Deuteronomy 10:1-11;Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Bless the LORD, O House of Levi!

Preached at Sycamore RPC

Kokomo, IN

November 11, 2001

Scripture Text

At that time the LORD said to me, ‘Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood for yourself.  2 ‘I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered, and you shall put them in the ark.’  3 “So I made an ark of acacia wood and cut out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.  4 “He wrote on the tablets, like the former writing, the Ten Commandments which the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the LORD gave them to me.  5 “Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are, as the LORD commanded me.”

6 (Now the sons of Israel set out from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and there he was buried and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his place.  7 From there they set out to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water.  8 At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to serve Him and to bless in His name until this day.  9 Therefore, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance with his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, just as the LORD your God spoke to him.)

10 “I, moreover, stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time, and the LORD listened to me that time also; the LORD was not willing to destroy you.  11 “Then the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, proceed on your journey ahead of the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

How are we going to be able to sing Psalm 135?

You see, in a little while after the sermon we are going to sing it. If you participate, you are going to have to take these words upon your lips:

“Bless the LORD, O house of Isr’el!

House of Aaron, bless the LORD!

Bless the LORD, O house of Levi!

All who fear Him, bless the LORD!”

Jesus put away the Aaronic priesthood. He came as our great high priest in the order of Melchizedek as we read in Hebrews. How can you then sing to the house of Aaron? How can you now tell the house of Levi, in the new covenant age a tribe that has been lost, to “bless the LORD?” Perhaps we have overcome our dispensationalism enough to think of the church when we tell the house of Israel to bless the Lord, but Aaron? Levi? Do we not need to face the predicament that maybe these psalms are a bit outdated after all, like everyone tries to tell us?

Believe it or not, we are going to see this morning how this relates to an even greater dilemma that’s before us in this passage. You will recall from our study of the last few weeks that in this section of Deuteronomy Moses was exhorting the people to faithfulness to God’s word as summarized in the Ten Commandments. They were preparing to go into the land of promise. It would only be by OBEDIENCE to their covenant LORD that they would destroy the great giant people, the Anakim, dwelling in the land. Yet in the midst of this exhortation Moses had reminded them of the incident with the golden calf. Before the presence of God on Mt. Sinai they had worshipped an idol. Indeed, rather than using Israel to destroy the wicked, Israel was in danger of God destroying them because of their unfaithfulness (see verse 9:19).

We have seen through this study how covenant breakers, those that appear to be among God’s people but show otherwise by their behavior, are not immune to the judgments of God. Since the horrible day of September 11 th, we have seen how America, and the churches that dwell in it, are not immune from God’s fierce anger. Our idolatry, our love for other gods like Allah (called “pluralism” or “multiculturalism” by our nation), is under judgment. Last week we left Moses pleading for forty days and nights for the people’s life as a nation. As we pick back up this story, Moses is explaining what then happened. The quandary the people of God were in only intensifies, and as you look you will see it one that is before you this day and before our nation.

Moses is getting ready to tell them to obey again (verse 12). How can you really expect God’s blessings, especially when you do not obey very faithfully?

I. The Dilemma before you:

Moses now presents this dilemma to the people. Let us first consider “The Dilemma Explained.”

In verse one, as the LORD commands Moses to cut two tablets of stone for the Ten Commandments, understand this is the second time God has issued this command. “Cut out for yourselves two tablets of stone like the former ones.” Let us consider what this means.

First ones were broken. You will recall how that happened. When Moses came down off the mountain, and saw the people engaged in their idolatry, he lifted these tablets over his head and smashed them on the rocks. This was not just a fit of anger on the part of Moses, but it was an effective sermon illustration. The people had broken God’s law. Though they had swore to obey their glorious God in a holy ceremony forty days prior to this, a ceremony where blood had been sprinkled upon them, they had failed in its most basic requirement. They had returned to the gods of Egypt and, worse yet, called those gods by the name of the LORD. God wanted to destroy them.

