“So Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of Israel counted all the Levites by their clans and families. All the men between thirty and fifty years of age who were eligible for service in the Tabernacle and for its transportation numbered 8,580. Each man was assigned his task and told what to carry, just as the Lord had commanded through Moses” (Numbers 4:46-49 NLT).
Numbers is an aptly named book. It is filled with counting. No one can say that God doesn’t care about the details because this book proves otherwise. God cares deeply about the details, especially in regards to His Tabernacle. He even had certain groups or tribes of Israelites specially set apart for setting up and tearing down their place of worship.
Many WCCers have committed to read through the Bible in a year again this year. Our Old Testament reading this week has taken us through very detailed descriptions of how God wanted Moses to divide the people into small groups for fellowship and service. As I read, I couldn’t help thinking about how much God still cares about who is in what group, and how important that group’s work is to Him.
One group that God told Moses to set apart for service was the tribe of Levi. He wanted the Levites to be in charge of setting up, tearing down, carrying and caring for the Tabernacle. He told Moses to divide the tribe into smaller groups with specific assignments within the Tabernacle. Every piece of furniture, every curtain, every pole and pedestal had a detailed way to be handled and an assigned tribe and person to handle it.
When I visited Wayne Cordeiro’s church in Oahu last year, I was overwhelmed with the number of workers it took to set up for their weekend services. Over 700 volunteers start working at Midnight every Friday evening and work all the way up until Saturday afternoon to prepare for their two Saturday night services and three Sunday morning ones. Appropriately, Wayne’s church calls these workers, “Levites.”
The pastor in charge of Wayne’s Levites said, “These guys don’t come out here with a sense of duty and dread. They love it! A cook who works at a restaurant gets off his shift and brings food for his crew. They set up and then they fellowship and pray together. Another group pauses to watch the sunrise and thank the Lord as they finish their setup shift. These people have a sense of calling.”
I think God is still calling us to join “Tabernacle tribes” that count. He still calls people together in small groups for fellowship and service. We’ve been a church of small groups for 17 years now. We’ve been setting up and tearing down and carrying the Tabernacle to the next location. And God has taken notice. What we do and how we do it counts.
I’m fired up about how so many of our people are answering God’s call to get into small groups and get busy doing God’s work. We don’t need 700 like Wayne or 8500 like Moses on our setup teams yet, but we’re growing.
One number that really counts is your number. Have you joined those that God numbers among the faithful? Are you in a “Tabernacle tribe” that counts?