1462 - “The Law of the Levite…You may serve as a guardian” Numbers 8:1-26; esp vv 23-26

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is Podcast 1462. We're making our way through the scriptures studying the story of the Crimson River, the story of redemption. Part of that story runs through the wilderness. That is the wilderness of God's choosing and the wilderness of the people of Israel's choosing. One was a legitimate wilderness, the other a wilderness of their choosing. One was a place of provision, of blessing, of guidance. The other was of rebellion, of wandering, aimless, and seemingly hopeless. And I'll talk more about that again in the days ahead. But what I want to do today is for us to look at purpose in life. You see, God doesn't redeem us to just sit around. God redeems us to serve. And whatever that ability of service is, God holds us accountable to live it to the utmost. It doesn't matter whether you are in a place where you will hardly see anyone, or whether you're in a metropolitan area where you are rubbing shoulders with people every day, whether you're in a classroom or whether you're in a boardroom, whether you're in the C suite or no suite. The reality is God doesn't give us all the same thing to do, but he expects us to whatever it is that He's given us to do, that we do it to the fullest and the best of our ability filled with the Holy Spirit of God. This is so critical I cannot even tell you. I find so many people that are living their lives without purpose. God made us on purpose, with purpose, and for a purpose. And the most miserable and depressed people I know are those who have lost their purpose, or they've never found their purpose in life. You see, the reason God saves us is so that not only He can deliver us from the sin that so easily besets us, but also the selfishness that is in our own hearts, to want to do our own thing, to not make a difference. God put us on this earth to make a difference. And there is not a season in life when that purpose is not to be lived to the fullest. We have a phenomenon that came about decades ago in the last century that was built around the concept that we work so many years and then we retire to do what we want to do. Well, I'm not against retirement, but retirement should be transitioning from one season of service to another season of service where you and I have the ability, perhaps in a different season, a later season in our life, to be more fruitful when if God has so blessed us, we have the ability to do things in a different sphere than we once did, maybe on a different schedule. But those who begin to live their lives and saying, I don't have to do anything anymore, I don't have to get up at a certain time anymore, I'm not answerable to anybody anymore. Listen to me. That is a place of great vulnerability. I have known people in my 50 years of ministry that have lived for retirement only to stop and then drop. That's right, that only live a short time after they get out of the harness and they put the battle gear off and they set their armor aside. That is when you're most vulnerable. And so I want to say to you that it is a biblical principle that God has given us purpose for the rest of our lives. And I want to give you just a short introduction to a passage I want you to study. As many of you know, I am writing as general editor for a study Bible with a major publishing house that is scheduled to be out in the fall of 2028 in the fall of 2028. And as I have gone through these passages of Scripture, God is opening vistas that I have never seen before. And it is because that knowledge is cumulative. After fifty years I realize that I am just now scratching the surface of the multifaceted diamond of Scripture, that no matter what time in life you are, God will show you something new and exciting because his ways are not our ways. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are his ways above ours. And as I was working through recently the book of Numbers, I came to the passage in the book of Numbers where God was getting the priest ready and the Levites ready. And I studied their ages and when they could start and when they could stop and the reasons for that biblically. Understanding something of the mind of God, something, just scratching the surface of why God set parameters. You couldn't start before this age, and you had to stop after this age. But there is one group that is particular and different than all the others, and that's the Levites. They could start at age twenty five, and they could begin their work at age twenty five. Now the priests couldn't start until thirty and needed to only work for twenty years, but the Levites, who were the servants of the priest, who did more of the menial tasks that had to be done every day in the tabernacle except Shabbat, and every hour of the day something was to be done. And in the eighth chapter of the book of Numbers, when the dedication of the Levites took place, and the ceremonial rituals were over, the Lord instructed Moses in verse twenty three and says this is the rule the Levites must follow. They must begin serving in the tabernacle at age twenty five. Now let me just parenthetically say that David could not even lower that age lower than twenty because that's the age of male adulthood when a man becomes not an adolescent, but he becomes a man. And I dealt with this yesterday in the podcast just a bit. But David could not even lower it below that because that is the age of manhood responsibility at your twentieth birthday. Then you're considered a man. God holds you in a different accountability. And that is taught consistently and confluently across the board in the Bible. There are certain ages when God says, up to this age, I'm not going to let you do something. Up to this age, you have a certain accountability. I wish I could have time and I will, uh I'm writing on it now, but the reality is this is why we have the numbers on Jesus that we do. When he was brought to the temple at his circumcision and his naming. And then we, except for the brief visit of the Magi when he was uh probably 18 months old to two years old, and he was in a house in Bethlehem when the Magi came. He was not a babe, he was not in a manger, he was not in a stable, he was in a house. The word is house, and the word is Padion, which is the word for what we would call a toddler, and the next few years after that, he was someone who was weaned. He was not a