Numbers 7:5-9 Take it of them, that they may be to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; and you shall give them to the Levites… I. AS MOSES APPOINTED TO THE SONS OF LEVI CERTAIN FACILITIES, SO THE CREATOR HAS ENDOWED MAN WITH CERTAIN CAPABILITIES FOR WORK IN HIS SERVICE. 1. Understanding. 2. Invention. 3. Will-power. 4. Judgment. 5. Affections. 6. Physical organs. II. AS MOSES REQUIRED THE SONS OF LEVI TO USE THEIR FACILITIES, SO GOD DEMANDS THE EXERCISE OF OUR CAPABILITIES. 1. Yet how much indifference on the part of man in exercising and developing his faculties in useful and honourable employment! Many, instead of gaining their livelihood in the intended way, by the sweat of their face, study all manner of trickery and sin to satisfy their wants. 2. And how many professing Christians become so absorbed in worldly affairs as to neglect the business of the soul. God has claims superior to all claims of the world. III. GOD'S REQUIREMENTS ARE NO GREATER THAN OUR ENDOWMENTS. If we cannot give thousands, we can at least devote our "two mites." A beautifully tinted leaf in the wood cannot be seen at a distance, yet it contributes its part to the glorious autumnal picture. IV. MAN MUST USE HIS CAPABILITIES ACCORDING TO DIVINE APPOINTMENT. It is a solemn thing to trifle with the plans of God. Every man has a special power or gift, and "he who lives by other laws than those that wrapt his genius at his birth," defeats, in a measure, the object of his creation. (W. G. Thrall.) Parallel Verses KJV: Take it of them, that they may be to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; and thou shalt give them unto the Levites, to every man according to his service. |
    |