Word of Salvation – Vol. 14 No. 34 – August 1968

 

Each According To His Service

 

Sermon by Rev. A. Nijhuis, B.D. on Numbers 7:6-9

SCRIPTURE READINGS: Numbers 7:1-17; 1Corinthians 12:14-26

PSALTER HYMNAL: 306:2 (after Summary of Law)
                                    289:2 (after assurance of pardon)
                                    306:5 (after Law)
                                    373 (after Creed); 283; 394:5; 297:10

 

When we look around us we see that there is a great variety of creatures in the world.  When God created heaven and earth and all that is in them, it pleased Him not to make all things alike.  He created a wonderful world.  As we look around there are so many beautiful things that we cannot begin to count them.  Just think of all the different trees and flowers and animals.  We don't know how many there are, but we may be sure, there are many more than we often dream of.

Or think for a minute of this beautiful country of ours with its hills and valleys, its lakes and its streams, its orchards and its farms.  There are so many of them, and yet there is not one exactly the same as the other.  Time and again we are surprised by the endless variety of scenery, which gives nature its special charm.

However, this variety is not only present in nature; we notice it also in the church.  John is not the same as Peter, and Joan is not a copy of Sharon.  Even when you meet twins, you may be at a loss and not know "who is who", but the mother is not.  She will tell you how many differences there are between the one and the other.  She does not mix them up.  She does not make a mistake here.  And even though she may, the Lord does He knows exactly "who is who".  And He endows every child of His with particular gifts.

That's what this text is about.  Let us listen to this portion of the Word of God, in Numbers 7:6-9, where we learn that

   EVERYONE IS EQUIPPED ACCORDING TO HIS/HER PARTICULAR DUTY.

Let us direct your attention to the following points:

            I.  The variety of people;

            II.  The variety of gifts;

            III.  The variety of duties.

I.  When we read this whole chapter, Numbers 7, we come across the names of a lot of people; people who belonged to the Lord; people who were elected by Him in order to serve Him in one way or another.  There is quite a wide variety among them.

In the first place there is Moses, appointed to be a leader of Israel.  Sometime previously he had been called by the Lord to go to Pharaoh, that he might bring forth the people of the Lord out of Egypt.  Though Moses had many objections and was very reluctant to obey the voice of the Lord, he finally gave in and accepted that difficult task.

You know of course all the details of that wonderful story of the deliverance of the children of Israel: how Pharaoh was unwilling to let the people go; how he even demanded that they do much more work than before; and how the Lord then showed His almighty power and mercy and set His people free.

It is a wonderful story indeed, a story of that great and gracious God of Israel.

There they went, six hundred thousand men on foot, not counting the women and children.  It was a great company of people.  God led them by way of the wilderness and the Red Sea; by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

After the Israelites had been travelling for three months they came to Mt. Sinai.  You know that the Lord gave them the Ten Commandments there, His Holy Law.

Moreover, God commanded Moses to build a tent-church where the people could worship the Lord.  As a matter of fact, God-fearing families must worship the Lord in their own homes.  But they must also have a place where they can meet together with the Lord, to worship Him and to hear the Word of God.  It must have been a beautiful sight to see Israel at worship in that magnificent tent of meeting, in their new tabernacle.

You know how these people had to move on, because their destination was: the Promised Land, Canaan.  They still had quite a distance to go.  When the Israelites had to travel from place to place, the Tabernacle had to be taken down and moved with the people.

It was the duty of the Levites to do all this special work.  These people are mentioned in the text (Num.7:6).  We read there: "So Moses took the wagons and the oxen, and gave them to the Levites."  Moreover we read in the following verses about the "sons of Gershon" (vs.7), "the sons of Merari" (vs.8) and "the sons of Kohath" (vs.9).

You know, of course, the name Levi.  He was one of the sons of Jacob.  His descendants, the Levites, were given to Aaron, the high priest, to perform duties for him and for the whole congregation of Israel before the tent of meeting.

Now Levi had three sons: Gershon, Merari and Kohath (Num.3:5-37).  And these sons of Levi had many descendants.  We hear about the sons of each of them in this text.

It may be a bit confusing: all those names of various people.  Still, there is something beautiful in them too.  When we read those names, we are reminded of the fact that they were used by the Lord for their specific tasks.

We are even informed of their number.  I will not mention all the numbers.  Only this: the number of the sons of Gershon who could enter the service for work in the tent of meeting was two thousand six hundred (Num.4:40); the number of the sons of Merari who were called into the service of the Lord was three thousand two hundred (Num.4:44); and the number of the sons of Kohath who had to serve in the tabernacle was two thousand seven hundred and fifty (Num.  4:36).

That makes a total of eight thousand five hundred and fifty men.

Now the number of people in our church may not be very great.  But the most important thing is not how many members our church consists of.  What is important is to realise that we are called to serve the Lord, whatever our specific duties are.  He knows us and our names: John and Dirk and Albert and Mary and Janice and Elizabeth and so on and so forth.

And what a diversity of people there is, even in a small congregation.  People of different ages (there are babies among them, and toddlers and boys and girls; teenagers; people in the prime of life, and elderly people also); people with a variety of talents and work and character.  Still all belonging to the same Lord, members of His covenant, owners of the greatest riches ever: His promise, the Lord Jesus Christ; called to serve that great and glorious Lord with the talents they have received from the Lord.

The sons of Gershon and Merari and Kohath, mentioned in this text, were living at the time when the Lord had entrusted to His people His law, the preface of which runs like this: "I am the Lord your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."

"I am the Lord your God.”  We may listen today to the same words, though we may know of a much greater deliverance in the Lord Jesus Christ.  And we may listen also to the words of the same commandments in which we are called to serve that Lord of our salvation.

II.  There is a variety of people, brothers and sisters, young people.  But there is a variety of gifts also.  The Lord did not and does not give to every one exactly the same gifts.

Let us turn to this text.    There we read how Moses gave wagons and oxen to the Levites.  These wagons and oxen were offered by the leaders of Israel (vs.2).  A strange offering!   Yes, very strange indeed.  However, the Lord can use everything in His service.

Anyway, those leaders were very practical men.  They considered: now we have a very beautiful church with all its utensils, but... they also thought of the moment when the Lord would call them to move on in the direction of the Promised Land.  What would happen then to their church!  Would it be left there!  Impossible!   You don't leave your church which was built in obedience to the Lord, do you!  You don't move to another place and forget the tabernacle, when you love the Lord, the Architect of His House.  Never!

So they had to take the church with them from place to place.  That was the only possibility, the only solution to the problem.  Now you can understand why those wagons were offered to the Lord.  These people were very thoughtful and arrived at the conclusion: we need good and strong wagons and animals, strong oxen, to draw the heavy loaded vehicles through the shifting sand.

You know, there are always resourceful people in the church, ever on the alert to find out what they can do for the Lord.  How many men and women, boys and girls have done so much for Him without any great fuss...!  Maybe nobody knows of it apart from the Lord.  The Lord likes people who love Him, and who like to do something for Him.

However, we have to turn to the text before us.  Did you read it carefully!  Just listen.  After Moses was ordered by the Lord to accept those strange offerings from the leaders, that they might be used in doing the service of the tent of meeting, and to give them to the Levites, to each man according to his service, Moses took the wagons and the oxen and gave them to the Levites.  And how did he divide the six wagons and the twelve oxen!  When you have six wagons and twelve oxen and there are three groups of people to use them, it is easy enough to give each group its fair share.  Everyone knows when six is divided by three, the answer is two.  And when twelve is divided by three, the answer is four.  So, each could get two wagons and four oxen.  However, what do we read in this text!?!  This: "Two wagons and four oxen were given to the sons of Gershon", and four wagons and eight oxen were given to the sons of Merari,' but "to the sons of Kohath, Moses gave none.

The first share, given to the sons of Gershon, is all right: two wagons and four oxen.  That is exactly one third of the lot.  That is what it should be.

But the trouble starts when we hear that the sons of Merari received twice as much as the sons of Gershon: four wagons and eight oxen.  And then we read that the sons of Kohath did not get any of them.  We are ready to conclude: that is not fair!

In our imagination we see the procession already travelling through the desert.  The first groups of Levites, the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, could easily load their luggage – the heavy parts of the tabernacle – onto the wagons allotted to them.  Maybe for some of those labourers there was even a seat on the wagons, so they could rest when they got very tired.

But those poor sons of Kohath had to carry the whole lot through the scorching heat of that awful desert.

We can imagine that these people were sometimes very envious of their more fortunate brothers.  It may be that they sometimes thought they were treated in a rather unfair way, and that Moses had not done the right thing.

