February 26, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Numbers? Here’s today’s reading:
Numbers 3 (NIV)
The Levites
1 This is the account of the family of Aaron and Moses at the time the Lordspoke to Moses at Mount Sinai.
2 The names of the sons of Aaron were Nadab the firstborn and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.......Continue Reading
So much counting and census taking in this book it is fittingly called “Numbers” God continues to be precise and methodical about all things showing us His attention to every detail.
Numbers 3
Numbers 3
Numbers 3
I don’t remember reading this before: “On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to Myself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast. They shall be Mine: I am the Lord.”
Sanctify:
To set apart for sacred use; consecrate.
To make holy; purify.
So the death of the Egyptian firstborn was a purifying sacrifice for the firstborn of Israel. This is a sobering thought.
God didn’t want human sacrifice so he kept the firstborn of Levi as redemption for all of Israel.
I was thinking of the independence that was taken away from these men because of their lineage. I guess that just goes to show how far away from the concept of allegiance to honor and service to God and family we have come as a society, at least in America. I think this whole chapter shows God’s plan for tribes and families in Israel. I am so thankful that He included the nations through the death of His Son.
Pastor, I am rethinking my comment. Perhaps it was just a simultaneous occurrence, rather than one being the means to achieve the other? The firstborn of Israel were sanctified the same day the firstborn of Egypt were struck down. Steve and I were discussing the meaning of sanctified being: set apart. The day that Egypt was struck down, the Israelite first-born were set apart, removed from Egypt as God’s people.
“On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to Myself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast. They shall be Mine: I am the Lord.”
What a fascinating chapter as God talks about the Levites. What a privilege it must have been to be called into God’s service particularly with regards to the tabernacle and assisting the people and the priests as they made sacrifices to God as well as managing all the sanctified elements found there. And it is curious what the Levites represented in God’s economy. I agree with Amy’s second comment that as the angel of death worked his way through Egypt and killed the first born of Egypt and passed over the houses with blood on the door posts, those first born became His because they were only alive by virtue of God’s protection. So one did not cause the other, but flowed from the implication of the same event. Now it is interesting to consider that God did not posses those first born because He needed them in some way, but rather it was a way to reenforce Israel’s connection and dependance on Him and further reenforce appreciation for what He accomplished in the Passover.
And so every firstborn in Israel belong to God, they owed Him for them. But rather than paying for them or even worse sacrificing them, God took the Levites into His service. So they were the purchase price. So much so that when there were more firstborns than there were Levites, they had to pay a monetary price for them. (I do wonder if this ever caused the Israelites to tell the Levites, they better have more kids). But it’s all a picture of redemption and even atonement on some level that eventually Jesus would resolve for all people, including the Jews.
I also appreciate the different clans of Levites that would be responsible for different elements of the tabernacle…some a little more flashy than the others…..but quite a colossal effort when you think of breaking down the tabernacle and setting it up again. And it would be one thing if that was from Sinai to Palestine…now add on 40 years of wandering…..kudos to those Levites, huh?
38Moses and Aaron and his sons were to camp to the east of the tabernacle, toward the sunrise, in front of the tent of meeting. They were responsible for the care of the sanctuary on behalf of the Israelites. Anyone else who approached the sanctuary was to be put to death.
39The total number of Levites counted at the Lord’s command by Moses and Aaron according to their clans, including every male a month old or more, was 22,000.
Sorry to continue commenting on this, but in my prep for the women’s study in Joshua I was looking up the word “memorial” and I ended up in Exodus 13: “And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast: therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem.”
There seems to be connection between the death of the Egyptian firstborn and the sacrifice of the first-born beast of Israel and the redemption of the first born male Israelite. I think the purpose was to implement a continual reminder of what God did for the people of Israel.
That remembrance is certainly what is being emphasized in Exodus 13, focusing on what they would tell future generations. But still mentioning them as concurrent events and not one causing the other. Yes?
Yes. I think it is similar to communion. We symbolically remember the Lord’s death with bread and wine. The Israelites symbolically remember the Lord rescuing them from the Egyptians by offering and/or redeeming their firstborn.
Numbers 3
Numbers 1-3.