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Numbers Chapter 4: The Organization of Priests – Part II

Numbers 4:1-49 The Ministry of the Levites and the Census of Working Levites

Day 37 of self-isolation. Life continues. We all have more time to reflect on what really matters – our relationship with God, our family, our health, and our service to others. Hope you are all painting a beautiful ‘landscape’ as to what your future will look like once this pandemic is over. There is no doubt that while the world would have evolved under normal circumstances, the human powers that be are taking advantage of the coronavirus to expedite changes – some of which we will not be too comfortable with, but nothing that God is not aware of and warned us about in His Word. And thus we continue to study it. Hang in there.

The Passage

Verses 1-20 are instructions to Moses to take a further census of the descendants of Kohath that are thirty years old and up to fifty years old and who “enter the service to do the work in the tent of meeting.” And then their work is described in detail.

Verses 21-28 do the same for the sons of Gershom. And the same is true for verses 29-33 for the sons of Merari.

The last section of the chapter (verses 34-49) provide the findings of each of the above counts and their total.

Thoughts on the Passage

Now I am sure many of you are saying, “Hey, can there be a more boring and repetitive chapter than Numbers 4?”  Well, I don’t know; I can’t remember. We’ll find out. But maybe, just maybe, there are some gems in this one too.

To begin with, we wonder how these sub-censuses were done in each case since Moses already had a census of those one month and up (chapter 3). Perhaps those under 30 years of age and over 50 were subtracted, or maybe they did recount. Afterall, what else was there to do in the wilderness?

But why between ages 30 and 50?  Remember, for all the other tribes it was 20 and over – those able to fight in a war. But here for the Levites, it’s between 30 and 50. Matthew Henry writes:

The service of God requires the best of our strength, and the prime of our time, which cannot be better spent than to the honour of him who is the first and best. And a man may make a good soldier much sooner than a good minister. Now, 

·       1. They were not to be employed till they were thirty years old, because till then they were in danger of retaining something childish and youthful and had not gravity enough to do the service, and wear the honour, of a Levite. They were entered as probationers at twenty-five years old, (chp. 8:24), and in David's time, when there was more work to be done, at twenty (1 Chr. 23:24), and so (Ezra 3:8); but they must be five years learning and waiting, and so fitting themselves for service; nay, in David's time they were ten years in preparation, from twenty to thirty. John Baptist began his public ministry, and Christ his, at thirty years old. This is not in the letter of it obligatory on gospel ministers now, as if they must either not begin their work till thirty years old or must leave off at fifty; but it gives us two good rules:

o   (1.) That ministers must not be novices, (1 Tim. 3:6). It is a work that requires ripeness of judgment and great steadiness, and therefore those are very unfit for it who are but babes in knowledge and have not put away childish things.

o   (2.) That they must learn before they teach, serve before they rule, and must first be proved (1 Tim. 3:10).

·       2. They were discharged at fifty years old from the toilsome part of the service, particularly that of carrying the tabernacle; for that is the special service to which they are here ordained, and which there was most occasion for while they were in the wilderness. When they began to enter upon old age, they were dismissed, 

o   (1.) In favour to them, that they might not be over-toiled when their strength began to decay. Twenty years' good service was thought pretty well for one man.

o   (2.) In honour to the work, that it might not be done by those who, through the infirmities of age, were slow and heavy. The service of God should be done when we are in the most lively active frame. Those do not consider this who put off their repentance to old age, and so leave the best work to be done in the worst time.

If only we followed these directions of God and thoughts of Henry as we lay hands on our youth to be our pastors.  Oftentimes, we act out of necessity for lack of workers, but we do so at our own peril. Many a young man has lost his way too early in ministry for one reason or another.

As you read the chapter you notice the detailed job descriptions in place for the different descendant groups. Not only what to do, but how to do it, with what to do it, and even what not to do.  For example, in verse 15 and 19, they were not to “touch the holy objects” or they would die. And in verse 20, they were not to even see the holy objects, “even for a moment, lest they die.”

Of interest to me also was verse 18 where Moses is told “Do not let the tribe of the families of the Kohathites be cut off from the among the Levites.” Matthew Henry explains this when he writes:

[This was] a solemn admonition to Moses and Aaron to beware, lest, by any negligence on their part, disorder and improprieties should creep in, and to take the greatest care that all the parts of this important service be apportioned to the proper parties, lest the Kohathites should be disqualified for their high and honorable duties. The guilt of their death would be incurred by the superintending priest, if he failed to give proper directions or allowed any irreverent familiarity with sacred things.

The family of Gershom was responsible for the curtains and their hangings (very elaborate as we remember from earlier descriptions of the tabernacle).  Finally, the family of Merari was responsible for the safe moving of all the pillars and the boards of, and around, the tabernacle.

Now I think of father Levite (or his tribe at least) having the world’s first specialized moving company. Maybe, based on this chapter, we could have called it “3 Families with No Vans”.  Instead, in total we are told, there were 8,580 men between the ages of 30 and 50 who, each time the cloud above them moved, took down the tabernacle and safely and properly, moved it to the new location where the cloud stopped.  Can you imagine the packing that needed to be done? Amazing.

David Guzik reminds us that this was not volunteer work. These men were each assigned their duties by Moses and Aaron, or those they had put in there as supervisors.

Guzik writes this:

Each of these had a role to play in doing the work of tabernacle, and God made them all dependent on each other to do that work.

i. "It is worthy of note that these Levites, although they were all equally consecrated to God, had not all exactly the same work to perform. God is not the God of all uniformity. There is a wondrous unity of plan and design in all that he does, but there is also an equally marvelous variety." (Spurgeon)

ii. Paul says the church is to work like a body - many parts, looking different, doing different jobs, meeting different needs, some more visible, some less, but all essential - and all with the same DNA code.

iii. Much trouble is caused in the service of the LORD by those who desire a different calling than they have, or who are jealous of those who have a different calling, or by those who exalt one calling and abase another. Everyone has a place and a job, and all can set themselves to do it.

Robert Jamieson says this about this chapter and its details: “It was a useful lesson, showing that God disregards nothing pertaining to His service, and that even in the least and most trivial matters, He requires the duty of faithful obedience.”

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.