Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20120122.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part XXV: Trusting God To Provide So We Might Fulfill His Calling
(Numbers 18:1-32)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    In today's "Great Recession" era, if performing God's calling humanly seems to put our finances and/or relationships at greater risk, we might ask how we can be motivated to fulfill God's calling!

    (1) Arturo Rodriguez's letter to the editor of the Waterbury Republican-American (January 16, 2012, p. 4A), claimed: "Most courses in our institutions of higher education are taught within the framework of political correctness. Instructors, fearful that deviating slightly from that mind set may cost them their jobs or prevent them from getting a job, are willing participants, thus, exponentially creating thousands of little Marxists every year (and they also vote)."

    In today's lean job market, pressure to tout what is politically correct to protect one's job afflicts even many believers!

    (2) On page 2A of that paper, a report tells of "(a) recent study" asserting "that working mothers are healthier and happier than non-working mothers." A Christian woman might see this and be lured to get a job to protect her health and "be happier" though she knows that Titus 2:5 NIV calls her "to be busy at home."

    (3) A Christian businessman in our Church last year reported how a fellow Christian family man approached him, wondering if he could be hired by him since he needed enough income to support a growing family.

    In this recession, what has been termed the "greatest recession since the Great Depression," the temptation for this businessman was to answer, "I'm sorry, but it's too risky to take on another employee with the limitations of work available in this recession and the cost of adding another employee due to current government regulations."

    After all, that's what corporations often do. The January 20, 2012 issue of The Wall Street Journal, p. A12 ran the editorial, "The MetLife Lesson" that reported when MetLife could not find a buyer for its troubled mortgage unit, it laid off 4,300 employees, and its stock rose! The article claimed even blue chip companies like MetLife find the "risk of overregulation and litigation . . . so high that companies would rather abandon a business than take a risk of growing it." (Ibid.)

    Thus, MetLife chose to boost its stock value over lovingly keeping 4,300 people at work, a lure even Christian businessmen face.

    We then ask, "If God calls me to do His will in an area of risk to my livelihood and relationships, how can I succeed there?!"

    Need: "God's will in a realm seems so hard on relationships and my livelihood, I wonder how I can fulfill it! What would He suggest?!"

  1. After God slew Korah's group for trying to usurp Aaron's role as priest (Numbers 16-17), He called Aaron, his sons and his tribe of Levi to be liable for offenses against the sanctuary, and Aaron and his sons liable for offenses against the priesthood, Num . 18:1 NIV.
  2. In the context, this divine calling would have humanly seemed to put Aaron's relationships and livelihood at great risk of failure:
    1. God's calling humanly put Aaron at risk of relationship alienation:
      1. Levite Korah (Exodus 6:16-21) had tried to usurp Aaron's role as priest (Numbers 16:10), so God's judging Korah's group and making Aaron's rod alone bear almonds to teach that Aaron was priest (Numbers 17:1-9) left the people afraid God would kill them if they even came near the tabernacle, Numbers 17:12-13 NIV.
      2. Thus, God's Numbers 18:1 call for Aaron to guard the priesthood from future trespasses by others would humanly alienate him from the Levites and the others who also wanted to avoid the tabernacle!
    2. God's calling thus humanly put Aaron at risk of livelihood failure:
      1. If Aaron and his sons were to guard the priesthood and sanctuary, they had to stay at the tabernacle on this duty as a way of life.
      2. Yet, that would make them unable to work in the fields for a living.
      3. With the added threat of alienation from the Levites and people, the priests were at risk of not being materially supported by others, leaving them at great human risk of livelihood failure!
  3. However, God HIMSELF UNITED Aaron and his sons with ALL ISRAEL, and SUPPLIED INCOME so they could DO HIS WILL:
    1. God Himself offset the threat of the priests' alienation from others:
      1. The verb "joined" KJV ["join" NIV] in Numbers 18:2 (yillavu) forms a wordplay with "Levi" (levi), recalling Leah's naming Levi in hope that is birth would "attach, join" ( yillaveh) her to Jacob, her emotionally estranged husband, Genesis 29:34 (KJV, NIV); Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 43, 223; bible.org/netbible/num18.htm.
      2. Thus, God in His foreknowledge 500 years before had arranged for the naming of Levi (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, timeline chart, p. 2021-2023) in anticipation of His work to "join" the Levites to Aaron and his sons regardless of Korah's rebellion and ensuing judgment that would humanly tend to cause them to be estranged.
      3. God Himself then "joined" the Levites to the priests to help the priests so they in turn could fulfill their priestly duties, Num. 18:2.
      4. The Lord also decreed that the Levites protect the tabernacle from non-Levite intruders, but that only the priests might come near the holy furnishings, Num. 18:3-7. The Levites were God's "gift" (v. 6) to the priests to perform works of assistance for them!
    2. God arranged to offset the threat of the priest's livelihood failure:
      1. The Lord decreed that the worship offerings the people gave to Him were in part to be given to the priests as food, Num. 18:8-19.
      2. Instead of leaving the tabernacle to work in the fields, the priests were to stay at the tabernacle, performing God's calling there, trusting God to supply and cause the people to worship Him in response for His provision to them so that they would in turn give to the priests' needs, Num. 18:20a. In this way, God Himself was the material inheritance of the priests, Numbers 18:20b.
      3. Then, the Levites were to live off of the tithes the people brought to the tabernacle so the Levites in turn could keep helping the priests in their service to God, Num. 18:21-23a. The Levites were thus also to view the Lord as their inheritance, Numbers 18:23b-24.
    3. By instituting a second tithe, God united all Israel, people, Levites and priests, under His livelihood provision, Numbers 18:25-32:
      1. The Levites, the tribe of Levi, were to take of the tithe the people of the other tribes gave them, and of it sacrifice a tenth in worship to the Lord for His blessing to them, which offerings became a tithe to the priests for further meeting their needs, Num . 18:25-32.
      2. In this way, (a) God would supply Israel's livelihood, and (b) her tithe in worship to God of that livelihood would go to the Levites for their livelihood, and (c) the Levites in turn would give a tenth of that tithe in worship to the Lord for the priests' livelihood needs. The supply of all Israel's livelihood would thus begin with God, and by repeat tithes in worship of Him, Israel, the Levites and the priests would all be joined as a unit in material reliance upon God!
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ to become a child of God, John 1:11-12. (2) If God calls us to do what humanly seems to put our relationships and livelihood at great risk, may we (a) trust God to meet those needs, (b) and simply go ahead and do His will!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 Over three decades of pastoral ministry, I have noticed an unfailing pattern exists in God's dealing with His people: He rewards them when they step out in faith and obedience to do His will even if doing so seems initially at the human level to put them at a significant risk of failure. One such event occurred this last year (as follows):

You will recall in our sermon introduction that I reported how a businessman in our Church reported last year that a fellow Christian man with a family had come to him asking to be hired by his company so he could earn enough to support his growing family.

The businessman in our Church could have replied, "I'm very sorry, but in today's recessionary market, I don't think I can afford to take on another employee given the high government regulatory costs of hiring another employee, and the risk of limited work available."

However, contrary to what many large corporations do, in an act of faith in the Lord that God would provide enough business even in the current "Great Recession," and in love for this other believer, the businessman went ahead and hired this needy brother in Christ.

At year's end, this businessman's bookkeeper reported she was flooded with paperwork since the number of customers the business had for that year had tripled over the number in the previous 2010!

Much of the business was likely in the form of smaller jobs per customer than in the previous year, too, so that made the spike in customers all the more a signal of the Lord's involvement: arranging for new contracts three times the normal, God signaled His approval and protection of livelihood needs for the businessman as well as for his employees because this man Biblically trusted the Lord to hire in love the extra, needy family man and brother in Christ!



So, if God has called us to a certain function in our lives, He will meet the relational and livelihood needs so that we can fulfill that calling. May we then simply focus on doing the will of God, and let Him underwrite our relationship and livelihood needs!