Numbers 4 English Standard Version Duties of the Kohathites, Gershonites, and Merarites 4 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 “Take a census of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their clans and their fathers' houses, 3 from thirty years old up to fifty years old, all who can come on duty, to do the work in the tent of meeting. 4 This is the service of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting: the most holy things. 5 When the camp is to set out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and take down the veil of the screen and cover the ark of the testimony with it. 6 Then they shall put on it a covering of goatskin and spread on top of that a cloth all of blue, and shall put in its poles. 7 And over the table of the bread of the Presence they shall spread a cloth of blue and put on it the plates, the dishes for incense, the bowls, and the flagons for the drink offering; the regular showbread also shall be on it. 8 Then they shall spread over them a cloth of scarlet and cover the same with a covering of goatskin, and shall put in its poles. 9 And they shall take a cloth of blue and cover the lampstand for the light, with its lamps, its tongs, its trays, and all the vessels for oil with which it is supplied. 10 And they shall put it with all its utensils in a covering of goatskin and put it on the carrying frame. 11 And over the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue and cover it with a covering of goatskin, and shall put in its poles. 12 And they shall take all the vessels of the service that are used in the sanctuary and put them in a cloth of blue and cover them with a covering of goatskin and put them on the carrying frame. 13 And they shall take away the ashes from the altar and spread a purple cloth over it. 14 And they shall put on it all the utensils of the altar, which are used for the service there, the fire pans, the forks, the shovels, and the basins, all the utensils of the altar; and they shall spread on it a covering of goatskin, and shall put in its poles. 15 And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, as the camp sets out, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to carry these, but they must not touch the holy things, lest they die. These are the things of the tent of meeting that the sons of Kohath are to carry. 16 “And Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall have charge of the oil for the light, the fragrant incense, the regular grain offering, and the anointing oil, with the oversight of the whole tabernacle and all that is in it, of the sanctuary and its vessels.” 17 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 18 “Let not the tribe of the clans of the Kohathites be destroyed from among the Levites, 19 but deal thus with them, that they may live and not die when they come near to the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in and appoint them each to his task and to his burden, 20 but they shall not go in to look on the holy things even for a moment, lest they die.” 21 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 22 “Take a census of the sons of Gershon also, by their fathers' houses and by their clans. 23 From thirty years old up to fifty years old, you shall list them, all who can come to do duty, to do service in the tent of meeting. 24 This is the service of the clans of the Gershonites, in serving and bearing burdens: 25 they shall carry the curtains of the tabernacle and the tent of meeting with its covering and the covering of goatskin that is on top of it and the screen for the entrance of the tent of meeting 26 and the hangings of the court and the screen for the entrance of the gate of the court that is around the tabernacle and the altar, and their cords and all the equipment for their service. And they shall do all that needs to be done with regard to them. 27 All the service of the sons of the Gershonites shall be at the command of Aaron and his sons, in all that they are to carry and in all that they have to do. And you shall assign to their charge all that they are to carry. 28 This is the service of the clans of the sons of the Gershonites in the tent of meeting, and their guard duty is to be under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. 29 “As for the sons of Merari, you shall list them by their clans and their fathers' houses. 30 From thirty years old up to fifty years old, you shall list them, everyone who can come on duty, to do the service of the tent of meeting. 31 And this is what they are charged to carry, as the whole of their service in the tent of meeting: the frames of the tabernacle, with its bars, pillars, and bases, 32 and the pillars around the court with their bases, pegs, and cords, with all their equipment and all their accessories. And you shall list by name the objects that they are required to carry. 33 This is the service of the clans of the sons of Merari, the whole of their service in the tent of meeting, under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.” 34 And Moses and Aaron and the chiefs of the congregation listed the sons of the Kohathites, by their clans and their fathers' houses, 35 from thirty years old up to fifty years old, everyone who could come on duty, for service in the tent of meeting; 36 and those listed by clans were 2,750. 37 This was the list of the clans of the Kohathites, all who served in the tent of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron listed according to the commandment of the Lord by Moses. 38 Those listed of the sons of Gershon, by their clans and their fathers' houses, 39 from thirty years old up to fifty years old, everyone who could come on duty for service in the tent of meeting-- 40 those listed by their clans and their fathers' houses were 2,630. 41 This was the list of the clans of the sons of Gershon, all who served in the tent of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron listed according to the commandment of the Lord. 42 Those listed of the clans of the sons of Merari, by their clans and their fathers' houses, 43 from thirty years old up to fifty years old, everyone who could come on duty, for service in the tent of meeting-- 44 those listed by clans were 3,200. 45 This was the list of the clans of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron listed according to the commandment of the Lord by Moses. 46 All those who were listed of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron and the chiefs of Israel listed, by their clans and their fathers' houses, 47 from thirty years old up to fifty years old, everyone who could come to do the service of ministry and the service of bearing burdens in the tent of meeting, 48 those listed were 8,580. 49 According to the commandment of the Lord through Moses they were listed, each one with his task of serving or carrying. Thus they were listed by him, as the Lord commanded Moses. We like to focus in on Aaron and his sons because we feel like they had the "flashy" and "important" jobs, but just like we are warned in 1 Corinthians 12, the LORD has given different gifts to different members of the body for the good of the entire body and do the work for which He has called and equipped them to do. No part of the Body of Christ should envy any other part (we'll see what happens when that exact thing happens within the Levites during Korah's Rebellion). In fact, God tells us that it is our "less presentable" and are less visible that we treat with greater modesty and reverence. See 1 Corinthians 12:12-25. So then I think God would also say of these other clans of the tribe of Levi that they too are "indispensable" and that they may be treated with "greater modesty," but they too are like vital organs that we don't show to everyone, but do well to cover and protect because of how important they are to us and the body.
It seems that only those from age 30 to age 50 were counted here as this appears to be the age during which these Levites would serve and preform their duties. For the clan of the Kohathites, they were to carry the items that were in the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, though they could not touch the uncovered items, so the sons of Aaron would be responsible to pack all the items for them and put them on poles so that they could carry them without touching them. Each one was given a specific task to carry a specific burden (furnishings, utensils, or other items from the Holy Place or Most Holy Place) as designated by the High Priest. They were not even to look on the holy things that were uncovered--not even for a moment, lest they die. Everything that the Kohathites would be responsible to carry would have been items covered in gold. Eleazer was given the responsibility of oversight over the entire sanctuary (a project manager of sorts) and specifically was responsible for the items used to make atonement such as the the oil for the lamps, the incense, the grain offerings, and the anointing oil. The clan of the Gershonites were responsible to move the curtains that made up the Tabernacle--specifically the exterior portions and the courtyard that were made of goatskin. They also took care of the Altar of Burt offering and all of the bronze instruments that went along with it. For the clan of the Merarites, they were responsible for moving the frame of the Tabernacle. They would be the last ones to be able to tear down and the first ones to set up. Without their service, there would be no place to hang the curtains or the screens that divided the outside from the inside and the Courtyard from the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. Compare these duties now with the "guard duty" for each of these clans given in Chapter 3. The lists are identical (though the lists in Chapter 3 are usually a bit more specific in all the items they are responsible to guard/protect/keep. I didn't really talk about this at the time in Chapter 3, but God even laid out the camp so that all of these clans surrounded the Tabernacle with their own encampments to protect it with Aaron and Moses' family camping on the east side protecting the entrance to the Tabernacle. The rest of the chapter is an actual counting of all the people of these clans eligible for service. As mentioned above, their years of service were only from years 30 to 50. The total number of people from these clans needed to help tear down, carry and set up the Tabernacle was 8,580. That's 39% of all the Levites of ace one-month old and above from Numbers 3:43--that's pretty astounding. So, why start their years of service at age 30? This is speculation on my part, but perhaps they were supposed to spend their years from 13 to 30 having children and raising them. Being fully committed to the ministry of God is hard on ones family, especially for young children and this gave these Levites time to have children which we know was important to God, since he counted the Levites as a whole as a substitute for the firstborn from among all the other tribes. The years of service would be hard and life was short, but I also think that their retirement at the age of 50 probably gave these Levites time to interact with their grandchildren as their children took over the duties of literally bearing the burden of the Tabernacle. There were plenty of other duties for the younger and older Levites as well. We'll see some of those in other places, but there was always a need to take care of the fabrics and furnishings and utensils, to teach, to sing, and to keep guard. Don't think just because this passage talks about these specific 20 years of service that this was the extent of the service of the Levites--this was just the extent of their expectation of carrying these heavy burdens before it was the next generation's turn to take over. While there are no strict commandments, there is perhaps a principle that could be applied here that the best years to give yourself to the heavy burden of ministry is around this 30-50 year old range between the time when your children are adults and when they are ready to take over this burden from their parents and their parent's generation. Each generation has a responsibility to raise godly children, prepare them for the work that God has called them to, and then make way for those children to serve as well. We'll see this more clearly when we get to chapter 8 of Numbers. I promise that we'll get to more of the historical narrative portion of the book of Numbers shortly, but the people are just coming off of their experience at Mount Saini and they are building and consecrating the Tabernacle right now and that part of the story takes up the first ten chapters of Numbers (they will finally leave Mount Saini at the end of chapter 10). For reference, there are only 36 chapters to the book of Numbers). There are some really interesting things that are coming as we see these people who had everything given to them by having the supernatural presence, provision, and protection of God fail and fall into sin and rebellion over, and over again to the point where their inheritance (the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant) will be given to their children and their children's children--not even the work of the Levites would be enough, and as mentioned before, we'll even see families of Levites rebelling against God's design and order. In other words, these people are not that different from us. We should not think, "Oh, if only I lived in those times with that kind of Presence, Power, Provision, and Protection....then I would have been better than them." I assure you that all of us would also have fallen short, maybe even in worse ways than these people that called themselves by the Name of the LORD did. Again, are we really that different? As you read this story, think about how God has given them everything they need and yet they still can't seem to make it on their own. God is also using all these things to point them forward to the need for Christ. No longer do we need to have Levites carry around and set up a Tabernacle, because Christ came to tabernacle among us to make us all Tabernacles of the Holy Spirit, and one day preparing us to be priests in His Holy Temple (though it's unclear whether that Temple called the New Jerusalem is a place, a people, or both). Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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