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Numbers 18; Fear the Lord; The Lord is My Portion
2026.04.26 Numbers 18; Fear the Lord; The Lord is My Portion; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20260426_numbers-18.mp3
Holy Justice
Last time we saw 14,700 people experience the wrath of God and die because of their hard rebellious hearts, before Aaron was able to take his stand between the dead and the living and make atonement. They all deserved to die, but God listened to the prayers of his servants, and turned away his wrath.
The Lord is fully able to fulfill all his promises. He brought his people to the border of his promised land, and promised to go before them and drive out the inhabitants and give them victory over an enemy greater and more powerful than themselves. But they refused God’s promises, rejected his leaders, desired a return to slavery, and now God’s chosen people began to experience the hand of the Lord turning against them rather than their enemies.
Many people reading the Old Testament struggle with God wiping out entire people groups. That doesn’t seem fair. But it’s important to recognize that he waited over 400 years to wipe out the inhabitants of the land, ‘because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete’ (Gen.15:16); he was giving them time, gracious time to repent. And when his people did enter the land under Joshua, those of their enemies (like Rahab) who turned away from their false gods to embrace YHWH as their God were spared, even welcomed. We see here in Numbers that the Lord is not discriminating ethnically; the inhabitants of the land will be punished for their sin and rebellion against God; and so will his own chosen people when they rebel and sin against God. The wages of sin is death.
We All Deserve to Die
We saw last time that 2 Corinthians 4 calls the Law ‘the ministry of condemnation’; ‘the ministry of death’, ‘the letter’ which ‘kills’ (2Cor.4:6-7,9). As Paul says to the Jews of his day in Romans 2:
Romans 2:2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? …5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
He says in Romans 3
Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
In Numbers 17 God’s own rebellious people begin to see the wages of their own sins when 14,700 of them are struck down, and Numbers 17 ends with the cry of the people:
Numbers 17:12 And the people of Israel said to Moses, “Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. 13 Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the LORD, shall die. Are we all to perish?”
God’s holy presence is dangerous! We all deserve to die! That’s true. The fear of YHWH is the beginning of wisdom. Anyone who claims to have a relationship with God which does not include a holy fear of the Lord, either doesn’t really have that relationship, or they’ve got the wrong god.
God’s Provision of a Mediator
Are we all to die? Chapters 18-19 go on to answer this question for Israel; God appointed the Priests, supported by the other Levites, to mediate, to make atonement; it was their responsibility and privilege to stand in the gap, to draw near to God on behalf of the people, to insulate the congregation from God’s holy wrath. As we saw when Aaron ran to take his stand between the dead and the living, to make atonement for the people, this was all pointing us to the hope of a better Mediator, a more permanent and perfect Mediator; the one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus (1Tim.2:5-6).
Priests and Levites as (Temporary) Mediators
“Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the LORD, shall die. Are we all to perish?” (Nu.17:13).
Numbers 18:1 So the LORD said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s house with you shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood. 2 And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. 3 They shall keep guard over you and over the whole tent, but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar lest they, and you, die. 4 They shall join you and keep guard over the tent of meeting for all the service of the tent, and no outsider shall come near you. 5 And you shall keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel.
The priests were God’s answer to the people’s cry. The priests are to bear iniquity connected with the priesthood and with God’s sanctuary. The rest of the Levites are to guard the priests and God’s tabernacle, ‘that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel’. This is not new information; God had already made it clear in Numbers 1-4 and 8 that it was the duty of the priests and Levites exclusively to care for God’s tent. But now that he has their attention, now that they are beginning to experience the fear of the Lord, it is a good opportunity to remind them what he had said, to teach them why he set it up that way. Korah, a Kohathite Levite, whose duty it was to guard God’s tabernacle from outsiders, led his fellow Kohathites to violate that very command and do what was forbidden to them, and they died before the Lord.
Gifts Of The Lord
Verse 6 continues:
Numbers 18:6 And behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the LORD, to do the service of the tent of meeting. 7 And you and your sons with you shall guard your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and that is within the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift, and any outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”
Our God is a gift giving God. God gave the priests to the people to bear iniquity. God gave the other Levites as a gift to come alongside the priests to do the service of the tent of meeting, to take down, transport, set up and guard God’s holy tent. God gave to Aaron and his sons the priesthood as a gift, this exclusive and holy privilege of drawing near to God, serving in his holy tabernacle.
The gifts of the Lord continue in verse 8:
Numbers 18:8 Then the LORD spoke to Aaron, “Behold, I have given you charge of the contributions made to me, all the consecrated things of the people of Israel. I have given them to you as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual due. 9 This shall be yours of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering of theirs and every sin offering of theirs and every guilt offering of theirs, which they render to me, shall be most holy to you and to your sons. 10 In a most holy place shall you eat it. Every male may eat it; it is holy to you. 11 This also is yours: the contribution of their gift, all the wave offerings of the people of Israel. I have given them to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. 12 All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the firstfruits of what they give to the LORD, I give to you. 13 The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the LORD, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. 14 Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. 15 Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they offer to the LORD, shall be yours. Nevertheless, the firstborn of man you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. 16 And their redemption price (at a month old you shall redeem them) you shall fix at five shekels in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. 17 But the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and shall burn their fat as a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. 18 But their flesh shall be yours, as the breast that is waved and as the right thigh are yours. 19 All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the LORD I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the LORD for you and for your offspring with you.”
God is giving gifts to his servants the priests. In the next verse (20) he tells them that they will have no inheritance in the land; no land will be given to them. I want to circle back to that verse at the end. But in an agricultural, farming community, how can someone without land survive? This is going back over some of the ground covered in Leviticus, outlining the sacrifices and offerings the people are to bring to the Lord. But our God is not needy. In Psalm 50 he declares:
Psalm 50:12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. 13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
Many cultures and many religions have needy gods. I’ve seen people burn candles and leave snacks for their gods, as if their gods are hungry and afraid of the dark, and after a while somebody has to clear out all the spoiled fruits and moldy snacks that their god didn’t eat. Other religions, like those the Lord promised to drive out of the land demanded child sacrifices and other horrific acts. The Lord proscribes animal sacrifices for sin, for guilt, for thanksgiving and fellowship, but God does not need those offerings. Our God is not hungry. They are a gift to the Lord, and the Lord in turn gives his portion of those gifts to his priests to sustain them, as compensation for their service in his holy tent.
He goes on to give gifts to the Levites
Numbers 18:21 “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, 22 so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. 23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance. 24 For the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to the LORD, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel.”
A Tithe of the Tithe; Even Spiritual Leaders are Sheep
Uniquely throughout this chapter, the Lord specifically addressed Aaron. Now in verse 25 he turns his instruction back to Moses.
Numbers 18:25 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 26 “Moreover, you shall speak and say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the LORD, a tithe of the tithe. 27 And your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. 28 So you shall also present a contribution to the LORD from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you shall give the LORD’s contribution to Aaron the priest. 29 Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every contribution due to the LORD; from each its best part is to be dedicated.’ 30 Therefore you shall say to them, ‘When you have offered from it the best of it, then the rest shall be counted to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, and as produce of the winepress. 31 And you may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting. 32 And you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have contributed the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, lest you die.’”
Moses is given these instructions to provide outside accountability to the tribe of Levi. The entire nation is required to give a portion of what the Lord gives to them back to him, and in this way to provide for the needs of those who serve him. The Levites in turn, are to give back to the Lord a portion of what he gives to them, a tithe of the tithe. Although they are set apart to serve as the spiritual leaders of the people, and receive their support from the other tribes, they ultimately are no different than the rest of the people; everything they have is a gift from the Lord, and they are required to honor the Lord in the same way as the rest of the people by giving back to the Lord a portion of what he gives to them. At the end of the day, spiritual leaders are sheep, who must follow the Lord, dependent on the Lord for everything.
They are to feel no guilt or shame in taking what the Lord blesses them with through the tithes of the people; the are to enjoy their portion however they wish, while all the while being mindful of the weight of responsibility they carry, and the danger of taking lightly what the Lord calls holy.
No Inheritance? The Lord Is My Portion
Numbers 18:20 And the LORD said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.
The Lord said ‘I am your portion and your inheritance’. To a materialistic society this seems like the tribe of Levi got the short end of the stick. But the Psalmists and the prophets repeatedly say ‘YHWH is my chosen portion’ (Ps.16:5). David says:
Psalm 84:2 My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. … 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! — Selah
Psalm 84:10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
In Luke 10, Martha welcomed Jesus to her home. Her sister Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching” (Lk.10:39). When Martha complained that she needed help,
Luke 10:41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Mary has chosen the good portion. The Lord is my portion!
Psalm 73 says:
Psalm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. 28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
Is the Lord your chosen portion? Is he your greatest treasure? Is nearness to him your greatest good? Is there nothing on earth you desire more than the Lord? Is he enough? Even if health and heart fail, is the Lord enough?
Lord, give us a heart like David, let our souls thirst for you (Ps.42,63,143), and be satisfied with nothing short of your presence! As believers in Jesus, Lord, you have given us the best gift; you have given us yourself! In your grace, you have given us access to yourself; you have reconciled sinners to you by the death of your Son (Rom.5:10), you have brought us near.
***
Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org
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By Rodney Zedicher2026.04.26 Numbers 18; Fear the Lord; The Lord is My Portion; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20260426_numbers-18.mp3
Holy Justice
Last time we saw 14,700 people experience the wrath of God and die because of their hard rebellious hearts, before Aaron was able to take his stand between the dead and the living and make atonement. They all deserved to die, but God listened to the prayers of his servants, and turned away his wrath.
The Lord is fully able to fulfill all his promises. He brought his people to the border of his promised land, and promised to go before them and drive out the inhabitants and give them victory over an enemy greater and more powerful than themselves. But they refused God’s promises, rejected his leaders, desired a return to slavery, and now God’s chosen people began to experience the hand of the Lord turning against them rather than their enemies.
Many people reading the Old Testament struggle with God wiping out entire people groups. That doesn’t seem fair. But it’s important to recognize that he waited over 400 years to wipe out the inhabitants of the land, ‘because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete’ (Gen.15:16); he was giving them time, gracious time to repent. And when his people did enter the land under Joshua, those of their enemies (like Rahab) who turned away from their false gods to embrace YHWH as their God were spared, even welcomed. We see here in Numbers that the Lord is not discriminating ethnically; the inhabitants of the land will be punished for their sin and rebellion against God; and so will his own chosen people when they rebel and sin against God. The wages of sin is death.
We All Deserve to Die
We saw last time that 2 Corinthians 4 calls the Law ‘the ministry of condemnation’; ‘the ministry of death’, ‘the letter’ which ‘kills’ (2Cor.4:6-7,9). As Paul says to the Jews of his day in Romans 2:
Romans 2:2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? …5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
He says in Romans 3
Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
In Numbers 17 God’s own rebellious people begin to see the wages of their own sins when 14,700 of them are struck down, and Numbers 17 ends with the cry of the people:
Numbers 17:12 And the people of Israel said to Moses, “Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. 13 Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the LORD, shall die. Are we all to perish?”
God’s holy presence is dangerous! We all deserve to die! That’s true. The fear of YHWH is the beginning of wisdom. Anyone who claims to have a relationship with God which does not include a holy fear of the Lord, either doesn’t really have that relationship, or they’ve got the wrong god.
God’s Provision of a Mediator
Are we all to die? Chapters 18-19 go on to answer this question for Israel; God appointed the Priests, supported by the other Levites, to mediate, to make atonement; it was their responsibility and privilege to stand in the gap, to draw near to God on behalf of the people, to insulate the congregation from God’s holy wrath. As we saw when Aaron ran to take his stand between the dead and the living, to make atonement for the people, this was all pointing us to the hope of a better Mediator, a more permanent and perfect Mediator; the one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus (1Tim.2:5-6).
Priests and Levites as (Temporary) Mediators
“Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the LORD, shall die. Are we all to perish?” (Nu.17:13).
Numbers 18:1 So the LORD said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s house with you shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood. 2 And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. 3 They shall keep guard over you and over the whole tent, but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar lest they, and you, die. 4 They shall join you and keep guard over the tent of meeting for all the service of the tent, and no outsider shall come near you. 5 And you shall keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel.
The priests were God’s answer to the people’s cry. The priests are to bear iniquity connected with the priesthood and with God’s sanctuary. The rest of the Levites are to guard the priests and God’s tabernacle, ‘that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel’. This is not new information; God had already made it clear in Numbers 1-4 and 8 that it was the duty of the priests and Levites exclusively to care for God’s tent. But now that he has their attention, now that they are beginning to experience the fear of the Lord, it is a good opportunity to remind them what he had said, to teach them why he set it up that way. Korah, a Kohathite Levite, whose duty it was to guard God’s tabernacle from outsiders, led his fellow Kohathites to violate that very command and do what was forbidden to them, and they died before the Lord.
Gifts Of The Lord
Verse 6 continues:
Numbers 18:6 And behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the LORD, to do the service of the tent of meeting. 7 And you and your sons with you shall guard your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and that is within the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift, and any outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”
Our God is a gift giving God. God gave the priests to the people to bear iniquity. God gave the other Levites as a gift to come alongside the priests to do the service of the tent of meeting, to take down, transport, set up and guard God’s holy tent. God gave to Aaron and his sons the priesthood as a gift, this exclusive and holy privilege of drawing near to God, serving in his holy tabernacle.
The gifts of the Lord continue in verse 8:
Numbers 18:8 Then the LORD spoke to Aaron, “Behold, I have given you charge of the contributions made to me, all the consecrated things of the people of Israel. I have given them to you as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual due. 9 This shall be yours of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering of theirs and every sin offering of theirs and every guilt offering of theirs, which they render to me, shall be most holy to you and to your sons. 10 In a most holy place shall you eat it. Every male may eat it; it is holy to you. 11 This also is yours: the contribution of their gift, all the wave offerings of the people of Israel. I have given them to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. 12 All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the firstfruits of what they give to the LORD, I give to you. 13 The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the LORD, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. 14 Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. 15 Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they offer to the LORD, shall be yours. Nevertheless, the firstborn of man you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. 16 And their redemption price (at a month old you shall redeem them) you shall fix at five shekels in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. 17 But the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and shall burn their fat as a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. 18 But their flesh shall be yours, as the breast that is waved and as the right thigh are yours. 19 All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the LORD I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the LORD for you and for your offspring with you.”
God is giving gifts to his servants the priests. In the next verse (20) he tells them that they will have no inheritance in the land; no land will be given to them. I want to circle back to that verse at the end. But in an agricultural, farming community, how can someone without land survive? This is going back over some of the ground covered in Leviticus, outlining the sacrifices and offerings the people are to bring to the Lord. But our God is not needy. In Psalm 50 he declares:
Psalm 50:12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. 13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
Many cultures and many religions have needy gods. I’ve seen people burn candles and leave snacks for their gods, as if their gods are hungry and afraid of the dark, and after a while somebody has to clear out all the spoiled fruits and moldy snacks that their god didn’t eat. Other religions, like those the Lord promised to drive out of the land demanded child sacrifices and other horrific acts. The Lord proscribes animal sacrifices for sin, for guilt, for thanksgiving and fellowship, but God does not need those offerings. Our God is not hungry. They are a gift to the Lord, and the Lord in turn gives his portion of those gifts to his priests to sustain them, as compensation for their service in his holy tent.
He goes on to give gifts to the Levites
Numbers 18:21 “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, 22 so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. 23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance. 24 For the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to the LORD, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel.”
A Tithe of the Tithe; Even Spiritual Leaders are Sheep
Uniquely throughout this chapter, the Lord specifically addressed Aaron. Now in verse 25 he turns his instruction back to Moses.
Numbers 18:25 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 26 “Moreover, you shall speak and say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the LORD, a tithe of the tithe. 27 And your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. 28 So you shall also present a contribution to the LORD from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you shall give the LORD’s contribution to Aaron the priest. 29 Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every contribution due to the LORD; from each its best part is to be dedicated.’ 30 Therefore you shall say to them, ‘When you have offered from it the best of it, then the rest shall be counted to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, and as produce of the winepress. 31 And you may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting. 32 And you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have contributed the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, lest you die.’”
Moses is given these instructions to provide outside accountability to the tribe of Levi. The entire nation is required to give a portion of what the Lord gives to them back to him, and in this way to provide for the needs of those who serve him. The Levites in turn, are to give back to the Lord a portion of what he gives to them, a tithe of the tithe. Although they are set apart to serve as the spiritual leaders of the people, and receive their support from the other tribes, they ultimately are no different than the rest of the people; everything they have is a gift from the Lord, and they are required to honor the Lord in the same way as the rest of the people by giving back to the Lord a portion of what he gives to them. At the end of the day, spiritual leaders are sheep, who must follow the Lord, dependent on the Lord for everything.
They are to feel no guilt or shame in taking what the Lord blesses them with through the tithes of the people; the are to enjoy their portion however they wish, while all the while being mindful of the weight of responsibility they carry, and the danger of taking lightly what the Lord calls holy.
No Inheritance? The Lord Is My Portion
Numbers 18:20 And the LORD said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.
The Lord said ‘I am your portion and your inheritance’. To a materialistic society this seems like the tribe of Levi got the short end of the stick. But the Psalmists and the prophets repeatedly say ‘YHWH is my chosen portion’ (Ps.16:5). David says:
Psalm 84:2 My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. … 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! — Selah
Psalm 84:10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
In Luke 10, Martha welcomed Jesus to her home. Her sister Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching” (Lk.10:39). When Martha complained that she needed help,
Luke 10:41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Mary has chosen the good portion. The Lord is my portion!
Psalm 73 says:
Psalm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. 28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
Is the Lord your chosen portion? Is he your greatest treasure? Is nearness to him your greatest good? Is there nothing on earth you desire more than the Lord? Is he enough? Even if health and heart fail, is the Lord enough?
Lord, give us a heart like David, let our souls thirst for you (Ps.42,63,143), and be satisfied with nothing short of your presence! As believers in Jesus, Lord, you have given us the best gift; you have given us yourself! In your grace, you have given us access to yourself; you have reconciled sinners to you by the death of your Son (Rom.5:10), you have brought us near.
***
Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org