Numbers: Faith, Law, and History

The Service of the Levites

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: The Service of the Levites

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Track: 06

Dictation Name: RR181C6

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Year:

Let us worship God. Grace be unto you and peace from God, our Father and from the Lord, Jesus Christ. Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Let us pray.

O Lord, our God, we give thanks unto thee that our times are in thy hands. We thank thee that our yesterdays, todays, and tomorrow are all known to thee and come from thy loving and gracious hands. Teach us, therefore, so to walk, that in all things we are mindful that it is thy will that must be done in our lives, that in all things we must seek thy glory and all things be obedient to thy word, and all things know that thou art ever-gracious and ever-loving unto us. Grant that, as we end the year and begin a new year, we do so in thee, rejoicing in thy unceasing grace. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Our scripture is Numbers 4. Our subject: The Praise of the Service of the Levites. The Service of the Levites. Numbers 4: “And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, after their families, by the house of their fathers, from thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation. This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation, about the most holy things: and when the camp setteth forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down the covering vail, and cover the ark of testimony with it.”

Then, skipping over to verse 16: “And to the office of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest pertaineth the oil for the light, and the sweet incense, and the daily meat offering, and the anointing oil, and the oversight of all the tabernacle, and of all that therein is, in the sanctuary, and in the vessels thereof. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron saying, Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites: but thus do unto them, that they may live, and not die, when they approach unto the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in, and appoint them every one to his service and to his burden: but they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take also the sum of the sons of Gershon, throughout the houses of their fathers, by their families; from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old shalt thou number them; all that enter in to perform the service, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation.”

Then, verse 29: “As for the sons of Merari, thou shalt number them after their families, by the house of their fathers; from thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old shalt thou number them, every one that entereth into the service, to do the work of the tabernacle of the congregation.”

Verse 34: “And Moses and Aaron and the chief of the congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites after their families, and after the house of their fathers, from thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one that entereth into the service, for the work in the tabernacle of the congregation.”

Verse 42: “And those that were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari, throughout their families, by the house of their fathers, from thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one that entereth into the service, for the work in the tabernacle of the congregation, even those that were numbered of them after their families, were three thousand and two hundred. These be those that were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses. All those that were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron and the chief of Israel numbered, after their families, and after the house of their fathers, from thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one that came to do the service of the ministry, and the service of the burden in the tabernacle of the congregation. Even those that were numbered of them, were eight thousand and five hundred and fourscore, according to the commandment of the Lord they were numbered by the hand of Moses, every one according to his service, and according to his burden: thus were they numbered of him, as the Lord commanded Moses.”

The census of the Levites in verse 3 is said to be inclusive of all males between the ages of 30 and 50. Numbers 8:23-26, we are told that the years of levitical service are 25 to 50. After 50, the Levite must withdraw from active service in the tent of meeting. He may assist in the sanctuary duties, but any active service now lies elsewhere. Elsewhere in the Bible, we see how many other services were then required. What a vast realm of duties they assumed. In 1 Chronicles 23:3 and 24, we have another statement. The Levites were registered in the enumeration from age 30 on up, according to verse 3, and in verse 24, from 20 years old upward. There are, thus, some differences in the numbering, but this census is a second numbering of the Levites, this time by families. So, there are differences. Moreover, the ages cited are not contradictory. They have to do with sanctuary service. At 20, a male Levite became eligible for sanctuary service and for training. At 25, he assisted as he did after 50. This discipline served to prepare the Levite for mature service to the community at large after the age of 50.

Now, this is interesting, throughout the word “service” is used, and the word service in the Hebrew, translated here by the word “service” is literally warfare. This was an enumeration as part of a military census, even though the Levites could not be drafted for military action, because they are already members of an army engaged in warfare for God. There is conflict in every sphere of life, but no where is the conflict, the warfare, more direct and more intense than in God’s service. Whenever a man enters such a service, conflict is inescapable if he is faithful. Men in armies of state are occasionally included in battle. Most armies serve in peace time. However, anyone whose work is in the sphere of setting forth the implications of the faith is faced with continual battle. We cannot limit this warfare to the church and its ministry. Many other spheres are levitical. In fact, after 50, the Levite had a broad sphere of service. He could be a part of the judicial bench. He had educational duties in the community. He had a vast area of broader functions.

