Tag: Levites

Finding Your Place (I Chronicles 6-7)

Wednesday, November 16

levite_musicians

Chapter 6 starts with listing the descendants of Levi.  The tribe of Levi is set aside to be the priests, workers in the tabernacle and temple, and things like that.  In verse 11, it says “These are the men David put in charge of the music in the house of the LORD after the ark came to rest there.”  This is the list of men who had a specific job because of their genealogy.

In verses 48 and 49, it says “Their fellow Levites were assigned to all the other duties of the tabernacle, the house of God.  But Aaron and his descendants were the ones who presented offerings on the altar of burnt offering and on the altar of incense…”  Again, these other Levites had specific jobs or duties because of their genealogy.

As we move into chapter 7, we see lists of other groups of people, and for each one, it lists their number of fighting men or warriors.  Each of these also had a duty as warriors, both in defense and offense.

As I was reading this, I thought about how this could relate to us.  We each have special roles in the church.  If we look at the genealogy of the church, where do each of us fit in it?  Would you be listed as having “priestly duties”, the spiritual leaders in the church?  This could be as a pastor, elder, or a scholar possibly.  Would you be listed as a musician, giving praise to the LORD?  Would you be listed as a warrior, standing up for your faith on the defense and/or evangelizing and spreading the word on offense?

We are not cast into a certain position based on the tribe we belong to, but there is a place where each of us fit.   I encourage you to examine what roles God is leading you to, and follow God’s plans for you.

-Andrew Hamilton

Requesting war with giants on their home turf – super crazy or super hero? (Joshua 11-14)

Monday, September 26

nikki-mon

Nikki Green

In 1933 two Jewish boys had an idea for a super hero.  This hero was an outsider, taken from home, and dropped in a strange land.  He believed in justice and truth.  His role would be to save people.  This soon became the legend of Superman.  This brings to mind a similar story.  Moses was dropped in the land of Egypt and became the hero God’s people needed.  He stood up to the Pharaoh and delivered the Israelites from slavery.  As we moved through the Bible, Joshua becomes the Moses 2.0.  Joshua 11:15 reminds us “As the LORD commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.” Joshua followed God’s commands and led Israel to ultimately take over all the royal cities and their kings.  Chapter 12 reiterates, without any exaggeration or embellishment, the many victories of God’s hero, Joshua.  The Israelites had followed this great man through warfare and were now ready to receive their inheritance.

Joshua, the chief priest, and the heads of the twelve tribes oversaw the allotment of God’s Promised Land.  Joshua seems to barely wrap up his military duties and has to quickly take on the responsibilities of property management and administration.  He assigned lots as God commanded through Moses.  The Levites had not been granted an inheritance in terms of land.  The sons of Joseph had become two tribes (Manasseh and Ephraim), since Jacob had adopted them as his own (Gen 48:5).  This made it possible to have the twelve part nation.  The Levites carried out religious duties for the Israelites.  They were given cities to live in, but were not land owners “because the Lord the God of Israel himself is their inheritance” (Deut. 18:2).

We need heroes that show us how to follow God wholeheartedly.  Caleb, from the tribe of Judah, had joined Joshua 45 years earlier as one of the twelve spies sent by Moses to scout out the Promised Land.  Caleb boldly approached Joshua, on behalf of his tribe, and requested exactly what both men had heard Moses promise to Caleb, because he “followed the LORD wholeheartedly” (Josh. 14:8).  This is where the hero-status jumps up to a whole new level!  The land Caleb was requesting was not void of “bad guys”.  As a matter of fact, if you remember the “giants” that terrified 10 of the 12 spies – they were inhabiting this land.  Caleb admits he’s 85 years old and says he’s still as strong as the day Moses sent him out.  He says he’s ready to go out to battle.  “Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day.  You yourself heard that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.” (Josh.14:12).  Why does the Bible name the folks living there?  The 3 sons of Anach (Sheshai, Ahiman, & Talmai) were also known as 3 clans of giants – the stuff legends are made of.  We watch 85 year old Caleb request the large, fortified cities, full of giants, & on a hill – for his retirement package.  I wouldn’t have blamed him if he requested land near the river, shaded with palm trees, and free of his enemies!  In his old age, he did what the rest of Israel could not and would not do – he believed in God’s word & defeated the giants (and their fortified cities) on their home turf.  (Josh 15:14).  He won and took up residence in Hebron, something he’d probably envisioned for his tribe for more than four decades.

2 Cor.16:9 tells us “the eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him”.  Young and old can learn from Caleb’s example, as he followed God wholeheartedly – that’s the stuff heroes are made of!  I’m sure those two imaginative Jewish boys heard their fair share of Old Testament Bible stories.  Superman is fun to read about, but as we continue our journey through God’s instruction manual, we have some truly super men to learn from.

 

 

 

The Israelites Mess Up Again, Shocker! (Exodus 31-34)

By Josiah Cain

Tissot_The_Golden_Calf

There is a lot to cover in these chapters and a lot of cool and terrible stories take place. Of course, in normal Israelite fashion, we find the people of God disobeying orders. They make a golden calf statue to worship while Moses is away on Mt. Sinai. God tells Moses that the people are messing up and Moses then pleads with God not to destroy them; if it wasn’t for Moses the Israelites would not have made it very far. So Moses goes down to see what is happening and ends up destroying the tablets that God made and the golden calf the people made. Moses then orders the Levites to kill the people who disobeyed God and this is the same event that made the Levites the priestly tribe for the rest of Jewish history. In total 3,000 people ended up dying that day at the hands of the Levites but that wasn’t enough for God; God later in the evening sent a plague to kill some of the Israelites and finally all the punishment was over. The Jews really can’t seem to keep themselves out of trouble.

There are many things that I don’t envy about Moses, like the time he killed that Egyptian, but if there is one thing I am jealous of, it would be the way he talks to God. It says in chapter 33 that God talked to Moses face to face. What? How cool is that! Can you imagine talking to God face to face?!? It is incredible to think that Moses literally heard the voice of God and sat in the same place as God dwelt. I would give anything to commune with God in this way. Reading the way that God and Moses communicate just builds my anticipation for the coming kingdom even more.

Moses actually spent so much time with God that his face started to glow. I can’t imagine what this would have looked like but it was enough to scare some of the Israelites apparently. I wonder if we will have glowing faces when we spend a bunch of time with God? It did stink for Moses though that he had to hand carve the Ten Commandments again. I would still trade 40 days of no eating and stone carving for that much time with God.

Thanks for reading again and please take to heart the lessons that we can learn from the Israelites. If we follow God’s rules then everything works out for us in the end. I also think that we can learn patience from this story. The only reason they made the statue in the first place was because they were worried that Moses wasn’t coming back. We need to wait because God always has things under control.