“Serving God Is God’s Gift To Us”

“But you and your sons will carry out your priestly responsibilities for everything concerning the altar and for what is inside the curtain, and you will do that work. I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift,…” – Numbers 18.7 (CSB)

Their work assignments were unending. Did you know that there was not a chair inside the tabernacle for the Levites to sit down when they were finished with their tasks? This was because they were never done with their responsibilities. Day in and day out they would continue to perform the duties that God had commanded them through his servant, Moses.

And yet with those responsibilities, God introduced them to the gift that it was. The last part of Numbers 18.7 that I shared above points it out beautifully: “I am giving you the work for the priesthood as a gift.” ****A gift. When I looked up the word gift in Hebrew, that’s exactly what it meant. It was a gift. The New Living Translation translates it this way: “I am giving you the priesthood as a special privilege of service.”

The tempting thing with this is to apply this passage to only those who have a specific role of leadership or shepherding within a church community while all of the rest of Christ’s followers have no personal application in this. I believe this to be an incorrect interpretation of the passage from within the New Covenant era that we find ourselves in now because of Christ and his redemptive work on our behalf.

Peter wrote about this in his first letter to the Christians who had been dispersed and were experiencing persecution because of their allegiance to and love for Jesus.

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” – 1 Peter 2.9-10 (CSB)

If you have received God’s gift of salvation through submitting yourself to the Lordship of Jesus, having believed in his death and resurrection, and are a follower of Jesus, you are part of “a royal priesthood.” The kingdom of God still has priests, but those priests are not a specific few but rather the entirety of his people. Elders and shepherds (pastors) are not the new priests of God’s people, replacing the levitical priesthood from the Old Covenent. Instead, elders and shepherds (pastors) are those whom God calls and gifts for a specific role within a church community. But all of Christ’s followers are priests, and a royal priesthood at that.

So as we combine these passages of Scripture together, all followers of Jesus can receive this same encouragement and instruction. “I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift.” The ultimate high priest is Jesus. No one can replace him. But we are all part of the royal priesthood of God, and the work of the priesthood is an incredible gift of grace given to us by God. Our service to him should be done from this understanding. It is an honor and joy to get to serve our King, looking every day for those opportunities that God has prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2.10).

The tabernacle has been replaced by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all of God’s people. We no longer have to set up a tabernacle for we are God’s tabernacle. We are declared holy while being called to the process of becoming holy. We are called to live our lives set apart for the person and purposes of Jesus. We are to confess and repent from the desires and acts of sin out of love for Jesus. And then, as we do that, the opportunities that God calls us to are primarily through the day in and day out interactions with others that we have in our homes and throughout our zIp codes. They are opportunities that seem mundane and ordinary, the kind that no one is really interested in posting to social media or watching a “reality” tv show about. They are simply the divine inspired opportunities that are important to God which give us an opportunity to joyfully and gratefully serve Jesus.

What a gift it truly is to serve Jesus.

Father – To serve you is a gift, not a chore. Thank you for giving the precious gift of serving you. Please show me what you’ve prepared for me to do for you today. And as I do those things, I pray that you would be so pleased as I joyfully serve you.