Thus, what it tells us is that all faithful Christian scholarship is constantly engaged in a confrontation with the forces of anti-Christianity. Therefore, they are in the service, in warfare continually, so that the military census for the twelve tribes was in terms of possible battle from time to time. The census of the Levites was for continual warfare, continual service for the kingdom of God. Our English words “serve” and “service” still have the old King James meaning of military action, so we talk about the military service.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, almost two centuries ago, wrote about the need for a well-educated class whom he called “a clerisy,” to act in some sense as the Levites of old. Now Coleridge simply took the idea that we have here, transferred it to the secular realm, and since then we have had a kind of clerisy, a humanistic group of scholars replacing the Christian scholars of old, the Christian Levites, those who fought the battles of the Lord in the sphere of the mind, of education, scholarship, and so on. Well, the fallacy of Coleridge’s position has been that the intellectuals have been anything but a clerisy protecting society. They have, in fact, been a powerful force in the disarming of society. This is why we need the Levites now, men of Christian faith who are scholars, who apply the faith in the various spheres of life. Every community needs protection. In the last two centuries, the clerisy of the humanists has stripped society of protection. An army as such may be well-armed, but it will often have no understanding of what it must defend nor why it should do so. The need is for Christian scholarship to provide that defense and the armament of the mind, and of the faith, and of the heart. This is the meaning of the military census of the Levites. It is a part of the military census, although they are exempt from military duty. This is a very important point, one of the most important points in all of scripture, and it’s forgotten now because the humanistic intelligencia has self-consciously replace since Coleridge, the Christian Levitical army.

In Deuteronomy 10:8-9, Moses tells Israel what the function of the Levites is in the wilderness. “At that time, the Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day. Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, according as the Lord thy God promised him.”

The Levitical duties of the Levites are here cited in the wilderness. They are first to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord. This very literally meant to transport, carry, and protect the ark and other things of the sanctuary. It mean, moreover, in a figurative sense, that the defense of the faith, of the things central to a society rested with the Levites. Second, the Levite was to stand before the Lord to minister unto Him. This did not mean conducting the service of worship which was a priestly, not a Levitical, function. The priest could stand before the Lord anywhere to minister to Him, even as the modern Levite, the instructor or scholar, can serve God in areas outside the liturgical sphere.

Third, the Levite was to bless in His name, that is, God’s name. God’s blessing is His mercy, favor, peace, and gifts to His covenant people. By his work, the Christian Levite is a means of transmitting God’s blessing to His people. He instructs and guide God’s people in the pathways of truth and justice. The Levite received no inheritance like other men. The Lord is his inheritance.

The duties of the Levite in the wilderness journey are set forth in the details of this chapter. First, in verses 1-20, we have the census of the sons of Kohath, and then their duties are specified. Both Moses and Aaron were Kohathites, although Aaron was separated to form a priestly subclan. Some of the inmost and most holy furnishings are under the care of the Kohathites.

Second, in verses 21-28, the Gershonite subclan is given charge of the curtains of the tabernacle in the court. Then third, the Merrarites subclan was given charge of the framework of the tabernacle. In verse 32, we are told that the assigned duties were not general, but specific. Each man was to be assigned by name to what he should carry.

The reference in verse 7 to the table of showbread is to the table of the presence, or the table of the face, the face of God. In the service of communion, we are confronted with the presence, or face of God, His communion with us and His favor to us. The details of this chapter give us an interesting color scheme to the coverings or wrappings of the furnishings when transported. The most holy items, including the ark, were wrapped with various things, but the outer covering of the ark was a blue cloth, the color of the sky or heaven. Other items from the most holy areas were wrapped with a covering of blue cloth, or scarlet, and then an outer goatskin covering everything. Other items had a purple cloth, the color of royalty. This was their inner wrapping, and then a goatskin cover. The curtains of the Holy of Holies were blue, and those of the holy place were purple. These were all historically royal colors.

According to verses 17-20, the priests were required, first of all, to cover all things in the Holy of Holies before the Kohathites entered to transport them. Although the Kohathites carried the ark, they could not see it uncovered. The penalty for this rule, violation, was death. There could be no presumptuous familiarity with holy things. The penalty is, however, reserved to God’s administration. The interesting fact is that here, the priests are told that “ye shall not cut off the tribe of the families of Kohathites from among the Levites by their carelessness.” The reverential conduct must begin with the priests. The higher the authority in a society, the more necessary a conduct marked by reverence and awe becomes. Authority is not a trifling matter. It is delegated power, and God who delegates all earthly powers among men, will not hold men guiltless if they treat it lightly.

