Read Numbers 4:1–15. Although different from one another, the functions of the Kohathites, the Gershonites, and the Merarites were all in respect to the tabernacle. They had to take it down, to transport it, and to re-erect it stage after stage through the wilderness. If there are “differences of ministries” (1 Cor. 12:5), all are in relation to Jesus, our Lord, and each believer has in fact the same duty: to present Christ while passing through this world and to show forth His various moral glories. In word and in work, the Lord’s servants are responsible to maintain Christian teaching intact and alive.

In the course of their movements across the wilderness, most of the furnishings were hidden under the humble badger skin, reminding us that believers have their treasure, Christ, “in earthen vessels” (2 Cor. 4:7). There was one exception: the ark, beneath its cloth all of blue, a symbol of the heavenly character of the God-Man walking here on earth. The lampstand on its carrying beam (Num. 4:9–10) was recognizable by all, a figure of the clear witness rendered in the world by Him who is the Light of it. And the brazen altar, under its cloth of purple (v. 13), is a continual reminder to the redeemed, passing through the world, of the sufferings of Christ and of the glories that shall follow.