“Adonai said to Moshe, I have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel in lieu of every firstborn male that is first from the womb among the people of Israel, the Levites are to be mine.”-Numbers 3:11-12
Verses 11-12 introduce a Biblical principle that has been pretty much forgotten by both Christianity and Judaism.
The principle is that God has replaced the first-born of all the 12 tribes of Israel with the Levites.
Remember, from God’s perspective the firstborn males from all the tribes of Israel were considered special.
This principle was established back in Exodus when the Lord killed all the firstborns of both humans, animals and even vegetation of those households who failed to put their trust in Him by painting the blood of the lamb on the entrance gates to their homes.
So why did the Lord decide to replace the firstborn males of Israel with the Levites?
The answer is simple.
Before the Levitical priesthood was established, it was the firstborn males who served as the priests in their respective families.
That’s right.
In the ancient Middle East, it was the firstborns who were held responsible for performing the religious sacrifices and rituals on behalf of their households.
We have records going back a 1000 years before the time of Moses documenting that this is so and since Israel wasn’t living in a vacuum, they of course had adopted this custom.
In verses 11-12, God is in effect telling the firstborns of Israel that their status of being the family priests was about to come to a end.
All of their priestly duties were now going to be transferred to the Levites.
This was a revolutionary break from the past and the customs and cultures of the gentiles nations.
What we’re going to see fleshed out in the verses ahead is that this replacement of the firstborn with the Levites wasn’t some vague symbolic process.
No, it was a very specific man-to-man process.
Understand that this is the very purpose of this census we’re reading about.
It’s to determine exactly how many Levite males there were because that number determined exactly how many regular firstborn Israelites could be replaced.
We’ll see that special arrangements had to be made because the number of Levite males didn’t perfectly match the number of existing non-Levite firstborns.
This change was huge folks and for the most part is not really understand by the church.
From this point onward, God has officially adopted the tribe of Levi away from Israel.
They are no longer to be considered a part of common Israel.
This is after isarel sin with golden calf The levites refused to participate i making idol. Also females were told to take off their gold earing and thing so they could make the idol. They refused also. Afterward g-d chose the levites. Yet he says he will collect efraim and Judah and they will become one stick. The septor will not part from judah. I’m not sure who are levites are today. What about Cohen and melchizedeks. Please help to bring understanding. So all tribes isarel what does it mean for them.
Hi Diana, This particular post is just focused on the contents of chapter 3 of Numbers. The principle being communicated through the Levites is that of special election. They served as SPECIAL servants between Hashem and the rest of common Israel.
Regarding the firstborn being the religious leader of the Semitic family, when we read about Rachel stealing the family gods from Laban , her brother (the eldest) in Genesis 31:19, the reason she stole them was because the eldest male child was the religious leader. Those idols were Laban’s inheritance, and the other family members would come to him and ask him to pray on their behalf for good crops, children, etc. There was also some monetary exchange for these prayers (sorta like Reverend Ike). By stealing these idols she was capturing the inheritance she felt that she and Leah had been cheated out of, as evidenced by her statement to Jacob in Genesis 31:14-16:” Then Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we still have any share in the inheritance of our father’s estate? Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has used up what was paid for us. Surely all the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you.” She felt that whatever inheritance she was to receive was spent, so taking the idols was her way of getting back what she felt was owed to her. And it also made sure Jacob got what he deserved, as well.
Diana and Rich, back in Genesis, the fore father Levi and Simeon were mainly seen as shiftless and conniving by their father Jacob. Ge 34:30, Ge 49:5. This dim view of Levi shows their redemption at the Golden Calf as Diana presumed. The verse in Numbers you’re referring to is an ultimate culmination
of that “Shift in Reputation”. Aaron was a firstborn (and a Levite both) so it’s significant that the Levites took those duties away from the first born and given to a younger. Sound familiar? Yeah, Jacob and Esau.
The who didn’t care about his heritage versus the one who did. There is a lot of “Prequel” to this act of ordaining the Levites.