Yahweh said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your fathers’ house with you shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. Bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, near with you, that they may be joined to you, and minister to you; but you and your sons with you shall be before the Tent of the Testimony. They shall keep your commands and the duty of the whole Tent; only they shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary and to the altar, that they not die, neither they nor you. They shall be joined to you and keep the responsibility of the Tent of Meeting, for all the service of the Tent. A stranger shall not come near to you.
“You shall perform the duty of the sanctuary and the duty of the altar, that there be no more wrath on the children of Israel. Behold, I myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel. They are a gift to you, dedicated to Yahweh, to do the service of the Tent of Meeting. You and your sons with you shall keep your priesthood for everything of the altar, and for that within the veil. You shall serve. I give you the service of the priesthood as a gift. The stranger who comes near shall be put to death.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 7 If you trespass in anything concerning the ceremonies of…
If you trespass in anything concerning the ceremonies of the Sanctuary of your office, you shall be punished.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 7 Num 18:1 And the LORD said unto Aaron, Thou…
Num 18:1 And the LORD said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy father’s house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.
Ver. 1. Shall bear the iniquity,] i.e., The punishment of whatsoever iniquity is done in the sanctuary. Sin and punishment come under one name, as being tied together with chains of adamant: where the one dines, the other will sup; where the one is in the saddle, the other will be upon the crupper. Nemo crimen gerit in pectore qui non idem Nemesin in tergo. Sin doth as naturally draw and suck judgments to it, as the loadstone doth iron, or turpentine fire.
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The iniquity of your priesthood.] Priests then are not angels, free from sin, as that Popish expositures dreamed, and drew from Exo 30:31-32. Cajetan confesseth of the Popish prelates, that whereas by their places they should have been the salt of the earth, they had lost their savour, and were good for little else but looking after the rites and revenues of the Church. {a} John Huss complains of the priests of his age, that Multa quae illi ordinem dicunt, omnium rerum in Christianismo confusionem pariunt, {b} Many things that they call order, bring all into confusion. Non arbitror inter sacerdotes multos esse qui salvi fiant, I believe few of our priests will be saved, saith Chrysostom, {c} of those of his time. And "from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land"; saith Jeremiah. {Jer 23:15}
{a} Comment. in Matt.
{b} Bellum Hussiticum, p. 9.
{c} Hom., 3. in Act.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 The iniquity of the sanctuary, i.e. shall suffer the…
The iniquity of the sanctuary, i.e. shall suffer the punishment of all the usurpations or pollutions of the sanctuary, or the holy things, by the Levites or any of the people, because you have authority and power from me to keep them all within their bounds, and I expect you use it to that cud. Thus the people are in good measure secured against their fears expressed Num 17:12,13. Also they are informed that Aaron’s high dignity was attended with great burdens, having not only his own, but the people’s sins to answer for; and therefore they had no such reason to envy him as they might think, if the benefits and encumbrances and dangers were equally considered.
Of your priesthood, i.e. of all the errors committed by yourselves, or by you permitted in others in things belonging to your priesthood.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 The coherence of this chapter with that foregoing is…
The coherence of this chapter with that foregoing is very observable.
I. The people, in the close of that chapter, had complained of the difficulty and peril that there were in drawing near to God, which put them under some dreadful apprehensions that the tabernacle in the midst of them, which they hoped would have been their joy and glory, would rather be their terror and ruin. Now, in answer to this complaint, God here gives them to understand by Aaron that the priests should come near for them as their representatives; so that, though the people were obliged to keep their distance, yet that should not at all redound to their disgrace or prejudice, but their comfortable communion with God should be kept up by the interposition of the priests.
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II. A great deal of honour God had now lately put upon Aaron; his rod had budded and blossomed, when the rods of the rest of the princes remained dry, and destitute both of fruit and ornament. Now lest Aaron should be puffed up with the abundance of the favours that were done him, and the miracles that were wrought for the support of him in his high station, God comes to him to remind him of the burden that was laid upon him, and the duty required from him as a priest. He would see reason not to be proud of his preferment, but to receive the honours of his office with reverence and holy trembling, when he considered how great was the charge committed to him, and how hard it would be for him to give a good account of it. Be not high-minded, but fear.
