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Too Hot to Carry
Too Young to Die
Bamidbar "In the wilderness"
Numbers 1:1-4:20
Hosea 2:1-2:23
Psalm 122
Luke 3:23-4:14: Acts 5:1-11
Please scroll to the end of the email to read important news from the LaMalah Children's Centre in Kenya.
Thank you for the emails concerning the YouTube livestream. We'll stream on Shabbat, but due to our own congregation's service, though, we will not stream until 4:00 pm Eastern Time.
What we don't carry is sometimes the hardest burden of all. A burden is sometimes more than what you carry...it's what you may not carry.
Bamidbar (Book of Numbers)
begins with order, not random lanes of travel and service. Here is the sobering plan for moving the most holy objects of the Mishkan:
Then the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
"Do
not let the tribe of the families of the
Kohathites
be cut off from among the Levites.
But
do this to them that they may live and not die when they approach the
most holy
objects:
Aaron and his sons shall go in and assign each of them to his work and to his load
;
but they shall not go in to see the holy objects even for a moment, or they will die
." (Nu 4:17-20)
How can holiness be so deadly? In an era where we are told that there is nothing we can't accomplish with the right athletic shoes, health supplement, or education, it's hard to imagine the burden of the Kohathites. The burden was not so much what they had to carry; what they carried was the great honor of the most holy objects such as the menorah, golden incense altar, and the Ark of the Covenant. The burden was that they were not allowed to see or touch those most holy burdens; they could only carry them after they were covered. Imagine being only a cloth-width away from something that would kill you!
The most dangerous thing to carry, other than one's own sin, is the burden of what we are not appointed to do. Temptation comes
in areas where our service or obligation is very close to that which is someone else's, but not ours. Looking and touching can lead to familiarity...then trespass.
When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy objects and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is to set out, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them,
so that they will not touch
the holy objects and die. These are the
things
in the tent of meeting which the sons of Kohath are to carry
. (Nu 4:15)
Here is the occupational hazard to the sons of Kohath (K'hati), who were Levites, but not the priests, or
cohanim
.
Korach
was
K'hati
. Although the
Kohathites
' job was to carry the holy things, they were not to touch them. Only a cloth was between them and the holy object, yet they couldn't touch it, although their burden was to carry it. How can you carry something that will kill you to touch? The difficult and dangerous burden is to carry what you are not allowed to do.
We might compare it to Shabbat. The difficult part of keeping Shabbat is not what we are TO do, but what we are NOT to do. Working, baking, boiling, buying, selling, kindling fires, carrying burdens...all these are a challenge NOT to do on Shabbat. Likewise, the challenge of the K'hati was not to look at or touch what they carried.
The Levites had help, though, from the laws of service.
The age requirements of the Levites are different from those of the other tribes. While an Israelite man may have his greatest strength and energy at the age of 20, and go to war, a Levite must attain the age of 30, and he may not go to war unless to perform holy service, spiritual warfare.
Ten years represents a huge gap in maturity, experience, perspective, responsibility, and self-discipline
. Compare the insurance risk tables for males 20 and 30 years of age. A Levite's ability to work requires careful, precise skill. He carries a heavy burden:
that which he may not touch
. The Hebrew letter
yod
has a value of 10. It's the hand that touches. A
cahf
is 20, the palm of the hand. The lamed is 30, discipline.
A lack of discipline can get both warriors and
Levites
killed, whether the sword of the enemy or the holy fire. To serve near holy fires is daily danger. How one touches holy things requires self-discipline, not just the ability to physically or mentally do the action or teach the Word. (Ezekiel 22:26 & Zephaniah 3:4) It also requires one to act his or her spiritual age.
In fact, Jewish traditional commentaries record a problem for the Levites. The ark would spark similarly to the Divine fire of the Presence at Mount Sinai. Now that the Presence spoke from the Ark, the holy fire was a real and present danger to anyone who was close to it. The midrash says some Levites would quarrel for the responsibility of carrying the Ark, while others would run from the service in fear that the sparks would kill them. Those who quarreled would do harm to one another in their race to "hold the information," the powerful and mystical commandments within the Ark. This competitiveness was irreverent, and then the holy sparks would break out.
