A Most Sacred Order
Numbers 3:6-7
“Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him. They shall keep guard over him and over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, as they minister at the tabernacle.”
Civics, Sociology, Political Science, and other related subjects boil down to an invisible order inscribed in our souls that we could label as ‘God, family, and country.’
If we get that sacred order wrong in our thinking and living, if we put our government’s welfare before our family wellbeing that is, or if we put our loyalty to family before our duty to God, then our society will err. A Christian who believes that seeking first political and economic stability is more expedient than seeking first Christ’s Kingdom, or a Christian who thinks that family is most important and sacrifices church ministry for ballgames and karate tournaments, will suffer disorder. Conversely, people who get the sacred order correct but the objects wrong also err. If their god is Molech or Zeus or Ra or a rainbow flag-wearing deity, then the family unit won’t mean a husband, a wife, and children all pursuing the likeness of Christ together, but it’ll be a man and ten women, or a man and a man, and children will be disposable. And the government won’t be a coalition of shepherds serving the common good, but a mafia of godless elites drunk with power and greed. Sadly, nearly every society from Alexander’s Greek empire to Amazonian tribes has lived out their own application of this divine pattern and nearly all of them have gotten either the sacred objects wrong, or the sacred order, or both.
That’s why this Numbers 3 commonwealth stands out. Here, a class of dedicated priestly servants are the ruling class. Here, the governmental system is based on divine law rather than warring parties. Here, a tent of meeting where God’s presence abides replaces a kingly palace. Here, war and commerce and trade are subservient to holy sacrament. This is a proper country, a rightly ordered constitution, a genuinely liberated nation, because God, family, and country are ordered and objectified correctly.
Today, as your resolution, re-order what you’ve gotten out of place, friend. Ask the LORD to sanctify concepts you’ve gotten wrong, and priorities too, so that you don’t stray further off track.