The census of the able-bodied Levites, ages 30-50, gives the following results: The Kohathites numbered 2,750, the Gershonites numbered 2,630, and the Merrarites were 3,200 strong. This was a total of 8,580. The requirement that all be of age and without blemish was a strict one. Now, there’s a very interesting fact here. The numbers in Numbers 3 and Numbers 4 are different. In Kohathites, the numbers in Numbers 3 are 8,600 and then, in Numbers 4, 2,750. The Gershonites, 7,500 and then only 2,640. The Merrarites 6,200 and then only 3,200. Why the difference? In numbers 4, we have the gross figures, but in Numbers 4 where the figures are from 50-75% less, we are given only those who are acceptable so that the requirements for the Levites were very severe, as they should be now.

The world of Christian education, Christian scholarship constitutes, according to Numbers 4, the army of the Lord, the basic military service of God’s kingdom, and this is the area now most neglected, one the church has forgotten ever since, beginning with the Enlightenment, there was a whittling away of the levitical functions of society, and with Coleridge, a self-conscious emergence of a clerisy, a humanistic group to replace the Levites as the so-called warriors of civilization, but they’ve been the gravediggers of it, because “except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” So, we have a very important chapter here.

Greco/Roman thinking, as well as modern thought, reduces everything to abstractions, and then, having reduced everything to abstractions, it says only a group of philosopher kings are able to interpret all things because they are the ones who deal with abstractions. Biblical thinking requires the entire community to center itself on the sanctuary, on the covenant faith. It is not abstract but specific, and it speaks to every man. The Christian scholar defected to the enemy if he forgets his duty to speak to the people of God and to all who will listen with hearing ears. His is not an ivory tower calling, but the forefront of the battle of the Lord. This is why when God takes a military census, he puts the Levites at the center of it, as the most important. They are the one group in military service, in continual warfare. The Christian thinker, the Christian teacher, the Christian scholar. Theirs is a lifelong calling and warfare. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we thank thee for thy word and for its plain speaking, and we pray that thou wouldst restore us to a faith and an emphasis on thy word from cover to cover, that we may again be a people of righteousness, that we may again, as a levitical ministry, confront the darkness and the evils of this world, with a saving power of Jesus Christ, and the justice of thy kingdom, the ministry of thy grace, and the charity of thy people. Grant us this, we beseech thee. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] Very much like the displacement of the clergy by the humanists in the Renaissance.

[Rushdoony] That’s when it really began, but it was most self-consciously set forth beginning with Coleridge, with his idea of the clerisy. Even Coleridge, however, masked it with a little bit of Christian paraphernalia, but he was basically a Hegelian, and his thinking was humanistic to the core. I believe a number of scholars in recent years have dealt with the idea of a clerisy. Before the War, the most notable was, I believe, T.S. Eliott. However, since then they believe they have triumphed so that it’s assumed that the clerisy now is in charge.

[Audience] It’s interesting that there are not even any references to Christian thinkers in the general literature of today.

[Rushdoony] And as you’ve pointed out on more than one occasion, the best seller list, book reviews, and all simply bypass this whole realm, but it has been a self-conscious thing. The proposal of a clerisy, the derivation is from clergy, the same word, and therefore, they were saying, “We must produce a humanistic clergy,” and this is what you get when you go to a university today, a humanistic clergy has replaced the old clergy in instructing the young. This is what you get in your public schools, a humanistic clergy, the new clerisy. This was the goal. Yes?

[Audience] Was it mandatory for Levi to take that {?} responsibility and duties, or did he have any say in it at all?

[Rushdoony] Every Levite who was able-bodied was expected to do it. He could be expelled for various reasons, but this was his calling. He was born into it, he had a duty to do it. Since he represented a tribe that was the firstborn by God’s appointment, not by birth, he represented all, so what it meant was that every man had a like duty in his place, to represent what the Levites did. So, it applied to all and the Levites were a core group. There’s so much like this that is far-reaching in its implications that has been buried with ignorance and forgotten, and needs to be revived. Of course, I think it’s probably occurred to you that this is what Chalcedon was established to do. Are there any other questions or comments? If not, let us conclude with prayer.

O Lord, our God, we pray that a generation of men may stand forth to be the army of the Lord, to carry forth the implications of thy word, of the salvation of Jesus Christ, of the righteousness thou hast set forth in thy word unto all spheres of life, all areas of the world, to the end that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape