Commentary on "A New Order"

COLLEEN TINKER

 

Day 5: Wednesday, September 30, 2009

 

In today’s lesson the author discusses God’s request that Israel’s firstborn be dedicated to Him, and the subsequent provision for the redemption of the firstborn by the special dedication of the tribe of Levi to the service of God in the tabernacle

The family of Aaron was selected from the tribe of Levi to be priests for Israel; the rest of the Levites had specific duties assigned to the various family groups, and they carried the tabernacle when it moved and cared for the furnishings.

The author further points out that as time passed, some Levites became teachers, and other became judges.

The lesson also points out that these provisions to substitute the Levites and the redemption offerings for the required firstborn prefigured Jesus’ substitution for us.

 

Problems

The lesson makes logical points, but in the teachers comments, the scrutiny of the role of the Levites become trivialized. It points out that priests became teachers, judges, caretakers, and spiritual intermediaries, and it poses hypothetical situations involving disasters and social problems and asks the class to identify which priestly role is needed in each situation.

Believers, as born-again priests of God, carry the presence of Jesus into every situation they encounter. We are to surrender our rights to protect ourselves and to respond according to our own ideas of what is needed. Instead, we are to live by the Spirit (as per Romans 8) and bring God’s own will and healing into situations. We are not able to formulate plans and methods and suppose that these will meet the needs we face. We must surrender our ideas and drives and impulses to the Lord Jesus and submit to His wisdom and leading.

To be sure, the substitutionary rituals redeeming the firstborn in Israel prefigured the Lord Jesus. His substitution of Himself redeems all of our sin. His perfection and intrinsic spiritual substitutes for my depravity. His sinless obedience substitutes for my willfulness. His death substitutes for my death. In every way Jesus’ life and death substitutes for mine. He is not primarily my example; He is completely my substitute. I am saved when I acknowledge my helpless depravity and surrender my life to Him, accepting His blood as the payment for my sin, and accepting His resurrection power as my new life.

 

Summary

1. The subsitutionary rituals redeeming Israel’s firstborn prefigured Jesus’ substitution of Himself for us.
2. The priestly role believers have is accomplished by our surrender of ourselves to God and learning to live by the Spirit instead of by the flesh. We do not accomplish God’s will by devising plans and asking God to bless them. Rather, we perform our true priestly function when we submit our lives and plans to Him and allow Him to bring us His work and give us His own spiritual discernment.
3. Jesus innate sinlessness and spiritual life substitutes for my depravity, and His death secures my forgiveness; the Spirit that raised Him from the dead raises me from spiritual death and grants me eternal life.

 

GO TO DAY 6

 

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