And thou shalt bring the Levites before the tent of meeting; and thou shalt gather together the whole assembly of the children of Israel.
Israel is camped at Sinai. The Levites are the tribe set apart to work at the tabernacle, God's tent among His people. Before they can do a single duty there, God calls the whole nation together to watch. Why must this happen in full public view? And what does one tribe's service have to do with everyone else?
The Levites did not design their own setting apart. Every step of it — the washing, the shaving, the offerings, the place — came by God's command.
We now turn the reader's attention to a very interesting ceremony. It took place in the wilderness of Sinai, in front of the whole congregation. It was the setting apart of the Levites by the rite God laid down, for the duties they were to perform. As with the priests, so with the Levites, it was for God to say how that should be done. He alone knows what is needed for those He will employ in His service.
God does not only tell Moses to bring the Levites forward. He tells him to gather the whole nation to watch.
All of this was done in the most public way. First came washing and shaving. They were sprinkled with the water of purifying, and the hair of their body was shaved off. Their clothes were washed too, and in this way they made themselves clean. The need to be purified by water declared that in themselves they were not pure. The shaving of all their hair meant giving up every thought of serving God in their natural strength.
To stand at the tent of meeting is to stand in God's presence. No one stands there on his own footing. The sacrifices of the previous verse make that approach possible.
They were called, or marked out, for their special place. They were presented before the Lord as the offering of Israel. They also had to stand before Him in the value of the sacrifices they were told to bring. This teaches very plainly that no one can render true service without the sense of acceptance in Christ… There was no peace offering, as people have often noticed, because it was a question of service, and not of communion.
The crowd is not an audience. In the next verse they lay their hands on the Levites. That act joins them to what the Levites will do.
Then the Levites had to present their offerings. The whole congregation of the people had already identified themselves with them by laying on hands. The force of this act is shown here. By it the people identified themselves with the service, so that they were regarded as serving their God in the service of the Levites.
The same act settled an older claim. God had a right to every firstborn son in Israel.
By laying their hands on the Levites, the people owned that they were identified with them. From now on the Levites were to stand in the place of their firstborn males and do the Lord's work. So the people fully owned God's rightful claim on their firstborn. They also owned His way of redeeming their children from a service He could justly have demanded.
The Levites already belonged to the Lord. Yet He arranges to receive them back from the hands of Israel.
The Levites were chosen out of Israel for the service of the tabernacle. Yet the whole congregation was identified with them, as the laying on of their hands showed. What is more, Aaron presented the Levites to the Lord as the gift of the children of Israel. They belonged to the Lord already. He claimed them because He had delivered them from Egypt through judgment. Still He would receive them as the gift of His people, so that His people might be represented before Him in all the service of the Levites.
One writer links this ceremony to a line in the New Testament about the church.
The laying on of hands identified the person who did it with the victim… Romans 15:16 points back to this consecration of the Levites. It sees the church as offered to God in this way from among the Gentiles. The Israelites also laid their hands on the Levites. So the whole people were, in a sense, identified with them in this consecration, as an offering made by them to the Lord. In this way the Levites represented them before Him.
- Called — God decides how His servants are prepared, not the servant. He marked out the Levites Himself.
- Cleansed — the washing said they were not pure in themselves. The shaving said they must give up serving God in their natural strength.
- Covered — at the tent of meeting they stood in the value of the sacrifices they brought. No one can serve truly without the sense of acceptance in Christ.
- Connected — the whole congregation laid hands on them. So Israel was counted as serving God in the Levites' service.
- Committed — God claimed them as His own, yet received them back as the gift of His people.
And thou shalt bring the Levites before Jehovah; and the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites.
This verse sits inside the ceremony that set the Levites apart for the tabernacle. Moses brings them out in front of the whole assembly, and the people lay their hands on them. The gesture looks simple. Yet it raises the question of the chapter: what does that hand on the head say, and why must the whole nation share in setting one tribe apart?
The same act appears in the sacrifices, and it always carries one sense. The man who lays on his hand joins himself to the one he touches.
The children of Levi belonged to the Lord as His redeemed. He saved them when He judged sin, and they were themselves offered as an offering to the Lord. Laying on hands joined the man who did it to the victim. If it was an offering for sin, the offering was identified with the sinner in his sin. If it was a burnt offering, the offerer was identified with the value of the victim's consecration to God's glory in the matter of sin. Romans 15:16 points back to this consecration of the Levites, and sees the church offered to God in the same way from among the Gentiles. The Israelites laid their hands on the Levites too. So the whole people were, in a sense, identified with them in this consecration, as an offering they made to the Lord. In this way the Levites represented them before Him.
The gesture is not unique to this ceremony:
It is the same Hebrew word for "lay" as in Deuteronomy 34:9, where Moses laid his hands on Joshua; and as in Numbers 8:10, where the Israelites laid their hands on the Levites, expressing fellowship or identity for special service in each case.
The Levites did not serve on their own account. Their work counted as the whole nation's work.
The whole congregation of the people identified themselves with the Levites by laying on hands. This rite shows its force here. By it the people identified themselves with the service, so that they counted as serving their God in the service of the Levites.
It also shows what God's workers look like:
The act of laying on hands expressed identification. So the Levites give us a distinct view of the people of God in the wilderness. They present them to us as a company of earnest workers — and note, not as casual labourers running here and there, each doing what seemed right in his own eyes. Nothing of the sort.
The hands also sealed an exchange. God had claimed every firstborn son in Israel, and He took the Levites instead.
By laying their hands on the Levites, the people owned that they were one with them. From now on the Levites would stand in the place of their firstborn sons to do the Lord's work. They fully owned God's rightful claim on their firstborn. They also acknowledged His way of redeeming their children from a service He could rightly have demanded.
The Levites already belonged to God. Yet He let the people hand them over as their own gift.
This is very beautiful, and also a striking display of God's grace. God chose the Levites out of Israel for the service of the tabernacle. Yet the whole congregation was identified with them, as their laying on of hands showed. And Aaron presented the Levites to the Lord as the gift of the children of Israel. They belonged to the Lord, who claimed them because He had delivered them from Egypt through judgment. Still He will receive them as the gift of His people, so that His people stand represented before Him in all the service of the Levites.
Israel lost a tribe and gained by it:
How happy we are when we fully recognise the rights of the Lord, and at the same time find our own portion so much the better. We are not poorer because a thing is the Lord's. We are so much the richer, because His things are ours.
The order in the chapter matters. They are given to God first, and set to work after.
In verses 10 and 11 the Levites come before the Lord and are offered to Him, so that they may serve Him. All this happens under the direction of priestly communion. God first brings the whole Church to Himself, and then sets it in service under spiritual priestly direction... No service is intelligent or reasonable unless it springs from priestly communion with the Lord. An intention to obey is not enough on its own. It is communion which gives power and intelligence in service.
- Identified — hands laid on a head join the two. Here the nation joins itself to the tribe that will serve for it.
- Exchanged — God claimed every firstborn son. The people owned that claim, and took His way of redeeming their sons through the Levites.
- Given — God received what was already His as the people's own gift. So the whole nation stood represented in the Levites' work.
- Enriched — giving a tribe to the Lord left Israel richer, because what is His becomes theirs.
- Ordered — given to God first, then put to work. Service that does not begin in communion with Him is not real service.
And Aaron shall offer the Levites as a wave-offering before Jehovah from the children of Israel, and they shall perform the service of Jehovah.
Numbers 8 records the day God set the tribe of Levi apart. In verse 11 the ceremony reaches its point: Aaron presents them to God as a wave offering brought by the people. Why were living men handled like a sacrifice, and what does that say about anyone God calls into His service?
The word "wave" describes a gesture of presentation. One writer traces the order of the ceremony and its meaning:
The Levites were given to Aaron and his sons, just as the church is given to Christ, the true Priest and Son over the house of God. They were given for the service of the house. Israel first offered them to the Lord for His service through Aaron the priest (v. 11). It was a wave offering (tenupha) — that is, they were presented before the Lord as consecrated to Him.
Another writer links the waving to the ascended Christ:
Then the Levites were offered as a wave offering before the Lord (v.11). This may seem strange, since the Levites were probably not waved in a literal way. Still, it was called a wave offering because, as servants of God, they were identified in picture with Christ ascended to the right hand of God. For Christ, ascended in glory, provides all ministry today (Eph. 4:8). Therefore, ministry is from heaven, on a far higher level than anything earthly.
Another writer sees the point in the numbers: God did not take a portion, but the whole tribe:
On that day all the Levites were publicly consecrated to God's service — all the firstborn in Israel belonged to Him (Ex. 13:2), but He accepted the Levites in their place, as far as their numbers went, man for man. A heave offering here, as in the other cases, would have been out of place. It was not some of the firstborn whom God claimed, nor some of the Levites that He accepted.
The verse calls them an offering "from the people of Israel." Just before Aaron waved them, the people laid their hands on them. That act tied the whole nation to what followed:
The Levites were chosen out of Israel for the service of the tabernacle, yet the whole congregation was identified with them. Their laying on of hands showed it. What is more, Aaron presented the Levites to the Lord as the gift of the children of Israel... Do we not learn this? Service is individual in its responsibility to the Lord. Yet it is still rendered on behalf of His people, and in connection with their unity.
Paul takes up the same picture in his own work among the nations:
Turn to Numbers 8 and you find the account of the "offering up" of the Levites before the Lord, in the place of the firstborn of the children of Israel, that "they may do the service of the LORD"... Read in this light, Paul regarded his preaching of the gospel among the Gentiles as a priestly service. His aim was that the nations might be presented to God as an acceptable offering, through the infinite value and power of the sacrifice of Christ, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
They are offered first; only then do they work. One writer draws out the principle:
The Levites are first offered to God. (v. 13.) "After that the Levites shall go in to serve at the tent of meeting." (v. 15.) Here is the true character of service — "first gave themselves to God," then God employs them... The service of the Levites was entirely the consequence of their being the Lord's. "The Levites shall be mine." (v. 14.) For as it is written, "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price." (1 Cor. 6:20.) It is blessed to say, "My beloved is mine;" but it is greater progress and a deeper joy to say, "I am His."
They were not only offered to God; they were handed over to Aaron:
The Levites were given as a gift to Aaron and to his sons, for service in the tabernacle of the congregation... Given to Him for salvation, as every believer is, we have also to remember that we are a gift to Him for His absolute disposal. Our only proper attitude, therefore, is that of Saul of Tarsus, who said, "Lord, what do You want me to do?"
Another writer names the goal all this service serves:
Does this not show that all true Levitical service aims at supporting priestly service in the presence of God? This is the real goal of all true ministry: that worship to our God and Father and our Lord Jesus Christ may be the result.
- Claimed — God claimed every firstborn and took every Levite in their place, man for man. He took all of them, not a portion.
- Consecrated — "Waved" means presented. Aaron lifted them before God as set apart to Him. They were given to him, as the church is given to Christ.
- Carried — the people laid hands on them, so the Levites stood for the whole nation. Service is personal, yet it is done for all God's people.
- Committed — offered first, employed second. Service follows from belonging to the Lord.
- Completed — the aim is worship, not activity. Levite service exists to support priestly service in God's presence.