Consecration of the Levites

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(Numbers 8:1) And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, (2) “Speak to Aaron, and say to him, ‘When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light over against the candlestick.'"

In the last chapter and post there had just been a formal dedication of the tabernacle and the altar.  Rich and elaborate offerings had been presented by the twelves princes of the tribes of Israel on twelve consecutive days.  The last verse of chapter 7 stated that when Moses went into the tabernacle after the twelve days' of offerings to speak with the Lord  that he heard His voice speaking to him from the mercy seat on the ark of the Testimony, and this is what He said.  He told Moses to speak to Aaron about what was evidently the first lighting of the seven lamps of the candlestand.  When Aaron lighted the lamps the seven lamps would give light over what was in front of the candlestand, that being the part of the tabernacle where the showbread table stood.

(3) And Aaron did so; he lighted the lamps thereof over against the candlestick, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Aaron did as the Lord commanded to Moses that he do.  He lit the lamps of the candlestand.  That difficult language of the phrase "over against" was used in many places in scripture and always meant "in front of".  It's the light that shone over and out from that side of the candlestand which was its front facing the showbread table.

(4) And this work of the candlestick was of beaten gold, to its shaft, to its flowers, was beaten work; according to the pattern which the LORD had shown Moses, so he made the candlestick.

The work of the lampstand was of solid hammered gold in a pattern of branches, bowls, and flowers that had been instructed by the Lord to Moses in Exodus 25:31.  Moses had made it (or oversaw the making of it) just as the Lord had instructed.

(5) And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, (6) “Take the Levites from among the children of Israel and cleanse them."

Again the Lord spoke to Moses telling him to pull the Levites out from among the children of Israel and ceremonially cleanse them in the following manner:

(7) "And thus shall you do to them to cleanse them: Sprinkle water of purifying upon them, and let them shave all their flesh, and let them wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean."

Moses was to follow these instructions to cleanse the Levites.  First he was to sprinkle "water of purifying" on them.  It is very interesting to note that the original word "chattath" that was translated as "purifying" literally means "sin".  They were sprinkled with water of sin to purify them from sin.  Then they were to clean themselves by shaving their bodies and washing their clothes.

(8) “Then let them take a young bullock with its grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil, and another young bullock shall you take for a sin offering."

Then they were to take a young bull with the grain offering that always accompanied a burnt offering, and another young bull was to be offered for a sin offering.

(9) “And you shall bring the Levites before the tabernacle of the congregation, and you shall gather together the whole assembly of the children of Israel together."

The Levites were to be brought to the tabernacle, and the entire congregation of the children of Israel were to be brought together so that what was to follow might be done in the presence of all.

(10) "And you shall bring the Levites before the LORD, and the children of Israel shall put their hands on the Levites; (11) And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the LORD for an offering of the children of Israel, that they may execute the service of the LORD."

The Levites were to be brought before the Lord at the tabernacle and the children of Israel were to place their hands upon them.  Some commentaries suggest that it was only the princes and elders of the tribes that placed their hands on the Levites, as it would be impossible for every last Israelite to do that.  However, as there were many Levites, I can see that there would be room for many more than just the princes and elders to take part in this.  The people took part with Aaron in offering the Levites to the Lord that they might execute the service of the Lord.  John Wesley, in his Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, reminded us that by putting their hands on the Levites, the people "signified their transferring that right of ministering to God from the first-born in whose hands it formerly was, to the Levites, and their entire resignation and dedication of them to God's service."

It is interesting to note that the original word "nuph" that was translated as "offer" in verse 11 is the same word that has been previously translated as "wave" as in wave offerings.  Some Biblical scholars believed that while Aaron could not physically wave the Levites back and forth, he perhaps made that side to side motion himself and the Levites in turn imitated his motions, thus offering themselves to the service of the Lord.  Whether they actually waved back and forth or not, I believe at the very least it was as Matthew Henry wrote in his Commentary on the Whole Bible, "not that they were actually waved, but they were presented to God as the God of heaven, and the Lord of the whole earth, as the wave-offerings were. And in calling them wave-offerings it was intimated to them that they must continually lift up themselves towards God in his service, lift up their eyes, lift up their hearts, and must move to and fro with readiness in the business of their profession. They were not ordained to be idle, but to be active and stirring."

(12) "And the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks, and you shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering to the LORD, to make atonement for the Levites."

