It’s often said, “There’s no retirement in the Bible!” It’s a good sentiment: we should be about God’s work as long as he leaves us here. The statement itself, however, is not quite true:

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “This applies to the Levites: from twenty-five years old and upward they shall come to do duty in the service of the tent of meeting. And from the age of fifty years they shall withdraw from the duty of the service and serve no more. They minister to their brothers in the tent of meeting by keeping guard, but they shall do no service. Thus shall you do to the Levites in assigning their duties.” (Numbers 8.23 – 26, ESV)

The Levites served on active duty from age 25 – 50. Their duties were physical: moving the tabernacle and its furniture.

All those who were listed of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron and the chiefs of Israel listed, by their clans and their fathers’ houses, from thirty years old up to fifty years old, everyone who could come to do the service of ministry and the service of bearing burdens in the tent of meeting, those listed were 8,580. According to the commandment of the LORD through Moses they were listed, each one with his task of serving or carrying. Thus they were listed by him, as the LORD commanded Moses. (Numbers 4.46 – 49, ESV)

As an aside, note that in chapter 4 it’s age 30 – 50. In chapter 8, it’s 25 – 50. There are opinions on this discrepancy. The most reasonable appears to be that the first five years were training or doing support work. At age 30, they actually began carrying things.

In many churches and Christian organizations, people stay too long in leadership positions: the senior pastor who won’t retire, the church organist who won’t step down. (Political leaders from both major parties seem to share this problem!) This text in Numbers, while not a literal command to us today (it was guidance for the Levites!) seems to suggest that as we age, our roles should become advisory and supportive.

They may minister to their brothers… (Numbers 8.26)

Imagine the 49-year-old Levite with nearly 20 years’ experience. One day he’s the ranking guy on the team of Koathites, say, who’s in charge of carrying the Tabernacle furniture. The next day is his 50th birthday. Now he gets to serve the younger men. We move from being the doer to being the advisor and cheerleader.

I meet regularly with a young man who serves on the staff of an international youth ministry. He also is often the featured speaker at youth conferences. I wouldn’t be any good at either of those jobs, but I get to process life and ministry with him.

On a related subject, I saw this quote a few weeks ago:

The goal is to design a life that you don’t need to retire from. – Sahil Bloom, The Retirement Trap

I commend the article to you in its entirety. Maybe I’ll write something on it in the future.

In the meantime, maybe we should all give ourselves to “age-appropriate ministry” – a term I just coined! And part of our ministry at any age is to train the next generation. After all, if I KNOW that I’m not going to serve forever, best I train others, yes?

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. (Titus 2.3 – 5, NIV)

Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office. (Hebrews 7.23, NIV)

In Numbers 1, we saw a repeating series of paragraphs counting warriors. In Numbers 7, we have another repeating section, this one counting offerings. Here’s the first such paragraph:

Now the one who brought his offering near on the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah; and his offering was

• one silver dish whose weight was 130 shekels,
• one silver bowl of 70 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary,
  • both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering;
• one gold pan of 10 shekels, full of incense;
• one bull from the herd,
• one ram,
• one male lamb one year old, for a burnt offering;
• one male goat for a sin offering;
• and for the sacrifice of peace offerings,
  • two oxen,
  • five rams,
  • five male goats,
  • five male lambs one year old.

This was the offering of Nahshon the son of Amminadab. (Numbers 7.12 – 17, LSB, bulleted for clarity)

There are twelve such paragraphs, identical except for the names of the tribes and their leaders. PLUS, there’s a summary paragraph relisting all the gifts x 12.

I call it repetitive. I used to teach writing, and we valued conciseness. There are so many ways to “improve” this chapter, aren’t there? For example, we could write the paragraph above, and then say something like, “And all the other leaders of the tribes brought identical offerings on the following days. And here’s a list of those tribes and their leaders.”

The Book of Numbers doesn’t do it that way. Each day’s offering is listed in full as if it’s the only one. Even though there is a total given at the end, meaning the aggregate of the offerings counts, each day’s offering is given individual attention. Each on a different day: day 1 through day 12.

God treats each of us as special and joyfully accepts our offerings. And the promise is, God loves and blesses the *individual* cheerful giver:

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9.7, 8, ESV, emphasis mine)

It’s College Football season, and I’ll try not to devote too much space to it, but two stories from the opening weekend stand out and make the same point.

First was the University of Colorado’s (CU) stunning upset of Texas Christian (TCU). TCU was favored by three touchdowns. CU won the game 45 – 42. The pundits were shocked, and the praise has been unending. I live in Colorado so I’ve watched CU’s attempt to recover from a 1 – 11 season last year – not a typo – worst record in all of college football. Their hopes were pinned to the charismatic, flamboyant Deion Sanders, “Coach Prime.” Here’s how ESPN writer David Hale described how “we” (ESPN experts) blew it:

We doubted.

Who wouldn’t have doubted this Colorado team? All the hoopla and hype in the world couldn’t erase the utter catastrophe of 2022, when the Buffaloes were 1-11 with seven losses by at least 30 points.

We lectured.

Of course we lectured. Deion Sanders essentially upended every lofty, moral (and, yes, utterly ridiculous) notion of genuine amateurism by effectively cutting two-thirds of this team upon arrival. If Coach Prime had a constant megaphone to tout his new approach to roster building, we could at least use our soapbox to argue against it.

We learned.

Oh, yes, we learned so much Saturday, and we came away looking like fools after Colorado beat TCU, last year’s national runner-up, 45 – 42 in Sanders’ first game as the Buffaloes’ head coach.

The article goes on, and I recommend it in its entirety if you care about such things: College football Week 1 highlights: Top plays, games, takeaways.

The second story is LSU falling to Florida State 45 – 24, after being outscored in the second half 31 – 7. LSU was ranked #5 to Florida State’s #8. It should have been a closer game. LSU Coach Chip Kelly summed it up:

How do we handle this? Is this who we want to be, or do we look at this and say this isn’t the kind of football team we want to be. When you have those kinds of losses, they are disappointing, and in some instances, they are devastating losses, but it’s how you respond to them. They have a chance to respond to this very disappointing performance in the second half.

So the choices they will have to make will be ones that start tomorrow.

The lessons for both CU and LSU are the same. Forget the past as the Apostle Paul wrote:

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,… (Philippians 3.13, ESV)

CU has another game coming up Saturday. Last Saturday’s game is gone. Their opposition, Nebraska, has game film to look at, and both teams have exactly one week to prepare. In addition, CU has the burden of not believing their own press reports. This week’s gushing by the sports world will not win Saturday’s game.

LSU has, as their coach said, choices to make. Will they wallow in their Sunday night failure, or will they regroup?

Both teams have some forgetting to do. What about us? Do we bask in past glory? Telling stories about how God worked 10, 20, 30 years ago? Or are we still upset about some failure?

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way. (Philippians 3.13 – 15, ESV)

Or, as we like to say, it’s our 660th monthiversary!

Picture made at Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park, near Mount Rushmore, August 3, 2023.

An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.
The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. (Proverbs 31.10 – 11, ESV)

It’s not often (in fact I can’t ever remember doing this!), that I write a sermon and then change it the day before. In this case, same title, just a different emphasis. Yesterday, I shared the abbreviated version of what I preached Sunday. Today, I’ll share the abbreviated version of what I didn’t preach – it will make a good sermon for another day.

It starts the same:

Let’s flip the script, and instead of talking about taking our faith to work, let’s think about bringing work to our faith.

By that I mean, “church” often carries a different set of rules from “work.” People can walk into a church on Sunday morning, turn off their brains, zone out, and walk out an hour later. That sort of behavior wouldn’t go over well at work. When folks work, there is…

• Commitment, which leads to…
• Competence, which isn’t sufficient without…
• Character. We develop Competence and Character through…
• Companionship (meaning one person “trains” another, but “training” doesn’t start with “C”!)

…and all of those things need to characterize our walk with God.

This story captures the essence:

George was a house-builder in Montgomery, AL, and by his own admission, life wasn’t going well for him. In July 2001, a friend, in the time-honored tradition of that part of the country, invited George to church. George wouldn’t agree to go until he found out that he didn’t have to wear a tie or sit in a comfortable pew where he might fall asleep! The service was a newly offered “contemporary” service, meeting in a fellowship hall furnished with the world’s most uncomfortable folding chairs.

George listened to the sermons, came back for more and started attending a men’s Bible study meeting at the church on Tuesdays at 6am. In December, at the Tuesday morning study, we presented the gospel clearly: “You can’t be good enough to earn God’s favor, but Jesus died on the cross so you can share his life. ‘The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Romans 6.23.” George formally committed his life to Jesus and continued his commitment, bringing work to his faith. He grew in competence as he learned more about scripture and put it into practice. And his character improved to the point that his subs, the guys he built houses with, noticed that George was nicer, not so short-tempered as he was.

About a year later, in January 2003, I said, “George, you need to think about passing on what you’re learning to others.” In the language of this outline, “Be a companion!” His immediate response was that he wasn’t a public speaker. I explained that he didn’t need to be a public speaker; he just needed to share what he was learning over a cup of coffee.

So George went to a Christian bookstore, purchased some Bible study books, went to Hardy’s for some breakfast biscuits and invited his sub-contractors over to his house for breakfast and Bible study.

The last time I saw him, after we’d already moved back to Colorado, it was 8am on a Tuesday morning, George was meeting with 25 men in a clubhouse that they built. Of course, he’s not a public speaker! But he is a companion. He also prays with subs and employees in his office when they need it.

When Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few,” I think he’s saying, “Where are my Georges?” Jesus is looking for men and women who will bring work to their faith and then, of course, take their faith to work!

I wrote yesterday about sharing with the folks at our church Sunday about the importance of work.

• You serve God by your work. Your work is a continuation of God’s work in the world.
• You serve people at your work: your clients and co-workers
• If you do #1 and #2 well, you can advance the Kingdom from your work.

Then I flipped the script and suggested that in addition to “taking our faith to work,” we ought to “bring work to our faith.” Our church is experiencing loss because our pastor is being treated for advanced cancer. I told the folks:

Coming here used to be routine. We come, Pastor Dave is here to challenge and encourage us, and, as only he can, love on us, and now he’s not here. Our faith requires a little more work these days. – Bob, in a sermon, September 3, 2023

I reminded us that life has always been tough and believing in Jesus doesn’t change that. Paul finished his letter to the Ephesians with these words:

God is strong, and he wants you strong…This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. (Ephesians 6.10 – 13, MSG)

I then suggested a few folks who brought work to their faith:

• The Apostle Paul: commitment

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.12 – 14, ESV, emphasis mine)

• Epaphroditus: service

I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. (Philippians 2.25 – 30, ESV)

• Epaphras: prayer

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. (Colossians 4.12, 13, ESV, emphasis mine)

You can listen to the sermon at mcpcusa.org. It’s the whole service: the sermon itself runs from about the 19-minute mark to the 41-minute mark.

Our pastor asked me to preach yesterday, and I opened the way I usually do on Labor Day, talking about the importance of work. I told them:

• You serve God by your work. Your work is a continuation of God’s work in the world.
• You serve people at your work: your clients and co-workers
• If you do #1 and #2 well, you can advance the Kingdom from your work.

Then I flipped the script. Stay tuned.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. (Genesis 2.1 – 3, ESV)

Six days you shall labor, and do all your work… (Exodus 20.9, ESV. Also Exodus 23.12, 31.15, 34.21, 35.2, Leviticus 23.3, Deuteronomy 5.13)

Yesterday we looked at The Navigators’ Prayer Hand, which reminds us of the basic elements to include in our praying. One of those elements was “Intercession.” Today, I’ll share with you a tool I just learned about that suggests how we might intercede.

My friend and former pastor John Ed Mathison is still going strong at age 85. Maybe part of the reason for that is his father, “Brother Si” Mathison preached into his 90s. Recently, John Ed shared his father’s teaching on prayer. I worked for John Ed for five years and heard his dad preach several times, but never this sermon.

John Ed writes:

[Brother Si] preached almost every Sunday until he was over 90 years old. He had one sermon that he preached hundreds of times. He called it the “5-Finger Prayer Plan.” It was his plan for praying.

He would hold up his hand and say…

1. The Thumb is closest to you, so prayer begins with members of your family, small groups, and close friends, etc.
2. The Pointing Finger. This is the one we use to point to people or to give directions. Pray for all people in places of leadership, politically, religiously, economically, etc. Pray for our leaders who are pointing out the way that we need to go. Pray for teachers and preachers who are pointing to the truths of life.
3. The Longest Finger. When you hold up your hand, the middle finger is the longest. Pray for people who can make the longest, lasting influence. Pray for the difference-makers you know.
4. The Ring Finger. We are told that this is our weakest finger. Pray for the poor, the weak, the handicapped, the homeless, etc. It also bears the wedding ring, so pray for your spouse.
5. The Pinkie Finger. This is the smallest finger. This is a time to pray for yourself. When we learn to pray for others before we pray for ourselves, it puts us in a better position to ask God to take our small gifts and turn them into big opportunities. Pray that you may decrease in order for Him to increase!

