And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
The count is finished, and the numbers do not match: Israel has more firstborn sons than Levites to stand in their place. God speaks to Moses again to settle it, and He shows both why He claims Israel's firstborn and what it costs to make that claim exact.
The exchange God commands here is not a matter of convenience. It reaches back to the night in Egypt. Blood spared Israel's firstborn, and God kept what He had saved.
The Lord took them in a very special way as the formal substitute for the firstborn of Israel, who were spared when the destroying angel struck Egypt. They were redeemed by blood, and they plainly belonged to the Lord. In place of Israel's firstborn He accepted the Levites. "They shall be Mine." ... So the Levites were linked with mercy — the great mercy that marked Israel out and rescued them from the doom of Egypt. That link fitted them all the better to serve in the sanctuary.
God does not accept a rough match. The tribe of Levi covers the firstborn as far as it goes. Every man past that number must still be redeemed.
The substitution was made so solemnly and so exactly that the 273 firstborn of Israel who were more than the number of the Levites all had to be redeemed. The price was God's own estimate of their value. Now all these things were pictures, and they are written to teach us that we belong to the Lord, on the ground of redemption, as fully as the Levites did.
Silver covers the shortfall, at a fixed rate, and it goes to the priests. One writer thinks the tribes carried that cost, not the 273 men themselves.
To make up this difference, the Lord commanded that the 273 be redeemed at five shekels of silver each. Probably the 273 men did not each pay five shekels themselves. Instead, the tribes shared the cost of redeeming them. The money went to the priests, Aaron and his sons, because the Levites were also given to them. The total came to 1,365 shekels.
Money could settle this case. But silver was only a picture of a better price.
Their fathers had been redeemed with silver and gold. That was a picture of redemption, carried out under Jewish law. Sometimes actual money was paid, as in Exodus 30:11-16 and Numbers 3:44-51. Sometimes it was by sacrifice, as in Exodus 13:13-15. Even then silver and gold came into it, because money was needed to buy the animal for the sacrifice. Silver and gold are the least corruptible of metals, yet they are corruptible. The price of our redemption was incorruptible and precious.
The order matters, and one writer presses it home as a question.
Who can dare to take up the service of God without knowing that God has accepted him on the ground of redemption? Salvation comes before ministry, if we listen to God and take to heart the solemn warning of the Lord and His apostle (Matthew 7:22; 1 Corinthians 9:27).
Commentators see the Levites as a picture of believers today: claimed by God, then given over to serve.
The Levites were to be offered to God in place of the firstborn. God took all the firstborn to Himself when He struck down the firstborn of the Egyptians. The firstborn outnumbered the Levites, so the rest were redeemed. This is a picture of the saints seen as firstborn ones, and as redeemed. They are wholly claimed as God's, and given to Aaron (that is, to Christ), to serve in God's house. He is set as Lord over that house.
The writer quoted earlier is careful about who this covers.
In saying this, we are not speaking of "gifts," or of those called out for service in a special and extraordinary way. We are speaking of all Christians. All alike have been redeemed, bought with a price, and are therefore the Lord's servants.
One writer follows that shortfall of 273 forward, and finds the shortage never ended.
God notices the difference and commands that a ransom be paid for the 273 missing Levites. ... As history went on, the lack of Levites grew worse. In the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, Levites were scarce. Only 74 are listed in Ezra 2, and when Ezra sends eleven men to look for Levites in chapter 8, they find only 38. Today, Levites are still being looked for: those willing to bear the burden connected with God's testimony.
- Claimed. God's right to the firstborn dates from the night He spared them in Egypt; the blood that saved them also bought them.
- Counted. The swap is exact — one Levite for one firstborn, and every extra man is written down.
- Covered. The 273 left over cost five shekels each — 1,365 shekels, paid to Aaron and his sons.
- Costly. Silver settled the picture; the real price behind it cannot decay.
- Consecrated. Redemption comes first, service follows — the Levites belonged to God before they served, and so do His people.
Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be mine I am Jehovah.
On the night God passed through Egypt, He claimed every firstborn son of Israel, and here He names the exchange that settles the claim: a whole tribe taken in their place, animals and all. Why does God accept a substitute, and what does it mean to belong to Him?
The claim behind this verse reaches back to the night the destroying angel passed through Egypt.
The LORD took them in a very special way as the formal substitute for Israel's firstborn, who were spared when the destroying angel struck Egypt. Blood had redeemed them, and they were counted, beyond all doubt, as belonging to the LORD. In place of Israel's firstborn He accepted the Levites. "They shall be mine." So they stand as the lasting witness that the firstborn belong to the LORD, from man as well as from beast. In the day of judgment God's grace had spared the very ones they match. The Levites are therefore tied to mercy — the great mercy that set Israel apart and rescued them from the doom of Egypt. That fitted them all the better to serve in the sanctuary.
The exchange is not symbolic or approximate. It is counted out, and it includes the animals.
Since the Levites were to be dedicated to the Lord in place of the firstborn in Israel, it was necessary to ask how closely the number of the Levites matched the number of the firstborn. So the Lord told Moses to number all the firstborn males, from one month old and upward, as the Levite males had been numbered (v. 40). Verse 41 also notes that the livestock of the Levites would take the place of the firstborn livestock of the other tribes, though we are not told that the livestock were numbered.
Normally a firstborn son was bought back with money. What happens here stands outside that pattern.
The normal method, and the one that was to hold good for all time, was a money payment of five shekels to the priest (Num. 18:16). There was one exception, and only on one occasion. It is the one before us now. We call it an exception because this transaction was never repeated, though it held good for ever. The tribe of Levi was taken instead of the firstborn males of the twelve tribes, as far as man could be exchanged for man. The extra firstborn among the people of Israel were then redeemed by five shekels each, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which was fixed at twenty gerahs.
It is easy to read this exchange as though the Levites absorbed a punishment.
The redemption we are speaking of here was in no sense a redemption from judgment. People have too often confused the two. There is a redemption from divine judgment, and every child of God shares in it. That is provided by the blood of Christ (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14). Now the redemption of the firstborn males was in no way like that. This will be clear to the simplest reader if he notices two things. The clean animal could not be redeemed at all. And the males of Israel were redeemed at the outset, when the Levites were taken in their place, as far as that could be done. Were the Levites chosen to bear divine punishment instead of the firstborn males of the twelve tribes? No. They were taken to minister to Aaron.
The count did not come out even.
When the census was taken, the number of the firstborn in Israel was 273 more than the number of the Levites. God claimed these 273 just as much as the 22,000 who each had a Levite as a substitute. So five shekels had to be paid for each of them as redemption money. According to Exodus 13 the firstborn were to be redeemed at their birth. Our chapter stresses again the principle that redemption comes before the service of God.
What made the Levites servants was whose they were.
Here is the true character of service — "first gave themselves to God," then God employs them… The service of the Levites was entirely the result of their being the Lord's. "The Levites shall be mine." For as it is written, "you are not your own, for you were bought with a price." It is a blessed thing to say, "My beloved is mine." But it is greater progress and a deeper joy to say, "I am His."
The firstborn son and the Levite who replaced him together sketch two sides of one life.
The firstborn, seen this way, has a double history from his redemption onward, and so do we. First he dies in his substitute, then he lives as a servant in the Levite… So the Israelite father might say, "My son has died in that lamb." That history ends there. But even so, "I live." Now we have a new life — "Christ who lives in me." At this point we have the Levite before us: saved from death, but devoted to God.
- Mine by blood. God's claim goes back to the night He spared Israel's firstborn. Blood redeemed them, and He counted them as His.
- Mine by exchange. God takes a whole tribe, man for man and cattle for cattle — a transaction never repeated, yet holding good for ever.