1. God tells him of the danger that attended his dignity, Num 18:1. (1.) That both the priests and Levites (thou, and thy sons, and thy father's house) should bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; that is, if the sanctuary were profaned by the intrusion of strangers, or persons in their uncleanness, the blame should lie upon the Levites and priests, who ought to have kept them off. Though the sinner that thrust in presumptuously should die in his iniquity, yet his blood should be required at the hands of the watchmen. Or it may be taken more generally: "If any of the duties or offices of the sanctuary be neglected, if any service be not done in its season or not according to the law, if any thing be lost or misplaced in the removal of the sanctuary, you shall be accountable for it, and answer it at your peril." (2.) That the priests should themselves bear the iniquity of the priesthood; that is, if they either neglected any part of their work or permitted any other persons to invade their office, and take their work out of their hands, they should bear the blame of it. Note, The greater the trust is of work and power that is committed to us the greater is our danger of contracting guilt, by falsifying and betraying that trust. This is a good reason why we should neither be envious at others' honours nor ambitious ourselves of high places, because great dignity exposes us to great iniquity. Those that are entrusted with the charge of the sanctuary will have a great deal to answer for. Who would covet the care of souls who considers the account that must be given of that care?
2. He tells him of the duty that attended his dignity. (1.) That he and his sons must minister before the tabernacle of witness (Num 18:2); that is (as bishop Patrick explains it), before the most holy place, in which the ark was, on the outside of the veil of that tabernacle, but within the door of the tabernacle, of the congregation. They were to attend the golden altar, the table, and candlestick, which no Levite might approach to. You shall serve, Num 18:7. Not, "You shall rule" (it was never intended that they should lord it over God's heritage), but "You shall serve God and the congregation." Note, The priesthood is a service. If any desire the office of a bishop he desires a good work. Ministers must remember that they are ministers, that is, servants, of whom it is required that they be humble, diligent, and faithful. (2.) That the Levites must assist him and his sons, and minister to them in all the service of the tabernacle (Num 18:2-4), though they must by no means come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary, nor at the altar meddle with the great services of burning the fat and sprinkling the blood. Aaron's family was very small, and, as it increased, the rest of the families of Israel would increase likewise, so that the hands of the priests neither were now nor were likely to be sufficient for all the service of the tabernacle; therefore (says God) the Levites shall be joined to thee, Num 18:2, and again Num 18:4, where there seems to be an allusion to the name of Levi, which signifies joined. Many of the Levites had of late set themselves against Aaron, but henceforward God promises that they should be heartily joined to him in interest and affection, and should no more contest with him. It was a good sign to Aaron that God owned him when he inclined the hearts of those concerned to own him too. The Levites are said to be given as a gift to the priests, Num 18:6. Note, We are to value it as a great gift of the divine bounty to have those joined to us that will be helpful and serviceable to us in the service of God. (3.) That both priests and Levites must carefully watch against the profanation of sacred things. The Levites must keep the charge of the tabernacle, that no stranger (that is, none who upon any account was forbidden to come) might come nigh (Num 18:4), and that upon pain of death, Num 18:7. And the priests must keep the charge of the sanctuary (Num 18:5), must instruct the people, and admonish them concerning the due distance they were to keep, and not suffer them to break the bounds set them, as Korah's company had done, that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel. Note, The preventing of sin is the preventing of wrath; and the mischief sin has done should be a warning to us for the future to watch against it both in ourselves and others.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–7 And the Lord spake unto Aaron,.... As the things…
And the Lord spake unto Aaron,.... As the things spoken were such as concerned Aaron, he might be only and immediately spoken unto: thou,
and thy sons, and thy father's house with thee; meaning both priests and Levites, the priests by him and his sons, and the Levites by his father's house:
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shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; the blame of any evil committed there, the punishment of it; the priests, Aaron and his sons, if they did not perform the duty of their office aright, he in the most holy place, and they in the holy place, and at the altar of burnt offering in the court; and the Levites, if they did not take care to watch in the tabernacle, and keep out strangers and polluted persons:
and thou, and thy sons with thee, shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood; be answerable for my sins, errors, and mistakes that should be committed by them in the discharge of their office, through their own remissness, or not taking care that the Levites did their duty; this shows that the office of priesthood, though honourable, was burdensome, and not to be envied; and that the people needed not to be under such terrible apprehensions as they were, lest they should come too near the sanctuary, as to be in danger of death, since it lay upon the priests and Levites especially to take care thereof, and who, if negligent, would suffer.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 The Work of the priests and Levites, ver. 1-7.…
The Work of the priests and Levites, ver. 1-7. The maintenance of the priests, ver. 8-20. Of the Levites, ver. 21-24. The portion they are to pay to the priests, ver. 25-32.
Shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary - Shall suffer the punishment of all the usurpations, or pollutions of the sanctuary, or the holy things, by the Levites, or any of the people, because you have power from me to keep them all within their bounds. Thus the people are in good measure secured against their fears. Also they are informed that Aaron's high dignity was attended with great burdens, having not only his own, but the people's sins to answer for; and therefore they had no such reason to envy him, if the benefits and dangers were equally considered. The iniquity of your priesthood - That is, Of all the errors committed by yourselves, or by you permitted in others in things, belonging to your priesthood.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–2 The priests are to bear the iniquity of the…
CHAPTER XVIII
The priests are to bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, 1.
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The Levites to minister to the priests, and have charge of the
tabernacle, 2-4.
The priests alone to have the charge of the sanctuary, c., no
stranger to come nigh on pain of death, 5-7
The portion allowed for their maintenance, 8.
They shall have every meat-offering and they shall eat them in
the holy place, 9, 10.
The wave-offerings, 11.
The first-fruits of the oil, wine, and wheat, and whatever is
first ripe, and every devoted thing, 12-14;
also, all the first-born of men and beasts, 15-18;
and heave-offerings, 19.
The priests shall have no inheritance, 20.
The Levites shall have no inheritance, but shall have the tenth
of the produce in Israel, 21-24,
of which they are to give a tenth to the priests, taken from the
best parts, 25-30.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVIII
Verse 1. Thou and thy sons - shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, c.] That is, They must be answerable for its legal pollutions, and must make the necessary atonements and expiations. By this they must feel that though they had got a high and important office confirmed to them by a miraculous interference, yet it was a place of the highest responsibility and that they must not be high-minded, but fear.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6 Num 18:1. The Lord said unto Aaron — Probably…
Num 18:1. The Lord said unto Aaron — Probably by Moses. Having, by the foregoing miracles, vindicated the honour and authority of the priesthood, God now lets Aaron know the importance of his office, wherein he was to behave with great care and circumspection, and withal he again declares what was the duty of the Levites, as distinct from that of the priests, from Num 18:1 to Num 18:8. And from thence he proceeds to tell them what maintenance he had settled upon both, for their encouragement in doing their duty. Thou and thy sons shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary — Shall suffer the punishment of all the usurpations, or pollutions of the sanctuary, or the holy things, by the Levites, or any of the people, because you have power from me to keep them all within their bounds. Thus the people are, in good measure, secured against their fears. Also they are informed that Aaron’s high dignity was attended with great burdens, having not only his own but the people’s sins to answer for; and therefore they had no such reason to envy him, if the benefits and dangers were equally considered. The iniquity of your priesthood — That is, of all the errors committed by yourselves, or by you permitted in others, in things belonging to your priesthood.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6 The iniquity of the sanctuary - i. e. the…
The iniquity of the sanctuary - i. e. the guilt of the offences which an erring people would be continually committing against the majesty of God, when brought into contact, through the ordinances, with the manifestations of His presence. Compare the marginal reference.
The iniquity of your priesthood - As the priests themselves were but men, they were strengthened to bear the iniquity of their own unintentional offences, by being entrusted with the ceremonial means of taking it away (compare Lev. 16). The word “bear” has, in the Old Testament, this double sense of “enduring” and “removing;” but in the person of Christ, who atoned by His own endurance, the two axe in effect one.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 7 Priesthood. If you transgress, or if you neglect to…
Priesthood. If you transgress, or if you neglect to instruct and watch over those who are employed about the sanctuary, you shall be responsible for it. (Calmet) --- You must resist those strangers who would intrude themselves into the office, which I have confirmed to you by miracles. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 The more Definite Signification of the Priesthood and of…
FIFTH SECTION
The more Definite Signification of the Priesthood and of the Services of the Levites. Rights and Duties
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Num_18:1-32
1And the Lord said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy fathers’ house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. 2And thy brethren also 1of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee 2 shall minister before the tabernacle of 3witness. 3And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die. 4And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep the charge of the 4tabernacle of the congregation, for all the service of the tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you. 5And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar; that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel. 6And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel: to you they are given as a gift for the Lord, to do the service of the 5tabernacle of the congregation. 67Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest’s office for everything of the altar, and within the vail; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest’s office unto you as a service of 7gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.
