The Lord is going to be describing the duties of the Levites soon and no one but the Levites will allowed to perform these tabernacle duties. Before He lays out these duties for the Levites to follow, a reliable method must be put in place for determining which men truly belong to the tribe of Levi.
"Give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they are the Israelites who are to be given wholly to him. Appoint Aaron and his sons to serve as priests; anyone else who approaches the sanctuary is to be put to death." (Numbers 3:9-10) This doesn't mean the Levites were "slaves" to Aaron, just that their calling and purpose in life---as given to them by the Lord---is to be their full time occupation now and for all the generations to come. Will every man of the tribe of Levi be thrilled about his calling in life? No, and we'll find a particular group from among the Levites rebelling against Moses (and against the Lord and against their calling) in Numbers 16. The rebellion will not end well for them.
We see in verse 10 above that if a Levite who is not a son of Aaron or a direct descendant of his sons attempts to perform the duties of a priest, he has committed a capital crime in the eyes of the Lord. No one but those ordained by the Lord can serve Him in this manner. For anyone other than an ordained priest, performing the priestly duties would be to disrespect and blatantly defy the Lord.
"The Lord also said to Moses, 'I have taken the Levites from among the Israelites in place of the first male offspring of every Israelite woman. The Levites are mine, for the firstborn are mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set apart for Myself every firstborn in Israel, whether human or animal. They are to be Mine. I am the Lord." (Numbers 3:11-13) In Exodus and Leviticus we discussed the custom of redeeming the firstborn. The firstborn male child was considered consecrated to the Lord, but this didn't mean the parents sacrificed him to the Lord or that the parents had to take their son to the tabernacle and leave him there. The child was redeemed by paying five silver shekels to the tabernacle treasury and then the child went back home with his parents. The firstborn male animal, of clean animals, was sacrificed to the Lord on the eighth day of its life. In the case of a firstborn unclean male animal, such as a donkey, a clean animal could be given in its place to redeem it. The Lord appears to be saying that just as He considers the firstborn male child of every man to be consecrated to Him, He considers the entire tribe of Levi to be consecrated to Him.
Why did the Lord choose the tribe of Levi for this special honor? Scholars haven't come to any certain conclusions about this. Some believe it's because when Moses returned to the camp from Mount Sinai and found the people had fashioned an idol, and when he asked who would stand with him for the Lord, only the Levites rallied to him. This may indicate that the Levites didn't take part in the pagan calf worship. Or perhaps some of them did but quickly came to their senses. Other scholars believe the Lord chose the tribe of Levi because they were the smallest tribe. More men than this were not needed to serve the Lord and the people at the tabernacle. It would have been excessive and wasteful to assign more men to this task than necessary. To use a modern example, if a church can be properly run with only three full-time staff members whose salaries are paid by the offerings of the congregation, the Lord wouldn't tell the church to hire more full-time staff members. That would be wasteful of money that could be better used in other ways to serve the congregation and the community.
"The Lord said to Moses in the Desert of Sinai, 'Count the Levites by their families and clans. Count every male a month old or more.' So Moses counted them, as he was commanded by the word of the Lord." (Numbers 3:14-16) The Levites will be counted separately from the other tribes of Israel. We've already studied the census in which every man of the other tribes was counted if he were over the age of twenty and if he were able to serve in the army. The Levites were left out of that count because the Lord doesn't intend them to serve as soldiers in the army.
You'll also note that there's a difference here in how the Levite males are counted and how the males of the other tribes are counted. Levite males are counted as soon as they are a month old because all the males of this tribe are considered consecrated to the Lord from pretty much the beginning of their lives. Not every male of all the other tribes is going to be able to serve in the army, so they aren't counted until they've lived to the age of twenty and are physically and mentally fit to serve as soldiers. I can't be certain but I think the reason Levite males aren't counted until they are a month old is probably because it's during the first month of life that a newborn is most vulnerable to catching an illness and passing away. Also, if a child is born prematurely, the first month is when the child is most likely to pass away, especially back in the days when very little medical intervention was available. If a premature infant lived past a month, this was a very promising indicator that the child would survive, so at a month old he would be counted.
Tomorrow we'll take a look at the divisions of the families and clans of the Levites and we'll talk about the specific duties assigned to each family or clan. I want to close today by taking a moment for us to think about the fact that God places a calling on everyone's life. We've learned in our passage this morning that the Lord placed a calling on an entire group, which is something He has also done for the church as a whole: the church is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone possible all over the world. But the Lord has also placed a calling on the life of every individual. Each of us is individually responsible for sharing the gospel and for displaying a heart like Christ's to everyone we come in contact with. The Lord places callings on our lives in many other ways as well: He has plans in place for what is the best educational course to pursue and for what is the best career for us and for who is the best person for us to marry. I could provide a lot of other examples but you know where I'm going with this. The Lord wants us to seek His will in all our big decisions. He knows what's best for us and is happy to guide us in the right direction. If we follow His will for our lives, we'll be in the right places at the right times to fulfill the destinies He's chosen for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment