BURDEN BEARING

G. C. McKay

Numbers 4: 46–49; 7: 1–9; Matthew 1 1: 25–30; Galatians 6: 2

I had in mind in referring to these scriptures to say a word on burden bearing. I would like to speak encouragingly first of all as to the levites, and I would like to make clear that in speaking thus I am speaking to everyone, for the divine mind is that everyone should take up his responsibilities and privileges as a levite. We could rehearse again what is often said, and is important to bear in mind, that in Christianity every believer is regarded as filling out the three classes of persons in Israel. The priests would represent the saints as having the Spirit and as being spiritual, in principle at least; the levites those who are prepared to serve in whatever capacity to forward the testimony of God; then there were the common people, and we all have our part in that in our daily lives. Now there is evidently a great need for these levites. There are eight thousand five hundred and eighty according to Numbers 4, and I would like to call attention to the need for them.

There was a great system set up where God dwelt amidst His people—the tabernacle system with its structure, with the pillars and the curtains, and all the detail that entered into it, and all the holy articles it contained. There was much there to be set up and cared for, and to be carried as the children of Israel moved. The testimony is in movement, things are changing. It is not just that we settle down. We do not know when we are going to have to move, either, for they moved according to the cloud, it was quite an onerous thing for the levites when the tabernacle moved, for everything had to be taken down. They were under the supervision of the priests, meaning that what is spiritual in the saints governs everything. All that

service is taken up as governed by what is spiritual. The service that is taken up is onerous, and there is a need for it. Who is going to do it? When the cloud lifts and the two silver trumpets sound, who is going to do things? There is the question of the dismantling of the tabernacle system and of the carrying of it, there was prescription as to all that, and then the setting up of it again. Sometimes it stayed for a long period of time in the same place, and sometimes it seems as if it moved and moved and moved. You think of how the wearied levite, having set up the tabernacle system, might find the next day there was another move.

So there was much to be done, and there was a need for labour and for burden bearing.

That is reflected today in this day of small things, perhaps even more than ever; there is a need. I do not want to speak oppressively, but still in God’s view there is a need and you have your portion. The levites were not just left to do what they wished, and it does not seem as if they were exactly interchangeable, but rather there were different groups with different tasks appointed to them by the priests. I suppose they would point to something and say, It is your duty to carry that—or to help in carrying that—because one of the most encouraging things is that this family worked together. There was need of all, and yet there was comfort in the fact that the service was taken up with others. In fact it was necessary, for many of the services would be impossible to carry out alone. We have, for example, articles that were carried with staves. You needed one person at each end of each stave; in other words you had to work together with others. Now I would like to point out there is a need in our day for that, to work with others and take up your end of the stave, or whatever you are given to do, to take up responsibility.

I know that all believers are levites, as all believers are priests, but then the matter becomes accentuated and clear in persons. For example, some persons we say

are spiritual. It is not to say that others do not have the Spirit, but even in Galatians it says,

“ye who are spiritual”, Galatians 6: 1. Some persons are spiritual, the matter becomes accentuated with them, and so with those that labour in levitical service of whatever kind, certain features are seen. So what kind of person would a levite be? You can be in fellowship and enjoy things among the saints, and do a bit too, and not be characteristically levitical in your outlook. There could be something that keeps you from what God has in view. They were very special, this family; they distinguished themselves. One of the things that seemed to mark them was zeal and committal. It marked the sons of Levi in the time of the golden calf when Moses had to appeal to those who would be for Jehovah, the time when judgment had to be executed. Moses appealed as to who would be for Jehovah at such a time as that, and the persons who came forward were the sons of Levi; what marked them was that they were to disregard what was natural. “He that is for Jehovah”, says Moses, “let him come to me”. And all the sons of Levi, all of them, gathered to him. And he said to them, “Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel—Put every man his sword upon his hip; go and return from gate to gate through the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbour”, Exodus 32: 26, 27. How solemn! But what it depicts for us is this, that a levite loves what is for God, he loves the testimony, and he does not put what is natural before that. Whether it is his brother, or his friend, or his neighbour, what is natural and what is social does not come first with him. He would sacrifice that to stand and support what is of God. Committal is one of the features of a levite; he sees there is need and he is committed to do it. He will not leave it undone. If something is needing to be done he will do it. He will take it up, no doubt, in as spiritual a way as possible, and with respect to what other brethren in the locality are doing; but the thing needs to be done and the levite says, I will do it, at whatever cost.

The Lord Jesus is a model for us in everything, and He was a model for us in this. When He came to the temple, for example, and found there these sellers of oxen and sheep and doves, He cast them out. He said, “Take these things hence” (John 2: 16). He would not have His Father’s house made a house of merchandise. What did the disciples think as they watched that? They remembered the scripture, “The zeal of thy house devours me”, John 2: 17. Zeal for the house of God. You see the kind of persons the levites would be, this special family desirous to stand for what was for God and to support the testimony. That is what the tabernacle speaks of as it progressed through the wilderness, the testimony of God. Desire to support it, to work with others and do whatever is necessary.

The levites also had a special sense of divine claims upon them. God took them in place of the firstborn, whom He had consecrated to Himself because of what they had been saved from in Egypt, when the firstborn of Egypt were slain. You find in the history of the levites they were taken in place of the firstborn, giving them a very dignified place. In fact, in one sense, they typify specially the saints of the assembly, “the assembly of the firstborn who are registered in heaven”, Hebrews 12: 23. So they are a dignified family and they have a sense of redemption and the claims of redemption. There were not quite the same number of levites as there were firstborn, and where there was the overplus there had to be redemption paid, five shekels for the firstborn who were not thus redeemed by the levites. And so they would feel the divine claims upon them. You see the kind of person a levite is, you see the zeal he has, the readiness to deny what is natural and to put what is divine first. You see the kind of committal and sense of responsibility he has, you see that he is prepared to serve, whether he is a Kohathite, or a Merarite or a Gershonite, he is prepared to take up the burden. You can see that the work was onerous. I found in accredited ministry that some of it is described as

drudgery. Are we prepared for drudgery?

Now how precious to think of the Lord Jesus serving amongst His own. He washed their feet, a menial task, but Jesus did it. He was in the midst of them as the One that served. I am sure He would do many practical things. He made a meal for them in John 21, and He not only prepared it, He served it. The Lord Jesus did the most practical things when here. Now are you prepared for the most practical things? Levitical service involves that. It involves the very spiritual exercise among the Kohathites who carried the ark itself. What a privilege they had! Then it involved less spiritual, but still vital matters. The Gershonites carried the curtains, and the Merarites the boards of the tabernacle. These things were onerous, they were heavy. So I would raise the challenge with each of us. Am I prepared to be a levite? Am I prepared to take up my responsibility? Do I really have it in my heart to do this? Dot love the testimony of God, be it in smallness? It is in smallness, but even the very smallness increases the call for persons to take up the load, whatever it might be. Even a tent pin would have to be carried. Lift it up. If that is your task, take the end of that stave, carry what you have to carry.

It is encouraging that the children of Israel in this work were united. Levi means united, and I think the essence of this was that they worked together, they were united in it. It is not that everything is going to land on you, it is that you can join with others in this service. It means you promote the testimony of God however you might, whether it is in declaring and standing for the principles of the truth as the Gershonites, or caring for the details of the needs of the saints and their spiritual prosperity as in the case of the Merarites, or whether you have the privilege of Kohathite service. Think of the privilege of carrying the ark of God. The priests had covered it. The Levites had to know their place, for what was priestly governed. The great disaster that has occurred in Christendom is that the levites got out of

control; they assumed to be priests as well and made nothing of all the rest of believers, and so the clergy emerged. What is priestly in believers is greater than what is levitical. You might stand on a platform and speak, but you are inferior to the saints, for in that sense the levite serves the priests, and the priests are the saints. The priestly judgment of the saints, and the spiritual side in the saints, governs all; the levites are subservient to that, both to what is spiritual in themselves and in the saints. These are precious things if we are able to speak of the truth and to carry Christ in testimony.

Now they were together in this, but also you read in Numbers 7 that they were supported by the rest of Israel. These leaders, under whom they were numbered, contributed. They were moved to offer, and first they offered these waggons. It is very interesting to think of them offering waggons and oxen. They were united in it. One waggon was for two princes, so they were collaborating in it; then an ox for each, six covered waggons and twelve oxen. They were covered waggons, for there had been thoughtfulness as to what they would be used for and how suitable they might be for service.

Now God had not asked for this. In Leviticus, there is no prescription to make waggons. This was something that came from the people. They present it to God and it says, “Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Take it of them”, it is acceptable. This is love among the saints, this is devotion among the saints. It is finding expression in supporting what is levitical, supporting the testimony, and giving it some help. Not only do we have one another as we each of us take up levitical duties, but we have the support of the saints. There is a sense that we are all in this, the saints would support in any way they could. The princes would offer, and their first offering would be these waggons. Moses gave them, in a calculated way under Jehovah’s instructions to the levites, and to those who had the heaviest burdens he gave the waggons.