- Mine, down to the last 273. God overlooks no one. Five shekels are paid for each of the 273 extra, because redemption comes before service.
- Mine, but not punished. This is not redemption out of judgment. The Levites were taken to serve Aaron, not to bear a penalty.
- Mine, therefore Yours to use. Service follows ownership. The firstborn died in his substitute and lived on in the Levite, and the redeemed can say, "I am His."
And for those that are to be ransomed, the two hundred and seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel, which are in excess over the Levites,
In this chapter God counts the tribe of Levi alongside the firstborn sons of Israel, man for man. The firstborn outnumber the Levites by 273. This verse deals with that surplus. Why did God claim the firstborn at all? And what does a payment of silver settle that a substitute could not?
Why did God own these firstborn sons at all? It goes back to Egypt, where the blood of the Passover lamb spared their lives.
First, notice that the basis of the Lord's claim on the Levites was the destruction of the firstborn of Egypt. If God redeems through sacrifice and judgment, He claims those He redeems... So all the firstborn among the children of Israel were bought with a price — the price of the blood of the Passover Lamb, a picture of the precious blood of Christ.
Paying five shekels for a firstborn son was the standing rule in Israel. What happens here is different — a swap of one whole tribe for a nation's firstborn, done once and never repeated.
The normal method, as we would call it, and the one that was to hold good for all time, was a money payment of five shekels to the priest (Num. 18:16). There was one exception to this, and only on one occasion. That is what we are looking at now. We call it an exception because it was a transaction that was never repeated, though it held good for ever. The tribe of Levi was taken instead of the firstborn males of the twelve tribes, as far as man for man such an exchange could be made.
273 out of more than twenty-two thousand is a rounding error by any human accounting. God stops and legislates for it.
As it turned out, there were 22,000 Levites, but there were 22,273 firstborn (Num. 3:39-42). In other words, the Levites were short of 273 people. A coincidence? A negligible difference? Hardly. God notes the difference and commands a ransom be paid for the 273 missing Levites.
Who paid the money is worth asking.
It is not likely that 273 people each had to give five shekels. More likely the tribes shared the cost of redeeming the 273. The money went to the priests, Aaron and his sons, since the Levites were given to them too. The total came to 1365 shekels.
The next verse fixes the price "according to the shekel of the sanctuary," twenty gerahs to the shekel — God's own weight, not the market's.
The word comes from a root meaning to weigh — at first, perhaps, to balance. It is what forms a true estimate of the value of things. The shekel of the sanctuary, or sacred shekel, may have been heavier than the usual one... One thing we know: the shekel of the King of kings would be just and unchanging.
It is easy to read this payment as buying a child out of condemnation. One writer argues that it is not that at all.
So the redemption we are speaking of here was in no sense redemption from judgment, though the two have too often been confused. There is a redemption from divine judgment, and every child of God shares in it. The blood of Christ provides that... This will be clear to the simplest reader if he notices two things: the clean animal could not be redeemed at all, and the males of Israel were redeemed at the outset when the Levites were taken in their place... Were the Levites chosen to bear divine punishment instead of the firstborn males of the twelve tribes? No. They were taken to serve Aaron.
The silver went to the priests, and where it went carries the lesson.
The redemption money was handed to Aaron for the service of God, showing that it met His claims on the redeemed. Let us never forget that as redeemed people we belong to God. On that fact rests the life of service to His Name, to which we are committed.
Commentators read the Levites as a picture of Christians for this reason.
Each Levite stood for a firstborn man in Israel. The eldest sons who were more than the number of that tribe were redeemed for five shekels of silver each. So the Levites were, in a special way, a redeemed company. Clearly they picture Christians, both in our redemption and in the claim God has on us for service as redeemed people.
- Claimed — God owned Israel's firstborn because the blood of the lamb spared them in Egypt. Redemption is what creates His claim.
- Exchanged — God took the Levites in their place, man for man. The swap was never repeated, yet it held good for ever.
