NUMBERS 3
The priests and Levites were expressly excluded from the numbering of the tribes in chapters 1 and 2, that we might learn to clearly distinguish between the saints viewed as in “military service”, and the same persons viewed as keeping “the charge of the sanctuary”, or as performing the service of “the tent of meeting”. We find the latter in the chapter now before us, and [p. 22] the priests are mentioned first because the Levites were given to them, and had to serve in every detail under their authority. The sons of Aaron were also themselves under commandment, and held their office in virtue of being so; their names are introduced as “the generations of Aaron and Moses” (verse 1). This would seem to convey that Aaron’s sons were required to be, in a moral sense, true sons of Moses also. They could only be in right relation to Aaron in the priesthood by being in right relation to Moses as the representative of divine authority. It was in this that the two eldest so signally failed, and thereby forfeited the priesthood and their lives. They died before Jehovah because they “presented strange fire before Jehovah, which he had not commanded them” (Leviticus 10:1). To take up priesthood without subjection to Christ as Lord is disastrous.
The death of Nadab and Abihu being spoken of here, and priesthood being exercised by Eleazar and Ithamar in the presence of Aaron (verse 4), has undoubtedly a bearing on present conditions. The priesthood has publicly come to grief, but there is a remnant left who are enabled with humble and chastened spirits to carry on priestly service in the presence of Christ. It is as conscious that this is the position of things today that we can profit by the instruction of Numbers. The system of holy things with which we have to do is altogether divine and spiritual; we can only serve in relation to it as being spiritual ourselves; and we serve with a humbling sense that what has had the prominent place in a public way has entirely broken down, and become a subject of divine judgment.
But the exercise of priesthood continues, not only on the part of Christ as the true Aaron, but on the part of those who are, antitypically, Aaron’s sons. Priesthood represents the highest spirituality, and most mature understanding of God’s holy things, and of what is suitable to God, and that element is to direct all the service of “the tribe of Levi”. So Moses is told to “Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister unto him; and they shall keep his charge, and the charge of the whole assembly, before the tent of meeting, to do the service of the tabernacle” (verses 6,7). “And thou shalt give the Levites to Aaron and to his sons” (verse 9). The saints as typified in “the tribe of Levi” have a place and service which is more spiritual and holy than that which they fill as of the twelve tribes, but which does not reach to the high rank of priesthood. As Levites they are given to the priests, to be directed by them in every detail of their service. A Levite who does not act under priestly direction is entirely out of order. God would impress us all with the great truth that the levitical is subordinate to the priestly; if we do not recognise this we shall never find our right place in the divine system of holy service. Levitical service as seen in this book, is “the service of the tabernacle”; it is well that we should apprehend what this means.
The tabernacle was, as Hebrews 8:5 and Hebrews 9:23 tell us, “the representation and shadow of heavenly things”, “the figurative representations of the things in the heavens”. It “represented the vast scene in which God’s glory is displayed in Christ” (see note to Hebrews 9:1 in J.N.D.’s translation). As Levites we are brought near to God, “to do the work of the tabernacle of Jehovah, and to stand before the assembly to minister to them” (Numbers 16:9). Not a single detail in the tabernacle would have suggested itself to the mind of man if God had not made it known; all was to be made “according to the pattern which has been shown to thee in the mountain” (Hebrews 8:5). As Levites we are called to serve in relation to a system [p. 24] which is heavenly in character, and in which we can only serve rightly as we are directed by Christ as the true Aaron, and by His sons as typical of that which is highly spiritual in the saints.
Then we learn from verses 11 - 13 that the Levites were taken instead of all the hallowed firstborn in Israel. They thus typify the saints as composing “the assembly of the firstborn who are enregistered in heaven” (Hebrews 12:23), having no earthly inheritance, but having a heavenly place and service. “Every male from a month old and upward” was to be numbered (verses 14 - 16). When it is a question of “military service” the numbering is “from twenty years old and upward”, but when the saints are viewed as hallowed to God through the redemption value of the blood of Christ they are taken account of by the Lord (note that it is only Moses and Aaron who number the Levites) long before they can take account of themselves. Indeed, one could say, “God who set me apart even from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace” (Galatians 1:15), and of the same one the Lord could say when he was only three days converted, “this man is an elect vessel to me” (Acts 9:15). We may see from this that levitical service is a matter of divine sovereignty, and that what we are called to be as Levites is in view from the earliest period of our history. It is usually the case that there are early indications of an appointment to service; Timothy was clearly marked out by “prophecies as to thee preceding” (1 Timothy 1:18). The Levite was not matured as a servant until he was thirty years old, but all that he would be was in prospect from the beginning. What an impression would be made upon us if we understood that from the very outset of God’s ways with us we were hallowed for His holy service! Satan will no doubt do what is possible to mar us for that service, both before conversion and after, but all God’s ways ever tend to bring us to maturity for our appointed place and charge in relation to His holy things.