Think of that, divine consideration

and the consideration of the saints. If there was a heavy burden the waggons would be there.

The curtains must have been a tremendous weight but there were waggons for these and for the boards.

But the Kohathites did not use them, they bore what they carried upon their shoulder. I think that was a special privilege, to carry the precious things from the sanctuary upon the shoulder. What thoughts they must have had as they carried these, the ark speaking of the Lord Jesus Himself personally, and these other articles that were in the holy place. If you carried these things, then you would carry them with a sense of the holiness of them and the import of them. What is spiritual should govern all our service. We should have spiritual thoughts in regard to the simplest things. In Acts, when they needed persons to serve tables, they sought out spiritual persons. You might say, Well we can leave that to the unspiritual.

No, they sought out spiritual persons and they served tables, they saw to the distribution of the food. In other words, in this great system that you and I have the privilege of belonging to, everything is elevated because it all relates to the dwelling of God and His testimony in this scene, the prosperity of His people and the maintenance of His praise. So everything is elevated. The collection is elevated, the money is devoted, it is a sacrificial matter.

Then if it comes down to what is in fact drudgery, if it is something simple and onerous, undistinguished outwardly, then you do it because your heart is in it; you see that you are supporting this great divine system, you are supporting the testimony. You have the honour of doing so, brother and sister alike. Well let us be prepared for it, for the challenge would come. Am I carrying my little share of the burden locally? Am I leaving it to others? I do not think the brethren would take it ill, if I say that very often in a locality you find some bear more than others. That is just a practical observation. Some seem to have a heart for it, and the

energy for it, and the committal for it, but the divine thought is that everyone should carry their burden. Can you carry the saints in your affections? Can you serve them? Can you carry the questions of the truth and present the truth and the principles to the saints, all that would guard the fellowship? What can you do for the saints? Are you prepared to take up what you are able to do, and what might be appointed to you? It is a very searching matter, and yet there is privilege in all this, and comfort. They were together in it, and there is this great end that Christ is promoted, and the testimony and the welfare of the saints. So let us each be exercised.

You do not want to defer it either. Another interesting thing is that they were to serve from the age of thirty, for things are to be taken up in a mature way. Then you read a few chapters later that they serve from twenty-five. You say that Moses’ law has to be kept to the letter.

You have to look into that and see what practically was happening, the willingness of persons to come in, not to defer, but to come in and learn how to serve the saints and promote the testimony. In David’s time the age was reduced even more. The divine system is not to exclude you. The thought is that as having the Holy Spirit you are part of that system; you have your place and responsibilities in it, and your happiness is in committing yourself.

Deny, if necessary, what is natural, deny much that you would like to do yourself, so that you might devote a little more time to bearing the burdens of the testimony. Thank God for all those who are carrying them. May we all be able to carry a little more. Could you carry on the shoulder? You need some strength for that. I suppose the age of thirty would indicate that you are going to have to develop some strength to do this, some spiritual power and energy. It is not simply natural energy, although you would devote that, but some power, some resource. What power is in Christ! Everything is really being sustained by Him, for He carries the names of the saints on His shoulders, as Aaron wore the ephod and the shoulder pieces. It seems

to me too that you could also carry in your bosom, because it says of Moses he carried the people in his bosom. Think of that, the affections and the strength. As you know the Lord Jesus and you make way for the Spirit, you will get the strength, and you will develop in your affections to sustain you in such a service.

I read in Matthew 11 where the Lord Jesus, as we know, is a great model for us. It is wonderful the way the scriptures open out the truth to us in detail. You have the doctrine stated, then you have typical teaching in the Old Testament that illuminates the matter and makes it clear to the mind, but above all you will find that things are set out in Christ. He is the great Leader in everything, the great model and example, and so you have the truth set out in Jesus. That makes it attractive, and authoritative to the soul. It is set out there in Christ, the One who as a divine Person came into manhood, and who as in manhood has carried out the will of God. He is unique in Himself, of course, for who could do what Jesus did? But also we can think of Him doing things and leaving them as a model that we should follow in His steps. Here He is a model for someone who is burdened, perhaps even finding that any levitical burden we have taken up is heavy. Here the Lord Jesus is facing the rejection of Himself by the very cities that saw the most of His miracles and works of power. But in the time of pressure, when His long-suffering gracious service was being slighted, and He Himself rejected, when the people whom He loved were refusing Him, in the midst of all that, He becomes a model for someone in such circumstances. He becomes a model in the buoyancy of His spirit and His acceptance of everything from the Father. He rejoices. He has to speak as to the judgment that would come on the places that had not repented and had neglected what He had set out. Then He answering said, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes”. He resorts in His spirit to the Father, to rejoice

in what the Father was doing. Despite those that were neglectful, there were those who were getting the blessing and those to whom things could be revealed.