- Counted — The extra 273 were too few for a statistician to notice, and too many for God to ignore. Each cost five shekels.
- Weighed — The sanctuary shekel set the price, twenty gerahs — God's estimate of value, not the market's.
- Given — The money went to Aaron and his sons. The redeemed belong to God, and they are redeemed into His service. Commentators add that this payment was not a ransom from judgment. That redemption comes by the blood of Christ, not by silver.
thou shalt take five shekels apiece by the poll, according to the shekel of the sanctuary shalt thou take them, -- twenty gerahs the shekel;
Numbers 3 ends with an arithmetic problem that God Himself solves. God had taken the tribe of Levi in place of Israel's firstborn sons, but 273 firstborn were left over. This verse sets their price: five shekels each, weighed by the sanctuary standard of twenty gerahs.
The count left a shortfall, and silver settled it. One writer walks through the figures and names who paid and who received.
The count of the Levite males came to 22,000 (v. 39). Now the number of the firstborn was very close to the same, but 273 larger than the number of the Levites (v. 43). To make up this difference, the Lord told them to redeem the 273 by paying five shekels of silver for each person (vv. 46-47). It is not likely that each of the 273 paid five shekels himself; more likely the tribes shared the cost of redeeming them. The money went to the priests, Aaron and his sons, since the Levites were also given to them. The total amounted to 1,365 shekels.
A gap of 273 could look too small to bother with. God did not treat it that way.
When the Levites were counted, there were 22,000 of them, but there were 22,273 firstborn (Num. 3:39-42). In other words, the Levites were short of 273 people. A coincidence? A negligible difference? Hardly. God notes the difference and commands a ransom be paid for the 273 missing Levites (v. 46, 47).
The same writer traces that shortage forward through Israel's history.
Over the course of history, the lack of Levites became more pronounced. In the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, Levites were scarce. We find just 74 in Ezra 2, and when, in chapter 8, Ezra sends 11 men to search for Levites, they find only 38. Today, there is still a search for Levites: those who are willing to bear the burden connected with God's testimony.
The verse names which shekel to use, and defines it. Everyday trade in Israel may have used another weight.
The Old Testament mentions two shekels. One goes by "the king's weight," and was probably the standard shekel used for all ordinary business (Ex. 38:29; Joshua 7:21; 2 Sam. 14:26; Amos 8:5). The other is called the "shekel of the sanctuary," and of it we read, "the shekel is 20 gerahs" (Ex. 30:13; Lev. 27:25; Num. 3:47; Num. 18:16). This implies perhaps that the common shekel was different.
Convenience had no say in the matter. The standard came from God's house.
One more law held firm through all these dealings. "And all your valuations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel." Israel might wish to pay with whatever coin was most convenient in their dealings with the nations. But as in relation to the temple service and their redemption price, so here they must make their payments "according to the shekel of the sanctuary."
The payment is not an afterthought tacked onto a census.
God claimed these 273 extra firstborn just as much as the 22,000 for whom a Levite stood in as a substitute, and so the people had to pay five shekels apiece for them as redemption money. According to Exodus 13 the firstborn were to be redeemed at their birth. Our chapter again stresses the principle that redemption comes first and service follows.
One writer presses a careful distinction here about what this money did and did not buy.
The redemption we are speaking of here was in no way redemption from judgment, though people have too often confused the two. There is a redemption from divine judgment, and every child of God shares in it. That is provided by the blood of Christ (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14). The redemption of the firstborn males was nothing like that. … Were the Levites chosen to bear divine punishment instead of the firstborn males of the twelve tribes? No. They were taken to minister to Aaron.
Silver was a picture, and pictures have limits.
They knew, and so do we, that we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Their fathers had been redeemed with silver and gold — a redemption under Jewish law that pictured something greater. Sometimes they paid actual money, as in Exodus 30:11-16 and Numbers 3:44-51. … Silver and gold are the least corruptible of metals, yet they are corruptible. The price of our redemption was incorruptible and precious.
