I remember hearing prayers when I first followed Jesus that echoed out phrases like “Lord, I want to be set apart for you.” I’m not sure I fully understood what it meant at the time when I first heard those prayers, but I knew it must be a good thing to say as everyone seemed to hum and ha whenever someone said it. So, as a new Christian and an insecure people pleaser, I repeated it many times in those early days, and I got lots of hum’s and ha’s.

Result! Don’t worry, I don’t do that today!!!

As I’ve come to learn the true meaning of those words, it is a prayer I’ve prayed myself many times since. Its a great prayer. A vital prayer.

Essentially what we are saying when we pray those words is that we want to be wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord, regardless of the consequences. We want our lives to be fully reflective of who He is and live unashamed of that call in our everyday. We want to be ‘set apart’ from the world we live in so we can live fully for Jesus. We want to look different because we follow God. We want to be citizens of heaven but residents on earth.

The more and more time I spend with Jesus, the more I read the scriptures and understand who He has created us to be, the more I’ve thought more about this prayer. That thinking has caused me to ask a challenging question.

Have I thought about the implications of that prayer?

If you’ve been reading these blogs over the last little while you will know I’ve been in the book of Deuteronomy – the book where Moses is talking to the people he has been leading for 40+ years before they enter the Promised Land God was giving them. He is going through some of the story with them and in the chapter I was reading today he is telling them about the role of the Levites, the priestly tribe of Israel, who became responsible for the offerings, tabernacle, and the peoples worship of God.

The Levites were called to be different than the other tribes. They were to be set apart. They first received this blessing when they stood with Moses after the people had built the Golden Calf. It’s not that God loved the Levites more, the whole of Israel were His people, but the Levites were called to act differently because they had already shown that they acted differently. They not only were expected to act differently but they also were treated differently. There were many different ways that this happened but one of the things the passage below highlights was that although every other tribe was allotted land that they could live on and live off, land that would pass from generation to generation, the Levites would receive nothing physical.

At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today. That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the LORD is their inheritance, as the LORD your God told them.) Deuteronomy 10:8-9

No land. No possessions. No resource. Only God.

Whilst that is an incredible inheritance, and as we know spiritually there could be no better inheritance, what it would mean in an earthly sense of them would be difficult to live out. Their life would be a life of reliance on God and His people for their food. Their life would mean full reliance on God and His people for the places they could live and their children would live. In fact, without the means to build a ‘normal human life’ or stockpile resources, they would have to fully rely on God for everything, as would their descendants. We learn later when the temple was established later in the lives of the Israelites, the Levites were the priests who served the people at the temple. They took care of the temple and its furnishings. Their food came from the offerings that people brought to God. They were dependent upon others. People’s tithes and offerings supplied their needs.

I wonder how that felt for them. Did they like it? Or was it so normal because that’s what they had always had. Was being set apart in this way just all they knew?

I wonder how I would have coped with that definition of being set apart?

If I’m being truly honest I’m not sure I would like it. I think I would like to choose the things that I am set apart in and the things that I look the same as everyone else in. I like the ability to choose the things I want and I like to be independant on certain things. I don’t like having to rely on anyone else for a lift, money, help etc. I am a planner, I want to know the next few steps ahead, I get worried when I can’t see too far ahead.

Reliance on God will look different for everyone. There are no rules but what reliance for the Levites looked like seriously challenges me.

How many of us would be honest to enough to say that we like the prayer more than the life that accompanies the prayer?

Lord, let us find out inheritance in you and in you alone. Set us apart so that we can live the lives you have always intended for us. Let us be so filled with trust and faith in who you are that we would only look to you for our daily needs. Amen