Then as thus accepting what came from the Father, as thus rejoicing, He is able to speak to us. It is a very touching thing. In many of our exercises we can turn to Jesus. He is our great High Priest as having been here, “tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart”, Hebrews 4: 15. So He can set out how matters might be responded to, and as our High Priest He can give us grace that we might be more like Him when difficulties arise, and we experience rejection and suffering here. So here He is a model for one accepting all from the Father, indeed rejoicing in what the Father is doing. He was being rejected, yet how much was being done.

What great things were in prospect! These babes were having things revealed to them. He goes on to speak about the revelation of the Father, “nor does any one know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son may be pleased to reveal him”. Then He appeals to those who labour and are burdened, “Come to me”, he says. Is that not attractive? Not only a word of comfort but an appeal to come, to come near to Him, to get something from Him, and to contemplate Him, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest”. I would not minimise the loads and burdens the brethren carry, but here it is Jesus and He was a burden-bearer too. How much He bore here, and yet in that He becomes a model to us, for He says, “I will give you rest”.

The way that He gives us rest is that He shows us how He bears things, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”. That is not simply teaching, “learn from me” means we contemplate Him. How did He bear rejection and suffering? How did He bear the burdens? If we learn that, then He would say, You can take My burden upon you, and you can find rest in all the burden bearing, as I find rest, as I rejoice in the Father. There was complete submission to the Father’s will. He says,

“Take my yoke upon you”, you will find rest in that, you submit and you bear and you are sustained in it. “Learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”. So there is encouragement, a special word here for the labourers and the burdened, whether it be that what you have taken on is burdensome to you, or whether other matters and sufferings have come upon you. There is a word here from Jesus, He says, “learn from me”, and He is one who has been through these things, sin apart. He knows what burdens are, He know what suffering is, He knew what

“contradiction from sinners against himself” was (Hebrews 12: 3). He says, “Take my yoke upon you”, the yoke of submission to the will of the Father, “for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”. As we learn from Him we are able to carry the burdens, and what it seems is this, that you are not overwhelmed by the burdens, but rather the service of God proceeds. To me that is one of the most wonderful things. The Lord praises the Father here in the face of all that, the service of God proceeds. It does not mean to say the burden is not there, or the suffering, or the deep exercise; but think of the soul of a saint that can rise above the burdens, rise to praise, and say with the Lord Jesus, that the burden is light, “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”.

In Galatians we have an appeal to bear one another’s burdens, a privilege that is also available in Christianity. There is an allusion in verse 5 to the burden each has to bear. We each have our own responsibility, each shall bear his own burden, but then there are burdens that can be shared, and this is the appeal to the Galatians. They were not persons who were thinking this way. They had been brought up under the law, and in legal thinking, and they were resorting to that again, giving up the grace of Christianity and what had been revealed.

Now the law did not seem to involve carrying burdens, but rather imposing them, certainly as it was developed among Israel of old, for it speaks of the

doctors of the law laying heavy burdens on men and not putting a finger on them themselves.

That was the kind of person that was influencing the Galatian saints. So Paul says to such persons in such danger. No, do the opposite, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfil the law of the Christ”. The Galatians wanted law, so Paul gives them this law; he would say, What about the law of the Christ? What was seen in Him? Did He carry burdens? What was seen in Jesus is to come out in the saints, the same spirit of taking on burdens. How precious it is to have such a law, not a written law, but the law of the Christ, the law of that blessed Man, the Burden-bearer Himself. What burdens He bore at the cross! I will not speak of that, a burden that no one else could bear, for that is a separate matter, what He bore in bearing sin.

How affecting that is to us!

Let us prepare ourselves a little more for this matter of burden bearing. Every one of us could say, Could I carry a little more? And we could look at our localities and say, Am I doing all I could? Is there someone carrying more of a burden than they need to? Could I just go along and share that? In a day of smallness the burdens still have to be borne. If there are few, the testimony still has to be continued and therefore everyone is needed. May we be encouraged and attracted into this. I think the Lord Jesus would attract us into it, as to how to be a burden-bearer, and to have the zeal for it and the heart for it, and the patience for it. How precious are these features of Jesus as He walked here, His patience and His consideration for His disciples. May we be encouraged in this, for His name’s sake.

Address at Redbridge
8 November 1997