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Context No. 933 of 4322 · Numbers

Context · Reflection

Numbers 3:33-37: in context

33Of Merari was the family of the Mahlites and the family of the Mushites. These are the families of Merari. 34Those who were counted of them, according to the number of all the males from a month old and upward, were six thousand two hundred. 35The prince of the fathers’ house of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail. They shall encamp on the north side of the tabernacle. 36The appointed duty of the sons of Merari shall be the tabernacle’s boards, its bars, its pillars, its sockets, all its instruments, all its service, 37the pillars of the court around it, their sockets, their pins, and their cords.

This is part of the census and assignment of the Levite clans around the tabernacle. The sons of Merari are counted and given their job. While other Levite clans carried the sacred furniture, the Merarites were responsible for the structure itself: the frames, the crossbars, the pillars, the sockets, and all the pegs and ropes that held everything up. They camped on the north side and hauled the heavy hardware whenever Israel moved.

It is easy to skim past a list of boards and sockets and pegs, but that is exactly the point. Someone had to carry the tent pegs. The glory of the tabernacle, the ark, the golden lampstand, the incense, all of it depended on unglamorous people faithfully lugging pillars and counting cords and making sure not a single socket was lost in the wilderness. The Merarites' ministry was pins and ropes. There is no incense-cloud of holiness around a crossbar, and yet the whole dwelling of God among his people would collapse without them. Scripture takes the trouble to name this clan and their humble, load-bearing task, which tells us something about how God sees the work no one applauds. The body of Christ still runs on Merarites, the people who set up the chairs, keep the accounts, carry the weight, whose faithful, invisible labor holds up the visible worship of everyone else.

Am I willing to be a Merarite, faithful with the unglamorous, load-bearing work that no one notices, knowing the worship of others depends on it?

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