Deuteronomy 10:8–9

There is no discrepancy at all. The passage does not confuse Aaron's death, in the last year of the wilderness journey, with the setting apart of Levi some thirty-eight years earlier. These solemn events seem to bring back to Moses' mind the terrible failure of Israel, when they made the calf that Aaron made. He remembers Levi too. That tribe had once betrayed a stranger for a sister's sake, and now they set themselves apart to the Lord in the blood of their idolatrous brothers.

The death of Aaron displayed the awful result of disobedience. The lifting up of Levi shows the precious fruit of obedience... Why was Aaron judged? Because of his rebellion at the waters of Meribah. Why was Levi blessed? Because of his reverent obedience at the foot of Mount Horeb. Why are both grouped together in Deuteronomy 10? To press one thing on the heart and conscience of the people: they must obey their covenant God completely.

Levi was scattered in Israel as a punishment for that terrible sin, committed centuries before at Shechem. But now, for our encouragement, see the grace of God. The very punishment, the scattering in Israel, becomes an unspeakable blessing. God chooses this tribe to draw near to Him. He scatters them through Israel so that they may spread the knowledge of God and His Word there.

They were also to remember how the Lord dealt with Levi. Grace shines there with wonderful brightness. God took the fierce, cruel, self-willed Levi out of the depths of his moral ruin. He brought him near to Himself, to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD, to minister to Him, and to bless in His name.

It was a searching test — a test that required Levi to set aside every claim of the flesh... It was obedience at any cost to God's call, and so complete separation from the evil into which Israel had fallen. God often tests His people in the same way. Whenever confusion and decline have set in, the only path for the godly is the one Levi took: full-hearted, unquestioning obedience. Such a path must be painful. It costs those who take it some of the closest ties of their lives, ties of family and kindred. But it is the only path of blessing.

David said that no one but the Levites should carry the ark of God, for the LORD had chosen them to carry the ark and to minister to Him forever. He said it as though he had made a great discovery, and so it was. But four hundred years earlier it had been plainly written... I can hear him saying, "What a foolish man I was to imitate the Philistines."

That ark spoke of Christ. Inside it were the golden pot of manna, Israel's food in the wilderness; Aaron's rod that budded, Christ's priestly grace in resurrection; and the tables of stone, for the law was hidden in Him. Israel had to carry that ark and its contents through the desert. We too, as Christians, have to carry the ark. In the wilderness there were priests, Levites, and the ordinary people, or warriors. Today every Christian is a priest in worship. Every Christian is a Levite for service. And every Christian is one of the ordinary people, in everyday work and in the fight against the enemy.

I take these verses to be all a parenthesis, and verse 10 to connect directly with chapter 9:29, showing that after the apostasy of Israel, the law (but now in the ark), the priesthood, and a land of rivers of waters, and levitical service with no inheritance but the Lord, was set up as a system of patient grace in Israel.

Do not let any question about the order of events in the passage above trouble you. It is simply a parenthesis. In it the lawgiver gathers together, in a very striking and forceful way, events chosen with holy skill from the history of the people. They show at once both the government and the grace of God. The death of Aaron shows the first; the choice and lifting up of Levi shows the second.

And then they were to remember the Lord's dealings with Levi, in which grace shines so brightly. God took the fierce, cruel, self-willed Levi out of the depths of his moral ruin. He brought him near to Himself, "to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister to him, and to bless in his name."

Levi's name means "joined," and it fits the history of the tribe. Their first father joined Simeon in deeds of violence. As punishment this brought on them the sentence, "I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." But the result is true blessing. The sentence falls more fully on Levi than on Simeon, and it only blesses Levi more fully. He is joined to the Lord, and the Lord becomes his portion. If he is scattered in Israel, it is as spiritual seed to bring forth fruit to God all over the land.

The subject of inheritance is dealt with next. "I am their inheritance… I am their possession." The priests have no inheritance, no possession in Israel. Compare Numbers 18:20; Deuteronomy 10:9; Deuteronomy 18:1. Is this a loss? Can it be a loss to be an heir of God, to have Him as one's inheritance and possession? Instead it expresses the highest possible place of nearness and blessing. What God is becomes the portion of those so blessed... The whole man is lifted up to Him, in whom all his resources are found and from whom all his expectation must come.

God chose to give the Levites no inheritance in the land. The offerings made by fire to the LORD, the God of Israel — yes, the LORD Himself — were their inheritance, as He had said to them. The Lord's workmen stood on different ground from the rest of His people. They were called to a special confidence in His provision for them and in His word about them. If they failed in this, could they wonder that their words had little power?

These provisions for the priests were necessary because they had no inheritance in the land, as the other tribes had. They were to realise that God was their portion and inheritance. We may wonder whether they understood and valued this as they should have. But what about ourselves today? Being priests, believers have no earthly inheritance. Yet even now God is our portion and inheritance. We also have the wonderful prospect of an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven (1 Peter 1:4).