Do you know that He also wants to destroy our nation as well? Clear thinking seems to be in short supply these days. When at the National Day of Prayer our government and church leaders called on Jesus and Allah in the same breath, some have shown how this was a promotion of the spirit of the antichrist by our major religious and political leaders, from Billy Graham to our president. Muslims say clearly in their pillar of faith that there is only one God, Allah, who has no son. But Christians are to say that there is only one triune God who has been revealed to us in His Son. To give any honor at all to Islam is to deny Christ. I John 2:22 “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.” When we stand up and give any allegiance whatsoever to Allah, we have denied Christ.

Do we understand what we are doing? Our civil and spiritual leaders have done that openly, boldly, broadcasting it around the nation and the world, and they and the people they represent are in danger of the fierce anger of God. For what happens to nations who do this? Psalm 2, speaking of the nations working against Christ, ends by saying:

“Now therefore, be wise, O kings;

Be instructed, you judges of the earth.

Serve the LORD with fear,

And rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,

And you perish in the way,

When His wrath is kindled but a little.

Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.”

Just because we are Americans, we are not immune to what we are doing.

It appears that American Christians are trying to shelter themselves from the fierce anger of God with theological ignorance. Our understanding of God, our theological depth as a nation, can be summarized by this: “Rules are made to be broken.” That’s our faith. We make it sound better by reciting the mantra “we are not under law but under grace,” meaning when we say it “rules are made to be broken.” Man’s rules perhaps, but not God’s rules. God wrote these laws on two tablets (verses 3-4). This was not division of the law into two parts as is commonly portrayed in illustrations, with the first four or five on one tablet and the rest on the other. Most likely Moses held two copies of the law as two witnesses. In the covenants parties made during the Old Testament era, each party would place a copy of the covenant in the temple of their god. If one party violated the conditions of the covenant, in effect you were calling the wrath of the other party’s god upon you. Note here that the tablets were placed in the ark (verse 5). This are represented the throne of God. Psalm 132 says:

“Let us go into His tabernacle;

Let us worship at His footstool.

Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place,

You and the ark of Your strength.”

Do we understand what this all means? Those who break the law of God are denying His right to rule over them by His word. Those people are calling the covenant curses of God down upon them. That is what Moses is reminding Israel of here. They had been in danger of complete destruction. Our nation has experienced a judgment for our failure to honor God, and what has been our response? Repentance? Honoring Christ? No! I’m afraid we have only heard the first thunderclap.

But this is only the beginning of the dilemma. Now consider “The Dilemma Compounded”. For people had a high priest who could mediate for them, help them and offer sacrifices for them during times of sin and distress. But Moses is pointing out something here. Look at verses 6-7.

The long and short of it is that Aaron died. This parenthetical comment stated here to emphasize that God judged Aaron by not letting him into Promised Land (See 9:20). The one who was to stand before the LORD was not able to do it for Israel on this occasion. That is the problem with the priesthood. The men were sinners and they died. They had to not only offer sacrifices for the people, but for themselves (Hebrews 4:3). Like Aaron, priests often led the people into sin.

That is what our spiritual leaders are doing. They are blind guides of the blind, leading people into further sin and the pit. They are men who will die. What are we to do?

Moses also gives “The Dilemma Resolved.” Look at verse 10. Moses says, “The LORD listened to me, and you were not destroyed.” Moses was not high priest, but in his intercession typified a greater prophet and priest who was to come. Moses pled on behalf of the people, and God turned away His wrath. Note that this was according to God’s design – He chose Moses for this very position:

“Yet they at Horeb made a calf,

Before an image kneeled;

They made their glory like an ox

That eats grass in the field.

Then God their Savior they forgot,

Great things in Egypt done,

In Ham’s land, by the Sea of Reeds,

His awesome deeds each one.

He said He’d cut them off, unless

Before Him in the way

He’d chosen Moses there to stand

And turn His wrath away.”

That is why we call Jesus “the Christ.” He was anointed or chosen by God to the office of priest and king over His people. Like Moses, Jesus was chosen to turn God’s wrath away. In Hebrews 4:15 we read “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus was greater than the Levitical priesthood, for He was a priest according to order of Melchizedek (a priesthood in which a man was allowed to be both priest and king, to be both man and deity).

To call on Allah or Buddha is to deny the sufficiency, supremacy, and matchless honor due to Jesus the Christ. Yes, He can turn away the wrath of God. But only He can, and that’s the point. “He was a Son,… and having been made perfect He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.” Obedience to Him and Him alone is the issue.

