Guidance and Responsibility of the Tribe of Levi

Chapter 33, Moses is going through the nation of Israel, and he's addressing each of the tribes with a blessing. His time with them is about over. He knew who they were. He knew their abilities. He knew their skills. He knew their failures. And in the last sort of going away time, he's praying a prayer blessing for them. In the nation of Israel, he takes each of these tribes, and they each one have unique personalities and characters and natures. In this one, he's talking about the Levites, the descendants of Levi. He said, your Thummim and Irum belong to the man who favored, who you favored. You tested him at Massa. You contended with him at the waters of Meribah. He said of his father and mother, I have no regard for them. He did not recognize his brothers or acknowledge his own children, but he watched over your word and guarded your covenant. Here he's talking about Levi as a tribe that had been so faithful to God. And God's response to this was to say, I give you the Thummim and Irum. These are two objects, and we don't really know exactly what they were, but they carried them in a pouch. The chief priest did. He was part of the tribe of Levi. When they wanted to know, should they attack in battle, they would get them out and shake them and throw them on the ground, and the answer would come up, yes or no. We don't know exactly how it came up. We don't know if they had spots on them or there were different sides to them, but they got direction from them. They believed that God, given the opportunity for these things to be thrown on the ground, would make sure that the answer they needed would come up correctly. Now, this seems to us a rather odd way by which we should know the will of God, but it was a plan God had for them. His promise was, you do this, and I will show you an answer. The promise to us is not these objects that we roll. He's given far past that, but we are to ask the questions of God and direction of God, and by means of His Spirit, He helps us to know what He wants. He gives us the answer to the things we ask God about. So the difference is in terms of the process, but what God promises is, I will give you guidance. That was one of His covenant promises. In the covenant, He said to Abraham, you follow me, and I will guide you to the place I want you to go. And all the covenant promise with Abraham is to all Abraham's descendants. So for us, in the New Testament even, that's the same thing is true. I will guide your life. I will help you make the right choices when you yield yourself to me. So in this instance, he's talking to the Levites, the tribe of Levi, saying you have the responsibility to take care of these objects that provide the guidance for God. That's a very special place. If you lose them, or if they're damaged or destroyed, then the channel by which God speaks to the people here is gone. So you have a very important responsibility, he said. Now, you've gained this because you're a person that God has favored, and He's favored you because at Massa, whenever there was a rebellion against God, you stood tall for Him. And at Meribah, when there was a rebellion against God, and God said the people who have built this idol ought to die. You took your sword and you went out in the crowd, and you had no regard for mother or father or anyone in your family. If they had rebelled against God, you used a sword against them. You didn't recognize brothers. You didn't acknowledge your own children, but you watched carefully over the word God gave, and you did what God told you to do. And therefore, He's given you this responsibility to take care of these tools by which I speak to the people. That's the first thing. And then he said in verse 10, He's given you the responsibility to teach the precepts to Jacob. You're to teach the law to the people of Israel. That was the second responsibility they had. And the third one, he says, He offers incense before you, the whole burnt offering on your altar. Bless all his skills, O Lord. So he's also to lead the worship in the congregation. That is to direct their attention to God and help them understand the position of authority and power that God has. Here's why that's important. I was talking a little bit ago about times that you feel like you're hopeless and you've made mistakes, and you look like your life is coming to pieces, coming apart. And when you look at God and you say, I've given my life to Him, you have to have someone who has power and authority, who can come into your life and say, It's okay. I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to do what needs to be done. If you don't have this picture of God, then He's just another helpless person like you are. I mean, sometimes, you know, when you get in these times when you're overwhelmed with life and you feel you've made so many mistakes, it's impossible for God to help you. You see things in your life in front of you that you have no way to be able to solve them. And if you look around at the people around you, none of them can help you either. They can't do these things. But if you believe that God has power and He has authority, then you can say, Okay, this is going to be the difference maker for me. So here it is, the tribe of Levi has been given these responsibilities in God's kingdom. They are to make sure that the tools by which people are guided are given to them. Now, what are the tools that we get guidance from? The Bible, right? Right. So you'd have here the responsibility to be able to take the Bible and to help people learn it and get to know it. And what are ways that we could do that? You could be a teacher in Sunday school. You could be a preacher. You could invite people to come with you so they hear it. You could give people passages of Scripture that might be meaningful to them. Help them know by your own testimony about how terrible circumstances you faced in your own life, similar to theirs, and how God by His powers helped them and how they can have that power by learning to trust Him. See, those are the means by which all of us have opportunity to give the same things. The tools that a person needs to be able to find the will of God. That's what He gave to the tribe of Levi. Now, for us in the New Testament, He's given that to all of us because the Spirit of God resides inside of us. And He gives us the wisdom to be able to make choices, and He gives us experiences where we've made choices in obedience to God and we can say to people, I'll tell you, I've been in your spot. Here's what I did. And I'll tell you the truth. God delivered me from that situation. We have the opportunity to be able to give them that tool. How did you do it? Well, I said to God, I give you my life. I believe that you have authority and power to change my life and direct it and control it. And then when this situation came up, I knew right where to go. So you can have that. You just have to start by saying, God, I trust you. I believe you, who you are. From this moment on in my life, I'm going to find out about you and do the things you tell me to do. But here's my issue. And you bring it to God. We have the opportunity to take care of the tools, see, that allow people to know God's will and direction. And when we keep them to ourselves or we use them or lose them, we fail to keep this responsibility that was given to the people who had that job. All of us are priests because we are given that role by God by this presence in our lives. And the second thing he was to do, you're to teach the precepts of God and your law to Israel. There are people that want to know this. Teresa was talking about somebody she met, she knows, who just keeps asking her questions about the Bible and wants to know what the Bible says and how to be able to find God's answers for their lives. And people, when they know that you know something about God, they will ask you. And you need to be prepared for that, to tell them the truth. There's a lot of stuff out there about God and about following God that's not true. Sounds good, but it's not true. A lot of people say, well, God helps them help themselves. It's not in the Bible. And when you give people good little homey sayings that are not in the Bible, you haven't helped them very much. Because they try to do that, but they find out it fails. Don't give them false direction. Make sure the things you tell them are true. Point to it in the Bible. Make sure they know it's really God's message to us. So that was the second thing he gave to people, the responsibility to share the message of the Scriptures. All of us have that. And Teresa, it wasn't that this person said, okay, you have this much training in school to know about God. They just have questions, know you're a follower, and ask. And if you're an obvious follower of Christ, people will often ask you questions. You have a responsibility. That's why reading the Bible for yourself is important. That's why taking opportunity for Bible to be preached and taught is important. Because it places inside of you the very things that God wants to tell the people that you know. But they don't know how to find it. So they need you to learn for them. Sometimes people start in Sunday school, or they go to church, and the Scripture is there, and they read the Scripture, and it's not really important to them. So they just kind of ignore it. I'm not interested in that subject. Remember, you're not here just for yourself. You're here to store in your mind the things that God wants you to know so you can tell them to the people that might ask you the questions. They're not going to come and ask me. They're going to ask you. So the challenge was to say, this is your responsibility, Levi. You must be prepared to tell and teach the law to the nation of Israel. And then the final thing, he says, you must offer incense before the whole burnt offerings on the altar. They were not given the ability to offer the incense. They could bring them, and they could bring the sacrifices, but it was the Levites who did the job of cutting the animals up and offering them as a sacrifice. You can lead them to worship. Lead them to worship by describing what happened. Whenever they brought a sacrifice and you'd send, you had to go to a priest, Levi, one of the Levites, and you had to tell them what your sin was. And then you gave them the animal, and they would sacrifice it so that they were sort of the go-between between the person who was there feeling oppressed by their sin and the failure that they had in their life and God. Sort of the go-between. Now when Peter talks about this in the New Testament, he says to followers of Christ, you are a royal priesthood. He didn't say it was the preachers. He said it was all of you, your priests. People want to know God, and God wants to be known by them. And you are the bridge for that. You're the bridge. And worship doesn't mean singing and going to a church service necessarily. It means recognizing the supreme authority of God, which you should do in church, which songs should express. It's bigger than that. So what you want is people around you to recognize, I can't get through life without God helping me. And here is the way I can get his help. And they'll come to you trying to say, how can I find this God that you have? Now I want to give you just a little bit of direction about this lady. See, I want to find out about the Bible. So you say, I want to have Bible study. Well, I'm busy that night. People don't know that the thoughts in their mind have an origin. You know why a person wants to know the Bible? Because God has come saying, you know, you really need to know more about me. That thought's in their head. And then someone comes and says, I'd be glad to do that. Could we meet on Tuesday night? The devil says, you know, that's the night you watch your favorite TV show. They miss that show. They're torn. They don't know that God is speaking to them on one side. And they don't understand that the devil is talking to them on the other. So they sit there and battle with this without any awareness. But you are priests. You have a responsibility to help them know why they want to do this and why they don't want to do it. So they can make a choice not based on their will, but based on what they know is the right thing for them to do. The world out there does not know God like you do. They don't understand the devil like you understand him. They're just walking along, pushed one way and pushed another and pushed another, and never understanding why they just can't get anywhere. But you're priests. You know the truth about God. And so you've been given this responsibility to be able to do it. Now, in the New Testament when the Bible talks about this, it talks about all these different roles that people have in the kingdom of God. And all of these are part of the, he says, the church is one body but many parts. You're the body of Christ and each of you is a part of it. And the church, God appointed first apostles, second prophets. Prophets simply means a person that proclaims or tells the Word of God. And when you tell what's true about God, you're talking about, like if somebody comes to you and says, you know, I've been doing some kind of sin that you have that's in their life. And you realize that this is a very dangerous thing. They could kill themselves with it or they could ruin their marriage with it. And you can tell that that's true. And when you say to them, if you keep this up, your marriage is going to be ruined. You're a prophet. Because you're telling them how God is going to react to them in the future and what Satan is going to do to them. You're telling them spiritual truths. You're telling this not because you know the future, but because you know what Satan does if people don't have Christ in their lives. So you can tell the future. You know, we all can tell the future in that way. Because if you know what a person says under certain circumstances, what makes them mad or happy, you can say, I could say, well if I came home and feel something all over the floor, my wife's going to be mad. You're telling the future. And it's not because I know the future. It's because I know my wife. And you know God. And you can tell people what's going to happen if you do certain things with God. You can tell them what's going to happen if you don't do certain things. So you're a prophet in that sense. And God has given us this gift to be able to know Him well enough to tell others what He's going to do. There are third teachers and then workers of miracles, those who have gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, those in speaking in different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles or prophets or teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have the gift of healing or speaking in tongues? Do all interpret? Eagerly desire the greater gifts. And I'll show you the most excellent way. It's love. That's the love chapter it starts in. Caring, living your life in self-denying service to the people around you. And that's what God's gift is. It's what His power is. Now, this is a responsibility given to Levi's priest and a responsibility given to you. So this next part is important to you. In verse 11 he says, Moses' prayer, Bless all his skills, O Lord, and he be pleased with the work of his hands. Moses' prayer was that the Levites would have God's blessing on their life. Now, Moses is praying this prayer because it is what God wants. So that helps you. Notice what he said? Bless all of his skills. You know one of the biggest reasons people don't do things for God is they say, Well, I can't. I'm not capable. I'm not able. You know, I tell you, in the Old Testament, at the time when Balaam was coming to prophesy against Israel, he came to these two rocks and God put a donkey right in the middle of it. And the donkey told Balaam, who was a prophet, the message of God. And when Moses was asked to go and speak, he said, I'm not a speaker. I can't do this. You remember what God said to him? Who made your mouth? Who made your tongue? Are you telling me that I who made your mouth can't make it work right? Are you telling me that the one who made your tongue can't make your tongue say the right things? Even if you're an idiot, I can do that. Look at what happened to Balaam's donkey. He spoke in the language Balaam could understand. All I need is any kind of donkey. That's all I need from you. And if you're doing this and you're willing, I can make the right things come out. That's why Moses prayed for them. Give them the skill that they need because they don't have it on their own. So when a person says, you know, I would teach or I would, I think God wants me to, but I just