We want the reader to turn with us, for a moment, to Num. 3 and 4., where he will find a most instructive and interesting picture of God’s workmen in the wilderness. It is a suggestive picture, and one well worthy of our deepest attention at a moment like the present in the which we are all so sadly prone to do that which is right in our own eyes.
“And the Lord spake into Moses, saying, Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister unto him. And they shall keep his charge, and the charge of the whole congregation, before the tabernacle of the congregation, to do the service of the tabernacle. And they shall keep all the instruments of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the charge of the children of Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle. And thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron and to his sons: they are wholly given unto him out of the children of Israel.” Chap. 3:5-9.
The Levites represented the whole congregation of Israel, and acted on their behalf. This appears from the fact that the children of Israel laid their hands on the heads of the Levites, just as the Levites laid their hands on the heads of the sacrifices. (See chap. 8:10.) The act of imposition expressed identification, so that, according to this, the Levites furnish a distinct view of the people of God in the wilderness. They present them to us as a company of earnest workers, and that too, be it noted, not as mere desultory laborers, running to and fro, and doing each one what seemed right in his own eyes. Nothing of the sort. If the men of war had their pedigree to show, and their standard to adhere to, so had the Levites their center to gather round, and their work to do. All was as clear, distinct, and defined as God could make it; and, moreover, all was under the immediate authority and direction of the high priest.
It is most needful for all who would be true Levites, proper workmen, intelligent servants, to weigh with all seriousness this point. Levite service was to be regulated by the appointment of the priest. There was no more room for the exercise of self will in the service of the Levites, than there was in the position of the men of war. All was divinely settled, and this was a signal mercy to all whose hearts were in a right condition. To one whose will was unbroken it might seem a hardship and a most irksome task to be obliged to occupy the same position, or to be engaged in precisely the same line of work. But, on the contrary, where the will was subdued, and the heart adjusted, each one would say, “I bless God I have not got to think; I have merely to do as I am bid.” This is ever the business of the true servant. It was preeminently so with Him who was the only perfect servant that ever trod this earth. He could say, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” And again: “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and finish his work.”
But there is another fact which claims our attention in reference to the Levites, and that is, their service had exclusively to do with the tabernacle and its belongings. They had nothing else to do. For a Levite to think of putting his hand to aught beside would have been to deny his calling, to abandon his divinely appointed work, and to fly in the face of God’s commandments.
Just so is it with Christians now. Their exclusive business—their one grand work, their absorbing service—is Christ and His belongings. They have nothing else to do. For a Christian to think of putting his hand to aught beside, is to deny his calling, to abandon his divinely appointed work, and fly in the face of divine commandments. A true Levite of old could say, “To me to live is the tabernacle;” and a true Christian, now, can say, “To me to live is Christ,” The grand question, in every matter which may present itself before the Christian, is this, “Can I connect Christ with it?” If not, I have nothing whatever to do with it.
This is the true way to look at things. It is not a question as to the right or wrong of this or that. No; it is simply a question as to how far it concerns the name and glory of Christ. This simplifies everything amazingly. It answers a thousand questions, solves a thousand difficulties, and makes the path of the true and earnest Christian as clear as a sunbeam. A Levite had no difficulty as to his work. It was all settled for him with divine precision. The burden that each had to carry, and the work that each had to do, was laid down with a clearness which left no room for the questionings of the heart. Each man could know his job and stick to it; and, let us add, the work was done by each one discharging his own specific functions. It was not by running hither and thither, and doing this or that; but by each man sedulously adhering to his own particular calling, that the service of the tabernacle was duly discharged.
It is well to bear this in mind. We, as Christians, are very apt to jostle one another; indeed we are sure to do so if we do not each one pursue his own divinely appointed line of work. We say, “divinely appointed,” and would press the word. We have not the right to choose our own work. If the Lord has made one man an evangelist, another a teacher, another a pastor, and another an exhorter, how is the work to go on? Surely it is not by the evangelist trying to teach, and the teacher to exhort, or the one who is not fitted for either, trying to do both. No; it is by each one exercising his own divinely imparted gift. No doubt it may please the Lord to endow one individual with a variety of gifts; but this does not, in the smallest degree, touch the principle on which we are dwelling, which is simply this: Every one of us is responsible to know his own special line and pursue it. If this be lost sight of we shall get into hopeless confusion. God has His quarrymen, His stone squarers, and His masons. The work progresses by each man attending diligently to his own work. If all were quarrymen, where were the stone squarers? if all were stone squarers, where were the masons? The greatest possible damage is done to the cause of Christ, and to God’s work in the world, by one man aiming at another’s line of things, or seeking to imitate another’s gift. It is a miserable mistake, against which we would solemnly warn the reader. Nothing can be more senseless. God never repeats Himself. There are no two faces alike; not two leaves in the forest alike; not two blades of grass alike. Why, then, should any one aim at another’s line of work, or affect to possess another’s gift? Let each one be satisfied to be just what his Master has made him. This is the secret of real peace and progress.
All this finds a very vivid illustration in the inspired record concerning the service of the three distinct classes of the Levites, which we shall now proceed to quote at length for the reader. There is nothing after all, to be compared with the veritable language of holy scripture.
(To be concluded in our next, if the Lord will.)