Prepare
Opening Prayer
Thank God for the day and the blessing of reading his Word, and ask him to help us read, understand, and apply it.
Read
Scripture Passage
Census of the Levites
34 And Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of the congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites by their families and by their fathers’ house, 35 from thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, everyone who entered the service for work in the tabernacle of meeting; 36 and those who were numbered by their families were two thousand seven hundred and fifty. 37 These were the ones who were numbered of the families of the Kohathites, all who might serve in the tabernacle of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
38 And those who were numbered of the sons of Gershon, by their families and by their fathers’ house, 39 from thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, everyone who entered the service for work in the tabernacle of meeting—40 those who were numbered by their families, by their fathers’ house, were two thousand six hundred and thirty. 41 These are the ones who were numbered of the families of the sons of Gershon, of all who might serve in the tabernacle of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of the Lord.
42 Those of the families of the sons of Merari who were numbered, by their families, by their fathers’ house, 43 from thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, everyone who entered the service for work in the tabernacle of meeting—44 those who were numbered by their families were three thousand two hundred. 45 These are the ones who were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
46 All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of Israel numbered, by their families and by their fathers’ houses, 47 from thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, everyone who came to do the work of service and the work of bearing burdens in the tabernacle of meeting—48 those who were numbered were eight thousand five hundred and eighty.
49 According to the commandment of the Lord they were numbered by the hand of Moses, each according to his service and according to his task; thus were they numbered by him, as the Lord commanded Moses.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Nu 4:34–49.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
Moses, Aaron, and Israel's leaders number the Kohathite, Gershonite, and Merarite men aged thirty to fifty who can serve and carry burdens at the tabernacle. The three family totals reconcile to 8,580, and each man is counted according to his God-assigned service and task.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Numbers 4:49
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
Bryan does not ask or answer a best-verse question. Verse 49 is distilled because the child reads it as the passage's conclusion, and Bryan immediately summarizes that Israel did just as God commanded.
C — Called or Christ
C — Christ Connection
Trust the Lord who knows and numbers every one of his people. Rest in Jesus as the good shepherd who notices his sheep, seeks the wandering, and cares for them.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Well, 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... Nothing. Daniel's looking at the screen. Have a little bit of coffee. You want some of my coffee? Oh, it's cool. You want to try some coffee? Oh, hot dog. There you go. Get some hair on your chest. Oh, don't drink all my coffee. We have a little bit of coffee. We pray 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 from we'll make it through the books of Numbers, Deuteronomy and Hebrews. That's right. So we already did coffee and devotions this morning with all the kids. And I messed up the audio, my fault, entirely my fault. But we're going to do it again. Dan Dan said he'd come in here and do it with me. So let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. Oh, we're knocking around that microphone today. Let's try not to do that. All right. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. What a blessing it is to get to read your word. We pray that you would please help us to read it and understand it and apply it to our lives in Jesus's name. Amen. OK, let me grab my Bible here. Grab my Bible. We'll get into God's Word. Yep, squished, squished.
And Moses and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites by their families and by their father's house, from thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, everyone who entered the service for work in the tabernacle of meeting. And those who were numbered by their families were two thousand seven hundred and fifty. Those who were the sons who were numbered of their families of the Kohathites, all who might serve in the tabernacle of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandments of the Lord by the hand of Moses." So who's numbered there?
Yeah, so we're numbering the Levites and the first family is the Kohathites. Kohathites, that's right. Okay, now we're gonna read about the Gershonites, okay? That's right. And those who are numbered of the sons of Gershon by their families and by their father's house from 30 years old and above, even to 50 years old, Everyone who entered the service for work in the Tabernacle of Meeting, those who were numbered by their families, by their father's house, were 2,630. These are the sons who were numbered, of the families of the sons of Gershon, all who might serve in the Tabernacle of Meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of the Lord. So this is the Gershonites.
And would you be old enough to be numbered? No, you're not 30 you're not 30 Yeah, 30 to 50 years old, okay. All right, here we go Now we're gonna talk about the sons of Marari And those are the families of the sons of Marari who were numbered by their families by their father's house From 30 years old and above even to how many years old do you think? No, 50 years old.
Everyone who entered the service for work in the Tabernacle Meeting, those who were numbered by their families, were 3,200. These are the ones who were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
All right, so we have all three families. Now we're going to add the three numbers together, OK? That would make a bunch. Yeah, a bunch is accurate, right? But we have a better total, right? All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of Israel numbered by their families and by their fathers' houses, from 30 years old and above, even to 50 years old, everyone who came to do the work of the service of the work of the bearing burdens in the Temple of Meeting, those who were numbered were 8,580. And guess what? The math works out. If you add 2,750 plus 2,630 plus 3,200, you get 8,580. 8,580?
Yeah. They knew how to do math back then too. Yeah. And can, can you read verse 49? That's a lot of math. You don't need to keep moving the microphone. Okay. All right. You go ahead and read verse 49. According to the commandment of the Lord, they were numbered by the hand of Moses, each according to his service and according to his traits. Task. No, thus. Mm hmm. Dude, give me five. You're doing way better with reading. I'm proud of you. All right. So they did just as God had commanded. Is that a good thing? Yeah. Yeah. So.
So you walk out of here and you talk to your mama and she says so what'd you learn in the Bible? What would you tell it? There were a lot of people You wanted to be in there, well, do you think you're in God's family now? Yeah, dude. Let's leave it alone. Do you think that God knows you and Yeah. Do you think that if you were one of God's 100 sheep and you started walking in a weird direction, legally alone, wandering away, do you think he would come and find you? I bet he would go over there. Let's not do that. It makes a lot of noise. That's right. He would go and he would find you, wouldn't he?
Because does the Lord number his people? Yeah, let's go ahead and pray. You ready? Lord, we thank you so much that you are mindful of us. You count every hair on your on our head and you know every one of your sheep. Lord, we pray that you would teach us to trust you more and more in Jesus's name. Amen. May God bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace that comes from knowing that your good shepherd knows you and he cares for you. Bye. 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.