Word of Salvation – February 2010

 

Numbers 3 – THE WORSHIP OF THE REDEEMED – by John Westendorp

(Sermon 3 in a series on Numbers)

Scripture Reading: Numbers 3:1-10 & 40-51

Singing: Book of Worship 143 / 392 / 435 & Rejoicing 124

 

Introd: I want to begin with a question that some of us probably won’t appreciate.

The question is: How important is worship to you?
What sacrifices will you make – if need be – to make sure that worship happens?

 

I ask that because it troubles me as a pastor to see so much irregularity in our worship.
I had been in a certain church for some six weeks when I spotted a family I didn’t recognise.
I asked them if they were visitors. They said, “No, we’re members we come here all the time.”
Later I discovered that this was their pattern: church every five or six weeks.

 

I once helped interview a prospective teacher for the local Christian school.
On her application form this teacher had written that she attended church regularly.
I said to her, “How regular is ‘regularly’ for you? She said, “Oh, about once a month.”
Do the sums and that’s no more than 20 hours of worship a year.
Twenty hours out of some 8760 hours that God gives us every year.
That’s a miniscule ¼ of a percent of one’s time spent in corporate worship of God.

 

Increasingly our Sundays are days for ourselves… and worship eats into our recreation time.
I spoke to a man from Sydney some weeks ago who was about to go to a meeting.
The meeting was a church planning meeting.
And one of the items on their agenda was Wednesday Night Church.
They were considering moving worship from Sunday to Wednesday nights.
That way worship wouldn’t interfere so much with people’s day off on Sundays.

 

Worship is increasingly seen as a take it or leave it affair. We’ll do it if we have the time.

This morning Numbers 3 has a dramatically different picture for us.
It’s a chapter that centres on the tabernacle and those who served at the Tabernacle.
In other words it’s about the worship of God by Israel in the wilderness.

 

A] THE REDEEMED WHO WORSHIP.

 

1. The principle of Representation

 

To understand this chapter we need to grasp what it teaches about the firstborn sons of Israel.
Israel’s firstborn were very special. They had certain extra privileges.
Privileges that today it would be rather unwise to implement in your family.
For example, they received a double portion of the inheritance when the parents died.

 

But the firstborn were not only special to Israel they were special to God.
And we see in this chapter how the first-born had a special place in God’s economy.

 

To understand the reason for that we need to think of another important Biblical concept.
It’s what the Bible calls the first-fruits.
The first-fruits of every kind were dedicated to God.
The first crops… the first grain from the harvest… the first calf from a cow.
These so-called first-fruits were dedicated to God as a kind of testimony.
A witness to the fact that everything… absolutely everything belongs to the Lord.

But God didn’t expect Israel to give all their produce and all their animals to Him.
Instead, as a recognition that it was all His they gave the first-fruits.
The first apples of the crop… the first lambs from the sheep.
In this way Israel’s firstborn sons were dedicated to God to say: we are all God’s people.

 

But these firstborn sons were also important historically.
Do you recall what the last of ten plagues in Egypt was…?
It was the death of all the firstborn sons of the Egyptians… and the firstborn of the cattle.
God was saying: All you Egyptians… you all deserve to die.
And I will show you that symbolically by taking away all your firstborn.

 

In contrast Israel’s firstborn lived.
They were protected from death by the blood of the Passover Lamb.
And so from here on all the firstborn Israelites were to be consecrated to the Lord.
It was God’s way of saying: Israel is a people that is wholly dedicated to my service.
Israel is a people whom I have rescued and set apart to worship me.

 

What we have here is the principle of representation.
Israel is a holy people totally dedicated to the service and worship of their God.
These people were like no other nation on earth. Saved by God to be His special people.
And the dedication of the firstborn represented God’s claim on the lives of every Israelite.

 

But this principle of representation is applied a little further in Numbers 3.
The focus in this chapter is on the Levites.
The people descended from Jacob’s son, Levi, had a special place in Israel.
This chapter shows how they were called to a special task.
They were to attend to the worship of God on behalf of the nation.
What all Israel was called to do… was actually done for them by the Levites.

 

So the Levites now represent all Israel.
And we see in Numbers 3 how one Levite is set apart for God in place of every firstborn.
I’m not sure why the Lord did things this way.
Maybe it was easier to organise and regulate.
It would have been rather messy for all the firstborn themselves to do tabernacle work.
So God sets apart a special tribe for that purpose – in place of the firstborn.

