“All of the men from thirty to fifty years of age who came to do the work of serving and carrying the tent of meeting numbered 8,580. At the Lord’s command through Moses, each was assigned his work and told what to carry.”
When the girls were young, I can remember pushback when we asked them to do chores. Most of the time they would do what we asked, but there were times when they had an attitude. We would tell them that their attitude was everything. Yes, the chores got done, sometimes with an attitude. It was when they happily did them that it was fun to watch.
As I read about the Levite clan preparing everything to be used and then preparing everything to be moved, all I can think about are the Levites who were thinking, “But what if I don’t want to do what the Lord told me to do through Moses?”
Now there are over 600,000 men who came out of Egypt, and for the last two years and two months, they have been camped in the desert of Sinai, waiting to hear from Moses, who was hearing from God, on what to do next. They have been eating manna every day and being downloaded on everything from what to do with a skin issue to “don’t touch this, or you will surely die.” I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been to be there taking all of that in.
Behind the scenes, the Israelites were being supernaturally taken care of every day by God and not draining their local environment of food and resources. To those Levite men who were thinking they didn’t want to do what the Lord commanded, they had no choice but to obey the Lord because real and immediate consequences would show up.
To those of us who are like the Levites who question the role set before us, the Bible says that obedience is better than sacrifice. If we offer the sacrifice of our time to do God’s work, He would rather have our obedience. You cannot sacrifice anything in your life, and God says, “Wow, now that was a sacrifice.” He gave His only Son as the final sacrifice.
At the root of our obedience should be joy, not sacrifice. Today, ask yourself, “Is my attitude in the right spot, or do I have to change it?” Do I find myself talking about what I had to sacrifice to do this or that? I always say you can do more with obedience and a good attitude. Try it out.
Prayer: Father, expose our attitudes that are against You, and I pray that my obedience would line up with Your Word. Let the joy of the Lord be my strength and not my agenda. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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