8And the Lord spake unto Aaron, Behold, I also have given thee the charge of mine heave offerings 8of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto thee have I given them 9by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, 10by an ordinance for eNum Num_18:9 This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every oblation of theirs, every 11 meat offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, and every 12trespass offering of theirs, which they shall render unto me, shall be most holy for thee and for thy sons. 10In the most holy place shalt thou eat it; 11every male shall eat it: it shall be holy unto thee. And this is thine; the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, iby a statute 12for ever: every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it. All the 13best of the oil, and all the lbest of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which 13they 14shall offer unto the Lord, them have I given thee. 15 And whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the Lord, shall be thine; every one that is clean in thine house shall eat of it. 14Every thing devoted in Israel shall be thine. 15Every thing that openeth the matrix in all flesh, which they bring unto the Lord, whether it be of men or beasts, shall be thine: nevertheless the firstborn of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem. 1616And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shalt thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for 17the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. 17But the firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not redeem; they are holy: thou shalt sprinkle their blood upon the altar, and shalt burn their fat 18 for an offering made by fire, for a sweet savour unto the Lord. 18And the flesh of them shall be thine, as the wave breast and as the right shoulder 19are thine. 19All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, iby a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee. 20And the Lord spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.
21And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, 20for their service which they serve, even the service of the dtabernacle of the congregation. 2122Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come nigh the dtabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, 22and die. 2323But the Levites shall do the service of the dtabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance. 24But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they 24offer as a heave offering unto the Lord, I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.
25And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 25 26Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up a heave offering 27of it for the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithe. And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshing floor, and as the fulness of the winepress. 28Thus ye also shall voffer a heave offering unto the Lord of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel; and ye shall give thereof the Lord’s heave offering to Aaron the priest. 29Out of all your gifts ye shall voffer every heave offering of the Lord, of all the 26best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out of it. 30Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye 27have heaved the best thereof from it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the increase of the winepress. 31And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households: for it is your reward for your service in the 28tabernacle of the congregation. 32And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye xhave heaved from it the best of it: neither shall ye pollute the holy things of the children of Israel 29lest ye die.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
By the saving atonement that Aaron accomplished by his offering of incense as symbol of the sympathetic high-priestly intercession, and with which he stood between the living and the dead, and by the blossoming of Aaron’s rod alone effected thereby [!], the priesthood for the entire Old Testament is established as a fact; in other words, the centre of the host of God, as the sanctuary of the holy nation. From the great fact Moses now draws its ideal meaning, the idea of the priesthood, according to which it has by its sympathy to bear on its heart the iniquities of the nation, even the iniquities of the Levites, and the rights and special duties resulting to the priests and Levites from this fundamental obligation.
Our section accordingly subdivides into the following parts: 1) The entire priestly race—especially the high-priest and his sons as atoning mediators, with whom the Levites shall serve as assistants, Num_18:1-3 a. 2) The limits of the Levitical calling (which the rebellion of Korah would have broken down), especially the limits for the non-Levites, under threat of the divine wrath (death penalty), if they are not observed, Num_18:3 b–5. 3) The divine good-pleasure in discriminating between the Levites and priests. The Levites are made a gift to the Aaronites, to the Aaronites also the priesthood is presented. They all together constitute the personel of the sanctuary, into which no stranger (גֵּר. Lev_22:10), no one that is not a Levite, no layman, may presume to intrude without incurring the death-penalty. For the whole nation indeed is holy, only the priests are sanctified individually, even the Levites individually are only cleansed, conditionally clean are all that are not unclean, Num_18:6-7; Num_18:4) The priestly right of sustenance. It consists a. in the heave-offerings, of the sacrifices of Israel, of which only Aaron and his sons may eat, Num_18:8-10; b. in the heave-offerings of the wave-offerings (the levies of the taxes) which Aaron and his sons and daughters may eat together, the whole of the priestly families, on condition that the individuals are in a state of purity, Num_18:11. 5) Specification of the latter income: The first-fruits of oil, new wine, corn, and all fruits of the land: the vows (that devoted to God, חֶרֶם), the first-born, except that the first, born of men and of unclean beasts must be ransomed with five shekels, and that the blood and the fat of the sacrificial beasts must go to the altar; In addition the wave breast and the shoulder of the thank-offering. Thus it is established forever (a covenant of salt), Num_18:12 to Num_19:6) The last reward of the priests is conditioned on a divine renunciation, and is great for the individual priest in proportion as he exercises renunciation; he shall not possess a fixed inheritance in Israel; on the contrary, Jehovah Himself will be his inheritance (as vice versa he is to be the clerus of Jehovah in a particular sense), Num_18:20. 7) The revenues of the Levites. In return for their official service they shall receive the tithes that all Israelites are to pay. On the other hand they are in their service to join in bearing the guilt of Israel, and must make no claim to an inheritance of land. But beside, they must pay tithes to the priests of their tithes as a heave-offering to Jehovah, and indeed of all they must give the very best. There is a delicate distinction observed in that the words of Jehovah in Num_18:23 are addressed directly to Aaron, who, as mediator of Israel, does not in this business need the mediation of Moses, since it especially concerns his duty, and his rights were already established before; whereas to the Levites Jehovah speaks by Moses when He enjoins that they shall pay the tenth of the tithes to the priests. Moreover the considerate expression is employed: “Ye shall give it as a heave-offering for Jehovah to the priest Aaron,” Num_18:21-32.
