Sunday, October 24, 2010

Numbers 4

Numbers 4:47
from thirty years and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who could enter to do the work of service and the work of carrying in the tent of meeting.
I don't know what the significance of being between 30 and 50 years of age is.  Does 30 have something to do with physical/emotional maturity?  Is it the age where you're normally rearing children, or perhaps where your children are old enough to assist with household tasks while you are working on the temple?   And why stop at 50?  Just because lifespans were shorter then, and that was their form of retirement?  Or is it because at that point you're becoming physically feeble, and aren't able to do your part?

This verse really caught my eye for one reason:  I'm a couple months from turning thirty.  So I wonder why that's such a big deal to the Levites.  I've always wondered what the proper age is to be considered for some forms of service, and I always thought that thirty was normally too young.  I guess this is one of those areas where culture may clash with commandment, if I were to try and apply it to modern Christianity.

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