This was my Dad’s plan for praying. He used it every day. He preached about it everywhere. – The Five Finger Prayer Plan, John Ed Mathison, August 16, 2023

I recommend the short article in its entirety. John Ed closes with:

I commend [the Five-Finger Prayer Plan] to you. Look at your hand every day and be reminded of how to pray. This plan will help you concentrate, be specific, be inclusive, and learn about God’s plan and purpose for you.

The Apostle Paul was big on prayer:

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. (1 Timothy 2.1, 2, NIV, emphasis mine)

Sometimes it’s good to go back to basics, yes? And as we move into September, as much a “new year” as January 1 in some ways, let’s resolve to be more consistent in our prayer life. I know I need to do that.

I have two “Prayer Hand” illustrations: one from The Navigators and another that I’ll share tomorrow.

Today: The Navigators Prayer Hand:

It’s pretty simple, encouraging us in five elements of prayer:

• Confession (1 John 1.9)
• Petition (prayer for ourselves) (1 Samuel 1.27)
• Intercession (prayer for others) (Ephesians 6.18, 19)
• Thanksgiving (Ephesians 5.20)
• Praise (Psalm 146.1, 2)

There is more detail here: The Navigators Prayer Hand. It’s free to download and share.

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11.1, NIV)

As move into Numbers, it starts with some of the same kind of difficult and tedious material we had in Exodus (we’ll get to some narrative soon). In the meantime, chapter six ends with a bright spot: the Aaronic blessing:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,

• The LORD bless you and keep you;
• the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
• the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

“So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” (Numbers 6.22 – 27, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

When I read it, I said to myself, we probably ought to be blessing each other like this more than we do. I also thought, I’ll bet there’s a New Testament counterpart to this blessing. And, I was right. Right after I read it Christianity Today came out with an article linking the blessing with the way Paul opened his epistles. It opens:

In many parts of the world today, it is normal to begin by asking about the well-being of the recipient’s whole family; in the individualistic West, that is much less common. Our greetings communicate more than we realize.

One of the most striking examples of this in history, and certainly the most theologically significant, is in Paul’s epistles. In the first-century Greco-Roman world, letters opened in a standard format. You would give your name, then the name or names of whomever you were addressing, and then a one-word greeting: “Hilarion, to his sister Alis, many greetings.” Several letters in the New Testament follow this pattern exactly (Acts 15:23; 23:26; James 1:1).

But Paul (and subsequently Peter) developed a modified introduction. After identifying himself and the church he was addressing, he would offer “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” – Paul Put His Own Stamp on the Ancient Pattern of Opening and Closing Letters, Andrew Wilson, August 14, 2023

I checked: of 13 epistles (we don’t know who wrote Hebrews), 8 of them use those words exactly: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Three more have something very close, one leaves out Jesus, and his first epistle (we’re told), 1 Thessalonians, says only, “Grace to you and peace.” So all 13 say, “Grace and peace” in that order.

Mr Wilson makes the connection to the Aaronic blessing:

But there is another layer to the “Grace and peace” introduction. It looks very much like a deliberate reworking of Aaron’s blessing in Numbers 6:24–26. For over a thousand years, Israel’s priests had blessed the people by asking that God would “make his face shine” upon them, “be gracious” to them, “turn his face” toward them, and give them “peace.” By starting all his letters with grace and peace from God and the Lord Jesus, Paul appears to be condensing and Christianizing the Aaronic blessing. God still wants to “bless” and “keep” his people, but now the blessing includes Gentile believers, and it comes from God the Son as well as God the Father.

I’ll close with it:

• The LORD bless you and keep you;
• the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
• the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

The Lord…be gracious to you…and give you peace. (Numbers 6.25, 26)

Grace to you and peace.

(Romans 1.7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1.2, Galatians 1.3, Ephesians 1.2, Philippians 1.2, Colossians 1.2, 1 Thessalonians 1.2, 2 Thessalonians 1.2, 1 Timothy 1.2, 2 Timothy 1.2, Titus 1.4, Philemon 1.3)