It’s interesting to me to see how often the idea of “laying on of hands” pops up throughout Scripture.
It’s an Old and New Testament thing. Ananias laid hands on Paul to heal him of blindness (Acts 9:17), Paul laid hands on the Ephesians to give them the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:6), and the elders laid hands on Timothy to bestow a spiritual blessing (1 Timothy 4:14).
The use in the New Testament specifically seems to resemble a commissioning of sorts, where someone is blessing someone to go do the work that is in front of them. Metaphorically, they pass their work on and give a stamp of approval to what the person will eventually do.
That’s a sharp departure from what we see in the Old Testament. Or is it?
Throughout Leviticus, we see priests laying hands on the animals they’re about to sacrifice (Leviticus 1:4). That’s different from New Testament in that the animal isn’t healed (in fact, quite the opposite will take place), and the animal isn’t going to go preach to other animals about the Gospel.
But in another way, i’s exactly the same thing. The priest is in charge of mediation between the people and God, and that animal will complete that work by offering its life for the remission of sins. In a sense, it’s working with the priest to accomplish the same goal.
Take that same understanding and apply it to what we’re reading in Numbers 8:10. After the cleansing ritual, the nation of Israel is to lay their hands on the Levites.
Just like the animals, the Levites are sacrificing their life (while living) to serve the people on behalf of their forgiveness of sins.
Just like Timothy, the Levites are commissioned to go about their work. The authorization and stamp of approval from the people is intact.
The people need the Levites to do the work they’re going to do, and even though the bulk of the purification process is private or done by themselves, this part is nationwide. They’re receiving the charge from the people to go serve the people.
We all have people like that in our life, whether that’s elders, deacons, Bible class teachers, or people that simply inspire us to go about our own work.
You don’t have to physically lay your hands on them, but I do think there is merit in letting them know you recognize their labor. Because it’s only in working together for the cause of Christ will we hope to complete the tasks that are set before us.
