The ancestral tribe of the Levites, however, was not counted along with the others. – Numbers 1:47

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 12, 2015): Numbers 1

One of my favorite M*A*S*H characters was Father Mulcahy. Maybe it is an occupational hazard, but in many ways I kind of wish that I was more like this fictional priest. He didn’t operate, and yet he was a healer. He had a gentle way about him that I wish I was able to replicate. He spent hours with people who desperately needed someone who would simply listen. He was strong. He didn’t carry a gun, but he had enough courage to look at one with the barrel pointed at him. While the doctors and nurses hid in fear, Father Mulcahy stood and faced down the enemy. He was a man of peace, and yet he was a man of action. He knew how to laugh (jocularity, jocularity). He was a Jesuit priest, but he was a student of faith and seemed to be able to easily translate between religions. But maybe I identify with him more for his weaknesses. He never really seemed to believe that he measured up. He always strove to be just a little better; he wanted to make a difference. But the truth is that he was integral to all that happened at the 4077 M*A*S*H. Father Mulcahy was not just a priest, he was the lubricant that allowed everything else to function. The residents of the 4077 were not especially religious, but Mulcahy seemed to be able to bring God into the everyday circumstances at the army hospital.  Originally, the character was supposed to be a minor one, but Mulcahy quickly became a regular on the series – and loved by fans of the show.

The Levites were not to be included in counting process that is started in the opening pages of Numbers. Essentially the census was to count the people (men) who would be available to fight in the case of a conflict. The new reality for Israel, once they had left Egypt, was that now they were a people without a home - and no one was going to welcome them. Their ancestral home, the place where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had called home, was now in the possession of other nations. It was their home now. And it was possible that all that laid ahead for Israel was a fight.

But the Levites would not be part of that fight. I live in a redneck area where I sometimes wonder if we see people unwilling to fight as weak. But the Levites were not weak. They were dedicated to a different purpose. They ministered before God – and maybe the one thing that Israel never really seemed to get was that the people they were counting were of less importance than the ones that were not to be counted. Any fight that Israel would get into would not be won by their military prowess, it would be won by the God who the Levites served. He was the power behind Israel and the Levites were the moral compass that would keep Israel on track and lead them to this God of power. They may not have been counted, but they were never minor characters. The future of a nation depended on the work that they did.

For the fictional M*A*S*H 4077, that moral compass was Father Mulcahy. But in the real world the compass is all of us who serve Father Mulcahy’s God. I really believe that the wars that we fight will never be won by the guns that we carry. I believe that this world is still in the hands of the God of Levites – and that is the God that we serve.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 2