July 21 Devotion: Wholly Given to God

Numbers 3:41 “And thou shalt take the Levites for me (I am the LORD) instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel; and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of the children of Israel.” The first High Priest of Israel Was Aaron, a descendent of Levi. The priests were commanded to come from the defendants of Aaron, and only those of his line would serve as the priests within the tabernacle (and later the temple). In this chapter, God speaks plainly about purchasing the first born sons of all of Israel (including the animals) when he spared them in the plague of the firstborn in Egypt. Instead of requiring that all first born children and animals would serve as ministers to Aaron and his sons, God chose the tribe of Levi (the Levites) to perpetually serve as the ministers of the House of God. They played music, kept the tabernacle clean, opened the doors, and cautioned people when they were about to step foot onto holy ground (in addition to many other things). To truly understand the grace that God showed by not requiring the first born of every Israelite to serve in the tabernacle, we must understand what a firstborn meant to an Israelite family. The firstborn was the future; the best; the one who would carry on the family legacy and achieve greater than their father. The firstborn was the prized child. God was entitled to request the best, but chose a substitute in the Levites. He could have bankrupt each family of all their hopes and dreams, but chose instead to spare them that grief and appointed a whole tribe of Israel to be wholly devoted to Him. The levites could never atone for their own sins, they could not make the sacrifice to atone for sins, they were simply called to serve and be wholly God’s. They were ministers, they saw to the affairs that freed the High Priest to attend to matters that were too high for them. We can take a much needed spiritual application from this moment in Israel’s history. We as blood bought believers, are not the High Priest. That role is reserved solely for Christ, he alone was capable of making the sacrifice that could cleanse sin. We cannot perform the priestly duties of applying that spotless blood to remove sins. We cannot even enter the holiest place of the altar to come near that total blood that was shed for us. God did not require everything from us in order to be saved, even though He bought us with a price. He gave everything so that we might gain everything. God did not bankrupt us into a life of servitude and dominion, though He would have been justified in doing so. No, God simply asks that we give ourselves wholly to one cause, ministering as Christ directs us. We are not bound into service, but see the joy and privilege of being used for the Father’s work. Happy are we because we can draw closer than anyone else in the world to our High Priest. We can sup with Him, we can labor is His work and witness things the rest of the world can only dream of. Those all Christians can draw nigh to the High Priest and become a part of the work of the Lord, so few are wholly given to their responsibilities.  So few are partakers of the Master’s table. So few know the joy in being a very small part of the grand work that Christ began and finished. He did not ask us to sacrifice the firstborn of our lives in order to show our thankfulness, He simply asked us to be partakers of the work that glorifies our Father. Your fellowservant in Christ, Bro. Jordan Foster