The
LORD also said to Moses, "I have taken the Levites from among the
Israelites in place of the first male offspring of every Israelite
woman. The Levites are mine, for all the firstborn are mine. When I
struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set apart for myself every
firstborn in Israel, whether man or animal. They are to be mine. I am
the LORD."
//To prove his power, one day God killed all the firstborn of Egypt.
Every firstborn son died, except those among the Israelites, because
they had sprinkled the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. But God
didn't merely spare Israel's firstborn; he consecrated them to himself.
The firstborn were to belong to God.
Later,
God accepts the Levites in place of the firstborn ... see today's
verse. Numbers 3:46 explains that, because there lived more firstborn
sons in Israel than there were Levites, God collected "redemption money"
of five shekels for each of the 273 extra firstborn, and gave the money
to Aaron.
But why the switch? Why choose the tribe of Levi over the firstborn, and set them up as the priesthood? Perhaps because of their ability or willingness to slaughter animals for sacrifice?
No,
not animals. As the story goes, shortly after Israel escaped from
Egypt, they built a golden calf. God was displeased. But the men of the
tribe of Levi stood up and offered to take care of the situation. So
here is what God asked of them:
So
[Moses] stood at the entrance to the camp and said, "Whoever is for the
LORD, come to me." And all the Levites rallied to him. Then he said to
them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a
sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to
the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.'" The
Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the
people died. --Exodus 32:26-28
So
the Levites were chosen because of their faithfulness. The God who
slaughtered all the firstborn of Egypt chooses for himself the tribe
willing to slaughter three thousand more people.
I actually read this passage recently. A few questions come to my mind. For example, was it always the case that a redemption price had to be paid for the extra firstborn? The number of Levites would not always match the number of firstborn. So would a census be regularly taken to see how many excess firstborn there were? The problem with that is that God did not particularly care for the census, and tolerated it at times as a necessary evil.
ReplyDeleteBTW----I found out yesterday that I actually have the Book of Lilith! Never read it, though.
Interesting insight that God doesn't care much for census! There is so much depth in the Bible, isn't there?
ReplyDeleteSo...do you have Brown's Book of Lilith, or one that is a bit more scholarly? ;) I put a post up awhile back about Lilith, maybe a year ago I don't know, and it continues to get a lot of hits. So, I threw this review up.
Oh, looks like I have a different one. Barbara Black Koltuv's The Book of Lilith.
ReplyDelete