Numbers
4:1 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses and
unto Aaron, saying, 2 Take the sum of
the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, after their families, by the
house of their fathers, 3 From thirty
years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host,
to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation. 4 This shall be the service of the sons
of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation, about the most holy
things: 5 And when the camp setteth
forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down the covering
vail, and cover the ark of testimony with it: 6
And shall put thereon the covering of badgers’ skins, and shall spread
over it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put in the staves thereof.
7 And upon the table of shewbread they
shall spread a cloth of blue, and put thereon the dishes, and the spoons, and
the bowls, and covers to cover withal: and the continual bread shall be
thereon: 8 And they shall spread upon
them a cloth of scarlet, and cover the same with a covering of badgers’ skins,
and shall put in the staves thereof. 9
And they shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the candlestick of the
light, and his lamps, and his tongs, and his snuffdishes, and all the oil
vessels thereof, wherewith they minister unto it: 10 And they shall put it and all the vessels
thereof within a covering of badgers’ skins, and shall put it upon a
bar. 11 And upon the golden altar they
shall spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with a covering of badgers’ skins,
and shall put to the staves thereof: 12
And they shall take all the instruments of ministry, wherewith they
minister in the sanctuary, and put them in a cloth of blue, and cover
them with a covering of badgers’ skins, and shall put them on a bar:
13 And they shall take away the ashes
from the altar, and spread a purple cloth thereon: 14 And they shall put upon it all the vessels
thereof, wherewith they minister about it, even the censers, the
fleshhooks, and the shovels, and the basons, all the vessels of the altar; and
they shall spread upon it a covering of badgers’ skins, and put to the staves
of it. 15 And when Aaron and his sons
have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the
sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall
come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest
they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the
tabernacle of the congregation. 16 And
to the office of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest pertaineth the oil
for the light, and the sweet incense, and the daily meat offering, and the
anointing oil, and the oversight of all the tabernacle, and of all that
therein is, in the sanctuary, and in the vessels thereof. 17 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron,
saying, 18 Cut ye not off the tribe of
the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites: 19 But thus do unto them, that they may live,
and not die, when they approach unto the most holy things: Aaron and his sons
shall go in, and appoint them every one to his service and to his burden: 20 But they shall not go in to see when the holy
things are covered, lest they die.
This passage seems pretty direct as to the burden of the male
descendants of Kohath as they carry the disassembled tabernacle after Aaron and
his sons are through. Note that very specific instructions are given about the
care they are to take in what they can touch and not touch and what they can
see and not see. From my own point of view I can see how rules given under the
old covenant between God and the Hebrews can be a source of abuse imposed by
Christian pastors on their flocks. It would be easy to say that this shows
that, for instance in medieval Europe, that the word of God in Latin was holy
and that it was too holy for the Bible to be translated into ordinary, commonly
spoke languages, although this was done in the Eastern Roman Empire’s Greek
Orthodox Church. But, the Roman Catholic Church was against the practice. My
point is that a corrupt pastor could easily take a passage like this and make
sermons about how he or only his class of people, those in the ministry, could
know, understand, or perform certain services for God. Many Baptists appreciate
the concept of the ‘priesthood of all believer’ and would take offense at a
pastor or deacon denouncing our service to God because we “aren’t in the
ministry” as if we all weren’t in the ministry. We are all ministers of God and
the holy things we service are inside of us, not buildings, tents, or other
physical structures.
Luke
17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here!
or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
No comments:
Post a Comment