READING GUIDE FOR SEPTEMBER 18, 2024: NUMBERS 4, ACTS 8, PSALM 99 NUMBERS 4 Details matter. Some among us may have visited Japan and attended a tea ceremony. It’s not about drinking a bottle of tea purchased from a vending machine. It’s a precise way of preparing and drinking tea where each delicate step adheres to a detailed and rigid process that takes a lifetime to master. The full ceremony could last four hours.
In this chapter we find that only men from the tribe of Levi from the ages of 30-50 had the honor of servicing the tabernacle. All these men were counted at God’s command. And even these men could only work in that part of the task assigned to their clan, descendants of the three sons of Levi. If they strayed in the tiniest way from correct procedure, touching the holy things for example, it was not considered a minor offense by God. God would kill them.
- The Kohathites were charged with caring for and transporting the most holy things. They had to pack each item with the right color cloth and in the precise sequence. They could not even look at certain holy items in the wrong way or they would die.
- The Gershonites carried curtains and the Merarites carried the frames and bases. This was infrastructure related and less concerned with exact protocol.
Back to tea. According to one scholar, “The tea ceremony can be explained by this simple phrase: ichi go ichi e which means each moment only occurs once. The purpose of tea ceremony is all about being present in the moment and remembering that this very moment will never come back again.” It’s not a pointless ritual. This chapter does not tell us the meaning of these three clans of Levites doing exactly what God told them to do in exactly the way God told them to do it. But perhaps it points to the way the church, the Body of Christ, is to function: “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines” (1 Cor. 12:7-11). Consider how God has gifted us and the ways we are completing the Kingdom tasks He has given each one of us. Do we even know our gifts and tasks to be done?
ACTS 8 The stoning of Stephen apparently emotionally freed the enemies of the church to be less cautious about going after believers. These enemies included Saul, soon to be the Apostle Paul. In what must have been a frantic scene, the 5,000 believers left Jerusalem overnight leaving only the apostles in the city. Philip, taking advantage of a bad situation, went to preach the gospel in Samaria, part of Jesus’s specific last command before He ascended. Although
READING GUIDE FOR SEPTEMBER 18, 2024 CONTINUED: ACTS 8, PSALM 99 Philip, one of the seven deacons as was Stephen, was run out of Jerusalem due to Satan’s devices, he got right back at him by casting out demons and healing the sick in Jesus’s name. He also ran into a man named Simon, who had built a local reputation as a miracle worker. Simon was swept up by Philip’s evangelism and became a baptized believer. Being in the business of performing magical signs himself, he was really impressed with the greater acts performed by Philip. Simon later put his foot in his mouth, but after a stern rebuke by Peter, seemed duly restored.
As with the recent revival at Asbury College, word of this work of God spread quickly. Peter and John came to observe and help. A rather puzzling situation took place because the text states that the Samaritans had not yet received the Holy Spirit. It also implies a connection to only being baptized in the name of Jesus. We know Romans 8:9 says, “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” Since the Samaritans clearly believed in Jesus, why, then, had they not received the Holy Spirit? There are quite a few positions, but this writer humbly holds that as the Gospel was moving to a new people group, especially one as unwelcomed as the Samaritans, having two of the leading Apostles lay hands on these Samaritans served to authenticate their positions as fellow believers. Peter later was used by God to also authenticate that Gentiles could become Christians at the conversion of Cornelius.
Remember Jesus told the disciples to be witnesses “in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.” After witnessing in Samaria, the Holy Spirit arranged for Philip to reach the ends of the earth when he saw an Ethiopian traveling in a chariot. Wouldn’t it be great if folks we run into randomly just happen to be reading Isaish 53? Philip is able to use the non-threatening icebreaker possible to lead this Ethiopian eunuch to Jesus. Not only is the first Sub-Saharan convert recorded, but also the first eunuch convertrecorded. This is so significant. Castrated males were not allowed in the assembly in the old covenant (Deut. 23:1). Now people from all races and even with altered sexuality are welcome in the Kingdom God. Let’s pray for similar opportunities to explain the Gospel.
PSALM 99 What is the Psalmist emphasizing here? Let’s do a word count. Verse three says, “Holy is He.” Verse five says again, “Holy is He.” The last verse says, “worship at His holy hill,
For the Lord our God is holy.” This is perhaps the main theme of Leviticus. God is Holy and sinful humans can only approach Him realizing this and through the provisions He arranges. The Psalmist says His Holiness causes all peoples to tremble. Yet, when His priests approached Him, He answered. God is no less holy today, but we can approach Him in the name of and through the sacrificial blood of Jesus. We have more reason to praise than the Psalmist.
