Numbers 18--Duties of Priests and Levites

Numbers 18
English Standard Version

Duties of Priests and Levites
18 So the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood. 2 And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. 3 They shall keep guard over you and over the whole tent, but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar lest they, and you, die. 4 They shall join you and keep guard over the tent of meeting for all the service of the tent, and no outsider shall come near you. 5 And you shall keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel. 6 And behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting. 7 And you and your sons with you shall guard your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and that is within the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift, and any outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”

8 Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, “Behold, I have given you charge of the contributions made to me, all the consecrated things of the people of Israel. I have given them to you as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual due. 9 This shall be yours of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering of theirs and every sin offering of theirs and every guilt offering of theirs, which they render to me, shall be most holy to you and to your sons. 10 In a most holy place shall you eat it. Every male may eat it; it is holy to you. 11 This also is yours: the contribution of their gift, all the wave offerings of the people of Israel. I have given them to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. 12 All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the firstfruits of what they give to the Lord, I give to you. 13 The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. 14 Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. 15 Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they offer to the Lord, shall be yours. Nevertheless, the firstborn of man you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. 16 And their redemption price (at a month old you shall redeem them) you shall fix at five shekels in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. 17 But the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and shall burn their fat as a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 18 But their flesh shall be yours, as the breast that is waved and as the right thigh are yours. 19 All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you.” 20 And the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.

21 “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, 22 so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. 23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance. 24 For the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel.”

​25 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 26 “Moreover, you shall speak and say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe. 27 And your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. 28 So you shall also present a contribution to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you shall give the Lord's contribution to Aaron the priest. 29 Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every contribution due to the Lord; from each its best part is to be dedicated.’ 30 Therefore you shall say to them, ‘When you have offered from it the best of it, then the rest shall be counted to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, and as produce of the winepress. 31 And you may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting. 32 And you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have contributed the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, lest you die.’”

---

It should be clear to the whole nation now that the tribe of Levi has been chosen to be set apart unto the LORD and that rebelling against the High Priest or the priests or Levites would be considered rebellion against God Himself.  Now God is going to remind Aaron his descendants that are priests and the other Levites why it is that they are so important.

God tells Aaron that he and his sons were chosen to bear the iniquity of the people within themselves.  This is a heavy burden and all the Levites were to minister to those that were priests so that they would not ever feel alone in the large task that God had called them to.  While only Aaron and his sons could be responsible for making atonement for the people, the other Levites could do many other things (as God assigned them their roles and duties) to lighten the load of all the priests, but especially the High Priest.

The Levites are to act as temple security or temple guards.  They are to protect the sanctuary and all who work in it, but they should not touch the sacred vessels or enter into any of the holy areas where only the priests were allowed to go to minister before the LORD.  It was their job to always be on guard and to catch any threats before they entered into the sanctuary--this would not just be physical invaders that they are to watch out for, but also moral corruption that was a threat to the Levites and the priests.  The sons of Aaron were responsible for security inside the Holy Place and nothing was to to violate the sanctity of the Most Holy Place.

God then told Aaron, the High Priest, that he was giving him charge over (stewardship of) the contributions that were made to the sanctuary and to the LORD.  This includes much more than we would imagine.  There was lots of "wealth" there as part of the sanctuary and all of it was considered sacred to the LORD and it was important that the High Priest watch over it and God is also holding this one man responsible for the misuse or abuse of these sacred and holy contributions.  This was a huge job to administrate and keep track of.  The treasury of the Temple was vast and probably even greater than the treasury of most kingdoms.  One thing that did not belong to the priests though was the physical land of Israel--the priests were always to know that they were hoping for an eternal inheritance in the kingdom of God and not for a physical inheritance in a temporal kingdom of this world.

So, much has been given specifically to Aaron and his sons at this point, but what about to the rest of the Levites?  They also have no inheritance of land and so far, God has only given them work to do.  God now promises that all of the required tithes that the people bring belong to the entire house of Levi.  This is how they would survive--they were to be busy doing God's work, so the rest of the nation was to contribute to them to take care of them.  They were not supposed to have a bivocational ministry or a "tentmaker ministry" as many call it after the work that the apostle Paul did to support himself and his companions.  This is still God's plan for those in full-time ministry.  See 1 Corinthians 9 (especially verses 8-18 where Paul talks about his right to compensation that he has waived) and again in 1 Timothy 5:18 that the elders should expect monetary contribution for their labors just as anyone should expect wages for their work.

God then gives instructions to the Levites on how they are handle making withdraws against the tithes that were their inheritance.  They were give a tithe of the tithe (like the memorial portion of the grain offering or drink offering.  They were to give the best part of what they had.) to the LORD.  The best part of the peoples' offerings was always to go to the LORD first (and part of that to the priests) and then the rest was to be given to the Levites.  There were no special rules about where the Levites could eat their tithes anywhere or in any of their houses.  There were not special rules for them like there were for the priests.

These were the "wages" that the Levites would receive for their service.  They would be held blameless for taking their part of the tithes as long as they tithed back the best portion and they were not to profane the holy things that belonged to the LORD that they were to watch over and help protect.

