Priests and Levites
At this point I would like to shift gears, so to speak, and discuss by comparison and contrast, how remarkably the Priests and Levites were a type of the Church.
“In the beginning God...” These are the first words that we read as we open the Bible, and in studying the history of the Levites we cannot do better than to begin there.
It was God’s free grace that chose the Levites from the other tribes, just as it was His grace that called Abraham from Ur, and that calls us, out of darkness into His light. There was nothing in Levi to commend him to God; on the contrary, we could even say that Levi was one of the worst sons of Jacob. But God in His sovereign grace could say:
· Deuteronomy 18:3-5, This is the share due the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the jowls and the inner parts. 4 You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep, 5 for the LORD your God has chosen them and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the LORD's name always.
And a companion verse,
· Romans 5:8, But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The Levites must have been some distance away when the law was given at Sinai because God said to Aaron in Numbers 3:6, "Bring the tribe of Levi and present them to Aaron the priest to assist him. Now think about it--- aren’t many of us far off when God calls us into His service? There are many lessons to be learned as we study the history of the tribe of Levi.
Aaron must surely be considered a type of Jesus and that will become obvious as we move into this subject. He is first mentioned in Exodus when God is preparing Moses and Aaron to go to Pharaoh. There God says,
· Exodus 4:14, Then the LORD's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well.
The work of Aaron in the Tabernacle, in his beautiful garments prefigures Him who, crowned with glory and honor, still walks among the golden candlesticks.
The high priest wore on his shoulder piece and breastplate the names of the children of Israel, as our High Priest bears us on the shoulder of His power and His love.
Within the breastplate of the high priest were the Urim and Thummim, the lights and perfections, by which God’s will was revealed to Israel. The Urim and Thummim were small stone-like object that were carried inside the breastplate of the high priest to determine the will of God. They were considered to be sacred. The Urim has been translated “lights” and the Thummim has been translated “perfections”. So the Urim and Thummim were kept by the high priest and were used to determine God’s will in many cases, thus the “light and perfection”.
In the time of Ezra some of the priests were unable to prove their parentage; they believed themselves to be Aaron’s sons, but could not show it.
· Ezra 2:62-63, These searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. 63 The governor ordered them not to eat any of the most sacred food until there was a priest ministering with the Urim and Thummim.
We do not have to wait for a High Priests to appear to become a member of the family of God, because our names are already written in the heavenly records.
The numbering of the Levites brings to our attention a matter of some interest, and shows in association with the High Priest they were entirely separated from the other tribes, and were spared from the condemnation that fell on the rest of Israel.
It is generally stated that of all those who came out of Egypt, Caleb and Joshua alone were allowed to go into the promised land, but by carefully studying the history of the Levites it appears that they were exempt from the tragedy of the wilderness wandering. Here are the reasons for this conclusion:
1. The tribe of Levi sent no spy to view the land with Joshua and Caleb and the others.
· Numbers 13:1-15, The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders."3 So at the LORD's command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites. 4 These are their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur; 5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; 6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; 7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; 8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; 9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; 10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; 11 from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), Gaddi son of Susi; 12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; 13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; 14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi; 15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki. 16 These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)
How many tribes do you count here? There are twelve, but no tribe of Levi.
2. Now what does the Bible say about those who would perish in the wilderness?
· Joshua 5:6, The Israelites moved about in the desert forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the LORD. For the LORD had sworn to them that they would not see the land that he had solemnly promised their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
· Numbers 14:29-38, In this desert your bodies will fall--every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. 30 Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. 32 But you--your bodies will fall in this desert. 33 Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. 34 For forty years--one year for each of the forty days you explored the land--you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.' 35 I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this desert; here they will die." 36 So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it-- 37 these men responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the LORD. 38 Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.
As stated above, those who fell in the desert were numbered from twenty years old and up, and were further described as “men of military age”, or “men of war”, as the King James version has it.
· Deuteronomy 2:14, Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.
3.But that the Levites were not numbered among the “men of war” is clearly shown in the first chapter of Numbers.
