What is ministering to the Lord (Deuteronomy 10:8)?

Look at the dignity and blessedness of the next clause of the verse: "The Lord has chosen you." He seems to say, "I want you for Myself, for My Own affection; I cannot do without you." And more, "to stand before Him, to serve Him." Not to serve one another, nor brethren, nor saints, nor sinners, but to serve Him. I don't believe a servant is worth his salt unless he has the blessed God before him. It is our Master we serve, and in serving Him, we shall serve those we want to serve, and serve them well. In this we have His Own example, for He was the pattern Servant. Our attention is called to Him. "Behold My Servant, Whom I uphold; Mine Elect, in Whom My soul delights." We hear Him saying, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me," and "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God." He came here to serve His God, to serve me, to place Himself at my disposal, but the glory of God was what was supreme. Now God says here, "I want you to serve Me, to minister to Me." What, then, should be the motive in all our service? To give joy to the blessed One Whom we serve, to minister to Him. That does not detract from our serving men in our day and generation. It adds dignity to our service.

God had commanded Moses: ‘Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister unto him' (Num. 3:6). This interesting little detail reveals much of the character of Levitical service – as well as Christian service. The Levites had to be presented to Aaron, a type of Christ. They would serve him. Christian service is done for Christ. The simplicity of this point should not obscure its importance: the more a Christian is conscious that his or her service is done for Christ, the more this service will be done in the right attitude, in a way that is acceptable to Christ.

And then they were to remember the Lord's dealings with Levi in which grace shines with such marvellous lustre. The fierce, cruel, self-willed Levi was taken up from the depths of his moral ruin and brought nigh to God, "to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord, to minister to him, and to bless in his name.

Now come to chapter 15. "And David made him houses in the city of David, and prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent" (1 Chr. 15:1). And now comes the proof of his having studied his Bible. "Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them has the Lord chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister to him for ever" (ver. 2). He said this as though he had made a great discovery, and so indeed it was. But four hundred years before, it had been plainly written, "At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day" (Deut. 10:8). The Spirit of God doubtless turned David's attention to this and cognate scriptures, and he at one prepared to obey the Word of God. "Cease to do evil, learn to do well" (Isa. 1:16-17), became an active principle for the moment. I think I hear him saying then, "What a foolish man I was to imitate the Philistines."

(b) The rights of priests and Levites follow, — the ministers of Jehovah, ministering in His name: identified with Him, not in rule, but in that which attests rather His heart than, as before, His righteousness. To them the people were in turn to minister a recognized portion, they having none with the other tribes in the land.

In Deuteronomy 18 we have the priests the Levites introduced in another way. It is said that they were to have no part nor inheritance with Israel; but they were to "eat the offerings of Jehovah made by fire and his inheritance. Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren. Jehovah is their inheritance, as he has said to them." God thus marks afresh their special place of having Himself for their portion, so that what went to Him fell to them. This gave a deep sense of identification with Jehovah; as also it will be found that, all through the book of Deuteronomy, this is sustained and applied beyond all the other books of Moses. We may see before we have done what was the ground of it. For the present I only call witnesses to the fact. Hence it was said, "And this shall be the priest's due," — not only certain parts of the offerings, but also "the first-fruit of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep shalt thou give him. For Jehovah thy God has chosen him out of all thy tribes to stand to minister in the name of Jehovah, him and his sons for ever." Then comes the Levite, his service, and his portion. "And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind to the place which Jehovah shall choose; then he shall minister in the name of Jehovah his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before Jehovah. They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which comes of the sale of his patrimony."

The priests, the Levites, were the servants of Jehovah and had no inheritance with Israel, but Jehovah Himself was their inheritance. How the people were to minister unto them is now commanded by Moses. They were both dependent on the Lord and closely identified with Him. And this is true of us, who are in Christ constituted priests and called to the Levite service.

The first thought in priesthood is that those appointed might minister to the Lord in the priests' office, that they might be a company in nearness to and in communion with the Lord. God had said of Israel that He had brought them to Himself, and redemption had been accomplished; but the people, having placed themselves under law, could not be in nearness, and needed the priesthood to maintain their relations with God, and to help them by the way. The high priest was appointed that he might offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, and might exercise forbearance towards the ignorant and the erring Heb. 5:1-2. The priest was to teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord had spoken. Lev. 10:11. He was the messenger of the Lord of hosts. Malachi 2:7. He offered up the sacrifices, and blessed the people. Lev. 9. He daily offered incense and attended to the lamps of the 'candlestick.' Minute instructions were given by God respecting everything the priest had to do, nothing being left for his own individual devising. Ample provision was made for the priests in portions of the sacrifices being given to them and by the first-fruits. After the death of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron was allowed to enter the holiest of all only once a year, and then not without blood. Lev. 16:1-2. Whenever he officiated in the sanctuary in his garments of glory and beauty, the people were also presented, for in his breastplate and on the shoulder-pieces were the names of the children of Israel. Proper priestly work for the people was not to work out redemption for them, but to maintain their relations with God.See MELCHISEDEC.

Here again is a remarkable instance how the thoughts of men differ from God's word. His thought in giving man such an infinite blessing is not primarily to set him about working for others. In fact, when you do this, you assume a measure of superiority over the person you work upon. As we all know, he who even in a small way is ministering the word, speaks with authority to those who may not know the word. Now this gives the preacher a certain measure of importance in the eyes of others, and, sad to say, sometimes in his own. But here we have another thing: it is serving God; it is not only gospel or church service, to win or to help souls; it is connected with the worship of God. This seems the kind of service, instead of being merely what people call ministry. As you know, scripture has more than one word for service; and this has to be borne here in mind. No doubt ministerial work is excellent in its own place, and of very great importance; but it is of immense moment that we should always recognise God's rights; and were this really before God's children, do you think any person would make it a sort of open matter what they did, where they went, whom they served, and how they worshipped? Certainly not. The blood of Christ is for this express purpose. See what it undertook to do, and does. Of Christ we are told that He "through the eternal Spirit, offered himself up without spot unto God." It is the only place in scripture where "eternal" is applied to the Holy Ghost; and it is introduced here as the qualifying term of the Spirit — in order to show the absolute way for everlasting issues in which the Offering was then presented to God: a Man, but with this truly divine character of never-waning value. Certainly if there be anything which marks the difference between God and the creature, it is this quality of "eternal." Here a man on earth presents Himself in this wonderful character.

Then he says, "Serving the Lord," not exactly, serving the saints. The Lord was before him, not serving humanity. If we serve according to this pattern we keep the Lord as the sole Object of our service, and we serve "with all humility" — not of behaviour, for a man may be only a hypocrite, humble on the exterior, but not that in mind. "Serving the Lord with all humility of mind."