Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Feb 15th, 2021 Handle with Care … by the Real Travis Clark

Today’s Passage – Numbers 3 – 4 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read – Acts 4 – 6; Proverbs 15; Psalms 76 – 80

Read the “0215 Evening and Morning“ devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – First John Three:One

“According to the commandment of the LORD they were numbered by the hand of Moses, every one according to his service, and according to his burden: thus were they numbered of him, as the LORD commanded Moses.” (Numbers 4:49)

The book of Numbers is a book that many people would skim over and I understand why. This book has a lot of names and family trees, it has a lot of rules that we don’t have to abide by anymore because of Jesus. In a great part of the book of Numbers, but specifically in chapter four  it even gives the manual if you would on what each person should be doing. We know that the Bible has something for us in every page, but if we’re honest with ourselves we probably think sometimes “what does this have to do with me?” In Numbers 4:1-15 we see God giving the instructions to Moses so he can relay them to the Kohathites. God Does this also in this chapter for the Gershonites (21-28) and the Merarites (29-49) So why thousands of years later is it important for us to read about this? Well number one the service that they are doing is preparing the tabernacle for the journey. I’m sure Pastor Erickson has talked about this in previous devotions so I won’t touch on the importance of it because I would assume most of us know the importance of it. So that is a big thing and God wants us to see how serious it is to deal with the things of God. God gets so specific of the covering even down to what kind of skin it should be. (Verse 6) If God is this concerned about the tabernacle that he made sure it was preserved in His book, don’t you think God wants us to prepare our temple the proper way? The reason why our way of worship and living for God is different, is because of the Trinity. Jesus died for our sins so we can go to heaven, and also we now have an intercessor so we can go directly to the Throne Room in Heaven! 

Romans 8:34 “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” 

 Then we have the Holy Spirit living inside us: our temple. I hear this phrase all the time “I won’t say that in church.” Well if your saved you have the Holy Spirit inside you, so you shouldn’t “say that” period. We have this portion of instructions to show us how important it is to take care of the things of God. So if you are saved you need to take the same kind of care and precautions that God wanted the people to do in the book of numbers. Paul explains this perfectly to the people in Corinth. 

1 Corinthians 6:15-20 “[15] Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. [16] What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. [17] But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. [18] Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. [19] What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? [20] For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Another thing I noticed is God didn’t give this job to one person; He didn’t even just give this job to the most important person, or people. God wanted multiple people involved. That means in the Church God doesn’t just want Pastor to do it all or one of the people on Staff to do it all. He wants multiple people to handle the things of God. On a personal level he also doesn’t just want you to walk alone. 

Proverbs 11:14 Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

God wants us to have accountability so if we are not handling the things of God the right way we will have people in place to guide us in the right direction. 

If there is one thing that we can take away from Numbers 4 and apply it to our lives it’s this: Handle with care.