So, how does this apply to us?  I think it's fair to say that not everyone has been chosen to be in full-time ministry, and it is the job of those who are working and making money to contribute of their tithes and firstfruits and give offerings so that these ministers and their families can be taken care of--but it's not just the pastors and preachers and elders that are provided for by these gifts.  Yes, they may be taken care of first and may be given the best part for their work (and no one is to covet this), because they also have a heavier weight on them too, but all those who we would call deacons today and those who do other work as teachers and nursery workers and church secretaries, and every other person that participates in the work that is part of the "sanctuary" though maybe they are not the "priest," they and their families are also to be taken care of by the generosity of God's people.  None of the people in the services of the LORD and His sanctuary should have to work for free or feel that they or their families need to go hungry or not have clothes or shelter or anything else, nor should they feel the need to have a "real job" (read this sarcastically because that is the kind of thing they often have to hear and listen to) in order to care for and support their families.  God says that's the same to him as making the ox plow the field and putting a muzzle on him so that he can't eat a little bit of the grain as he's plowing.  That should be the ox's reward or wages for the work he's doing.  Giving our tithes and our offerings to make sure that God's ministers are taken care of also shows that we trust God to give us enough to take care of us and them.  Treat them as well or better than you would treat a member of your own family, because they definitely treat you as well or better than a member of their own family.  Remember they are not looking for an earthly inheritance (they are not out to get rich), but God does want them to be provided for as a sign to all the unsaved people how good and powerful that He is that those who give their lives in service to Him are never in need and hopefully never in want (if they are, it's probably because they are coveting something that God has told them is not for them).

There is real risk to us if we dishonor or abuse these ministers of the gospel because what we do to them is what we are doing to God.  He has called them into ministry and He has selected them from among all the people to represent Him and He has given them His work to do and put His words in their mouths.  To rebel against them is to rebel against God (unless that minister himself is rebelling against God and then there are directions given in other parts of Scripture for how to handle that).  Show double-honor to those that give their lives in service to the LORD--not just that you submit to their authority, but that you make sure that they are taken care of and that every need they have is met fully and completely and as good or better than what you would desire if that need was to be met for you--make sure they get the best you have to offer (the firstfruits).

Do not neglect your tithes and offerings because this is still God's plan to take care of His ministers and to allow them to use those contributions to help take care of you and everyone that God brings to them who is in need.  Everything belongs to the LORD anyways, so why is it a big does to trust Him with the 10% that He asks for and why is it so hard to give Him the best we have to offer unless we don't trust that He is not good enough or powerful enough to take care of us?  Have faith that God will keep promises--we'll see later in the prophets that this is the one thing that God says it's okay to test Him on--He tells the people to see if He won't be more generous to them if they faithfully contribute their tithes and offering and give the best of their fruit and grain and wine.  He promises to pour out the storehouses of heaven on them in proportion to how generous they are in giving to the sanctuary.  If they are stingy, it will be like them having holes in the bottom of their money bags so that the money will fall out as fast or faster than they can put it in--if they worship their money and stuff, God will take it away from them.  However, if they are generous they won't have a money bag large enough to hold it and they will have to fill up their laps with the wealth that He will pour out on them.  That is not prosperity gospel...that's just the facts of what God says He will do, and He says to put Him to the test on this one thing.  Give generously with your tithes, offerings and firstfruits and it will be like the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000.  Abundance of resources will come to more than supply all the need so that everyone will be in awe that 5 loaves and 2 small fish could feed 5,000 men (plus women and children) and that there were still 12 large baskets of scraps leftover--only God can do that, and He should get the glory and honor and praise for it.

Ministers should be warned to not be in it to get rich and if your integrity is ever in question and it's affecting people being able to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ that you are preaching to them (make sure you are preaching the one true gospel to them), then like Paul, you may need to willingly do other work and take no salary from the church so that the message of the gospel is not damaged.  Yes, it is your right, but like every other right, we are asked to be willing to give it up for the sake of the gospel.  That does not give the people in the congregation the right to be lazy or stingy when it comes to faithful contributions, but God will let you know if He's calling you to a bivocational ministry--just understand this is normally not ideal as your time and energy will be very divided between work, family, and church and some or all of those will probably suffer for it and you will probably always feel like there's not enough of you to go around.  Always surround yourself with others like the Levites here who will help you in your ministry and keep things off your plate.  You are not an army of one.  Do not spurn the other parts of the body by refusing to them them exercise their spiritual gifts to help you and take care of your needs and do not spurn the contributions that He has led people to give to you--there's no worse feeling to me than trying to figure out a need that my pastor has (often times he won't say) then trying to meet that need and then have him try to refuse the help when you know he needs it.  It's just a really awful feeling.  NOTE:  I'm not talking about my current pastor or any pastor in particular, this is just a general observation of mine from having worked with many pastors and many ministers for quite a while now.  They believe their is some virtue in depriving themselves (and their families), refusing to ask for help and refusing help that is offered when they feel it is too costly.  In taking care of the pastor and all the church staff, the congregation is doing exactly what they should do in trusting God to take care of them so that they can help take care of those in ministry--even if that ministry is the person who is the custodian, the security guard, the secretary, the Sunday School worker, the treasurer, the accountant, you get the idea.  Also, just because there are others that the tithe must be shared with does not mean that it's wrong for the pastors and elders to get the first and best part--that is God's design.  We are not to cover their ministry or their "inheritance" because they give up everything else to minister to us every day of every week of every year.