We learn next (verses 17 - 39) that the tribe of Levi consisted of three families, from one of which Aaron and his sons were taken and consecrated as priests, so that they along with Moses, occupied a special place “before the tabernacle eastward, before the tent of meeting toward the sunrising”. The three families, apart from the priests, respectively encamped westward, southward, and northward of the tabernacle. So that the priestly and levitical encampings are seen to stand in relation to the tabernacle on all four sides, indicating the universality of priestly and levitical service. Levi means “united”, and no family of his sons served independently of the other families, nor were any or all of them to serve apart from the priests who appointed them “every one to his service and to his burden” (chapter 4:19). In the divinely ordered system there are no gaps and no overlapping; every needed service is adequately provided for, and though there is great variety in the nature of the service it constitutes one whole, all directed in spiritual intelligence and contributing to a complete result. Each Levite would be conscious that he was doing something that was necessary to further the whole tabernacle system and its service. However small his bit might be, he would do it as having the universal thought before him, and as realising that he was one with all his brethren in the service.
This chapter gives us to understand that there are distinct branches of levitical service. Not only do the three families encamp on three different sides of the tabernacle, but their respective services are graded, all tabernacle service is not alike; some parts of it demand greater spirituality, more personal holiness,
[p. 26] than others. To carry a peg or a cord of the court is not so holy a service as to carry the candlestick or the golden altar. A Gershonite or a Merarite must not take up “the charge of the sanctuary”; that is reserved to the family of Kohath. So that, even as Levites, we have to learn what family we are of, and to what part of the divine system we can put our hand under priestly direction.
The Gershonites encamped “behind the tabernacle westward”, and their service was connected with all the woven and embroidered work (save the veil), and the cords of the tabernacle and the tent, and with its coverings and the hangings of the court. This branch of the service is thus seen to be connected with what takes form in the saints collectively through much exercise in detail. It is the outcome of spinning, weaving, needlework, all of which speak of patient and protracted labour to which one detail is added after another until the work is complete. All this was not exactly the work of Bezaleel and Aholiab, but work done under their teaching by “every woman that was wise-hearted” (Exodus 35:25). It represents the fruit of subjective exercise, which, having been worked out to completion through spiritual affections, now comes under the charge of the Gershonites. They were not called upon to make the things, but to carry out a charge with reference to them after they were made. They have all to be carried through the wilderness, and this is the chief service of the Levites as seen in Numbers. It has to do with the continuance of things, and the movements of the testimony rather than with what is initial. No feature of the testimony is to be lost or left behind; every detail of it is to be carried on, however many different encampments there may be. Whatever spiritual features were developed in the saints under divine teaching at the beginning are to [p. 27] be carried right through. It is the charge of the Gershonites to see to this.
The things mentioned as constituting “the charge of the sanctuary”, and committed to the care of the families of the Kohathites — the ark, the table, the candlestick, the altar, the veil — were all directly typical of Christ personally, and hence we can understand that the service of the Kohathites was “most holy” (chapter 4:4). The detail of it will come before us in chapter 4. Every spiritual apprehension of Christ which was given to the apostles and others at the beginning, and communicated by them to the saints in Spirit-taught words, has to be carried through by levitical service in such wise that it suffers no loss or damage. It is of vital importance that what we have heard from the beginning should abide in us; and the thought conveyed in the carrying of the holy things would seem to be that what they typify is preserved intact amongst the people of God, and carried through as the subject of testimony. This is not the direct service of God in the way of prayer, praise or worship; that would be priests’ work; but this levitical service is to carry through everything that forms part of the testimony of God in such wise that it remains in its full original character amongst the people of God, and they remain fully identified with it. The very service supposes that the testimony will move, but it moves without losing one feature that had a place in it at the beginning. We know, alas! how great the failure has been as to this. The levitical service has broken down publicly as well as the priesthood, but the testimony remains what it was at the beginning, and true levitical service is just the same today as it was at the beginning, and true priesthood likewise. We have to return in our faith and affections to God’s order, and to seek to be consistent with it, notwithstanding all the public departure from it.
Then the families of Merari had “oversight of the boards of the tabernacle, and its bars, and its pillars, and its bases ... and the pillars of the court round about” etc. Their part had to do with what we might describe as structural — typifying the firm and stable character which attaches to saints as being God’s workmanship, God’s building (1 Corinthians 3:9; Ephesians 2:10,22; 1 Peter 2:5; 2 Corinthians 1:21; 2 Corinthians 5:5,17). It is most necessary that we should have in mind the substantial nature — of course in a moral sense — of the work of God as made good in His saints. One who is born of water and of the Spirit has become, morally, new material; the “inward man” is a substantive reality. And it is said of the “new man” that he is created after God in righteousness and holiness of the truth. What men are as born of God, or as created in Christ, corresponds morally with Christ, just as the wood of the boards and pillars, etc., corresponded with the wood of the ark. The carrying through of all that is connected with this important, and indeed (so far as man is concerned) very fundamental aspect of the truth, is in the charge of the Merarites.
