Inheritance in the Kingdom | Numbers part 20
Chapter 18 begins the renewal of Aaron and the Levites’ responsibilities in the tabernacle. This chapter is also an example of the pattern in Numbers of cycling through historical records, narrative, and law. Having completed the story of Korah and Aaron’s reinstatement as the High Priest, Numbers turns its attention to law codes related to the priesthood.
Once again, I would like us to examine this passage in light of the New Testament and what principles carry into our own age. No, we do not have the tabernacle nor the priesthood, but we are still called to be a holy people having much in common with the Old Testament priests and Levites. In this particular chapter, we have the theme of “inheritance.” And so, our question will be,
“How does the priestly inheritance of Numbers 18 inform our view of Christian inheritance?”
A Renewed Call to Holiness | Numbers 18:1-7
So the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood. And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. They shall keep guard over you and over the whole tent, but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar lest they, and you, die. They shall join you and keep guard over the tent of meeting for all the service of the tent, and no outsider shall come near you. And you shall keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel. And behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting. And you and your sons with you shall guard your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and that is within the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift, and any outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”
Numbers 18:1-7
This section reiterates the commands from before keeping the wider congregation and outsiders outside the holy boundaries of the tent of meeting. In Numbers, there is an added layer of this command in that the Lord says the priests and Levites will “bear the iniquity” of the tabernacle. They have been in charge of keeping the tabernacle running properly, and now the Lord reminds them part of that responsibility is keeping the area holy.
Service in the tabernacle includes maintaining the holiness of the tabernacle and its accoutrements.
Also included in verse 5 is the need to protect the people from the wrath of the Lord. The tabernacle was the place where the Lord would meet His people. He provided many gifts at the tabernacle—life, salvation, healing, and purification. But, as we saw with Korah’s rebellion, sin cannot withstand the presence of the Lord. The tabernacle was not a place to goof around. Mistakes could easily lead to death. It reminds me of Mr. Beaver’s description of Aslan, the lion of Narnia:
Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
- C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Lord is good. The Lord is King. The Lord brings light and life. But the Lord is not safe.
Now, as for our theme of inheritance, notice the inheritance given to Aaron. The priesthood itself is a gift to him. He is not to conduct his service alone. The Lord provides a people to help Aaron fulfill his role in the Kingdom.
Likewise, we will always have people to help in our calling. Whatever it is that God has called you to do with your life, there will be those He sends along the way to help you. I still vividly remember the day I felt the call to vocational ministry. As I prayed, I asked how in the world I would be able to serve the Lord in ministry. I looked up and saw the answer. The Lord told me quite clearly, I would always have someone there to help. He has always fulfilled this promise.
An Inheritance among the People | Numbers 18:8-20
Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, “Behold, I have given you charge of the contributions made to me, all the consecrated things of the people of Israel. I have given them to you as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual due. This shall be yours of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering of theirs and every sin offering of theirs and every guilt offering of theirs, which they render to me, shall be most holy to you and to your sons. In a most holy place shall you eat it. Every male may eat it; it is holy to you. This also is yours: the contribution of their gift, all the wave offerings of the people of Israel. I have given them to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the firstfruits of what they give to the Lord, I give to you. The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they offer to the Lord, shall be yours. Nevertheless, the firstborn of man you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. And their redemption price (at a month old you shall redeem them) you shall fix at five shekels in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. But the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and shall burn their fat as a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. But their flesh shall be yours, as the breast that is waved and as the right thigh are yours. All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you.” And the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.
Numbers 18:8-20
The Lord allows the priests to eat of the offerings of the people as their provision. Much of the offering is to be burned up as an offering to the Lord, but large portions are given to the priests and their families. Notice the Lord calls this a “covenant of salt.” It was to be a perpetual covenant related to purity and endurance. Just as salt is a natural preservative, this part of the covenant would preserve the priesthood helping them remain uncorrupted.
The key verse in this section is verse 20. The reason the priests would have no inheritance in the land itself is because the Lord would be their inheritance. They are not charged with building the civic kingdom nor their own households or earthly wealth. They were to serve the Lord as intercessors for the people. Their lives were given in service to eternal matters, not the temporal ones.