We are not always satisfied with what we have received, are we?  There is always the temptation that we complain about the way we are treated by the Lord.

There is not only a variety of people, but there is a variety of gifts as well.  Remember the parable the Lord Jesus once told about a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property!  To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one.  It is not that hard when we read it in a parable, but it is different when that story is applied to our life, and we belong to those who get only one or two or three talents.

Even when we keep silent, there may be in our heart that strong feeling of envy that dominates our whole thinking and corrupts our whole heart.  We are always looking at others, comparing what they have received with what we have.

Is that fair!  Should it not be different!  We don't have those complaints when we are "the lucky ones,' or rather the privileged ones, those who are exceedingly blessed by the Lord; though after a while we may forget that we enjoy so many privileges, and still complain about our lot.

Anyway, our gifts vary widely.  The one seems to be spoilt by the Lord, and the other neglected.  The one has so many more talents than the other.  The best way is to know our gifts, and be thankful for them.  There is reason to be grateful, because we confess that we don't deserve anything at all.  All we receive is only because there came One among us, Who did deserve everything, but Who emptied Himself of His glory and of all His privileges, Who even sacrificed His very life.  His clothes were taken from Him and gambled away; the sun hid its light from Him; His Father forsook Him.  And that, in order to give us the glory of the fellowship with His Father and everything we need to serve Him.

III.  When we ask the question: why did Moses give two wagons and four oxen to the sons of Gershon, and why did he give four wagons and eight oxen to the sons of Merari, and why did the sons of Kohath get none, the answer is: because the Lord told Moses to treat them according to their service.  So this way of giving was not just a matter of whim and arbitrariness.  The reason was not because Moses liked the one more than the other.  The sons of Gershon and Merari and Kohath were given according to the services to which they were called.

When we turn to chapter 4 of this book, vs.24-26, we read there what the service of the sons of Gershon was.  They were to carry the curtains of the tabernacle, and the tent of meeting with its covering, and the covering of goatskin that is on top of it, and the screen for the door of the tent of meeting, and the hangings of the court, and the screen for the entrance of the gate of the court which is around the tabernacle and the altar, and their cords, and all the equipment for their service.  For that reason they needed two wagons and four oxen.  And no more.  That was sufficient for their duty.

But the sons of Merari (vss.31-32) had to carry the frames of the tabernacle, with its bars, pillars and bases, and the pillars of the court roundabout with their bases, pegs, and cords, with all their equipment and all their accessories.

As you may see; these people had to handle the heavy parts of the tent-church, and so they needed more wagons than their brothers, the sons of Gershon.

Finally the duty of the sons of Kohath was to take care of the most holy things: the ark, the table of the Bread of the Presence with its utensils, the lampstand with its utensils, the golden altar with its utensils (vss.4-14).

So there was a variety of duties for the various people.  Oh yes, they were all called to serve the Lord, but in different ways.  They did not have to do the same things, but each had to do what the Lord allotted to them.  They were given what was needed for their specific service.  Therefore, the sons of Kohath did not get any wagons or oxen.  There was a good reason for it, because they were charged with the care of the holy things which had to be carried on the shoulders.  It was the glory of their service which made the Lord act as He did.  No wagons should be used for the holy things of the Lord.  They must be carried by men who were willing to serve the Lord in this glorious task.

They were not less than their fellow-servants.  They were really the privileged ones, who were permitted to execute a duty of such a special nature for the great and unique God of Israel.  Their shoulders might be hurt when they carried the holy things, and they might become tired by that heavy load, but they were not permitted to place the ark and the other things which were entrusted to them on a wagon.

Centuries after, King David understood this lesson only after Uzzah was killed, and when he took care that the ark of the Lord was carried into the city of Jerusalem.

The things of the Lord require careful handling.  We should never trifle with them.

The message is clear, isn't it.  There is a variety of people.  And there is a variety of gifts, because there is a variety of duties.

Every one of us has received certain gifts from the Lord, according to our specific kind of service.

We should see to it that we use the gifts entrusted to us for the duties we are called to perform.

It does not matter what we may do, but we have to use our talents according to our service, realising that we did not receive them to neglect them or to waste them away.

We have to devote ourselves to our various duties, serving the Lord wholeheartedly, knowing that in the Lord our labour is not in vain.  And when you ask: how can this be done, the Lord Jesus Christ has an answer to your question: "Abide in Me!"

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.”

Amen.