It will be seen that, according to the type, there can be no movement of the testimony apart from the activity of all three branches of levitical service. The priests take the lead, and the Levites do nothing save under their direction, but the service of each family is essential to every movement. To preserve intact the features of the testimony, the ministry of Christ personally must have the first and “most holy” place; but it is to be accompanied by the carrying forward also of all that is connected with the normal activity of holy exercises and affections in the saints, and of spiritual diligence. And there must also be full place given to what the saints are morally by the work of God. It is the priest’s responsibility to see that all is [p. 29] carried out suitably, and that no detail is overlooked or handled amiss. The priests represent the saints viewed as filling in holy dignity and intelligence the place which Christ has given them before His God and Father; in this character they are viewed as having the greatest nearness to God, the highest degree of spirituality. All levitical service is to be controlled and directed by that element.
So Moses and Aaron and his sons encamped “before the tabernacle eastward”, and they kept “the charge of the sanctuary, for the charge of the children of Israel” (verse 38). We see from this that the priests served representatively on behalf of the whole assembly. They are not to be regarded as typifying a separate class of persons, but as representing certain spiritual features to which God would assign the most prominent place in relation to His testimony; everything levitical had to be subordinated to what was priestly. This is a lesson which is most important to be learned, and submitted to, by all who take up any kind of levitical service. The instruction of all this is for us who are called to serve in the last days; it could not possibly be understood by those who lived in Moses’ time.
The last section of the chapter (verses 40 - 51) shows how the Levites were taken instead of all the firstborn males of the children of Israel, those in excess of the number of the Levites being ransomed by the payment of “five shekels apiece”. So that the Levites were in the place of all that was hallowed to Jehovah in Israel, the whole assembly in that particular aspect being seen representatively in them. Every redeemed one should realise that he is a “firstborn”, and that he is hallowed for God, and that such service is due from him as was typified in the tribe of Levi: If any of the “firstborn” were not personally represented in levitical service they had to be ransomed; not only [p. 30] had the divine claim to be recognised, but also the value in God’s account of what He claimed. The ransom price is particularly detailed — “five shekels apiece by the poll, according to the shekel of the sanctuary shalt thou take them, twenty gerahs the shekel” (verse 47). This represents, as we learn from Leviticus 27:6, the value of a male child devoted to Jehovah whose age is from “a month old even unto five years old”. So that the ransomed firstborn is regarded as being within those age limits; he is a servant potentially rather than in capability; but as a subject of divine grace, and as having redemption in Christ — and the five shekels speak of this — he has definite value in view of tabernacle service. How good would it be if every redeemed one recognised this, and viewed himself not only as a firstborn son, but also as hallowed for levitical service. The type of the hallowed firstborn runs thus into that of the tribe of Levi, so that no redeemed one can evade responsibility to take up levitical service.
The fact that there were more firstborn males in Israel than there were numbered Levites would perhaps suggest that in a practical sense more persons are hallowed to God through redemption than are found in the definite place of being numbered for levitical service. The disparity in the numbers would probably be very great at the present time, but God requires that the obligation shall be owned, the ransom given. If you are a redeemed “firstborn” you are hallowed to God. If you have no counterpart as a Levite — that is, if you have never recognised your obligation to serve in relation to holy things — you have to consider the question of ransom. However young you are, however immature or unintelligent, God would impress upon you that you have definite value for His holy service. Now what is your value for levitical service?
“[p. 31] Five shekels ... according to the shekel of the sanctuary”. Think of the value God puts upon you as one hallowed for His service! You have fivefold sanctuary value, and each of the five shekels is, as it were, drawn out in the full detail of its worth as comprising “twenty gerahs”. It seems designed to impress the youngest believer with his value in God’s estimation in view of the service that is due from him, even though he may be, as yet, too young to take it up in any practical way. In a babe only “a month old” there is a potentiality that is worth a hundred gerahs in the sanctuary. If such is God’s estimate of your value for His holy service, when you are as yet only “one month old”, when He may have to wait a long time before you are mature for that service, does it not encourage you to cherish the thought that you are already valued by Him as hallowed for His service? God would give every young believer, even though he may never have thought seriously of taking up any service in relation to the tabernacle of testimony, a distinct impression that he has sanctuary value. Perhaps, there are old believers, too, who need to learn the lesson of the “five shekels”! If we really wake up to the value which God puts upon us in relation to levitical service it would move us to desire to be of the tribe of Levi! And we are not debarred from this; it is but another aspect of our place and calling through grace. If I am a hallowed firstborn, it is through infinite grace, and the same grace entitles me to be of the assembly of the firstborn ones, which answers to the tribe of Levi: But if I am of that tribe I must recognise the character of the service in which I am called to have part. I must seek to learn, under priestly instruction, what to do, and how to do it. The next chapter gives us the service in detail.