- Counted — 22,000 Levites stood in for 22,273 firstborn. God counted the 273 short rather than passing over them.
- Ransomed — five shekels covered each of the 273 left over, 1,365 shekels in all, paid to Aaron and his sons. The tribes likely shared the cost.
- Weighed — the price used the sanctuary shekel of twenty gerahs, not whatever coin was handiest in trade.
- Claimed — redemption came first, service after. The Levites were taken to minister to Aaron, not to bear punishment.
- Surpassed — silver pictured redemption, but silver corrupts. The price paid for believers was incorruptible and precious.
and thou shalt give the money unto Aaron and unto his sons for those in excess among them who are to be ransomed.
The count of Levi came up 273 short of the firstborn sons of Israel, and God required a payment for every extra son. This verse names the price and the hands it went into, raising three questions: why silver, why Aaron, and what the arrangement says about belonging to God.
Levi had been taken in exchange for the firstborn of the whole nation, man for man, as far as the numbers would stretch. They did not stretch far enough.
The Levite males numbered 22,000 (v.39). The number of the firstborn was very close to the same, but 273 larger than the number of the Levites (v.43). To make up this difference, the Lord instructed that the 273 be redeemed by paying five shekels of silver for each one (vs.46-47). It is not likely that 273 men each had to give five shekels. More likely the tribes shared the cost of redeeming the 273. This money went to the priests, Aaron and his sons, since the Levites too were given to them.
The money is weighed out "according to the shekel of the sanctuary." One writer explains what that standard was.
The word comes from a root meaning to weigh, and perhaps at first to balance. It is what forms a true estimate of the value of things. The shekel of the sanctuary, or sacred shekel, may have weighed more than the usual one... One thing we know: the shekel of the King of kings would be just and never changing, for "unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the LORD" (Prov. 20:10). This shekel was divided into twenty gerahs.
A five-shekel payment was the standing rule for firstborn sons. The exchange with Levi was the one-off exception:
The normal method, as we would call it, and the one that was to hold good for all time, was a money payment of five shekels to the priest (Num. 18:16). To this there was an exception, but only on one occasion... We call it an exception because it was a transaction that was never repeated, though it held good forever. The tribe of Levi was taken instead of the firstborn males of the twelve tribes, as far as man for man there could be such an exchange.
The silver went to the priest. Where it went says something about who the redeemed now belong to.
Aaron received the redemption money for the service of God, which showed that it met His claims on the redeemed. Let us never forget that as redeemed people we belong to God. That fact is the basis of the life of service to His Name that we are committed to.
It is easy to read "redemption price" as a payment that turns away punishment. One writer says this is not what happens here, and gives two reasons from the text.
The redemption we are speaking of here was in no sense redemption from judgment, though people have too often confused the two. There is a redemption from divine judgment, and every child of God shares in it. The blood of Christ provides that (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14). The redemption of the firstborn males was nothing like that. This will be clear to the simplest reader if he notes two things. The clean animal could not be redeemed at all. And the males of Israel were redeemed at the start by the Levites being taken in their place, as far as that could be done. Were the Levites chosen to bear divine punishment instead of the firstborn males of the twelve tribes? No. They were taken to serve Aaron.
One writer reads Aaron here as standing for Christ, and the whole arrangement as a picture of believers.
The Levites were to be offered to God in place of the firstborn, all of whom God took to Himself when He struck the firstborn of the Egyptians. Since the firstborn outnumbered the Levites, the rest were redeemed. This is a picture of the saints seen as firstborn ones and as redeemed. They are wholly claimed as God's and given to Aaron (that is, to Christ), to serve in God's house, over which He is set as Lord.
Silver could settle the account for 273 boys in the desert. It could never settle more than that.
