Numbers 4:18

18. Cut ye not off… the Kohathites Hebrews, Cause ye not to cut off, etc. This admonition signifies that the priests charged with the duty of enveloping the sacred furniture should not be the occasion of the death of any Levite through their inattention to the commandment to cover the holy things from the sight or touch of the bearers. If it is objected that it is unreasonable to suppose that the just God would cut off one through another’s carelessness in handling sacred things, we would call attention to that very constitution and course of nature in which we daily move. We are every day exposed to sudden death through the absent-mindedness of the apothecary, the thoughtlessness of the switch-tender, the sleepiness of the engineer, or the unskilfulness of the pilot. God does not miraculously interpose to prevent the evil results of inadvertence in dealing with physical forces. We should expect the same to be true when we enter the realm of spiritual powers. The death-stroke that flashed from the Shekinah upon some curious Levite who approached unwarned the uncovered ark of the covenant might have been as natural as the death-shock from an accidental contact with an unguarded electrical battery. For aught that we know it would require a miracle to prevent a fatal result of carelessness in the first case as much as in the second. What a lesson is here taught to all Christians, especially to all ministers of the Gospel, not to withhold from the wicked the proclamation of the terrors of the Lord God, who is a consuming fire. “Those who do not what they can to keep others from sin, do what they can to cut them off.” This remark of the sententious Henry is based on the word of God. Proverbs 24:11-12; Ezekiel 33:6.