brefos, he was not a baby. Two totally different words, two totally different meanings. But here the Levites could start at 25. Verse 25 says of chapter 8, and they must retire at the age of 50. God said, I don't want you serving more than 25 years in this. But this is the only time that God says, as far as I can find anywhere in the scriptures, that after retirement, this is verse 26, after retirement. Boy, isn't that a great phrase? After retirement. I'm 70 years old as I'm doing this podcast. I've been 70 for several months now. And I can tell you I'm more excited about serving the Lord Jesus than I ever have. I believe if God will let me live and I will stay clean and I will walk with him and I'll stay close and seek his face and stay low to the ground and let God use me, I believe the greatest days are ahead of me, not behind me. But the days that are ahead of me wouldn't be the greatest unless that God had taught me in the wilderness, the legitimate wilderness that he sent me into, and the illegitimate wilderness that many times I had chosen. I say many times because it's true in my daily walk with God and in seasons of my life. I was in a wilderness of my own choosing. I was wandering by my own choice, not by God's, but God is so merciful that he even uses the illegitimate time to show us his power and his might. And if we are faithful as Joshua and Caleb were, we will enter into the promised land in this life that God's given to us. Verse 26 says, after retirement. Again, I can't even tell you how many people have come up to me and said, When are you going to retire? I say, I'm I'm in my retirement. I'm doing the thing that God called me to do with the greatest excitement of all of my years. And I pray that my greatest days are ahead of me. Retirement? For 50 years, God has built a platform under me, and I pray that God will let me use in the latter years of my life, in the greatest season of my life of influence. He will use me and keep me walking with him to where I can serve the Lord. For those of you who listening to this that are older, what's your purpose? What makes you get up of a morning? What are you doing for the kingdom of God? Many of you are better off financially than you ever have been. Others of us are not. And that's because you've been a good steward and God's blessed you, and others of us have not been. But I'm not just doing what I'm doing to make a living. Thank God he allows me to do that. But I'm doing this because I cannot do anything else. God have mercy on me if I quit. No, these are the greatest days, and many of you are out there and you think, well, I've already served my time. God didn't put you in prison, he set you free. You're not serving time. You're serving the master. And I pray that you will listen to the words of Numbers chapter 8 and verse 26 about the servants that served in the tabernacle and later in the temple. They were the chosen servants of God. After retirement, they may assist their fellow Levites by serving as guards at the tabernacle, but they may not officiate in the service. That is, there was a time when they were in there doing the work in the heat of the day. And what God said is you may do it. In other words, you don't have to. God let you just dry up. But you're not going to be fruitful. You're not going to be living out the meaningful life that God has for you. You're not going to be content. Something's going to be missing in your life. God didn't just call you to preach and serve for a period until you're 62 or 65 or 70. Who set those parameters? The government? Well, what has the government done that they've not messed up? So listen to me. You may serve. There's some things you may not be able to do, just like with the Levites. You may not be able to do what you once did as a pastor. You may not be able to keep the hours that you once did. But stay healthy, work at it. Ask God to help you to keep your mind so that you can serve him, so that you can write, so that you can be a guard for those who are serving. Many of you can help young pastors and younger servants of the Lord that are coming up after you. Many of you have served as CEOs, as CFOs, as COOs. Some of you have been out there and you know what it's like to work on that assembly line, to work in that factory. You know what it's like to roll up your sleeves and get in a ditch or fix things all the days of your life. Well, God has given you all of that experience so you can turn around and help someone else that's walking in the path that you did to help them. After retirement, they may assist their fellow Levites by serving as guards. Guards, guardians of those who are in the service. This is how you must assign the duties of the Levites. This is what God told Moses. Isn't that good news? I pray that God would fire you up and get you off your hind end and get you out into service once again. What are you doing quitting? If God's told you to quit, have at it. But if you still have anything left in you, serve God all the days of your life. When Caleb was eighty-five years old, he said, God give me that mountain. That mountain was the mountain of Kiriat Arba. It was the oaks at Mamre. We know it as the city of Hebron. And God honored his request. Caleb said, I still have strength and I'm eighty-five years old. God give me this mountain. I pray that God would put on your heart a mountain and that he would give it to you. Ask God for strength. Listen to it again. This is the rule of the Levites that they must follow. They must begin serving in the tabernacle at age twenty five, and they must retire at the age of fifty. Why? For a new season after retirement, they may assist their fellow Levites by serving as guardians of the tabernacle, the place where the glory of God rested physically. The Shana we call it the Shekani, the Shekana, but it is the Shana, the very manifest presence of God that hovered as a cloud by day to shade the people and to provide them with a great environment to serve. And then at night it would light their way to remind them that even in the darkest night, God is the light. If you're walking through darkness, wondering where to go, seek after that light. Jesus said, I am the light of the world, and you and I can walk in that light one step at a time. For on the way, this is Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org. Then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's Questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.