the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Numbers 4:34-49
The first numbering of the Levites in ch. 3 comprised all the males from the age of one month. This second census only takes account of men from thirty to fifty years of age. The Lord expects us to reserve the best years of our lives for Him. It is no longer a question of our physical age, but with spiritual maturity, the fruit of experience acquired little by little. To a young person who has been faithful in "that which is least", the Lord, when the time comes, will be able to entrust "much" (Luke 16:10).
8,580 Levites are thus recognised as of age to serve. As to the size and weight of the tabernacle, no one was to be overloaded; they could relieve one another. Why then is the Lord obliged sadly to state that, for His great harvest, "the labourers are few"? (Matthew 9:37). Alas! because many "put not their necks to the work of the LORD" (Nehemiah 3:5). What a humiliating expression and one which ought to speak to every one of us!
The numbering of the Levites is undertaken "every one according to his service, and according to his burden" (v. 49). The words charge and burden (vv. 28, 49) remind us that he who serves the Lord and His people cannot do so without feeling the weight of spiritual responsibility, or without having a burdened heart. (2 Corinthians 11:28).
