The One Year Bible - Day 82

If Israel are considered a type of the church (although let us be clear that Israel and the church are two separate things), then it would seem that the various tribes represent the various works of the church. It would seem obvious that Levi represents worship and perhaps Judah, the soldier, represents evangelism or mission - although I don't know what all the others are! We then see this issue with the daughters of Zelophehad who have inherited land in lieu of their dead male relatives. The issue here is that the tribe of Manasseh are concerned that if these women marry outside of the tribe, their land would be passed unfairly to another tribe. God rules that this is not permitted and it makes me think that God is concerned that the work of the church remain in balance. If we end up spending a lot of resources on one area of ministry over others, our work is not fully valid before God. Some things are easier in church life than others - worship for instance, at least physically, is much easier than evangelism so we are likely to spend more time on this. Likewise, we might have a person in the church who is very gifted in a certain area in which case we will spend time in that area instead. We shouldn't do this, balance is good!