Numbers 3:11-13
—11 Then the LORD spoke to Moses,
saying: 12 "Now behold, I Myself have taken the Levites from among the
children of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the
children of Israel. Therefore the Levites shall be Mine, 13 because all the firstborn
are Mine. 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." If God says something belongs to
Him, does it belong to Him? So when He says He has taken the Levites to
Himself, do they then belong to God? Well, yes. But these were His people, His
tribe, rather than all the firstborn of Israel. For one very important reason:
that they may act as a go-between between God and Man. Were they better than
the others? By no means. We have already shown, from the book of Judges, that
they could be just as dastardly as anyone. He does it for one reason and one
reason only: because He can. Because that’s what He decided He wanted to do.
Don’t think you are any different. He chose who would be His from before the foundation of the world. Why? Are we better than those He didn’t choose? Oh goodness, no. We are far worse than we could ever think, far worse than we could ever be accused of being. And likewise, these Levites were no better than the others. But the others were set apart for His armies, and the Levites for His service in the Tabernacle. This was done to maintain order in this crowd of over 600,000 people. Ever take part in putting something together or tearing it down? It can be frustrating. People milling about, moving stuff in no particular order, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. Then one person puts something where it doesn't belong, and everything gets out of whack, and… Now, suppose instead of setting up a stage for a production, we’re talking about the place where God has decided to put His name. And instead of a dozen or so workers, we have over a half million. So God says, Okay, before we get started, we are only going to have the sons of the tribe of Levi handling this. They are going to put stuff up, they alone are going to take it down and put all the stuff where it’s supposed to be, and do everything else. Now, that’s settled.
Now, suppose one of these Levites said “Nah, I’d rather not”.
Could they have just walked away from this calling? No. “The Levites shall be
MINE”. They belonged to God. If you are in Christ, you belong to God. And that
should make us the most humble of all people. That we have been bought with the
price of the blood of the Son of God. Not because we were good enough or smart
enough or holy enough or righteous enough to accept that payment. But that we
were chosen, based on nothing, by God, redeemed with His blood, and we are now
set apart to Him. There are some who say “Yes, but you can always walk away.
You can say ‘I don’t want to do this anymore’”. Seriously? You think that once
you are in Christ, saved from the wrath to come, that God thinks so little of
you that He would let you waltz off into Hell? 1st Corinthians
3:23—and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.
Ephesians 1:13-14—13 having believed, you
were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of
His glory. See that word “guarantee” in verse 14? In the KJV it is
translated “earnest”. It is defined as “money which in purchases is given as a
pledge or down payment that the full amount will subsequently be paid.” God
gives us His Holy Spirit as a pledge. And God does not go back on His word. The Holy Spirit is our guarantee, our earnest.
If God guarantees something, will it happen?
Verses 14-39 detail which duty each division of the Levites
was to carry out, so we will skip on down to Numbers 3:40-51—40 Then the LORD said to Moses: "Number all the
firstborn males of the children of Israel from a month old and above, and take
the number of their names. 41 And you shall take the Levites for Me—I am the
LORD—instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the
livestock of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the livestock of
the children of Israel." 42 So
Moses numbered all the firstborn among the children of Israel, as the LORD
commanded him. 43 And all the firstborn males, according to the number of names
from a month old and above, of those who were numbered of them, were twenty-two
thousand two hundred and seventy-three. 44 Then the LORD spoke to Moses,
saying: 45 "Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the
children of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock.
The Levites shall be Mine: I am the LORD. 46 And for the redemption of the two
hundred and seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel, who are
more than the number of the Levites, 47 you shall take five shekels for each
one individually; you shall take them in the currency of the shekel of the
sanctuary, the shekel of twenty gerahs. 48 And you shall give the money, with
which the excess number of them is redeemed, to Aaron and his sons." 49 So
Moses took the redemption money from those who were over and above those who
were redeemed by the Levites. 50 From the firstborn of the children of Israel
he took the money, one thousand three hundred and sixty-five shekels, according
to the shekel of the sanctuary. 51 And
Moses gave their redemption money to Aaron and his sons, according to the word
of the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Here we see a picture of redemption. The Old Covenant is often referred to as a “Covenant of Works”, and the New Covenant is referred to as a “Covenant of Grace”. I would argue they are both a Covenant of Grace. Adam’s sin plunged all humans into death and sin. God would have been perfectly justified in wiping us all out and starting all over again. But He didn’t. Even before He began the work of Creation, He knew Man would sin. So He planned to redeem some with the blood of His Son, Whom He would send at an appointed time. Until that time, He would chose for Himself a people He would call Israel. And He would give them types and shadows to serve as guideposts so that when that Son came into the world, they would know it was Him. One of those guideposts was this concept of redemption.
First, He says in verse 45 that He shall take the tribe of
Levi instead of all the firstborn of all Israel. There were 22,000 males in the
tribe of Levi, there were 22,273 firstborn males in all of Israel. That meant
there were 273 more firstborn males than there were males in the tribe of Levi.
So how would these additional 273 souls be redeemed? Well, in verses 46-48, we
see that God told Moses that there was a price to be paid for them. They
couldn’t just say “eh, close enough”. The first 22,000 firstborn had to be
redeemed with a Levite, the remaining 273 had to be redeemed with something.
God determined that that price was five shekels. This would be the price of
anything devoted to the service of God, as it says in Numbers 18:16—
And those
redeemed of the devoted things you shall redeem when one month old, according
to your valuation, for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the
sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. God could have said “that one is Mine, and I shall have it”,
but He didn’t. He said “give five
shekels to the Levites, that they might minister on My behalf, and intercede
for you”. So the principle of redemption was established.
This principle would find its way into the New Covenant, but
instead of paying five shekels to redeem a soul to God, it was now a price God
paid to redeem a particular people. In 1st Corinthians 6:20
it says you were bought with a price. That
price was not five shekels, but rather the blood of the Lamb without spot or
blemish. As John the Baptist said, “the Lamb of God
which takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). In order for
your sins to be taken away and forgotten, something had to be given in its
place. God cannot just forget about the times you have disobeyed Him and
rebelled against Him. Under the Law, that something was the blood of bulls and
goats. But as we saw earlier, Hebrews 10:4—It
is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
We had to be redeemed. We had to have someone go into the Holy of Holies in
Heaven with blood from a perfect sacrifice in order for God to forgive our
sins. Hebrews 9:12—Neither by the blood of
goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. F.B. Meyer in his commentary,
wrote—
We are led to consider Christ’s high-priestly work. The scene for it is no edifice made with hands in this transitory world, but eternal and divine. His stay in the Holiest is not brief, hurried, and repeated year by year, but once for all He enters by virtue of His own blood. That blood cleanses not only from ceremonial guilt, but from moral and spiritual pollution. A will or testament comes into force when the testator dies; so the will of the eternal Father toward us has been made valid through the blood of Jesus.
I’ll end with the words
of the Apostle Peter, in 1st Peter 1:17-19—17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality
judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of
your stay here in fear; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition
from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot. If you are in Christ, it cost more
than five shekels to redeem you from the curse of sin. You were bought and paid
for with the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
