February 15
Numbers 7:1-89
The quest for fairness begins at a very early age. Anyone with siblings, if honest, remembers when very young not only counting the number of presents that your siblings got for Christmas, but if there was a difference you kept one eye on their piles and the other on your own as they were being opened to make sure you weren’t shortchanged. As you continued to grow up and were involved in sports, if you didn’t get the position on the field that you wanted, chosen for the “All-Stars”, etc. you would seek to justify if the selection was “fair”, if whether or not the parent was on the board, etc. If you were one of the better athletes, it seemed unfair that the child who cared less, never tried hard, and was not very good received the same participation trophy that you did at the end of the year. Now much older the most popular term is “social justice”. Though there has certainly been inequities through the years, now the “fair” patrol feels they have the ability to administer justice and decide how to make things equitable. How about, seeing things from a different perspective. We are from a very young age and continuing on to this present age ungrateful, self-righteous sinners, deserving absolutely nothing. How about considering what we should be thankful for as we rightly assess ourselves, in light of His continuous mercy and grace, rather than desiring our own version of justice. How about we remain forever thankful that our Savior who never sinned in any way did not seek “fairness” but willingly offered up His own life so that we could have life. How about our Father who gave us everything that we see surrounding us from the sky, the earth, the sea, to our families and jobs, even to our very breath, and who we are really unable to give Him anything that He really needs, does not seek earthly fairness, but instead continues to lavish us with more and more out of His grace and mercy.
In the offerings of dedication of the tabernacle, we read in Numbers 7:4-9, “ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Receive their gifts, and use these oxen and wagons for transporting the Tabernacle. Distribute them among the Levites according to the work they have to do.” So Moses took the wagons and oxen and presented them to the Levites. He gave two wagons and four oxen to the Gershonite division for their work, and he gave four wagons and eight oxen to the Merarite division for their work. All their work was done under the leadership of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest. But he gave none of the wagons or oxen to the Kohathite division, since they were required to carry the sacred objects of the Tabernacle on their shoulders.” Three divisions of Levites, at first the distribution to the Gershonites seems “fair” and equal, but then the next group gets double and the last group gets none. It was distributed not according to some earthly sense of fairness or out of performance, but out of necessity.
There is a lot of anger these days. People are angry about the election. Some are angry about the virus and the response to it. Others seek justice in the areas of race, gender, or sexual orientation. So many people exerting their opinions based on their own sense of fairness. We would be wise to stop using our fingers to point or our fists to emphasize our point. Instead it would make more sense, realizing the ungrateful, self-righteous sinners that we all are, to use our open hands in praise to our Father who continues to lavishly give us those things that we don’t deserve, and our knees and perhaps our entire bodies as we bow down before our God in submission as we come before Him, thanking Him that He has chosen not to judge us according to what we deserve, but being covered by the blood of Jesus, He continues to offer us mercy. Praise God!!!
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: