things and that the people have a special relationship to each other. 

And so the land would take a Sabbath rest. After six years of working their land, landowners would take the seventh year off. They would let the land “rest” from its own labors. They would not plant fields. They would not harvest them. In fact, the fields and the orchards and the vineyards themselves would be open to anyone who may live in the countryside. All essentially shared the fruit of the land in common.

There were several reasons for this. 

First, it reminded landowners and the workers of the land the land really belonged to God and the fruit they received from it came from him. Everyone did well to stop and praise God for his provision for them.

Second, it put everyone – rich and poor – on level ground. No one stood above anyone else. They shared together in the good things God provided. Unity was to be restored in the land’s Sabbath year.

Of course, there is little evidence this practice was carried out in the life of ancient Israel. When Israel was conquered by the Babylonians in 587 BC and Jerusalem was destroyed, the writer of 2 Chronicles pointed out why – “to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years” (2 Chronicles 36:21; see also Jeremiah 25:8-12).

If this is true, the land was owed 70 years of Sabbaths. 

And so this was a hard thing for the Israelites to practice. As was the second law laid out in Leviticus 25.

The Jubilee year, which was the 50th year, was to be a year of new beginnings and a year of return. Israelites who were in indentured servitude were set free, and that had been sold away was returned to its original owners. 

Things were set right. The mistakes and misfortune of yesteryear were wiped clean. Everyone had a chance to begin again. 

The reality of the year of Jubilee, of course, affected the nation’s commerce. If you were buying a field, you did so with the understanding that you would have to relinquish it at the Jubilee. And so the price was set accordingly. You paid more for a field if you were 25 years from the Jubilee than you did if you were only 12 years from the Jubilee.

Also, Israelites could redeem their land at any time. If they sold it while they were in financial distress, they or their closest kinsman redeemer could buy the land back when financial times were better. 

And so everyone knew that possessions came and went. The wealthy knew that their holdings were only for a season, in many cases. And the poor always had hope. The year of Jubilee was coming. There would be a new start.

A really important theological principle here is this: The land belongs to God. God said, “The land is mine.” Everything you see around you – the trees and mountains and rivers – all this belongs to God. The people of the earth belong to God, too. The psalmist said, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell within” (Psalm 24:1-2).

About the people of Israel, God was clear. They belonged to no one but him. “For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt.”

And so the Jubilee was to bring in to clear focus the fact that God was the owner of everything – every piece of land and every Israelite person. It all belonged to him, and God’s people were not to lose sight of that fact. 

The idea for us today is the ultimate “Jubilee year” has come, and our season of rest is already here. 

When Jesus Christ came and lived a sinless life and then died on the cross for our sins, he wiped away our debts. We no longer owe death anything. We are free from slavery, and we are free from our spiritual poverty.

We enter into that ultimate Jubilee of Jesus Christ the day we put our faith in him. When you went down into the waters of baptism, you were submitting to a kind of death and resurrection – death to your old ways and new life in Christ (Galatians 2:20).

As Christians, we have been redeemed by God himself. Like the land, you do not belong to anyone other than God himself. The apostle Paul said, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20).

That price, of course, was the death of the Son of God. It was a high price. Your redemption wasn’t cheap. Grace was not cheap to God, even though it may feel cheap to you. 

As a Christian, you now belong to God. And that means you are free.

And we are living in the year of the Sabbath. The idea of the Sabbath means “to cease” – just like God ceased from his work of creation on the seventh day. Every seventh day was a Sabbath for God’s people, where they remembered they were in a covenant relationship with the Creator of the universe. 

And every seventh year, the land got its Sabbath. It got to rest. 

We rest from our works in this Sabbath “year.” The apostle Paul said, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8). 

We no longer work for our salvation. We simply enter into the Sabbath rest of God. 

And so you can see how these Levitical practices – the seventh year Sabbath for the land and the 50th year Jubilee for the people of God – point us directly to Christ. We are living in that Sabbath year and that Jubilee year right now. 

And it’s not over. This is a story about something that’s already here – and not yet fully here. Just wait until Jesus comes back. The spiritual renewal will be paired with physical renewal. 

“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:22-23).

As we live in this time, of course, we remember that this Christian walk is a walk that we have in common with God and in common with each other. Every one of us – and all of our possessions – belongs to God, and we are to share with each other. Never lose sight of this. 

One temptation we face is that the things we have belong to us, and the work we do is lasting in nature. The Jubilee and the Sabbath remind us otherwise. We are God’s. And his family is all around us.

Chris

Dear church,

This chapter reminds us of several truths, and any one of these could be things you might spend time in prayer about.

The light in the tabernacle was to remain burning. It lightened the Holy Place and made worship possible. The light was burning even at night. Access to God always is available. 

Jesus, of course, is the light of the world. He gives access to God (John 8:12). And Christians are to be lights in this dark world, constantly pointing to Jesus – even in the darkest parts of the night (Matthew 5:14-16).

The bread in the tabernacle symbolized God’s provision for his people. Think here about manna in the wilderness and, of course, about Jesus Christ himself (John 6). He provides life for us.

And then there is the Name. In the ancient world, names carried a lot of significance. To curse the name of God – Yahweh – was a serious offense, representing the rejection of God himself. The punishment in ancient Israel’s theocracy was death by the people. Everyone was involved in the rejection of the blasphemer. 

Today, we don’t put someone who commits blasphemy to death. We leave those things to God. But we do urge people to turn to Jesus Christ in faith. 

And we understand the name of Jesus Christ is something we uphold and cherish. Sometimes, we say there is power in the name of Jesus. We pray in Jesus’ name, as he stands next to the Father in heaven, interceding for us by his own blood. 

And we understand we have eternal life by the name of Jesus. “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).

Chris

Dear church,

There’s so much in this chapter to talk about! Perhaps we should have a series of Sunday School discussions sometime about Leviticus 23 and the festivals God gave his people. There is much here for us as Christians.

Today, I’d like you to think about the Sabbath, the “festival” that begins them all and the one that marked every week of an Israelite’s life.

The Sabbath started at creation, when God rested for his work on the seventh day (Genesis 1-2). The idea was to enter into a permanent Sabbath with humanity, enjoying the fruit of God’s labor. This Sabbath was intended to be a time of celebration and joy, relishing in the good things of God.

That rest was fractured by sin, and God entered into a new kind of work. It was not the work of creation. Rather, it was the work of redemption – or, perhaps, of new creation. 

The seventh-day Sabbath, then, was the sign that the people of Israel were in a covenant with the God who was making all things new. You’ll notice there was no Sabbath mandate until Mount Sinai, when the covenant was firmly established and the people were set in motion toward the Promised Land, the land of rest. 

The Israelites were to stop their ordinary work each Saturday. They were to gather to celebrate their place in the covenant with God. And, it seems, they were to look forward to the time when God would complete his work of redemption, when they entered into rest in the Promised Land.

In the end, Israel never was able to enter into that rest on their own. Their sin stopped them. Read Psalm 95, for example.

And so Jesus brought the rest that the people of Israel never were able to enter into by their works. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

This is one of our cherished promises as people who follow Jesus. We follow the one who gives us rest. 

And so as Christians, we enter into the rest of Jesus Christ by putting our faith in him. He gives us “rest” from our works. That is, we no longer work for our salvation. He gives it to us freely by grace. All we do is follow him.

Christians do not celebrate a Sabbath rest every Saturday because we are living in the Sabbath rest of Jesus every day of the week. 

Another good passage to read today would be Hebrews 3-4. 

Part of our “Sabbath” is to remember we have been given eternal life by grace. There is no “work” we must perform in order to go to heaven or to experience the full and blessed resurrection of the dead. We’ve ceased from those works. 

Think today about this gift Jesus gives us. What would like be life if we weren’t living in this “Sabbath”? Pray about this, and give God your gratitude.

Chris

Dear church,

The people of God were to bring their best to the Lord. The animals that were blind or disabled or mutilated or marred with some skin problem – these they could not bring to God. God demanded the very best from his people. 

And why not? God was their Creator and Redeemer. He brought them out of Egypt by way of ten violent plagues against the slaveholders and by way of a dry place to walk in the middle of the Red Sea and by way of water and manna in a barren wilderness. 

God deserves our very best. 

Jesus, of course, is the spotless lamb who fulfilled this law of God that demands the best from his people (Hebrews 9:13-14; 1 Peter 1:19). Jesus was without blemish primarily because, as the Bible tells us, he was sinless (1 Peter 2:22).

And so when we put our faith in Jesus, he becomes our sacrifice before God to cover over all of the sins we have committed. 

At the same time, God does ask us to give our whole selves over to him. And I suppose we could give him our leftovers – our half-effort and our half-sacrifice. But that would fall short and would not be worthy of the God who brought us out of “Egypt” – out of slavery to sin and death.

“And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). 

Here, surely, is the key part of offering our very best to God. It must be done in love for God. A blemished sacrifice is given grudgingly or out of spite. A perfect sacrifice is given because we know our God and we love him. 

Think today about your own offerings to God – the things you do and the things you give. What motivates you?

Chris