They knew, and so do we, that we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Their fathers had been redeemed with silver and gold — a redemption in picture form, carried out under Jewish law. Sometimes actual money was given as in Exodus 30:11-16; Numbers 3:44-51... Silver and gold are the least corruptible of metals, yet they are corruptible. The price of our redemption was incorruptible and precious.
- Counted — Levi fell 273 short of the firstborn, and God required a price for every extra son.
- Priced — five shekels each, weighed by the sanctuary standard. God fixed that measure, not the payer.
- Handed over — the silver went to Aaron, showing that God's claim on the redeemed was met.
- Owned — redemption is what makes a person God's, and being God's is the ground of a life of service.
- Surpassed — silver is the least corruptible metal, yet it still corrupts. The price that redeems us is the precious blood of Christ.
And Moses took the ransom-money from them that were over and above those who were ransomed by the Levites;
Numbers 3 ends with an exchange: God takes the tribe of Levi in place of Israel's firstborn sons, man for man — but the firstborn outnumber the Levites by 273. Verse 49 records Moses collecting silver for that surplus, which raises two questions: why did God claim these sons, and why did 273 matter?
The claim goes back to the night God struck the firstborn of Egypt, when the blood of the Passover lamb marked Israel's homes. From that night the firstborn sons of Israel belonged to God.
All the firstborn among the children of Israel were bought with a price, the price of the blood of the Passover Lamb... From chapters 3 and 4 we learn that afterwards all the Levites were taken instead of the firstborn of the children of Israel. The transaction that made the substitution was so solemn and exact that the 273 firstborn of the children of Israel, who were more than the number of the Levites, all had to be redeemed according to God's estimate of their value.
The chapter's arithmetic is what creates verse 49. One writer works through the totals and shows who carried the cost.
The count of Levite males came to 22,000. The number of the firstborn was very close to the same, but 273 larger than the number of the Levites. To make up this difference, the Lord told them to redeem the 273 by paying five shekels of silver for each one. It is not likely that 273 people each had to give five shekels. More likely the tribes shared the cost of redeeming the 273. This was to be given to the priests, Aaron and his sons, since the Levites were also given to them.
The shortfall looks small enough to ignore.
The Levites were short of 273 people. A coincidence? A negligible difference? Hardly. God notes the difference and commands a ransom be paid for the 273 missing Levites.
God fixed the price, and He weighed it against His own standard. The word shekel itself points to weighing.
The word comes from a root meaning to weigh — at first, perhaps, to balance. It is that which forms a true estimate of the value of things. The shekel of the sanctuary, or sacred shekel, may have been heavier than the usual one... One thing we know: the shekel of the King of kings would be just and unvarying, for "unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the LORD" (Proverbs 20:10).
The five-shekel payment was not invented for this moment. It was the permanent price for a firstborn son — what made this occasion unusual was the swap of a whole tribe.
The normal method, as we would call it, and the one that was to hold good for all time, was a payment of five shekels to the priest (Numbers 18:16). To this there was an exception, but only on one occasion... It was a transaction that was never repeated, though it held good for ever. The tribe of Levi was taken instead of the firstborn males of the twelve tribes, as far as man for man such an exchange could be made. The surplus of the children of Israel were then redeemed by five shekels each.
What kind of redemption is this? One writer answers with a sharp distinction.
The redemption we are speaking of here was in no sense redemption from judgment. People have too often confused the two. There is a redemption from divine judgment, and every child of God shares in it. That is provided by the blood of Christ. Now the redemption of the firstborn males was in no sense like that... Were the Levites chosen to bear divine punishment instead of the firstborn males of the twelve tribes? No. They were taken to serve Aaron.
Moses did not keep the silver or give it back. It went to Aaron the priest.
The redemption money was handed to Aaron for the service of God, showing that it met His claims on the redeemed. Let us never forget that as redeemed people we belong to God. The life of service to His Name that we are committed to rests on that fact.
- Claimed — the Passover blood spared Israel's firstborn on the night Egypt's firstborn died. They were bought with a price, so they were God's.
- Substituted — a whole tribe was accepted in their place, man for man, as far as the numbers of Levi could stretch.
- Counted — 273 had no Levite to stand for them, and God refused to treat the shortfall as too small to matter.
- Priced — five shekels each, by the sanctuary standard: the just and unvarying measure of the King of kings.
- Serving — the silver passed to Aaron for the service of God. What met God's claim also became the ground of a life given to Him.
of the firstborn of the children of Israel he took the money, a thousand three hundred and sixty-five [shekels], according to the shekel of the sanctuary.
The 1,365 shekels here were a redemption price for the firstborn sons of Israel who had no Levite to stand in their place. Two questions sit behind the number: why did God claim these children, and what could silver buy?
The number comes from subtracting one census from another:
The count of Levite males came to 22,000 (v.39). The number of the firstborn was very close to the same, but 273 larger than the number of the Levites (v.43). To make up this difference, the Lord required five shekels of silver to redeem each of the 273 (vv.46-47). Most likely the 273 did not each give five shekels themselves. Instead the tribes shared the cost of redeeming them. The money went to the priests, Aaron and his sons, since the Levites too were given to them. The total came to 1,365 shekels.
God's claim on these children goes back to the night Israel left Egypt:
The basis of the Lord's claim on the Levites was the destruction of the firstborn of Egypt. If God redeems through sacrifice and judgment, He claims those whom He redeems. So all the firstborn among the children of Israel were bought with a price — the price of the blood of the Passover Lamb, a picture of the precious blood of Christ. From chapters 3 and 4 we learn that afterwards God took all the Levites instead of the firstborn of the children of Israel. The substitution was so solemn and exact that the 273 firstborn beyond the number of the Levites all had to be redeemed according to God's own estimate of their value.
The verse names a price and also the standard that weighs it. Israel traded with other nations and could have paid in their coin:
One law applied without exception throughout these transactions. "And every valuation shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall make a shekel." Israel might wish to pay with whatever coin was most convenient in their dealings with the nations. But as with the temple service and their redemption price, so here they had to make their payments "according to the shekel of the sanctuary." ... We are under grace, not law. But what a serious error to think that we as Christians are left to our own will or wisdom! We are bought with an infinite price, and we are in no way our own.
The law treated three cases differently, and that difference shows what this payment was not:
God required redemption for the males of Israel. For the firstborn male of a donkey it was optional, and depended on the owner's will. For the firstborn male of a clean animal it was impossible. That went onto God's altar. So the redemption we are speaking of here was in no sense redemption from judgment, though people have often confused the two. There is a redemption from God's judgment, and every child of God shares in it. The blood of Christ provides it. But the redemption of the firstborn males was nothing like that. Even the simplest reader can see it. The clean animal could not be redeemed at all. And God redeemed the males of Israel at the start by taking the Levites in their place, as far as that could be done. Did God choose the Levites to bear His punishment instead of the firstborn males of the twelve tribes? No. He took them to serve Aaron.
The chapter sets an order the Levites themselves may not have grasped:
Our chapter again emphasises the principle that redemption comes before the service of God. Did the Levites through Israel's history realise that they came into God's service only as a redeemed people? That may be open to question. But we should not miss this fact, which is set out here in picture form.
Silver settled the account for these 273. It could never settle the deeper one, and the payment was only a picture:
Their fathers had been redeemed with silver and gold — a redemption in picture form, carried out under Jewish law. Sometimes they gave actual money, as in Exodus 30:11-16 and Numbers 3:44-51... Silver and gold are the least corruptible of metals, yet they are corruptible. The price of our redemption was incorruptible and precious.
- Counted. The census left 273 firstborn with no Levite to stand for them, and God required a price for each one.
- Claimed. The firstborn were His because blood had spared them in Egypt — bought first, then counted.