don't think I have the skill to do it. You're saying, I'm going to do this on my own. What God asked us to do is to say, I know God wants me to do this. I don't think I'm qualified, but I'm going to give it everything I've got. And if you do and you're prayerful and dependent on him, you'll be able to do it. God will give you that skill. That's what Moses prayed about. You've got all these gifts. You've got all these responsibilities. Now, bless all of his skills, O Lord, and he be pleased with the work of his hands so that when it's over, you could say, God really did this for me. Second thing he says, smite the loins of those who rise up against him and strike his foes till they rise no more. Okay, you start doing the work of God and you get opposition. Don't worry about that. This is God's responsibility. People may not like what you do. They may criticize the way you do it. They may talk about everything in the world about why you're not successful at what you're doing for God, but don't pay any attention to them. If you know God wants you to speak to someone, then you do it. Someone might hear you and say, Boy, that wasn't right. But that's not their business. What God has the capacity to do is to take what you said, even if it's not right, and just help the person that's listening to you to only hear the parts that are right. He does that. Sometimes I have people after service come up and say, I really liked what you said about this. And I think, I don't remember saying that. But I don't say I didn't say that to them. I just say, God, you used whatever it was to bring that thought to their mind, and that was important. And if I didn't realize I was supposed to say it, you said it for me, and I just thank you for it. God has that capacity. Every preacher will tell you they have the same experience. You finish with your sermon, you finish with what you're doing, and someone out there gets something that you don't even realize you said. And you know you didn't say it, but they got it. God somehow or other works in the minds of people to make sure that even the things we don't do right sound right to the person who's over there. Have you ever said anything to someone and they misunderstood you? Well, you can say something that you're wanting to say, and God can make sure their misunderstanding is exactly what he wanted to say to them. He just has that ability. So, the prayer of Moses was to say, you've given these people their job, now I want you to give them the skill to do it, and now I want to make sure that even though they don't have the skill to do it, you make sure it works. Now, who could fail under that set of circumstances? Okay. Maybe you've been thinking, maybe I should help with preschool. But you've got a list of reasons why you can't. Maybe you're thinking, I should help in a Sunday school class. You've got a long list of reasons why you can't do that. You think, well, maybe I'm a next-door neighbor. Maybe I should go over and make friends with them, talk to them. But, you know, I've got a lot of reasons. Remember what I said. You never think of doing the work of God because Satan prompts you. That's God talking to you. So, if he puts somebody on your mind to pray for, pray for them. It's God saying, this is your job. Do it. He will give you the skill, and he'll make sure the words are right. He'll empower that. God never asks us to do anything that he doesn't intend it to be successful. Now, it may not be successful in your eyes, but you don't know what's going on. When you're finished, you say, okay, I did what God wanted me to do. What I thought he wanted to do is the best I know how. It doesn't look like it's worked anywhere. But I did it. And you have to say, I trust God that you made the words the words you wanted them to hear. Even though I may not have spoken them. Moses' prayer is a prayer that comes for all of us. These people are yours, God. They're going out on the job you've assigned them. Give them the skill they need to do it. And make sure that nothing stands in the way of what they're doing succeeding. And when God does that, it works. Every time. What is it that's come to your mind that you thought you ought to do? For God. In his name. Someone you should speak to. Someone you should befriend. Someone you should talk to. Some job you've heard talk about in church you thought, well, I could do that. And then you've thought of all these reasons why you couldn't. Remember. This prayer of Moses. It's God telling us what he wants from us. And how he's going to make it succeed if we do it. Pray with me, please. I know what it's like, God, to have somebody's name come to my mind and think, I should call them, go by, see them, write them. And then immediately I think of all the reasons why I shouldn't do that. I know what that's like. I wish I could say that every time I've done the right thing. But sometimes those objections seem so strong because they just fit my weaknesses. That I don't do it. I apologize for that. I hope that from these things that I've talked about here tonight, that it will change the way I do that. Now, for each person here tonight, Father, I know that they live the same way. Help them every time something good, righteous, holy, proper, and right comes to their mind for them to do or say. That they will recognize that you're at work. And when they doubt their skill or their abilities, remind them of who you are. That we might do what you want. And be able to see the mighty power you have to give a skill and to make sure a skill is effective. In the name of Christ we ask it. Amen.