Today’s reading reminded me of a newly hired employee taking their office and trying to settle in. Aaron received his list of duties and responsibilities from the Lord, while Moses received instructions for the Levites from God.
“I give you all the finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain they give the Lord as the firstfruits of their harvest. All the lands firstfruits that they bring to the Lord will be yours. Everyone in your household who is ceremonially clean may eat it.”
Provision was made not only for the priests, but for their families as well. Since the best items were to be given to the Lord, these became special foods for the priests and their families. This demonstrates that those who minister the word of God ought to be paid suitably for their work.
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Levites and say to them: ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the Lord’s offering.'”
The Israelites were to give their best to the Levites, and within those tithes, the Levites were to present their best to the Lord. This reminded me that God not only deserves our best, but the best of the best.
Lock Your Wings 
…. But be careful not to treat the holy gifts of the people of Israel as though they were common. If you do, you will die.””
Numbers 18:32 NLT
We talked about first world problems today and this verse made me think of that. Sometimes we are so focused on the insignificant details that we forget the big picture and that the insignificant things are really not such a big deal. For example a dishwasher that can be fixed but the fixing of it takes time and that’s an inconvenience. We don’t often think about the fact that many people don’t even have a dishwasher. I think this verse is reminding us that the opposite is also true. We can get so used to the big things that we forget just how big they are. For example: salvation. For those who grow up in the church without a huge conversation testimony, we might not even value the grace offered because we’ve always known about God’s mercy.
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