The
Levitical period of service is fixed here at twenty-five years of age and
upwards to the fiftieth year. It was a labour intensive job and therefore,
required the strength of young men. The job includes the taking down and
setting up of the tabernacle and cleaning it, carrying of wood and water for
the sacrificial worship, slaying of the animals for the daily and festive
sacrifices of the congregation, etc.
From
twenty-five to fifty is the prime of human life. Young men and women at this
age are concerned with building up their career, finding a lifetime partner,
and raising a family. It is difficult to find young adults of this age engaging
actively in the work of the church. Why? The simple reason being they are just
too busy with their life to be involved with the work of God.
Young
Christian men and women need to realise that they need God (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
They need to put God as their top priority and lay up for themselves treasures
in heaven (Matthew 6:20). They must work towards things that are eternal and
know that the wealth and success they are striving here on this earth are
temporal and will not bring them to heaven.
Young
parents must realise that if they do not set the example of faithfulness and
service to God, their children will become unfaithful and inactive in the
church. I have parents who come to me complaining about their children losing
interest in God; they fail to realise that their children are learning from
them. Their over emphasis on doing well in school and less on bible study is
destroying their children’s faith. Parents must learn from faithful Hannah who
enrolled her beloved son Samuel into God’s service at a very young age (1
Samuel 2:18-19). Spiritual training must start from young: “Train up a child
in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”
(Proverbs 22:6).
Young
Christian men and women: Know that it is God’s blessings that you are healthy,
have a job and a family. While it is good to work hard and to take care of your
family, it is more important to remain faithful and serve God (1 Timothy 4:12).
Use your talents and youthful energy to serve in the church which you are a
member of.
For
the Levites, retirement was fixed at age fifty (Numbers 8:25). But, does it
mean they could sit back and do nothing? Read on the next verse: “But shall
minister with their brethren in the tabernacle of the congregation, to keep the
charge, and shall do no service. Thus shalt thou do unto the Levites touching
their charge.”
In
the wilderness, the work of the Levites was labour intensive, and therefore by
age fifty, they could no longer bear that kind of burden. But, when they
settled in the temple, the priests and high priests worked much longer.
Zacharias, Simeon and Anna were examples of Levites who served passed their
retirement age (Luke 1:7; 2:25, 36). Still, the command to the Levites who were
age fifty and above was they should minister with their brethren in the
Tabernacle. Though they were to retire from regular service, they were to continue
to assist their brethren in the work.
There
is NO retirement from God’s service. We do not read of any of the apostles
retiring from God’s service. Brethren who felt that they have done enough for
God and it’s now the younger ones who should be serving should read Luke 17:10:
“So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are
commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which
was our duty to do” (Luke 17:10).
Christians
should never retire from the service of God. The psalmist's prayer should be
our prayer as we age: “Yea, even when I am old and grayheaded, O God,
forsake me not, Until I have declared thy strength unto the next generation,
Thy might to every one that is to come,” (Psalm 71:18, ASV).
Jimmy Lau
Psa 119:97 Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment