Understanding the Service of a Kohathite: Lessons for Today

 '...Everyone according to his service, and according to his burden...'
Numbers 4:49

This may seem a strange verse, and even if you are familiar with your Bible you may wonder what it is referring to, but it seemed to stand out to me when reading this chapter.

Let me put it into context by imagining this scene:

Photo by Jordan Wozniak on Unsplash

It is early in the morning.  You were woken from sleep by the gentle rays of the rising sun filtering through the gaps in your tent. Pushing off your bed clothes you stretch and rise, noticing that your wife has already left the tent to go and collect manna - food from heaven - laying fresh and white in the dew on the ground.  A daily task, except for the Sabbath, she needed to collect it fresh each morning for meals.

Standing in your tent door surveying the large camp of thousands of people stretched out as far as you can see you notice that the large cloud which normally covers the central tabernacle in the camp has risen into the sky - the sign that God is leading you all to another area.  Another sign - the sound of silver trumpets sounding across the vast camp, causes you to hurry to get dressed.  You are a son of Kohath, a descendant of Levi and you have been given a specific task to do when the camp moves on.  

Photo by ‪Salah Darwish on Unsplash

As your wife returns with the manna you give her instructions for assembling your belongings together, and leaving her to finish food preparations, confident that your younger brothers would help her with the final dismantling of the tent, you hurry to Aaron, the High Priest, for instructions.

As a 30 year old man you have only just become eligible to help with the task entrusted to the sons of Kohath, namely to carry the precious and holy contents of the dismantled tabernacle - the sacred place where God Almighty was visually living amongst your huge camp of Israelites in a cloud by day and pillar of fire at night.

When the cloud rose up off the tabernacle and the trumpets were blown you knew that God was leading you onwards and the tabernacle had to be packed up and dismantled.  But it was not a free for all.  Not just anybody could go and help.  Only the tribe of Levites who were camped immediately around the tabernacle were allowed to take part in the services of the tabernacle.  And within the Levite tribe different families were assigned different tasks.  As one of the sons of Kohath your service in carrying sacred objects of the tabernacle had been counted by Moses, your name entered in the record which God commanded him to take.

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Right now as Aaron was reminding you to wait to enter the tabernacle you were aware that his sons were methodically dismantling the covering vail in the tabernacle and were covering the beautiful golden ark, golden table, golden alter and all the golden spoons, bowls and utensils with badger skins and/or blue and scarlet cloths.  All was orderly and calm as the God ordained routine was followed.

This was God's tabernacle, His place of dwelling amongst you, and His design.  He had told Moses exactly how everything should be made, how He should be worshipped, what the priests should wear and even who had been given the talents to make these things.  And all had been done 'for glory and for beauty'.

You weren't allowed to see the sacred things until all was covered and the various poles for transportation in place.  Only then could you carefully step forward to take your place in carrying these most precious objects - if you saw them before they were covered you would die, because they were holy.  

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And then it was your turn.  The trumpets had blown to signal to the different tribes of people around the tabernacle to move forward in army like precision... and it was now time for you to carefully take the poles supporting the blue clad golden ark with another Kohathite descendent and steadily move forward.

This was your service to God - your task - and this was your most precious burden.

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• God is a God of order

As I read this verse recently I was struck by the precision, the order and the designation of tasks to serve God in the care of the Old Testament tabernacle which He had been outlining to Moses. 

It tells us how God is not a God of chaos, chance or haphazardness.   It spoke to me of my service - my calling, work, duties, tasks before God and the way in which I approach and perform these things.

Do I just muddle along, do things when I feel like them, when things have got to a point that they cannot be ignored anymore, or am I consistently, systematically, and habitually undertaking that portion of life which has been assigned to me by God? 

Is my life reflecting the order and precision of my God witnessing of whom I serve?

Photo by Minh Pham on Unsplash

A few days ago I was cooking some homemade fishcakes for tea.  