We must obey Him. This places upon us sacred duties. Though Moses has reminded them of the dilemma they had been in, he is also reminding them of the sacred obligations now laid upon them and the Levitical priesthood.

II. The Duty before you:

Jesus superceded the Levitical priesthood of Aaron, abrogating its form by His perfect offering as the Son of God. But beloved, because the form of the priesthood was abrogated, that does not mean its substance was. The church has now become the priests of God serving under the high priest Jesus.

• I Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know you are a temple of the living God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
• I Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people for God’s own possession...”
• Revelations 1:5-6 “He loved us, releasing us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father”

You have then as priests “The Duty to Carry.” Consider verse 8. The Levites were set apart to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD. Recall that as Israel crossed the Jordan River, the priests were carrying the ark. “ And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.” This dramatic display of power was to show Israel and the Canaanites they were about to invade that the LORD was upon His throne, coming to rule over the Promised Land. God had promised the people that “wherever the soul of your foot treads, I will give you the land.” The priests carrying the ark as they led the people into the land showing that. Upon having the land conquered, the priests then were scattered throughout Israel to teach people laws contained in that ark (see verse 9).

If you are now the priests, then where is the ark you are to be carrying? You carry that law in your heart, written on its walls by the Holy Spirit, the inner sanctum where Jesus Christ is enthroned. When the Scriptures teach that the law is no longer written on tablets of stone, it is not teaching that the commandments then have been put away. No! The glory is that they are now written in us! As His priests, we have the duty to carry these commandments to this nation and tell them that the LORD is on His throne. Our word to this land must be, “We obey the enthroned Christ, and we have life. So must you.”

For you see, you also have “The Duty to Bless.” Verse 8 says the Levites were to stand before the LORD and “bless in His name.” We are reminded of this service that is upon us in Psalm 134:

“ Behold, bless the LORD,

All you servants of the LORD,

Who by night stand in the house of the LORD!

Lift up your hands in the sanctuary,

And bless the LORD.

The LORD who made heaven and earth

Bless you from Zion!”

We are to call the people to bless the LORD, and when they respond, to speak God’s blessing unto them. Those words in “our ark’ are not to remain there, but to be spoken to the nation. The LORD has given us the power of His gospel word to speak, and when we as priests speak to people this gospel, it is the very word of God that is spoken. The Apostle Paul said in I Thessalonians 2:13 “for this reason we thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectively works in you who believe.” Have you ever considered the power you have by virtue of the Holy Spirit to speak as a priest the very word of God on behalf of God? You have the duty to bless others with your words. Consider that sacred duty as you speak to others in your workplace, neighborhood or family.

You also have “The Duty to Possess.” Read again verse 11. This is similar to the instruction we hear the LORD give Joshua in Joshua 1:8-9:

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Christians must see that to disciple a nation means to exercise authority over it. I did not say to seize authority, but to exercise the authority as God’s priests that we already have. In the name of God, we come to our fellow citizens and speak on behalf of God by instructing them in His ways. As we are humble and faithful to do that, the LORD of all authority will grant His godly servants access to positions of influence. He decrees that the meek shall inherit the earth, that His people are to possess the land (again verse 11). This is foreign to the retreatist thinking of many believers. Better godly Christians possess it than the pagan or the Muslim.

I have been thankful for the emphasis on a “Modern Reformation” being encouraged by many leading evangelicals, but one of the subtle dangers in the movement is in trying to fight the battles of the 16 th century and not engaging in the ones of the 21 st. The church needs to fight the battles of today. The reformation church had to see people set free from bondage and every form of legalism invented by man. So they emphasized justification by faith and the doctrines of grace. Sadly, some think that is all there is to reformation. Yet without losing those doctrines, we need to go on like the catechisms do and bring to bear the sanctifying law of God on the church and in our nation. Emphasizing the doctrines of grace to the exclusion of addressing the place of law in the church and society creates pietistic retreatist doctrine that loses the note of triumph the gospel is to have.

Beloved, we have been set free from our dilemma. Now it is your duty O Levites, you house of Aaron, to bless the LORD and make His name a blessing among the people!