NUGGETS FROM NUMBERS

There are many lessons for us in this book of Moses. (NIV version throughout unless noted
otherwise)
1. God knows our names. In the first chapter, vv. 4-5, God tells Moses the names of 12 men
to help him. Of all the thousands of people under Moses command, God gave him 12
specific names.
2. God knows if we have leadership ability. (Numbers 1:16-17) The above 12 men were
the leaders of their ancestral tribes. They were the heads of the clans of Israel. v. 17
Moses and Aaron took these men whose names had been given.
3. Ministry is both a responsibility and a gift from God.
Responsibility
Numbers 18:1ff [to Aaron, brother of Moses]You, your sonsare to bear the
responsibilityv.3be responsiblev.5 You are to be responsible.
(Additional notes below on being responsible.)
Gift
v.7 I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift
4. We should give our BEST to God. Numbers 18:29 You must present as the LORDs
portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you.

As a teenager, I often sang the hymn from our church hymnal, Our Best by S. C. Kirk.
1

Its words taught me well. They are worth citing here:

Hear ye the Masters call,
Give Me thy best!
For, be it great or small,
That is His test.
Do then the best you can,
Not for reward,
Not for the praise of man,
But for the Lord.


Every work for Jesus will be blest,
But He asks from everyone His best.
Our talents may be few,
These may be small,
But unto Him is due
Our best, our all.

The editors of our hymnal were willing to include another hymn with the same theme. It
was Give of Your Best to the Master by H. B. G., music by Mrs. Charles Barnard.

Give of your best to the Master;
Naught else is worthy His love;
He gave Himself for your ransom,
Gave up His glory above:
Laid down His life without murmur,
You from sins ruin to save;
Give Him your hearts adoration,
Give Him the best that you have.


(Chorus)
Give of your best to the Master;
Give of the strength of your youth;
Clad in salvations full armor, Join the
battle for truth.

5. We may pray for a successor when our season of service in a particular area is over.
Moses knew his time of leadership was coming to an end soon. He prayed for a successor.
Numbers 27:15-16 Moses said to the LORD, May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all
mankind, appoint a man over this community to go out and come in before them, one who
will lead them out and bring them in, so the LORDs people will not be like sheep without a
shepherd.

6. Without Gods protection, a nation is vulnerable. Joshua knew this principle.
Numbers 14:9b Their protection is removed from them and the LORD is with us.

7. The decisions of one generation will affect its posterity. This is taught throughout the book
of Numbers.

8. God will triumph in the end.
Numbers 14:21 AS TRULY AS (1) I LIVE [just as truly], (2) all the earth shall be filled
with the glory of the LORD. ESV

Additional thoughts on Being Responsible subtopic from lesson #3 above:

The mantle of responsibility that rested upon the Levites never lifted. They were living
sacrifices, accepted as the first-born offering. In I Chronicles 9, words depicting this mantle of
responsibility are throughout the chapter. [Emphasis mine.]
I Chronicles 9:
9, - were heads of families (Being head of anything carries responsibilities.)
17 The gatekeepers(Keeping anything implies oversight, responsibility.)
18 - being stationed at
19 just as their fathers had been responsible for guarding the entrance to the dwelling of the
LORD.
20 Eleazar was in charge of the gatekeepers, and the LORD was with him.
22 - The gatekeepers had been assigned to their positions of trust by David and Samuel the
seer.
23 - were in charge of guarding
25 - Their brothershad toshare their duties
26 - were entrusted with the responsibility
27 - stationed, they had to guard it; and they had charge of the key for opening it each
morning.

[Duty can be daily, routine, repetitive, but still a God-ordained assignment. Zachariah was doing
a routine duty when Gabriel visited him with news of John the Baptists coming birth.]

29 Others were assigned to take care of
31 - was entrusted with the responsibility for baking the offering bread. [Someone had to do
it.]
33 - musiciansstayedwere exempt from other duties because they were responsible for the
work day and night.

Levitical responsibility is a theme in many other places in the Old Testament.
See I Chronicles 15:22 Kenaniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that
was his responsibility because he was skillful at it. [Gifting recognized and used.]
See I Chronicles 6:48-49 Their fellow Levites were assigned to all the other duties of
the tabernacle, the house of God. But Aaron and his descendants were the ones who
presented offerings on the altar.
See II Chronicles 23:18, duties still in place successive generations.
See II Chronicles 29:25-26 & Ezra 3:10-11, duties prescribed by David, prophets Gad,
Nathan, & Samuel. (Samuel listed above in I Chr. 9:22.)
APPLICATION: When an Israelite child was born into the Levite tribe, he inherited the gift and
the responsibility of service. The Levites were taken as Gods first-born. One commentator
writes under firstborn:
The firstborn of both man and beast was considered as belonging to God.Later the Levites
were substituted for the Israelites firstborn, Num. 3:12, 41, 46; 8:13-19.
2

We are now the church of the first-born. (Hebrews 12:23) When we are born again into Gods
family, we inherit certain responsibilities as well. We are Gods, not our own. (I Cor. 6:19-20)
God and the populace in general expected more of the Levites. Notice how they stood out from
the crowd in Nehemiah 9:38; 10:8, 9, 28, 34, 37-39 and chapter 12. King Abijah scolded a
backslidden king for driving away Levites (II Chronices 13).
We are held to a higher standard and should feel some weight of our charge. President George
W. Bush felt a God-given charge to public leadership. He borrowed from Charles Wesleys
thoughts in his famous hymn, A Charge Have I to Keep. Like President Bush, we need to find
our place to serve and give it our best.
1
The Broadman Hymnal, Ed. By B. B. McKinney, Broadman Press, Nashville, TN 1940,
p. 343, p. 366.

2
Cruden, Alexander. Crudens Complete Concordance of the Old and New Testaments.
New York: Holt, Rinehard and Winston, 1949.