Rule of the First Born

  Numbers 3 & 4

We revisit the Levites. 

That tribe with zeal for God and His Holiness. 

And we hear more about consecration of the firstborn. 

And how they were to be set apart for God, because God spared these in Egypt, during the 10^th and final plague.

That moment God passed over the blood-soaked door posts in Egypt.

I hadn’t really read before that the Levites were to be given wholly to Aaron and his sons to serve the LORD. And that they would be considered as substitutes for all the firstborn of Israel.  

Ch 3:11 The LORD said to Moses

12“I have taken the Levites

From among the Israelites

In place of the first mall offspring

Of Israelite women.

The Levites are mine

13For all the first born are mine.

When I struck down

All the firstborn of Egypt

I set apart every firstborn in Israel

Whether man or animal.

They are to be mine,

I am the LORD.”

I love how we hear echoes already of Jesus here.

God’s one and only first born Son. 

Jesus substituted to be the one and only costly sacrifice.

His whole life and death set apart.  

Without one blemish.

And it all goes back to these beginnings.

The Levites would be exempt from the military count and were engaged in service to the LORD, to care for the tabernacle. 

All the posts and beams,

all the curtains and coverings,

all the lamp stands, tables, and altars

and the Ark. 

Custodians of the Tent of Meeting.  

They were encamped around the Tabernacle like a buffer or a hedge and anyone who went near it to trespass the boundaries of holiness would be put to death. 

Holy warriors. 

Like Knights of the Tabernacle.