That presents two problems. Running from one's obligations in order to be safe from the fires of quarrels is not an answer. Neither is quarreling over who gets to carry the Ark containing the Commandments. To prevent the Levites from irreverently quarreling and angering the Holy One, Whose holiness could kill, Aaron and the other priests assigned each K'hati a specific task. When one knows his role, there should not be quarreling and competing to carry the commandments. When there is no quarreling or running ahead to be first, then no one else has to die like Nadav and Avihu, who rushed ahead of their father Aaron to offer incense.
To this day, people become consumed with a holiness that is not permitted to them...at least not yet. Armed with a Strong's Concordance, they become wise men and women, consumed with a holiness and wisdom in which they are too immature to serve. Their favorite, impassioned doctrines consume
them, like the incense-cloud service consumed
Nadav
,
Avihu
, and Korach's rebels against the priesthood of Moses and Aaron. The modern-day K'hati quarrel and inflict wounds upon one another in their competitiveness to lay claim to the honor of correct interpretations and applications.
And sparks fly.
So why did Korach and the other K'hati rebel against the priests? The Torah sets a pattern that Israel had not yet had time to grow into in the wilderness. In a perfect world, the thirty-year-old Levite would have grown up in a covenant family being taught, mentored, and practicing the Word from his infancy. Korach and the rebels were adults, yet they had just received the Torah: mature by natural age; immature by spiritual age.
The moral of the Torah is to revere the Father by not quarreling over His service. This requires 1) maturity and 2) an assignment. Knowing what the Torah says to do is not always accompanied by the extra years of experience that bring patience both with one's co-workers and with one's self in his or her appointed role in the Body of Messiah. It's not a bad thing to work under learned and mature oversight; it might save your life like that tiny width of fabric between a Levite's shoulder and the Ark. A lot can change in ten years.
And it will.
Come Home to Sukkot in Israel
Yes, yes, yes! We're still planning to c
elebrate Sukkot 2020 in Israel!
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| Sukkot Parade of the Nations 2019 |
The registration page is up so that you can make a deposit. The price may drop once negotiations are concluded and the final itinerary set. Click on
Sukkot of Glory to view or reserve your place with a deposit.
LaMalah Children's Centre
We have sobering news from our brothers and sisters in Kenya, which is experiencing famine more acutely already. Here is an excerpt from our latest update:
Shalom sister Hollisa:
We hope and pray you, BD, and the household of faith are all doing well.
It well this end. We are all praying and seeking to understand Abba's doings. There are floods killing more people than the dreaded Corona virus. Desert locusts continue to leave desolate parts of our country. In one area with believers, ants are giving them sleepless nights. Millions of them in the house, in the compound and in the garden. No insecticides seem to annihilate them. In yet another small town, there are millions of an insect christened "Nairobi fly," a corruption for Narrow Bee Fly. It looks like the Kenyan flag, and scars faces and the skin.
All these have pushed prices of foods and essential commodities up, and of late, I feel helpless, with numerous requests for help from believers going to bed on an empty stomach. This morning , a young lady called seeking help for her blind mother. If anything, pray for the believers in Kenya.
All learning institutions closed indefinitely in Kenya. This is the reason am yet to come back to you on the girl who needs to join college. Recently, the goverment has set-up a task force to deliberate on how learning will resume.
We are looking to see if we can congregate for Shavuot observing Social Distance and the rules.
We do really appreciate your prayers and commitment towards this mission of mercy. May YHWH bless you. Our love to all and especially to Big Daddy.
Blessings,
Peter.
If you would like to donate to the Children's Centre through The Creation Gospel, click on the Donate link below. It will say The Olive Branch Messianic Congregation on your receipt. Our local congregation is the non-profit covering for our ministry. Checks or money orders may be sent to:
The Creation Gospel
PO Box 846
East Bernstadt, KY 40729
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