Sharing the Load
January 10, 2012
Numbers 4:48-49 – those listed were 8580. According to the commandment of the LORD through Moses they were listed, each one with his task of serving or carrying. Thus they were listed by him, as the LORD commanded Moses
Being very rebellious, I tend to gloss over certain sections of Scripture that I don’t find as interesting (genealogies and lists) and I glossed over this chapter not really thnking that I would get much out of this portion of Scripture, but when I got to the end, God graciously revealed this passage to me and forced me to stop and consider what I had just read…
The task of taking down and carrying the tabernacle required 8580… or at the very least, this was the number of people that were assigned to do the task. Now in all honesty, I don’t think it took this many people to do it (It’s a big tent, but not that big), but reading into the situation, I think that this was purposeful so that these people were able to share the load (and not carry it alone). Also, they took their instruction from Moses, who took his instruction from the LORD. And so there is a great chain of command going on here, where God is the Lead Pastor, who directs the pastor of the church, who directs his congregation, who shares teh burden amongst each other, in order that no one man burns out.
This is a great reminder for me as a pastor and as a church-goer to participate in sharing the load, for the sake of my obedience (they were commanded to), as well as for the sake of my brother (an effect of my obedience).
