D33-9: The Levites Merited The Priesthood Because They Killed Even Their Own Rebellious Family Members

“Let your tumim and urim
be with your pious one,
whom you tested at Massah,
with whom you struggled at M’rivah Spring.
Of his father and mother he said,
‘I don’t know them’;
he didn’t acknowledge
his brothers or children.
For he observed your word,
and he kept your covenant.”
-Deuteronomy 33:8-9

Next up in the list of the Blessings of Moses is the Tribe of Levi.

Now as we all know (or should know if you’ve been studying with me from the beginning) is that the Levites are a mighty special tribe.

Just as Israel was separated from the gentile nations of the world in order to be a special people unto God, so too were the Levites separated away from Israel to be a special priesthood unto the Lord.

As Hashem’s set-apart priests, the Levites were to be teachers of the Torah and officiate over the holy rituals.

In the Blessing of Moses directed toward the Levites, the first thing mentioned is the Urim and Thummim.

Recall that these were the two pebbles with Hebrew letters engraved on them stored in a special pouch that was attached to the Breastplate of the High Priest.

How exactly the Urim and Thummim were put to use has been lost to ancient history.

Heck, we’re not even sure of the exact meaning of the terms “Urim” and “Thummim”.

Some folks speculate (and yes it is speculation) that the names represent the first and last letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet.

The only thing we can say with certainty is that whenever the Lord answered Israel through the Urim and Thummim it was always in a binary fashion…either a “yes” or “no” answer.

Moses’ prayer to Hashem is that the incredible honor of using the Urim and Thummim would remain in the hands of the Levites and that the Almighty would reflect his will through the use of these divine pebbles when necessary.

In verse 8, the Levites are referred to as the “faithful ones”.

Why?

We’re told because they were tested at Massah and Meribah and passed the tests…with flying colors I might add.

Take a look at the following excerpt from the Book of Exodus.

“The people grumbled against Moshe and asked, ‘What are we to drink?’  Moshe cried to ADONAI; and ADONAI showed him a certain piece of wood, which, when he threw it into the water, made the water taste good. There ADONAI made laws and rules of life for them, and there he tested them.”-Exodus 15:24-25

So if we logically put two and two together, it would appear the Levites were the real objects of Hashem’s testing at the Wilderness stops of Massah and Meribah.

In other words, while all of Israel may have went through the ordeal, it was actually the Levites who God had His eye on and was measuring to see if they possessed the chops or not to be His own personal and set-apart priests.

Interestingly, the word MASSAH literally translates to “testing place” and MERIBAH translates to “challenge place”.

So the words of this verse mean…

….whom you tested at the “Place of Testing”…

…and whom you challenged at the “Place of Challenges”?

We shouldn’t be surprised at these word plays because they’re quite common in Scripture.

More often than not a lot of the names of both people and locations are based on something of significance that happened or a feature of that place or person that really stood out.

Such as the place called “7 Wells” or BE’ER SHEVA in Hebrew.

This also explains why the names of locations change over history.

A place is given a certain name by a certain culture to commemorate a certain event.

Yet centuries pass, another culture comes along and renames that same place to commemorate yet another memorable event that happened there.

Onward, take a look at verse 9.

“Of his father and mother he said,
‘I don’t know them’;
he didn’t acknowledge
his brothers or children.
For he observed your word,
and he kept your covenant.”
-Deuteronomy 33:9

This verse is actually referring all the way back to the Golden Calf incident from chapter 32 of the Book of Exodus.

Although it was Aaron (the one who would become the High Priest) who led the rebels in creating the Golden Calf, at the end of the day it was Aaron and his family who repented after Moses confronted them and stood against those who didn’t repent and kept right on worshipping the calf.

Because Moses and Aaron were Levites, it was natural that the Levites would come and stand with Moses.

But here’s the thing.

Not all of the Levites did that.

When God ordered Moses, Aaron and the Levites who joined them to kill the Israelites who continued to bow down and worship the Golden Calf, they didn’t hesitate to do so.

And this resulted in putting to the sword many family members including mothers, fathers, sons and daughters.

That’s right folks.

The Lord is in this verse commending the Levites for killing their own parents, brothers and sisters because they stood against Him by continuing to worship the Golden Calf.

It was this willingness to not only separate from that which was most precious to them but their faithfulness in literally killing their immediate families earned them the honor of being chosen from among all the tribes of Israel to be His specially set-apart Priesthood.

And don’t give me any of this booool sheeeeet that this was just a barbaric “Old” Testament teaching.

Here are the words of Messiah Himself.

“Large crowds were traveling along with Yeshua. Turning, he said to them, ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers and his sisters, yes, and his own life besides, he cannot be my talmid.'”-Luke 14:25

“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”-Matthew 19:29

Or how about this verse?

“Another of the talmidim said to him, ‘Sir, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Yeshua replied, ‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’”Matthew 8:21-22

Finally, let’s cross reference today’s teaching with this excerpt from Deuteronomy chapter 13

“If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’ (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them. You must certainly kill them. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and then the hands of all the people.”-Deuteronomy 13:6-9

Understand we ain’t talking about the commandment to “honor your mother and father” here.

When Yeshua says you are to “hate your father and mother” he’s not saying take a gun to their heads if they worship other gods besides the one true God of Israel.

Or that we’re to abandon them if they scorn our faith.

It’s the principle that’s being established here that’s important.

And the principle is at Hashem’s command, are you willing to let go of anyone and anything to follow Him?

What Yeshua is preaching is pure Torah, nothing more and nothing less.