The Levites in turn were to place their hands on the heads of the bullocks transferring their sins to them so that by the bulls' sacrifice, atonement would be made for the Levites.  One bull was offered for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering.  The Levites' sins had to be atoned for before they could be employed in the service of the Lord.

(13) “And you shall set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for an offering to the LORD."

After atonement was made for them, the Levites were presented to Aaron and his sons to do service and assist the priests.  Again "nuph" was used, indicating a wave offering.  Whether or not they waved back and forth or to and fro, they were presented like a wave offering to the Lord. 

(14) “Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be Mine."

By following the instructions laid out in verses 6 through 13, Moses would separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites would be considered the Lord's to do His service.

(15) "And after that the Levites shall go in to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; and you shall cleanse them and offer them for an offering."

After that the Levites would be able to go into probably what was just the court of the tabernacle to do the service of the tabernacle; only the priests were allowed to go into the sanctuary.  They probably weren't cleansed and offered again after they came into the courtyard, but "so shall you cleanse them..." and then they could go into the court of the tabernacle to do its service.

(16) “For they are wholly given to Me from among the children of Israel; I have taken them to Me instead of all who open the womb, the firstborn of all the children of Israel."

The Levites were wholly given to the Lord from the children of Israel.  God took them as His own instead of the first-born as He before stated in Numbers 3:41.

(17) "For all the firstborn of the children of Israel are mine, both man and beast; on the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for Myself."

God reminded them why it was that all the firstborn of both man and beast were His.  On the day that He struck all the firstborn of the Egyptians, He protected His people and saved alive their firstborn.  Back in Exodus 13:2, the Lord ordered all the firstborn of both man and beast to be sanctified to Him, claimed as His own and set apart for His own use.

(18) "And I have taken the Levites for all the firstborn of the children of Israel."

In a sense the Lord gave up His right to all the firstborn, and accepted the Levites in their place.  It's not that the Lord was given any "rights"; He has the "right" to ALL people and animals!  I find it so interesting that God always did things according to what would seem fair and equitable to us humans.  Even an even exchange for Levites in place of the firstborn wasn't completely equal, so He had the 273 more firstborn than Levites redeemed (Numbers 3:46).  This is really amazing when you think about it!  The supreme God of the universe has every right to anything He wants because all are His alone as His own creations, but He makes things fair in our eyes.  Who are we that God needs to "play fair" with us?  But it proves how just our Lord truly is, and why we can completely trust Him in everything!

I can hear all the dissents as I write this about how fair it is for a child to die from cancer or any such similar unfair cases!  For one, this world is not our home; we truly are passing through.  Death hurts the ones left behind much more than it does the one who died.  God didn't cause cancer or cause a person to torture and kill another.  It may be true that He allowed it, but good always comes to those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).  It took awhile after a long process of healing, but I have come to realize that my Daddy dying at a young age from cancer helped to bring me to my Lord.  And I would certainly give my life for my child!  This world will always be plagued with troubles, so if going through some brings eternal life to others, isn't that our purpose on this pit stop called Earth?  This is something I have only recently come to understand.  Jesus's great commission was to go and teach all the nations what He had taught.  While some people go out into the world and preach, and that is their calling and purpose, perhaps some others of us may have the purpose of letting Christ shine through even in our afflictions, and thus bringing others to Him.  Why do some have to suffer more than others?  Even in that I have come to have peace.  Because our Lord is so just and fair, you can bet that those who have given more will be rewarded more!  That doesn't mean in this world, but in our home to come.

(19) “And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the tabernacle of the congregation, and to make an atonement for the children of Israel, that there be no plague among the children of Israel, when the children of Israel come near the sanctuary.”

The Lord gave the Levites who were His own as a gift to Aaron and his sons, to do the service of the tabernacle for all the children of Israel.  The service of the tabernacle was something all the Israelites were responsible for having done, so in that respect, the Levites were doing their service.  The Levites were to make atonement for the children of Israel in that they would perform the services which were required to be done by the children of Israel, thus the Levites were the atonement for the souls of the Israelites, that there be no wrath from God upon the children of Israel (Numbers 1:53).  The Levites were to keep charge of the tabernacle that there be no plague among the children of Israel when they might come nearer to the sanctuary than they should or touch things that they should not touch.

(20) And Moses, and Aaron, and all the congregation of the children of Israel, did to the Levites according to all that the LORD commanded Moses concerning the Levites; so the children of Israel did to them.

Moses, Aaron, and all the congregation of the children of Israel did as the Lord had commanded to Moses that they do regarding the Levites.

(21) And the Levites were purified, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them as an offering before the LORD; and Aaron made an atonement for them to cleanse them.

The Levites were purified by the sprinkling of purifying water, shaving themselves, and washing their clothes as instructed in verse 7 above.  Aaron offered them as an offering before the Lord "for an offering of the children of Israel, that they may execute the service of the LORD" (verse 11 above).  The bulls for a sin offering and a burnt offering to the LORD (verse 12 above), made atonement for the Levites.  Thus they were cleansed and ready to do the work of the tabernacle.

Matthew Henry pointed out that Aaron offered the Levites to God in verse 11, and then God gave them back to Aaron in verse 19.  He wrote, "Whatever we give up to God, He will give back to us unspeakably to our advantage. Our hearts, our children, our estates, are never more ours, more truly, more comfortably ours, than when we have offered them up to God."

(22) And after that the Levites went in to do their service in the tabernacle of the congregation before Aaron, and before his sons; as the LORD had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did to them.

After that the Levites went into the court of the tabernacle to do the service of the tabernacle in the presence of Aaron and his sons, the priests, and by their direction.  Just as the Lord had commanded through Moses they do, so they did.

(23) And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, (24) "This is that which is the Levites'; from twenty-five years old and upward they shall go in to perform the service of the tabernacle of the congregation."

The Lord then spoke to Moses, telling him what pertained to the Levites, that from 25 years of age and upward they would go into service of the tabernacle.  The original word translated as "perform" was that word "tsaba" earlier explored that means "to muster as an army", "to serve", and "to go forth to war"; theirs was spiritual warfare.

Numbers 4:3 and 4:47 specifically said that it was from age thirty that the Levites came to do the service of the tabernacle.  Biblical scholars suggest that either they went in at age 25 to learn the rites of service that they would perform beginning at age thirty, or as Dr. John Gill wrote in his Exposition of the Entire Bible, "what Aben Ezra proposes" (Jewish biblical commentator and philosopher of the Middle Ages)..."at thirty years of age a Levite entered into the service of bearing and carrying burdens; and at twenty five years of age he entered into the service of the tent or tabernacle, where he was employed in lighter service, such as opening and shutting the doors of the sanctuary, keeping out strangers and unclean persons, and singing the songs of the sanctuary; but was not concerned till thirty years of age in carrying the vessels of the sanctuary on the shoulders, as the Kohathites; or in taking down and setting up the tabernacle, loading and unloading the wagons, as the Gershonites and Merarites; which is the business assigned unto them, and spoken of in Num. 4:22, where the age of thirty years, and upward, is mentioned, as the time of their entrance on it, Num. 4:23."

(25) "And from the age of fifty years they shall cease performing this work, and shall work no more."

They were to work in the service of the tabernacle until the age of fifty, at which time they were to do no more of the heavy service of it.  Some of the old commentaries I study pointed out that the phrase that was translated as "cease performing" literally meant "return from the warfare", once again indicating that while the Levites did not go to war, they did fight a spiritual war.

(26) "But shall minister with their brethren in the tabernacle of the congregation, to keep the charge, and shall do no service. Thus shall you do to the Levites regarding their charge."

The Levites over fifty years of age would still minister with their brothers in the tabernacle, by assisting their brothers with advice, counsel, and direction.  They surely sang psalms, and perhaps another element of keeping the charge of the tabernacle, would have been to guard the door to keep those who should not come in from entering.  Over the age of fifty, they were in no way disgraced, but rather were able to rest from the heavy labor and were still relevant in the service of the tabernacle.  God ended His instructions by declaring that what He had described before was what Moses was to do regarding the service of the Levites.

Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, wisely surmised, "If it required so much legal purity to fit the Levites for their work in the tabernacle, can we suppose that it requires less spiritual purity to fit ministers of the Gospel to proclaim the righteousness of the Most High, and administer the sacred ordinances of Christianity to the flock of Christ? If these must be without spot, as the priests before without blemish, and these were only typical men, we may rest assured that a Christian minister requires no ordinary measures of holiness to prepare him for an acceptable and profitable discharge of his office.  If the Christian ministry be established to prepare men for the kingdom of God, of the holiness of which the purity of the camp was but a faint emblem, how can any man expect to enter that place of blessedness, who has not his heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and his body washed with pure water; his life and conversation agreeable to the sacred precepts laid down in the Gospel of Christ? If the law of Moses were more read in reference to the Gospel, the Gospel itself and its requisitions would be much better understood."