· Numbers 1:1-15, You and Aaron are to number by their divisions all the men in Israel twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army. 4 One man from each tribe, each the head of his family, is to help you. 5 These are the names of the men who are to assist you: from Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur; 6 from Simeon, Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai; 7 from Judah, Nahshon son of Amminadab; 8 from Issachar, Nethanel son of Zuar; 9 from Zebulun, Eliab son of Helon; 10 from the sons of Joseph: from Ephraim, Elishama son of Ammihud; from Manasseh, Gamaliel son of Pedahzur; 11 from Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni; 12 from Dan, Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai; 13 from Asher, Pagiel son of Ocran; 14 from Gad, Eliasaph son of Deuel; 15 from Naphtali, Ahira son of Enan."
This was done and at the close of the chapter,
· Numbers 1:44-49, These were the men counted by Moses and Aaron and the twelve leaders of Israel, each one representing his family. 45 All the Israelites twenty years old or more who were able to serve in Israel's army were counted according to their families. 46 The total number was 603,550. 47 The families of the tribe of Levi, however, were not counted along with the others. 48 The LORD had said to Moses: 49 "You must not count the tribe of Levi or include them in the census of the other Israelites.
The Levites were numbered separately because there was no inheritance of the land allotted to them.
4. The children of Israel who were to die without entering the promised land were those numbered in the wilderness at Sinai, excluding the Levites. When Moses and Eleazar counted the Israelites before they approached the Jordan River, there was not a man among them whom Moses and Aaron had counted at Sinai, except Joshua and Caleb. The same criteria was used for the counting both at Sinai and the Jordan.
5. Eleazar and Phinehas went into the promised land. Eleazar along with Joshua divided up the land among the various tribes. He must have been more than twenty years old when they left Egypt.
The passages we have just described have gone on at some length to show that the position of the Levites could be clearly distinguished from the rest of the Israelites. The conclusion is that they were exempt from the curse that was placed on the Israelites at Sinai and therefore we see in them a striking picture of the position of true believers. The Levites were the thirteenth tribe among the children of Jacob and as such had a position similar to that of Paul as an apostle.
When the Levites were numbered from a month old and upwards, they were numbered in their weakness; (Chapter 3 of Numbers) In chapter 4 they are numbered according to their strength, from thirty years old and older---interestingly the age of Joseph when he stood before Pharaoh, of David when he began to reign, and of Jesus when He entered His public ministry.
There was a great contrast between the history of the Levites before they were brought out of Egypt and later. In the earlier days it was said by Jacob,
· Genesis 49:5-6, "Simeon and Levi are brothers--their swords are weapons of violence. 6 Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.”
But later we have a different picture of them.
· Numbers 3:8, They are to take care of all the furnishings of the Tent of Meeting, fulfilling the obligations of the Israelites by doing the work of the tabernacle.
Levi had been a cause of shame to Jacob, but now he is called by God to this place of high privilege. The meaning of the name Levi is “joined”.
Simeon and Levi were cursed for their cruelty and their sin, and punishment was pronounced. They were to be divided and scattered, actually separated from the other tribes. But the curse was turned into a blessing. They were separated, according to:
· Deuteronomy 10:8, At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today. 9 That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as the LORD your God told them.)
Now please see the type here: we too, were once under the curse on account of our sin; but we have been set apart and Jesus is our inheritance.
· Galatians 3:13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us,
and,
· Ephesians 1:3, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
We also have a striking contrast in the occupation s of the Levites at these two periods in their history. In Egypt, they, like the rest of the children of Israel were slaves to the Egyptian (world) system.
· Exodus 1:11-14, So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.
Building the cities for Pharaoh was no easy task; but how different was their life afterwards, when they were appointed to serve in the Tabernacle, the house of God. And their taskmaster was quite different. Aaron was no slave master.
So in their early history the Levites had been slaves but later were called to be a royal priesthood. The type is inescapable: before we were saved we were slaves to sin in the world system, but then were “called out of darkness into His marvelous light” as a royal priesthood.