Secular Profession or Sacred Privilege? 事業或事奉? Numbers 民數記 18:1-20 INTRODUCTION

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1 Secular Profession or Sacred Privilege? 事業或事奉? Numbers 民數記 18:1-20 INTRODUCTION The book of Numbers captures a period of sad history for the Israel people. God rescued them out from the bondage of Egyptian slavery and was about to bring them into the Promised Land of Canaan. But the Israelites sinned against God. They did not trust that God would help them conquer the enemies in Canaan, to the degree that they wanted to go back to Egypt! God judged the Israelites by sending them to wandering in the wilderness for the next forty years. Up to this point for over the past two years since they left Egypt the Israelites showed contempt to the leadership God gave to Moses over and over again. In chapter 16 a Levite named Korah ganged up with 250 leaders to challenge the leadership God established. They envied Aaron for the role of priesthood when God clearly said that only Aaron and his descendants could be priests. God stood up for the leader He had appointed. God poured out His judgment and 14,700 Israelites died as a result. Then in chapter 17 God used the budding staff of Aaron to reassure Aaron s priesthood. When we come to chapter 18 God reiterates the role of the priests. We now live in the era of the New Testament. After Jesus Christ died on the cross all who believe in Christ can approach God in person. There is no need for a priest in the church as the mediator to communicate with God on behalf of His people. But the general Biblical principle has not changed. Today God still chooses some people and give them special roles to serve Him. Since it is God who puts these servants to serve He would be responsible for their livelihood. EXPLANATION 1. God s Appointment 神的委派 (v. 1-7) From Numbers 18, let us first learn that God appoints different people to serve Him. God said to Aaron the High Priest in verses 2-3: 2 Bring your fellow Levites from your ancestral tribe to join you and assist you when you and your sons minister before the Tent of the Testimony. 3 They are to be responsible to you and are to perform all the duties of the Tent, but they must not go near the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar, or both they and you will die. Here the Tent or Tent of the Meeting refers to the tabernacle. The tabernacle is essentially a portable temple for the Israelites to worship God in the wilderness. God appointed the tribe of Levi to serve Him in the tabernacle. They were to assist Aaron in the ministries of the tabernacle. For examples Numbers 1:50 tell us that the Levites were responsible for the physical labor regarding the tabernacle: 50 Instead, appoint the Levites to be in charge of the tabernacle of the Testimony - over all its furnishings and everything belonging to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings; they are to take care of it and encamp around it. Those are the duties for the Levites. As for the priests God continues to say to Aaron in 18:7 - But only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death. While other Levites were given the responsibilities of labor duties in the tabernacle only Aaron and his descendants were appointed to serve the priestly duties. This verse specifies that 1

2 the priestly duties include everything at the altar, in other words, all the animal sacrifice. Also they were responsible the duties inside the curtain. This curtain is the veil that separates the holy place from the most holy place. This diagram on the screen would give us some idea of the layout of the tabernacle. Moses explains in Leviticus 16 that only the High Priest could enter the most holy place once a year on the Day of Atonement. Hebrews 9:3 and 7 summarize the instruction this way: 3 Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place. But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. As you can see God sets clear delineation on the area of services for the servants He appoints. This is to reflect God s holy character. He only allows a selected handful of people to approach Him. It is true that we now live in the New Testament era. Because Jesus died on the cross for our sins all who believe in Him can free access to God s throne. At the same time God established pastors and elders in the church to serve Him and His people. In Ephesians 4:11-12 Paul lists the office of pastors as a spiritual gift: 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. It is God who assigned all these roles. The word gave has the meanings of grant, give away as a gift or appoint to an office. When Paul says God gives some to be pastors it means that God does not give everyone in the church the same position. The word pastor in Greek means shepherd. This is the only usage in the whole Bible where the word refers to ministers in a church. In the New Testament pastors, elders and overseers are interchangeable terms that refer to the same group of spiritual leaders God established in the church. For example Paul says in Titus 1:5 that: The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. Paul encourages Titus, a church leader, to appoint elders in the churches that he oversaw. The word appoint has the meaning of setting aside for a particular purpose. Therefore what is true for the Old Testament priests is also true for the pastors in the New Testament church, that only few people are appointed to serve in the pastoral ministries. I feel blessed to be called by to pastoral ministry. I came to know Christ in Soon after that I got to know about missionary works overseas. I had this faint idea in my mind that if one day God calls me to mission work I would be willing to follow His calling. Five years later in 1987 in a summer camp of the church I attended I committed my life to Christ and told Him that I would be willing to go into full-time church ministries. After that no one told me how to follow through that calling. Just like any young person did I finished school and found a job. Fast forward to I came to US to pursue another degree. Similar to what I did before I completed school and found a job, and in the process I got married. Though I came to US with the purpose of preparing myself to become a missionary with the advanced training I received I came to the realization that life might be quite settled with a stable job and marriage life. Interesting enough my wife also made a pledge to God to commit herself to full-time ministry when she was young. But she made it clear to God that she was willing to be anybody other than a pastor s wife because her impression of a pastor s wife is that she has to cook well to serve others, play piano in the church and participate in the children s ministries. All three are the weakest areas for her. After my wife and I moved to St. Louis in 1998 we thought that I would work my day job and serve in the church on the evenings and weekends. Though both she and I might have forgotten 2

3 our pledge to the Lord, God never did. God took me out from my work and put me in the seminary. In 2007 I began my pastoral ministries in this church. As I look back God has been leading my life every single step. When we understand that it is God who calls His servants to serve Him we need to respect these servants, whether they are pastors of a church, missionaries, youth workers or seminary teachers. These spiritual leaders would definitely have flaws in their personalities and the way they handles things. We pay respect to them because we submit to God who puts these servants in their roles. If we submit to our bosses in the work place out of reluctance because of the position they are in how much more we should submit to the Lord out of willingness because of God s will in the church? 2. God s Allowance 神的供應 (v. 8-20) For those people God appoints to serve Him He would also give them allowance for their daily needs. God told Aaron in Verses 9-10: 9 You are to have the part of the most holy offerings that is kept from the fire. From all the gifts they bring me as most holy offerings, whether grain or sin or guilt offerings, that part belongs to you and your sons. 10 Eat it as something most holy; every male shall eat it. You must regard it as holy. God told Aaron that all the offerings, whether grain or meat, dedicated to God but was not burned on the altar would be reserved for the priests. Of all the sacrificial offerings the Israelites presented only the burnt offering was completely consumed by fire on the altar. For the other offerings there would be left over for the priests and/or the person who brought the offering to enjoy. Let me give you some examples from the book of Leviticus giving going into detail the purpose for each offering. Sin offering in Leviticus 6: Say to Aaron and his sons: 'These are the regulations for the sin offering: The sin offering is to be slaughtered before the LORD in the place the burnt offering is slaughtered; it is most holy. 26 The priest who offers it shall eat it; it is to be eaten in a holy place, in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. Peace offering in Leviticus 7: He is to bring one of each kind as an offering, a contribution to the LORD; it belongs to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the fellowship offerings. 15 The meat of his fellowship offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day it is offered; he must leave none of it till morning. Just like most of us the priests also had their families to care for. Therefore, God also gave allowance for their family members. Verse 11 says: This also is yours: whatever is set aside from the gifts of all the wave offerings of the Israelites. I give this to you and your sons and daughters as your regular share. Everyone in your household who is ceremonially clean may eat it. The way it is translated in the Chinese Union Version seems to indicate that there were two kinds of offering the heave (meaning, lift up) and wave offering. In the sacrificial system they may be referring to the same offering. The act of lifting the offering up symbolizes presenting the gift to God with reverence. Wave offering could be meat as we just read, but it could also be grain. For example, Leviticus 23:20 says: The priest is to wave the two lambs before the LORD as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the LORD for the priest. In addition, Numbers 18:12-13 specify the agricultural produces that God prepared as allowance for the family members of the priests: I give you all the finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain they give the LORD as the firstfruits of their harvest. 13 All the land's firstfruits that they bring to the LORD will be yours. Everyone in your household who is 3

4 ceremonially clean may eat it. God reserved both the best portions and the first harvest for the priest families. When concluding this section God told Aaron in verse 20: The LORD said to Aaron, "You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites. This is both a reminder and an assurance. When the twelve tribes of Israel divided the land of Canaan God specified that the tribe of Levi would receive no land. The Levites would live among the divided land of other tribes. God assured Aaron and other Levites that He would be their share and their inheritance. In other words God was saying to Aaron: don t worry about your livelihood because I would be your provider. That reminds me of what David says in Psalm 16: LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. 6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. If you are confident that God is the source of your allowance how lacking can you be? Would that take away your anxiety about the future, whether it is job security or your retirement? The same principle of God providing allowance to His servants also applies to the pastors in the New Testament. Paul helps us relate the Old Testament to the New Testament churches when he says in 1 Corinthians 9: Don't you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? 14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. The Old Testament priests devoted their whole life in sacred ministries, and God provided for their allowance through the offering of God s people. In the same way the New Testament pastors should also receive their provision through the offering church members give to the Lord. In 1 Timothy 5:17-18 Paul also says 17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his wages." In verse 18 Paul quotes 2 passages, first from Deuteronomy then from Jesus to support the fact that it is an obligation for the church to provide for the allowance of those who preach and teach the Word of God. Rather to say that it is their wages as if a church pays the pastors in exchange for their services of preaching and teaching the Biblical concept is that a church supplies for the allowance of the pastors so that they do not have to worry about how to provide for themselves and their families. Otherwise, the pastors would have to work part-time jobs after they are done with the church ministries. The phrase double honor does not mean that a church needs to give the pastors double pay. After all, how to set the standard for the usual pay, then double it up? The word honor can mean price, but it can also mean respect for the position one holds. When God calls people to serve Him He would be faithful to provide for their allowance. I remember in the church my wife and I attended before the pastor has two daughters. The pastor had some worries when his older daughter applied for college because he had no idea how to provide for all the expenses. One day he received a package in the mail from one of the so called renowned schools her daughter applied for. He dared not to even open and look what was inside. When his daughter came home she asked if there was anything for her in the mail. The pastor mentioned about the package. To everyone s surprise the school gave her 4-year full scholarship with the condition that the pastor s annual salary had to be below certain amount. Church coworker jokingly said that we could not give our pastor too much raise in his salary. 4

5 How the Lord provided for the older daughter He did the same for the younger one. God would never mistreat those He calls to serve Him. God puts us in the same church to serve the Lord. God also gives us financial capability to serve Him with our monetary resource. I can understand that when it comes to money most of us Chinese may find the topic quite sensitive. But if we truly believe that your money is God s money entrusted to us temporarily for His purpose then we can freely allow God to bless others through our money. When a church s finance is getting tight what shall we do? Cutting back the expenses may be needed. At the same time each of us need to examine ourselves before the Lord if we are allowing God to make good use of the money He has entrusted to us. CONCLUSION Those who serve the Lord in a full-time ministry is not working in a secular profession. They are responding to God s calling to take up a sacred privilege. There is no fixed office hours, there is no promotion or bonus. Fame and fortune are not the incentives or pursuit. God is their boss. God promises to provide for the needs of His servants. He does so by reserving some of the offerings the people of God give to Him. Even though most believers may not be called to serve in the same positions as the full-time servants we have the opportunity to participate in the ministries through our giving. 5