Read
The Sons of Aaron
1When the Lord talked with Moses on Mount Sinai, 2 Aaron's four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, 3were the ones to be ordained as priests. 4 But the Lord killed Nadab and Abihu in the Sinai Desert when they used fire that was unacceptable in their offering to the Lord. And because Nadab and Abihu had no sons, only Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests with their father Aaron.
The Duties of the Levites
5The Lord said to Moses:
6Assign the Levi tribe to Aaron the priest. They will be his assistants 7and will work at the sacred tent for him and for all the Israelites. 8The Levites will serve the community by being responsible for the furnishings of the tent. 9They are assigned to help Aaron and his sons, 10who have been appointed to be priests. Anyone else who tries to perform the duties of a priest must be put to death.
11-13 Moses, I have chosen these Levites from all Israel, and they will belong to me in a special way. When I killed the first-born sons of the Egyptians, I decided that the first-born sons in every Israelite family and the first-born males of their flocks and herds would be mine. But now I accept these Levites in place of the first-born sons of the Israelites.
Reflect
God selected the tribe of Levi to serve him and the people of Israel in the tabernacle. In the same way Jesus selected twelve apostles to serve him and the early Church. When Judas needed to be replaced, the apostles drew lots for his successor, trusting God to work his will through such a process.
We see these chosen ones as being special and they are. Not everyone was permitted to serve in the tabernacle, not everyone was permitted to serve as an apostle. God called them to work with him in a unique fashion.
Yet all of us are chosen by God for one task or another. All of us have work to do just as Aaron and his sons did, just as the Levites did, just as the apostles did, and the work is unique to each one of us. Peter was very clear about this: You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9 NIV). In addition to being chosen to declare God’s praises each of us have other special tasks to perform in God’s name, as Paul pointed out in Ephesians 2:10: For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (NIV). Long before we knew God or came to love him each of us were chosen to do good works specific to ourselves that would honour God and bless his people, yes, and bless the human race God created.
Each of us is special in his or her own way and we are all God’s chosen ones.
Respond
Lord, thank you for choosing me to declare your praises and thank you for giving me specific works to do in your name, works you prepared long ago for me to do during my lifetime. Please direct my steps and my thoughts and my efforts towards the performance of those works for love of you and love of your people and love of all you have created. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Murray Pura
Murray Pura, a native of Manitoba, is an ordained minister with Masters degrees from Acadia University and Regent College in Vancouver BC. At Regent he studied under JI Packer and also produced a thesis on William Wilberforce which was subsequently published under the title "Vital Christianity". Murray has served churches in Canada and the US. A writer in Christian theology and Christian fiction both, he currently writes full time and is represented by Steve Laube Agency in Phoenix, AZ. Murray has published with HarperCollins, Zondervan, HarperOne San Francisco, Baker, Barbour and Harvest House, to name a few. He has won the Word Guild Award for Best Historical Novel and has also been shortlisted for the Kobzar Literary Award of Toronto. His devotional writings include the books "Rooted" (Zondervan), "Streams" (Zondervan), and "Majestic & Wild" (Baker). He also wrote the study notes for Exodus and Luke in The Life With God Bible (Harper Collins).