'All that enter in to perform the service, to do the
work in the tabernacle.'
NUM. iv. 23.
These words occur in the series of regulations as to the functions of
the Levites in the Tabernacle worship. The words 'to perform the
service' are, as the margin tells us, literally, to 'war the warfare.'
Although it may be difficult to say why such very prosaic and homely
work as carrying the materials of the Tabernacle and the sacrificial
vessels was designated by such a term, the underlying suggestion is
what I desire to fix upon now--viz., that work for God, of whatever
kind it be, which Christian people are bound to do, and which is mainly
service for men for God's sake, will never be rightly done until we
understand that it is a _warfare_, as well as a work.
The phrase on which I am commenting occurs again and again in the
regulations as to the Levitical service, and is applied, not only as in
my text to those who were told off to bear the burdens on the march,
but also to the whole body of Levites, who did the inferior services in
connection with the ritual worship. They were not, as it would appear,
sacrificing priests, but they belonged to the same tribe as these, and
they had sacred functions to discharge. So we come to this principle,
that Christian service is to be looked at as warfare.
Now, that is a principle which ought to be applied to all Christians.
For there is no such thing as designating a portion of Christ's Church
to service which others have not to perform. The distinction of
'priest' and 'layman' existed in the Old Testament; it does not exist
under the New Covenant, and there is no obligation upon any one
Christian man to devote himself for Christ's sake to Christ's service
and man's help (which is Christ's service), that does not lie equally
upon all Christian people. The function is the same for all; the
methods of discharging it may be widely different. Within the limits of
the priestly tribe there may still be those whose office it is to carry
the vessels, and those whose office it is to act more especially as
ministering priests; but they are all 'of the tribe of Levi.' We, if we
are Christian people at all, are all bound to do this work of 'the
tabernacle,' and war this warfare.
It is important that we Christian people should elevate our thoughts of
our duties in the world to the height of this great metaphor. The
metaphor of the Christian life as being a 'warfare' is familiar enough,
but that is not exactly the point which I wish to dwell upon now. When
we speak about 'fighting the good fight of faith,' we generally mean
our wrestle and struggle with our own evils and with the things that
hinder us from developing a Christlike character, and 'growing in the
grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' But it is
another sort of warfare about which I am now speaking, the warfare
which every Christian man has to wage who flings himself into the work
of diminishing the world's miseries and sins, and tries to make people
better, and happier because they are better. That is a fight, and will
always be so, if it is rightly done.