- Weighed. God fixed the price by the sanctuary shekel, twenty gerahs — His estimate of their value, not the market's.
- Commissioned. God took the Levites to serve Aaron, not to bear punishment. Redemption came first, service followed.
- Surpassed. Silver and gold are the least corruptible metals, yet they still corrupt. The price of our redemption was incorruptible and precious.
And Moses gave the money of them that were ransomed to Aaron and to his sons, according to the commandment of Jehovah, -- as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Israel's firstborn sons outnumbered the Levites who stood in their place, so silver had to cover the gap. Here Moses hands that silver over — and commentators ask what it bought, who took it, and what it pictures for us.
The sum in this verse comes from a gap in the numbers. One writer shows how the count worked out and who paid:
The count of Levite males came to 22,000 (v.39). The number of the firstborn was very close to that, but 273 larger (v.43). To make up this difference, the Lord told them to redeem the 273 by paying five shekels of silver for each person (vs.46-47). Probably the 273 did not each pay five shekels themselves. Instead the tribes shared the cost of redeeming them. The money went to the priests, Aaron and his sons, since the Levites were also given to them. The total amounted to 1365 shekels.
God claimed the extra 273 as fully as the rest, and someone had to pay for each of them:
When they took the census, the firstborn in Israel outnumbered the Levites by 273. God claimed these 273 just as He claimed the 22,000, who each had a Levite as a substitute. So five shekels of redemption money had to be paid for each of them. According to Exodus 13 the firstborn were to be redeemed at their birth. Our chapter again stresses the principle: redemption comes first, before the service of God.
The silver went to Aaron, and where it went carries the point of the verse:
The redemption money was handed to Aaron for the service of God, showing that it met His claims upon the redeemed. Let us never forget that as redeemed people we belong to God. On this fact rests the life of service to His Name, the life we are committed to.
Writers read Aaron here as a picture of Christ, and the redeemed as those handed over to Him for His use:
The Levites were to be offered to God in place of the firstborn, all of whom God took to Himself when He struck down the firstborn of the Egyptians. The firstborn outnumbered the Levites, so the rest were redeemed. This is a picture of the saints, seen as firstborn ones and as redeemed. They are wholly claimed as God's, and given to Aaron (that is, to Christ). They serve in God's house, and He is set as Lord over it.
It is easy to read the five shekels as a payment that saved these sons from punishment. One writer warns against that reading, and argues from the animals in the same law:
So the redemption we speak of here was in no sense redemption from judgment. People have too often confused the two. There is a redemption from divine judgment, and in that every child of God shares. That is provided by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14). Now the redemption of the firstborn males was in no sense like that. Even the simplest reader will see this clearly. Notice that the clean animal could not be redeemed at all. Notice too that the Levites were taken in place of the males of Israel at the outset, and so redeemed them as far as that could be done. Were the Levites chosen to bear divine punishment instead of the firstborn males of the twelve tribes? No. They were taken to minister to Aaron.
One writer sets a payment like this one beside the price that redeems us:
They knew, and so do we, that we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Their fathers had been redeemed with silver and gold. That redemption under Jewish law was a picture of something greater. Sometimes actual money was given, as in Exodus 30:11-16 and Numbers 3:44-51. Sometimes it was by sacrifice, as in Exodus 13:13-15. Even then silver and gold came into it, since they bought the animal used for sacrifice. Silver and gold are the least corruptible of metals, yet they are corruptible. The price of our redemption was incorruptible and precious.
- Counted — The firstborn outnumbered the Levites by 273, and God claimed every one of them.
- Bought — Five shekels each, 1,365 shekels in all, and the tribes carried the cost, not the 273 alone.
- Given — The silver went to Aaron, meeting God's claim on the redeemed and marking them out as His.
- Different — This was not a ransom from judgment. The Levites served the priest; they did not bear punishment.
- Surpassed — Silver wears away. The price here points past itself to the precious blood of Christ.