Having made them a couple of weeks earlier I had frozen these left overs and had now put them in the oven to cook.  Impatient that they were taking so long I moved them from the oven to the gas grill where they partially fell apart when I turned them over and the greaseproof paper they were on caught fire.  

After a few seconds of quick action all was well, but I was reproaching myself.  If only I had followed the routine and order of making sure the dinner was prepared as much as possible earlier in the day I would have got the fishcakes out the freezer to defrost much earlier; if only I had resisted the impatient urge to finish this blog post that afternoon and started cooking the meal at my usual time I wouldn't have been feeling so rushed.  

Photo by Carlos Perales on Unsplash

Sound familiar?  We do these things because we are imperfect.  We sometimes lack diligence, our self-will is often too strong.  We want to do things our way and in our time, not God's way.  Perhaps we have a wry smile at my mishaps but, dear reader, do we witness of our God who is a God of order and peace?  And yet, in it all He is there with His children, sympathising and understanding our fallen nature and the troubles it gets us into - although it can mean He needs to lovingly chasten us to bring us back to Him and His ways.

• What is your service and burden?

As part of His order and sovereign plan for His spiritual church God has given each of His children a 'service and burden'.  Some of mine is to be a 'helpmeet' to my husband, to look after the home and the garden, to be a loving encouragement to my parents and wider family and friends, to be useful in the church, to encourage others with this blog and to 'love my neighbour'.

What about you?  What has God called you to do - what is your service to Him today?  

Perhaps you wonder if you are actually doing His will, actually serving Him.  You think you will when certain things happen or when you get to a certain point in your life. 

But this is your life - this life you are continuing in today, the life you are living right now!  It isn't the life you dream about, the life you fantasise about, read about, the books you lose yourself in, the films or the social media you watch...it is the reality we are in right now.  God calls His people to serve Him in every situation they find themselves in.

Maybe your service is a literal load which like the Kohathite you have to carry.  Perhaps a young child you have been given, or an elderly/weak person we have to hoist, or a difficult illness you have to bear.  Or perhaps it is an emotional or spiritual burden you carry.  

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Is it the salvation of your family, your friends/work colleagues?  Is it concerns about the lack of spiritual hunger and thirst of the country you live in - the rejection of God by your nation?  Is it anguish for the souls of your neighbours who as far as you know do not know God?  Is it watching the decline or illness of a loved one?

Perhaps we are finding our service, our God given tasks, our burdens too heavy and too much.  We feel so unable to do them, too weak to carry them.  Dear reader, let us remember Who has assigned our service and burden.  And let us remember that He bears the burden with us and strengthens us for the tasks.  

• How do we do our service and carry our burden?

Let us take a moment to examine ourselves - how do we take up this service and burden?  

Is it with delight at the privilege as the imagined Kohathite above was eager to take part in his assigned service and burden?  Is it with submission to the Lord's will, humbly acknowledging our need for grace?

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As the Kohathites and other Levites were all numbered - counted- and recorded, do we realise the honour of being 'counted' and allocated for this task, that the living tabernacle of God, the church, might be carried forward in that plan that God has for it?

• The gift of our service and burden

Later in this book of Numbers God says how Aaron and his sons were specifically chosen from within the tribe of Levites to serve as priests at His alter and that their servitude was a 'gift' (Numbers 18:7).  

May we today think of those things which God has specifically given us to serve Him in, those burdens we have been allocated to carry, and let us ask Him to help us give thanks for the work He has given us to do, and help us to lean on Him and His grace to be enabled to do it cheerfully, willingly, as unto Him. 

Let us strive to do these things in an orderly habitual way - whether it is looking after the home and the family, getting to work on time and doing our job, or preparing for ministry.  May the evidence of Jesus in our lives reflect the beauty and glory of Him in us.

And if there are those close to us, those we love who have been given burdens of service to the Lord which cause us to inwardly rebel, may we be helped to pray for them that they may be given strength and that we may be a support and not a hindrance to the Lord's work.

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