Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 3-4.

Having completed the census of the men twenty years and older of the rest of the tribes of Israel, God commanded Moses to take a census of the Levites.  However, this census was to be of the males one month old or older.  Once that was done, God commanded that Moses count all of the firstborn sons of all of Israel.  According to the count there were 22,000 Levite males a month or older and there were 22,273 firstborn males in all of Israel.  Since God had saved the Israelites from the loss of their firstborn in the plague which led to them being able to leave Egypt, He counted the firstborn as His.  He took the Levites as His in place of the firstborn sons.  This is a place where once again the account runs counter to the idea that this was written later.  I would think that if this account was not based on an actual event that the counts of total Levite males and total firstborn males would have matched up exactly to “reveal” God’s great power in so arranging things.  Once arrangements had been made to redeem the firstborn sons of Israel one month old or older who were in excess of the number of Levite males one month old or older, God commanded Moses to count all of the Levite men between the ages of thirty and fifty.  These were the men who would be serving to maintain the tabernacle and its furnishings.  I think this provides us with a model we should seek to emulate.  While we should not exclude those older, or younger, than that thirty to fifty age range, we should seek for the bulk of the work of the Church to be done by those in that age range.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 3-4.

After completing the census of all males twenty years old and older for the rest of the Israelites, Moses conducted two censuses of the tribe of Levi.  In the first of these censuses Moses counted every male a month old or more.  The result of this census was 22,000, making the tribe of Levi the smallest tribe by a wide margin.  This number worked out for the best because God chose the Levites as redemption for the first-born sons of the rest of Israel.   The first-born sons were God’s because He spared them when He killed all of the first-born sons in Egypt on the first Passover (there is significance in that worth talking about, but it is not what I feel led to write about today).   Upon completing the reconciliation of the number of male Levites with the number of first-born male of all of the Israelites, Moses conducted a second census of the Levites.  This second census was of all of the Levite males between the ages of thirty and fifty.  This second census of the Levites was to count those who would come to serve in the work of the tabernacle.  While I do not believe that we should think that the work of the Church should be done only by those in that age range, we should recognize that the bulk of the work of the Church probably will be done by those in that age range.  Or, perhaps I should say, something is wrong when that age range is not doing the bulk of the work of the Church.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 3-4.

Having conducted a census of all of the tribes of Israel, except the Levites, where he recorded the names of all of the men over the age of 20, Moses conducted a separate census of the males of the tribe of Levi.  However, for this census, Moses counted the males a month and older, recording their numbers according to their clan membership.  When this count was completed, Moses also counted the firstborn males of the entire people of Israel a month and older.  The Levites were dedicated to God’s service in place of the firstborn sons of the rest of Israel, whose lives had been spared when God struck down the firstborn of Egypt.  The census of the other tribes formed the basis of the Israelite army.  The census of the Levites was not conducted to identify the number of workers, since only those from thirty to fifty years of age worked in and around the Tabernacle.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 3-4.

I will be perfectly honest, when I read today’s passage I had nothing to write.  So, I went back and read what I wrote last year.  Since I did not want to just reword what I wrote last year, that didn’t help much.  Fortunately, it got me started thinking.  As I mentioned last year, God claimed the Levites as His in place of the firstborn sons of the rest of the Israelites.  Now I find it interesting that the Levites served God in place of the “firstborn male offspring of every Israelite woman.”  Not the firstborn son of every Israelite man.  It did not matter who their father was, or how many other sons he had already had.  What mattered was that they were their mother’s first born son.  We can easily make too much of this, but it tells us something about the value mothers’ place on their children.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 3-4.

In this passage we have a reference back to the first Passover while the Israelites were still in Egypt.  The first born sons of the Egyptians all died, while the first born sons of the Israelites were spared.  As a result, God claims the first born sons as His.  However, it was impractical to separate out the first born sons from all of Israel to be dedicated to serving God.  So, God designated the Levites as substitutes for the first born sons of the rest of Israel.  Which brings to an interesting thing.  The number twelve was important to the Israelites, but Jacob had adopted Joseph’s two sons as his own, substituting the two of them for Joseph, bringing the total number of tribes to thirteen.  Now the Levites are set aside to serve God as His chosen tribe, creating something analogous to when Jesus, God’s Chosen One, selected the Twelve Apostles.

When Moses had counted the other tribes, he counted all males 20 years old and older.  However, when he counted the Levites he counted all males one month old and older.  The difference was the purpose for which they were being counted.  The men of the other tribes were being counted to identify who could fight for the people of Israel, while the Levites were being counted to identify who could serve the Lord.