The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 55

tne order of all the tribes, both for the march nnd the encampment, did not omit to- appoint to every division of the Levites its duty in relation to the tabernacle and it& holy fumiture--what each wae to cnrry, and in what order they were to pitch their tents. In this chapter of detailed regulations, special interest attaches to the law laid down regarding THE LEVITES' PERIOD OJ.1 SERVICE in carrying the tabernacle. It was from thirty years old till fifty (vere. 3, 23, 30). Thie must be taken along with chnp. viii. 24, where the age for entering on service is fixed at twenty-five. The explanation of the- seeming discrepancy, no doubt, is that the first five yeare were a kind of apprentice- ship. Certain other sorts of work about the tabernacle the Levites might do between, twenty-five and thirty, and these they might continue to do, eo far ne their strength, served, long after fifty; but except between thirty and fifty they might not bear the- tabernacle and its vessels. When David gave to the ark a permanent abode at Jerusalem, and the service of the Levites was readjusted accordingly, the age for- entering on duty was lowered to twenty, and at that point it therenfter stood (see l Chron. xxiii. 27; Ezra ill. 8). The principle underlying the law was still the same. The service of God, especially in its most sacred parts, requires and deserves the best of our yeare, our strength, our affections. His soul desires the fiJ"St ripe fruit. There are three errors men are apt to fall into in this matter of service ; I refer more especially to official service. 1. Some enter on it too 'JIO'U11{J. No hard and fast line can be drawn for all men and every service. One kind of service demands greater maturity than another, and one man ripens earlier than another. But the rule here prescribed to the Levites is a good one for the average of cases. To speak only of the Christian ministry: few men under twenty-five are ripe for it, and places of special trust would require a man of thirty. Undue haste is neither reverent nor safe. The fiJ"St sermon of our blessed Lord was not preached till " he began to be about thirty yeare of age" (Luke iii. 23); a touching and most suggestive example. 2. Some delay enteri12g till they are too old. Thie is most frequently seen in unofficial service. Many men, not destitute of piety, think it incumbent on them to give their prime so entirely to "business" that they have no time for anything else. Church work, home mission work, charity services, participation in these they look for- ward to as the employment of their leisure, after they shall have retired from bwriness. That, at the beet, is giving to the Lord not the first-fruits, but the gleanings. It will be found that, as a rule, it is not these tardy lnbourere whom God honoure to be most use- ful. He honoure those rather (thank God, they are many, and increasing in number) who consecrate to him a fair proportion of their strength when they are at their prime. 3. Some do not know when it is time for them to resign. The Levites' period of active service, whether it began at thirty, or twenty-five, or twenty, always ended nt fifty. Not that the lnw thrust them out of the sanctuary when their term expired ; that would have been cruelty to men who loved the service. They might still fre- quent the snnctunry, and perform occasional offices (see eh. viii. 26). But after fifty they reased to be on the regular staff. Here too the rule hns to be applied to the Christian Church with discrimination. For services which are charncteristically mental and spiritual, a man's prime certainly does not cease at fifty. Nevertheless, the principle at the root of the rule is of undying validity and importance. The Levites' maintenance did not cense at fifty ; and nny Church system which does not make such provision as ennbles its ministers to retire when their strength fails is unscriptural ond defective. On the other part, it is the duty and will be the wisdom of the Church's servants to seek retirement when they are no longer nble to minister to the Lord with fresh vigour.-B. Vere. 11-20.-The Lord i8 to be servedwithfear. "LEsTTHEYDIE: "that note of warning is often heard in the law. If any man or woman touched the flaming mount, it was death (Exod. xix. 12). It was death if the high priest entered into the holiest on any day but one, or on that day if he omitted to shroud thll mercy-seat in a cloud of fragrant incense (Levit. xvi. S-13). It was death if any son of Aaron transgressed the ritual, were it only by officiating in any other than the appointed garments (Exod. uvili. 43). In the same strain, this law in Numbers makes it death for any common Levite to touch, or gaze upon, the holy thin~ till the priest has packed them up in their thick wrappings (vere. 19, 20; cf. eh. 1. 51; iii. 10). The exnmplo- 30 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [CII, IV. 1-49.