So the principle of representation has moved along a notch.
The dedication of the firstborn is a statement that all Israel belongs to the Lord totally.
These firstborn represent the nation in their dedication to the Lord their God.
But that is now effectively carried out for them by the priestly tribe of Levi.

 

In a beautiful way this principle of representation is fulfilled in Jesus.
He the Firstborn Son of God now full represents us and fulfils all obedience on our behalf.
He is our priestly representative who shows that we fully belong to the Lord our God.

 

2. The principle of Redemption

 

But there is another way of looking at all this. There is a second important principle.

The idea of the firstborn totally dedicated to God is unpractical in some respects.
There is a sense in which devotion to God was even something extreme.
As I read it, what was totally devoted to God really deserved to be burnt as a burnt offering.
It was consumed in the flames and in that way was fully offered to God.
Of course that was exactly what the Lord didn’t want.
Human sacrifice was something that Scripture speaks of as an abomination.
So God allowed for a process of what it calls redemption.

 

Maybe there was another practical reason behind that as well.
Imagine a family where the firstborn was an only son.
In their society, children were a security for old age… they cared for their parents.
Wonderful for such parents to be able to redeem that firstborn who was totally devoted to God.

 

So we have this second principle that is introduced in Numbers 3: that of redemption.
The idea is that of ‘buying back’.
Just think for example of a hock-shop – like Cash Converters.
You pawn in your DVD player for $100 so you can pay some bills.
Two months later you come back and pay them $100 plus $10 for them looking after it.
At that point you are redeeming your DVD player… you are buying it back.

 

Here redemption happens in two ways.
Israel – as it were – pays for its firstborn. The price is one Levite for every firstborn.
A Levite is the redemption price. It is redemption by substitution.

 

A special priestly tribe is appointed by God so that the firstborn can be redeemed.
Every firstborn son in Israel is now redeemed by such a priestly person.
And that happens – not just on a near-enough-is-good-enough basis.
No… it happens on an individual, one-for-one basis.

Even to the point where the imbalance is taken care of.
There are several hundred more firstborn than there are Levites.
And so the surplus firstborn are bought for money – at the rate of a shekel each.
The point is that no one misses out. God redeems all those who are His.

 

All of this sets the scene for what this chapter says about worship.
It is the Redeemed who worship.
It is the people of Israel – set apart for God – who are the worshipping community.
They worship especially through the firstborn devoted to God.
More than that – through the Levites who take the place of the firstborn.

So for Israel worship flows from a context where the whole nation is devoted to God.
It flows out of the delight of these people that they have been redeemed.
What a wonderful thing: I am redeemed. Someone has paid for me.

 

Here too Numbers 3 foreshadows the work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the Priestly Redeemer who pays the price for our redemption.
And the price is not a shekel of silver… the price is His own lifeblood.
And today we know the joy and delight of the Redeemed.
Someone has paid the price for me.
My redemption substitute is He who is totally devoted to the service of God.
And our worship flows out of that joy of our redemption.
It is we… the Redeemed… who worship God.

 

B] THE WORSHIP OF THE REDEEMED.

 

1. The principle of total dedication

 

I want to highlight that this worship was not just the responsibility of the Levites.
True… the Levites were committed with the care of the Tabernacle.
They guarded it… they camped around – between the tabernacle and the people.
They packed it away when they moved… they put it up when they camped.
They were responsible for went on in the tabernacle. The sacrifices… the worship.

 

But the point is that they did that for the whole nation and on their behalf.
In Vs.8 God speaks to Moses about the obligations involved in worship.
And what does he say in Vs.8? He speaks not just of the obligation of the Levites.
He speaks of the obligation of all the people… that whole nation that God had redeemed.
He says: They are to fulfil the obligation of the Israelites by doing the work of the tabernacle.

 

Do you see what is happening in Numbers 3.
The whole nation has an obligation to attend to the worship of God.
Remember: this whole nation belongs to the Lord. It owes God everything.
God saved them out of Egypt.
God redeemed the first-born who were symbolic of the nation belonging to Him.

And that whole redeemed community is now obligated to worship.
The Levites are simply the ones through whom it happens.
If you like: they are the worship leaders… the facilitators of worship.

 

That’s why we have these strong links in Numbers 3.
There is a strong link between redemption and the tabernacle
And between the firstborn and the Levites.
So this priestly tribe is simply the means through which all of Israel will worship God.
The worship of the redeemed happens through these special people God has chosen.

