Numbers 3:5-13

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 little bit of... Coffee. Coffee? No. No. Hot chocolate. Why? We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2024, Lord willing, we'll make it through Numbers, Deuteronomy, and? Churches. Hebrews. Hebrews, that's right. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and get into God's Word. No churches. Water. Oh, you almost spilled that on your Bible. So we're reading Numbers chapter 3 verses 5 through 13.
Okay, let's go ahead and pray. Lord, we do thank you so much for this day. We pray that you would give us attention, that we would be able to understand your word, and that your Holy Spirit would please teach us and illuminate our minds, that we might not just understand words on the page, but also how they're to impact our lives and teach us to love you. Please God help us in Jesus' name. Amen.
Okay. So Nathan, you go ahead. Actually, let's let Daniel read verse 5. 5. And the Lord spoke to Moses, Moses saying, Bah. That's verse 6, Debra. Chapter 3, verse 6. Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may serve him. You can keep reading. Just keep reading until you're done.
And they shall attend to his needs, and the needs of the whole congregation, for the tabernacle of meeting, to do the work of the tabernacle. Also they shall attend to all the furnishings of the tabernacle of meeting, and to the needs of the children of Israel, to do the work of the tabernacle. And you shall give the Levites to Aaron and his sons. They are given entirely to him from among the children of Israel, that ye shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall attend to their priesthood.
But the outsider who comes near shall be put to death." Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Now behold, I myself have taken the Levites, who are among the children of Israel, instead of every firstborn who opens the womb, among the children of Israel. Therefore the Levites shall be mine, because all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck out the firstborn, I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. I sanctified to myself all the firstborn in Israel. Both man and beast, they shall be mine. I am the Lord.
Alright, so what is this talking about? Who can be priest? Well, no, it's not talking about who can be priest. Okay, so it talked about in verses 1-4, Daniel and I talked about that. We talked about the sons of Aaron. In verses 1-4, and now the Lord speaks to Moses and who is He saying to bring near?
The Levites. That's right. And then He tells them what their job is. What is the job of the Levites? Okay, don't push it. It says Bible elbow. To serve Aaron. Yeah, to serve Aaron. To serve God and... Yeah, why do they need to serve Aaron? Because Aaron is the high priest. Aaron's the high priest. That's right, Aaron's the priest of God. You have to think, if there's only a few priests, what about all the other work that needs to be done in the tabernacle?
Those will be done by the leaders. Yeah, right. Does there need to be wood? Does there need to be animals? Does there need to be people who will clean the sacrificial animals and weigh out the offerings and all the other stuff? And when Jesus turned that temple, there's got to be someone who goes to the tippy tippy top and lights the whole thing. Yeah, at the very top. And the temple of Jesus' day lights the torches. So there's all sorts of people, but why, right? Why does the Lord choose the family of Levi? Because Levi didn't get any land. That's right, that's right. So whose are the Levites? God's children. That's right, God was able to redeem all the firstborn, right?
So, He could have done it where every single firstborn male, sorry Bubba, you're not going to be a member of our family. You got to go work at the tabernacle. But instead, He says, instead of doing that... Just the Levites. He chooses the Levites. Now, he still has people give their offering to redeem their firstborn. So, like when Mary and Joseph go to the tabernacle, guess what they do? Or to the temple, guess what they do after Jesus is born? Redeem. Yeah, they pay the redemption price for Jesus, right?
Because he was a firstborn child. A firstborn male. And so, this is talking about the Levites serving in the tabernacle. Now, there's something interesting in verse 10. I thought it was just the firstborn, not the firstborn male. Yeah, the firstborn son. It says all the firstborn. Well yeah, so the firstborn who opens a womb among the children of Israel. Yeah, but earlier in Leviticus we learned that it was the boys. What if that was twins? What's that? That's an interesting question. Probably the first one to be born. What if they're both gone at the same time and they're hugging each other?
Then I don't think the mama would live. But look at verse 10 with me. So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall attend to what? Verse 10. The whole congregation. Nope. So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, verse 10, and they shall attend to their priesthood. But... But what? The outsider who comes near shall be put to death. Whoa. Whoa. So what happens if somebody who's not of the tribe of Aaron, or of the family of Aaron, what's supposed to happen to them if they go? Even if you trip and fall?
Well, no, I think this is talking about people who are like, man, I don't see why Aaron gets to be the priest. I want to be a priest, too. I mean, I'm of Levi, too. I want to offer sacrifices. I want to do these things. And so they start bringing fire to God. Oh, so then that of the family band. Who's the one who established this pattern? of this people? God.
And so if they aren't going to listen, even in God's own temple, God's own tabernacle, are they going to listen to his other laws? Nope. No, it's to suppose that we can do whatever we want even in worship? It's kind of the height of arrogance, isn't it? Yeah.
Okay, well, what do you guys think this, right, mommy asks you, what did you learn about in Coffee and Devotions? What are you going to say, Dandan? Um, that we learned about Levites and Priests. Levites and Priests, okay. What about you, Debridoo? Mama says, what did you learn about in Coffee and Devotions? What are you going to say? I'd say, um, I learned that the Levites were The only ones besides Aaron who got to go into the temple. Yeah, but were they allowed to go into the holy place? Or the holy of holies? No. No? Okay. What about you Bubba?
I tell mom that the Levites got to serve God because they didn't get any land. They didn't get their own little tribe. So what do you think that this does pointing us to Jesus? Okay, so even if you have a little job you can still please God. Good. Who's our high priest now? Jesus is. And what does He say about His people? They're a kingdom of... You guys ready for it? Deborah, you ready? Priests. A royal nation, a kingdom of priests. Each one of you get to offer up your bodies as a living sacrifice. Right? We bring to Him, not a sacrifice of animals, but a sacrifice of... sacrifice of praise. Right? So we get to worship God that way. Alright, you guys ready to pray? Alright, let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much. that you are the one who establishes your economy, you are the one who does your things, you are the one who watches out for us. Lord, we thank you that you have given us a high priest, Jesus Christ, who ministers in the heavenly tabernacle, not made by human hands, and that you have invited us to bring to you the sacrifice of praise. We pray that you would teach us to walk in your ways. In Jesus' name, Amen. May God bless you. May you worship God in spirit and in truth. And may you love Him with all your heart. 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 and 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.