Out of the Ordinary
Numbers 28:26
“On the day of the firstfruits, when you offer a grain offering of new grain to the LORD at your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work.”
Numbers 28 reads like a page copied and pasted from Leviticus, filled with specific ceremonial instructions for daily, monthly, and yearly sacrifices, in stark contrast to the previous portions that have read more as narrative and have included exceptional dialogues. But look above the specifics of this instruction, friend, above the particularities of this description relating to a Feast of Weeks, and simply ponder the deeper fact that when Almighty God establishes a symbolic means for His people to fellowship with Him in a special way, or in a way that’s set apart from the usual Monday-Friday routines, that work of worship we commence at the holy convocation is always extraordinary.
I wonder if the reason there are so many ‘dead’ churches in America, with congregations that seem half- asleep, and elder teams that refuse to alter the status quo, and ministries that remain insular to the church building rather than reaching society all round, isn’t so much due to bad theology but to bad perspective. After all, perspective is what makes a pursuit or breaks it, isn’t it? Think about it: If we get into a rut on Sunday mornings, or Wednesday nights, where we get dressed, lug our kids into the car, drive to church activities only because it’s a good thing to do, if it becomes utilitarian to us that is, like unloading the dishwasher or taking out the garbage or going through our kindergartener’s math homework, if even the ‘holy convocation’ becomes so ordinary as to be mundane, then the tangible, tactile operations of the local church will lose their purpose even if they maintain their functionality.
If nothing else, let Numbers 28 remind you of just how extraordinary a thing it is that there’s a little building in your town, maybe even your own home, where you can go to commune with brothers and sisters to worship the LORD! No matter how poor the music is or how bland the wafer is or how boring the preacher is, bring that perspective to the assembly. Recognize that what you’re doing is extraordinarily sacred and treat it as such.