Numbers: Faith, Law, and History

The Consecration of the Levites

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: The Consecration of the Levites

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Track: 12

Dictation Name: RR181F12

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Year:

Let us worship God. Serve the Lord with gladness, and come before His presence with singing. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and His truth endureth to all generations. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, with joy and with thanksgiving we come again into thy presence, rejoicing in the fact that our times are in thy hands, that thou men may take counsel together against thee, and plan to overthrow thy law and thy kingdom, thou art ever God, and all their machinations come to naught. Give us grace therefore, day by day, to look unto thee, to know the certainty of thy government and thy grace, and in all things, to give thee thanks. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Our scripture is Numbers 8, but we will begin with the last verse of Numbers 7:89. Numbers 8. Our subject: The Consecration of the Levites. Numbers 8. “And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with him, then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubims: and he spake unto him. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and say unto him, When thou lightest the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light over against the candlestick. And Aaron did so; he lighted the lamps thereof over against the candlestick, as the Lord commanded Moses. And this work of the candlestick was of beaten gold, unto the shaft thereof, unto the flowers thereof, was beaten work: according unto the pattern which the Lord had shewed Moses, so he made the candlestick. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them. And thus shalt thou do unto them, to cleanse them: Sprinkle water of purifying upon them, and let them shave all their flesh, and let them wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean. Then let them take a young bullock with his meat offering, even fine flour mingled with oil, and another young bullock shalt thou take for a sin offering. And thou shalt bring the Levites before the tabernacle of the congregation: and thou shalt gather the whole assembly of the children of Israel together: and thou shalt bring the Levites before the Lord: and the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites.”

Verse 23, “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, This is it that belongeth unto the Levites: from twenty and five years old and upward they shall go in to wait upon the service of the tabernacle of the congregation: And from the age of fifty years they shall cease waiting upon the service thereof, and shall serve no more: But shall minister with their brethren in the tabernacle of the congregation, to keep the charge, and shall do no service. Thus shalt thou do unto the Levites touching their charge.”

The last verse of Numbers 7 is a statement which some say is unrelated to what precedes it, and what follows it. It is very closely related to Exodus 25:22 when God declares to Moses, “And there I will meet with thee and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherabims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.” This is a promise specifically to Moses. Having been called to leadership, Moses is promised the communion and guidance necessary to maintain godly authority. God spoke from above the mercy seat. Because He transcends all things, nothing from the Holy of Holies could contain Him, therefore, His voice is separated from the ark, although associated with it. God is the covenant God, but He transcends and is greater than all His revelations and relationships. For us now, the incarnate word, Jesus Christ, and the enscriptured word, the Bible, replace this channel of contact.

In verses 5-22, we have a consecration of the Levites. Prior to that, in verses 1-4, we have directions for the lighting of the lampstands. These, the lampstands for the light, literally are called, in Hebrew, Menorah. The whole lampstand was made of a single piece of beaten gold, and it had seven branches. In Zechariah 4, the lamps are said to the eyes of God watching all creation. In Revelation 1:12-20, the church is said to be the seven-fold lampstand. The number seven represents totality. That is, all the church. Light and life are commonly associated. Light makes life possible. Therefore, it is the light of true faith which gives light to the world. The church is God’s lampstand, to bring life through Christ to the world and it must also see the world as God sees it. It must be the eyes of God upon the world, and if the church blinds itself by its false doctrine, by its unfaithfulness to the scripture, it is concealing from God what God already sees, but what it is the church’s duty to make known to God, to pray about, to minister to. To see the world in terms of our nation, our race, or our church, is to darken the believer’s vision also.

The light from the lamps was to be so positioned as to fall on the table of the showbread. We know the basic shape and design of the golden lampstand, because Titus sees the temple’s lampstand and took it back to Rome. It is depicted in detail on the Arch of Titus.

In verses 5 following, we have the cleansing and the consecration of the Levites. The Levites are substitutes for all the firstborn of Israel, for the totality, and they are given to God’s use in place of the firstborn. The firstborn represent the rest, and they must lead all others in God’s service.

Now, at this point, remember, we dealt with the Levites not too long ago. We saw that the Levites were very important. They were not the priests, but they had a function. It was not only to assist in the temple service, but apart from that, as Deuteronomy 3:10 says, they were the instructors of Israel. They were the scholars. They were the judges. They assisted in the court, in that they made known the meaning of the law. They didn’t render a judgment as to guilt or innocence, but as to what law applied and how it applied. They had a great many functions, including the sphere of charity. The Levites, thus, were very important, and we have the Levites among us today wherever there is Christian scholarship, and of course, this is what Chalcedon is about. It is a Levitical organization.

As a part of the consecration of the Levites, they were to come bathed, with their clothing freshly washed. They were then sprinkled to signify cleansing, and their whole body was shaved. Of this shaving, Bush wrote, “This was another symbol of purification, similar to the leper, who shaved off all his hair as well as washed his flesh as a part of the process of his cleansing. The same ceremony was ordained also in the case of the polluted Nazarite.”

Now this evokes an image alien to modern man. Modern man does not think of himself as a leper in God’s sight, although a cleansed leper in Christ. Even less are the candidates for the clergy ready to see themselves in the same light, nor Christian scholars. They are commonly regarded as idealistic and noble youth, and they see themselves in terms of their calling, rather than God’s recognition of their simple estate. Isaiah, on the contrary, when confronted by the vision of God in the temple, became sharply aware of his uncleanness. This makes a world of difference. If the modern Levite comes feeling that he’s bringing his idealism and his faith, he’s saying, “I have something to give,” but if he comes knowing that, until Christ dealt with him, he was a moral leper, then he is ready to say, “Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?” He is ready then to take orders, from God and from those above him. This is an important distinction and it’s one that’s lost.

In verse 19, we have an important statement. Verse 19 says, “And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel and the tabernacle of the congregation, and to make an atonement for the children of Israel that there be no plague among the children of Israel when the children of Israel come nigh unto the sanctuary.” The Berkeley version, which will help us perhaps understand the verse I just read a little better, reads, “I have given the men of Levi as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the nation of Israel to perform the service of her people in the meeting tent, and to atone for them, so that there may not be a plague in the nation of Israel when her people approach the holy place.”

First of all, the Levites, as we have seen, have a varied ministry. They were not priests. They were called to assist the priests in the religious service, but they could not supplant them. Second, they were substitutes for all the firstborn of Israel, therefore, they represented the people in that sense. Third, their service representing all averted a plague or the judgment of death on a nation. They were, in this respect, in a more critical position than the priests. This is an important fact. God does not say the priests will avert death, but the Levites. Those were the instructors of Israel. This tells us that when Christian scholarship falters, as it has for generations, then death comes upon a land. Then fourth, their calling is, in some sense, an atonement for Israel. The word is very plainly used. Moreover, this was a continuous function, but atonement in what sense? They were a substitute for all the firstborn, and thus, they were a living sacrifice for them. The death of the firstborn in Egypt meant death for Egypt. By being the instructors of Israel, as Deuteronomy 33:10 makes clear, and serving God’s sanctuary, the Levites gave life to the people. They were thus the bearers of God’s redemptive mercies, a kind of mediator of the atonement. They were the ones who made known the implications of the whole world of God to all the people. As the ordained firstborn of Israel, they typified the firstborn of God, Jesus Christ, again an interesting point.

Our Lord is declared to be priest, not after the order of Aaron, the Old Testament priesthood, but after the order of Melchisadek. He is the firstborn of God, again harkening back, not to the priests, but to the Levites. This is an important fact because today, the church has not only neglected what it calls para-church ministries, but treated them as though they were undeserving of support.

When verse 7 speaks of the sprinkling of the Levites, it is literally “by the water of purifying, or the water of expiation,” so again, it harks back to this function.

Just as water washes away dirt, so the sprinkling signified the inner cleansing by the Holy Spirit. When verse 21 says that the Levites were purified, it means, literally, unsinned themselves, or had themselves unsinned. Their new status represented the judicial act of God, their moral conduct thereafter depended on whether or not they were truly called and atoned for by God’s grace.

In verse 10, we have an account of the laying on of hands by other Israelites, probably the tribal leaders. Because the Levites represented all Israel and because they were living sacrifices, the men of Israel had to participate in their ordination to their task. This verse has an important place in the history of ordination. In some churches, the act of ordination is exclusively the act of the clergy, or of the church hierarchy. This verse is one of those used to justify lay participation in ordination. The Levites were the substitute for the firstborn and were thus, the gifts of all Israel, all men in the covenant to their covenant God. In verse 13, the Levites are referred to as an offering unto the Lord. They were thus, a kind of unbloody atonement, in verse 19, and forerunners of the great firstborn, Jesus Christ.

As Walter Riggens pointed out, in the Old Testament, the laying on of hands has two functions. First, to accompany or to transfer a blessing, or second, to transfer sin and guilt. In the New Testament, the laying on of hands means a blessing because, for us, the burden of sin and guilt has been laid upon Jesus Christ. There are many examples of New Testament blessings. First, our Lord blessing the little children who ran to him. Second, when people were blessed with healing, there was then a laying on of hands. Third, there was a laying on of hands at baptism, and fourth, we see a laying on of hands in the early church’s ordination. In verse 10, the representatives of the people laid hands upon the Levites. In verse 12, the Levites laid hands upon the bullocks to be sacrificed. Sin was thus transferred from the people to the Levites to the sacrificial animals, who represented the innocent sin-bearer who was to come, Jesus Christ.

In verses 23-26, we are told that the term of service for the Levites was between the ages of 25 and 50. Two things must be noted here first. This has reference to their service as the sanctuary. This did not mean retirement at 50 years. Rather, the Levites served all Israel in various capacities. We touched on that earlier; instructors and teachers, involved in charitable activities, judging, and so on. Before 25, preparation. After 50, active service in these varied spheres. They served at the sanctuary in the vigor of their physical manhood. Their service elsewhere thereafter, was in the fullness of their maturity. We have a reference to this in the New Testament when there was an objection by some people to our Lord speaking when he was not yet 50. That was a time when Christian scholars assumed their full and free responsibilities, and Old Testament scholars as well.

Then second, we need to remember here that the word service means military action. The Levites are in God’s army engaged in recapturing this world for the Lord. The age limit applies, thus, to their service in the sanctuary. They are draftees, however, for life, and the revival of a Christian Levitical ministry is important, because here is God’s army. The term for military service is used throughout the law and applied to the Levite.

This fact of being drafted for life comes out vividly in verse 12, where we read that, “Aaron shall offer (or literally in the Hebrew, wave) the Levites before the Lord for an offering of the children of Israel, that they may execute the service of the LORD.” Now, in the usual wave offering, the thing the offering, whatever it was that the worshiper brought, was held and waved for the Lord. It was waved horizontally towards the Holy of Holies to indicate that it was given to God and then taken back for the priest to use. The Levites were thus given to God and then returned to the priests to be the God’s troops in His work. How the actual waving of men was done, we do not know. Aaron may have had them walk forward and then return from the altar. It’s sad that, although Calvin spoke strongly about the need to have teachers, Levites as it were, scholars, as a separate kind of presbytery, or synod, or classis of the church, because their work was so essential to the life of the church, it’s never been followed up on. No church has pursued that avenue.

There were, as I indicated, many functions performed by the Levites. According to 1 Chronicles 23:3-5, we also are told that the Levites sold as officers, judges, and temple musicians. They also had charge of the temple treasury. After all, the tithe was commonly given to them to administer, and they in turn gave a tithe of the tithe to the priests, that is, for worship. Other services of course, were also performed by the Levites as God’s army, to carry out His work in the life of the covenant people.

We need to again appreciate the importance of the Levites in the Bible in order, again, to revive the church to its calling. Very few people are aware of the fact that, from the earliest days, the church was not only a place of worship, but it was a school and a library. The first libraries available to people in general, to worshipers, were in churches. They saw the church as a ministry to the world, to instruct them to see the world in the eyes of God. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank thee for thy word, and we pray for thy mercy upon us, that thy word has so long been neglected, and whole portions of it forgotten. Make us students of thy word and joyful in what thou hast to command us. Bless us as a Levitical ministry, and proper us for thy kingdom’s sake. In Christ’s name. Amen. Are there any questions now about our lesson, or comments? Yes?

[Audience] The only schools and churches sponsored today are seminaries.

[Rushdoony] Yes, that has been, for a long time, the only kind of school the churches have sponsored. That’s because they surrendered the universities and common schools that all people had as their possession. We have a new beginning there since World War 2 and the growth of the Christian school movement, and also the homeschool movement, and Chalcedon began something in creating a center for Christian scholarship. When we did it, we were totally alone. Now there are more groups than I could begin to name that are attempting to do the same, both with good intentions and some not as good. Yes?

[Audience] Those that aren’t seeing have centered very heavily on theology and they have not gotten around to the point of sponsoring general scholarship, which is really what’s needed.

[Rushdoony] Yes. That, I think, will come in time, and I was delighted, of course, that James Nichol’s book on mathematics has attracted so much attention and been so successful, even though it’s never been reviewed. No one is interested in it in that respect, but the general public has been buying it at a surprising rate. So, I think we’re seeing signs of a significant turnaround. Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Audience] Well, the references here to the purification of the Levites seems to indicate there’s an important connection between holiness and scholarship.

[Rushdoony] Oh yes, and that’s why they were given the purification of a leper, to recognize that they did not come with their idealism. They came as men who had to be cleansed by the Lord, and then the purification, or ritual sanctification, was to be followed, as I indicated, by their own growth in the faith, their sanctification. Any other questions or comments? Well, if not, let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father, we thank thee for thy word, and for the life that continually breaks forth from its pages. Make us joyful in thy word, in thy kingdom, and in thy service. Grant that we serve thee with all our heart, mind, and being, that we might ever be mindful of the miracle of grace and cleansing thou hast wrought in us, and the purpose for which it was done. 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.

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