Confusion in the Ministry (Judges 17:7-13)

2/25/2010 7:39 AM

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY

 

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  Confusion in the ministry

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Judges 17:7-13

 

            Message of the verses:  “7 ¶  Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was staying there. 8  Then the man departed from the city, from Bethlehem in Judah, to stay wherever he might find a place; and as he made his journey, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah. 9  Micah said to him, "Where do you come from?" And he said to him, "I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to stay wherever I may find a place." 10  Micah then said to him, "Dwell with me and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a suit of clothes, and your maintenance." So the Levite went in. 11  The Levite agreed to live with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. 12  So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in the house of Micah. 13  Then Micah said, ‘Now I know that the LORD will prosper me, seeing I have a Levite as priest.’”

            As stated in yesterday’s SD God has ordained  the home, human government and the ministry, of which were the OT, the covenant that was given to Israel through Moses, and then the NT, the covenant that was provided by the Lord Jesus Christ as spelled out in the NT.  The problem with Israel was that during this time of their history they were not following the rules that God has written for them as found in the books of Moses, and thus were finding themselves in a lot of trouble.  The portion of Scripture that I am dealing with today shows that Israel was not following the Laws that God had set up for ministry.

            The young man in the verses above who was from Bethlehem was named Jonathan as can be seen in Judges 18:30.  Dr. Wiersbe has a note to explain where Jonathan came from of which I will quote because I find it very interesting and helpful.  “In 18:30, Jonathan is identified as ‘the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh,’ which is impossible since Gershon was a son of Moses and didn’t belong to the tribe of Manasseh (Ex. 2:22; 1 Chron. 23:14-15).  A Levite would come from the tribe of Levi.  The addition of the letter n (nun in the Hebrew) to the name ‘Moses’ would change it to ‘Manasseh.’  In the Hebrew original, the nun is found above the line, showing that the letter was added to the text later.  Hebrew scholars believe that a scribe, zealous to protect the good name of Moses, changed the text so that there wouldn’t be an idolater in Moses’ family.  The scribe apparently forgot about Aaron.”  1 Chronicles 23:14-15 are very interesting verses to me for they show what happened to the sons of Moses:  “14  But as for Moses the man of God, his sons were named among the tribe of Levi. 15  The sons of Moses were Gershom and Eliezer.”  The verses following these give more info on the sons of Moses.

            According to the OT law the Levites were to live in certain cities in the nation of Israel in order to teach the people the Law of God, and Bethlehem was not one of those cities that Moses spoke of in his writings.  This young man was not living in the correct city and it was probably because the children of Israel were not supporting the Levites according to how the Law of God had set this up.  Instead of seeking the will of the Lord as to what he should do because he was not being supported the way that he was suppose to he decided to take out on his own and eventually joined up with Micah, who was a worshiper of idols even though he mentions the name of the Lord on different occasions.  Micah hired Jonathan to be his personal priest and so Jonathan would do as the one who was paying the bills told him to do.  A true shepherd of the Lord is called by the Lord and does the things that the Lord instructs him to do of which is written in His Word.  Jesus speaks of a hireling when He says, “11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12  "He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 “He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep” (John 10:11-13).  In this world that we live in today there are hirelings who are imposters of true shepherds, they are just like Jonathan who are in it for the money and not for the people.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I think that what I am learning for today’s section of Scripture is that there are times when life gets tough and that seems to be what happened to Jonathan, but it is how I handle those tough times will determine whether or not I choose to follow the Lord’s teachings or to go off on my own, which or course, is the wrong thing to do.  I have read or heard somewhere that living the Christian life is impossible, and I suppose living the Christian life correctly is impossible because of the sin nature that has been left behind after conversion, however I think that for myself I need to be perfectly going towards perfection in my walk with the Lord.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1. Be perfectly going towards perfection in my walk with the Lord today.

 

2/25/2010 8:40 AM