 

I guess that every Israelite attending to the Tabernacle was neither practical nor necessary.
For starters: it’s not practical. Let me use a modern equivalent to illustrate.
Not every Christian is called to be a pastor or preacher.
Can you imagine what would happen if we even tried to do church that way.
Who’s going to support all those pastors? Who would they all minister to?

In the same way it would be absurd for every Israelite to work at the tabernacle.
That would have made Israel a nation without any commerce or industry.
Israel couldn’t exist as a nation if everyone worked at the tabernacle.

Nor was it necessary. There was a limited amount of work involved in tabernacle duty.
And even later when Levites served as teachers and pastoral carers…
it was work that could be done by just one tribe out of the twelve.
So the Levites did it.

 

In this chapter God calls them to various tasks.
Some are called to leadership. Aaron and his sons serve as priests.
Other Levites have more menial tasks… they carry the tent pegs when the people travel.
But they are all called and appointed by God to be fully dedicated to the work of worship.
But… not just for themselves… rather to facilitate the worship of the whole nation.

 

Again there is in that a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus lived a life that was totally dedicated to the service and worship of God.
And He lived for us the life of perfect obedience and service that we all owe God.
And He now facilitates our worship… we worship God through Him.

 

2. The Regulative principle

 

There is one other principle that comes out loud and clear in Numbers 3.
And that is that the details of worship are according to God’s agenda and not ours.
We live in a culture where we have almost lost sight of that principle.
It seems that in worship anything goes.
I once saw on a Christian television channel a church service that involved clowns.
A colleague told me of a worship service where a rapper did some rap music.
In the States I once watched a ballet dance routine as part of morning worship.

 

Does it really matter what we decide to do in worship service?
If people enjoy it, why not? If it can be fitted in and made relevant, what should stop us?
Won’t it even help us to attract unbelievers into our worship services?

 

Well let me make two points from Numbers 3.

First the stress here is on what God wants.
There is a refrain that occurs five times in Numbers 3: The Lord said to Moses…
That refrain occurs 42 times in the book of Numbers.
The directions for worship in Numbers 3 come because God spoke to Moses!

 

And when we look at what God actually tells Moses it is about the details of worship.
The regulations are given down to the smallest details.
It begins here in Numbers 3.
God tells them where they are to camp around the tabernacle.
He ranks them in order of importance and assigns a place to each.
God also spells out exactly which priestly family will do what.
Each is made responsible for some aspect of the work of the Tabernacle.

 

We get even more detailed instruction in the next chapter.
Nothing is left to chance. God is a God of order.
It’s a case of a place for everyone and everyone in their place.
It wasn’t for Moses and Aaron to work out who did what.
God decided… and He spells it out in detail.

 

Secondly, the seriousness of departing from God’s instruction is clearly pointed out.
There is defection from God’s instructions by Nadab and Abihu.
Nadab and Abihu thought it might be nice to do things a little differently.
Or maybe they remembered something they had seen in a pagan temple in Egypt.
But God struck them dead for their trouble.
You can read the story in Leviticus 10.

 

We find the same thing happening years later under king Jeroboam.
He made some golden calves to represent Israel’s God Yahweh.
And he appointed his own priests from other tribes and set up his own worship.
God’s response was not that this was a rather neat innovation.
Or that this might be a good idea to draw in non-Israelites.
No! God’s response was to wipe out the family of Jeroboam.

 

We call this the regulative principle.
God wants to be worshipped in no other way than He has commanded.
We worship a holy God. A God who has left precise instructions for worship of Him.
And here in the OT worship leaders who ignored those instructions did so at the cost of their life.

There are some jobs where the way we do things it isn’t going to make all that much difference.
For a gardener in the park his work is not exactly a matter of life and death.
A shop assistant who breaks the rules is not going to cause someone’s death.
But it’s a different matter if you’re an airline pilot… or a surgeon.
In those cases you meticulously follow the right procedures.

For those involved in facilitating the worship of God’s people Israel it was a ‘do or die’ job.
And Nadab and Abihu died because they didn’t do as God instructed.
Today the church needs to heed the lesson.
We need to be cautious about the way we conduct our worship.
God is a holy God… and it is He who decides how He is to be worshipped.

 

In Numbers 3 there is nothing casual about Israel’s worship and nothing optional.
It is an obligation laid on all the people and is to be taken with utmost seriousness.
They brought that worship through God’s appointed worship facilitators: the Levites,
We come to worship through a far more wonderful facilitator: our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who has made us a kingdom of priests to our God.
Let’s then learn to be diligent in worship… we are the redeemed… set apart for worship. Amen