As we consider how this applies to us today, we tend to view the priesthood in light of our contemporary pastoral ministers. Yes, there are quite a few points of overlap, but 1 Peter reminds us all Christians are considered priests.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9
Peter is not talking to just the pastors, elders, or deacons. He is referring to all Christians. And so, as modern day Christians, we actually have an option before us. We could view ourselves as the other 11 tribes of Israel who were charged with the wider nation and their own households. Their focus was serving the Lord well in keeping the covenant and passing down knowledge of the Lord through the generations. Or, we can view ourselves as priests chosen to serve in the tabernacle giving up worldly possessions relying solely on the Lord’s provision. In doing so, we may give up opportunities for wealth and social prestige, but we gain more opportunities to serve and be useful in the kingdom.
Each Christian must decide in their own heart what the Lord has called them to do. We call this their “vocation.” Vocation is more than a job. It is what God has designed them to do in this life. The priests were designed to be intermediaries. The Levites were designed to serve the priests. Israelites were designed to be a nation of light and a holy nation in the world. For Christians, we all have general callings that apply to all Christians. But we each have specific callings the Lord lays on our hearts.
If you feel the call to vocational ministry in some way, whether as a missionary, pastor, elder, deacon, this section (as well as many other passages) remind us the Lord will provide. We may not have all the comforts and niceties of life, but we will have what we need. I heard a pastor once say, “The pay in ministry isn’t always great, but the retirement benefits are out of this world.”
Our ultimate inheritance in the Christian life is living in the presence of the Lord.
We are called to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who called [us] out of darkness and into His marvelous light.” The inheritance and prize for such a life is to be in the most excellent and light-filled presence of the Lord for eternity.
Instructions for the Levites | Numbers 18:21-32
“To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance. For the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel.”
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Moreover, you shall speak and say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe. And your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. So you shall also present a contribution to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you shall give the Lord's contribution to Aaron the priest. Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every contribution due to the Lord; from each its best part is to be dedicated.’ Therefore you shall say to them, ‘When you have offered from it the best of it, then the rest shall be counted to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, and as produce of the winepress. And you may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting. And you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have contributed the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, lest you die.’”
Numbers 18:21-32
The Levites also share in the offerings, but they are given the extra task of tithing from the tithe of the people. Because they have received gifts and provision, they also must give back to God just like the rest of the tribes. In verse 32, they will not bear any sin in eating of the offerings to the Lord if they have contributed the best to the tabernacle. Throughout this whole system, one particular principle remains in effect:
The absolute best belongs to the Lord.
This principle is a heart-check for the people. Are they actually bringing their best to the Lord because He deserves our best, or are they finding ways to hold back what is best?
It is a very similar test, and principle, at work in Acts 5. There, the disciples are collecting from the believers proceeds from land sales and various contributions in order to help all the people. The sick and impoverished are being actively cared for by the wealthier believers. But one couple, Ananias and Sapphira, have decided to hold back some of the money from their sale for themselves. Peter is very clear, the choice to give and how much to give was theirs, but the problem is they give deceptively. He says,
While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
Acts 5:4
When we choose to offer something to the Lord, we are offering what is best from ourselves. We have already seen the Lord can use any offering (Numbers 16:37), but the offering that is honored by the Lord is a sacrificial offering. Consider the widow’s mite of Mark 12. She did not offer what was left. She offered all she had.
Our offerings are one type of heart-check for us—where do we put our best?
Notice again, the word is not “the most”; it is “the best.” There is no contest for who gives the most. The test is about our own generosity and priorities.
Every once in a while, I come across some teacher talking about whether Christians are called to tithe at all. The New Testament doesn’t specifically talk about tithing, and so are we excused from the practice? It’s an Old Covenant thing, after all. The reality is Jesus has a much higher standard. A tithe is simply 10%. Jesus reminds us everything belongs to the Lord. Paul wrote God loves a cheerful giver—hilarion is the Greek and where we get ‘hilarious.’ It could also be rendered a “crazy giver.” One pastor said, “If we see the tithe as a ceiling instead of the floor, we are missing the teachings of Jesus. And we really should check our hearts for why we reject generosity.”
And now we have come full circle in our lesson for today. What is our inheritance in the Kingdom of God as Christians? If we ask God to bless us now, I have no doubt God will honor that for some. There are principles in the Bible that, if followed, we will find ourselves living quite well in this world. But for many of us, God is calling us to forsake the blessings of ‘now’ and look forward to the blessings of eternity.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 16:25
And so, the choice is laid before you. Do you hold on to the now, or will you give it up for the eternal?