Num_18:1-3 a. A discrimination is made between a wider and a narrower sphere of the priestly calling to make atonement. The guilt of the Sanctuary is the guilt that is brought on the Sanctuary; not merely offences against laws for the priests and against the sacred utensils (Knobel), nor even the uncleannesses and defects that attached to those that stood in the sanctuary and even to their gifts (for that there was the great Day of Atonement), but all assaults on the central Sanctuary, corruptions of worship, such as the murmuring congregation had given example of; while the high-priestly atonement of Aaron gave an example of bearing (atoning for) the guilt. To the wider sphere of those that make atonement all the Levites are to belong; they must all jointly feel with an interceding soul what is sinfully done against the priestly institution; but what is done sinfully within this institution Aaron and his sons are to take upon their hearts. Thus the sphere of high-priestly compassion concentrates toward the New Testament. Let thy brethren approach with thee in so far that they cleave to thee (יִלָּוֹוּ conformably to לֵוִי). They shall do service to thy service and to the service of the whole Tabernacle. This ordinance of the priestly atonement is the foundation of the whole section, Heb_5:1 sqq.
Num_18:3-5. The trespass of the Levites on the sacred utensils would bring mortal guilt not only on themselves, but also on the priests that suffered it.
Num_18:6-7. The bright side of the Levitical and Aaronic calling. The Levites are made a gift to the Aaronites, and likewise the priesthood is made a gift to them. Their priesthood therefore rests on a double gift of the free grace of God, and in them the Levites too receive a gift. On every hand original claims of right are excluded.
Num_18:8-10. First class of priestly revenues. Heave-offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel.—Of the meal-offerings; of the small sin-offerings and guilt-offerings; of all the priests receive their definite portion; of the burnt-offerings of course only the hide. The heave-offerings fell to the priests as out of the fire, so to speak, sacrificial fire; therefore they were very holy, and might only be eaten in the (very holy) fore-court by the high-priest and his sons. The expression: I give to thee the charge, מִשְׁמֶרֶת, Num_18:8, is referred here to the notion מִשְׁחָה, part, portio. But any way, the high-priest was under obligation to maintain the right to the definite revenues.
Num_18:11-19. Second more general class of revenues (see Lev_7:33). The wave-breast and the heave-shoulder, and also the first-fruit of every sort (Deu_8:8; Deu_26:2, etc.). Every thing devoted by a vow (see Lev_27:28). The Cherem in the broader sense, what is consecrated to God.
Num_18:20. Between the renunciation of the inheritance in land, and the corresponding renunciation of the priests and Levites, and their immeasurable reward, there exists an intimate connection. The first particular is the condition of the second, not the second merely a consolation with reference to the first. Of late much has been said of the inferior support of the clergy, very little of the great spiritual indemnity. Of course Jehovah was also the inheritance of the priest and of the Levite only pre-eminently. The Levites receive no possession of land (Num_26:62; Deu_12:12; Deu_14:27; Jos_14:3). Their portion is Jehovah (Deu_10:9; Deu_18:2 sqq.). In and with Jehovah they possess every thing. This fundamental law for all the pious is concentrated and illustrated by the priesthood.
Num_18:21-32. The tithes that the Levites receive must in turn be regarded as if they were their natural acquisition in fruits of the land, Num_18:27. In this sense they are to pay their dues to the priests, and that, too, the best of what they received. On the other hand, what they receive must be assured to them as much as if it were the yield of a harvest field belonging to them, Num_18:30. Therefore they may also take their food any place as they like. The heathen priests were many times better cared for, especially the Egyptian priests with their great landed possessions; on which subject see Keil, in loc. How fearfully the possession of land by a priestly class can burden a country and people is taught us by the Manus mortua of the Middle Ages. But now-a-days men have the assurance to say that the mediæval chief priest needs a whole territory in order to be able to take care of his office, whereas, now and then, he certainly takes care of it zealously in his fashion without territory.
HOMILETICAL HINTS
Chap. 18. The faithful care and protection of the Sanctuary should guard against the judgments of God on the congregation of Israel. The revenues of the priestly race in their spiritual significance. The tithes to the Levites a fundamental form of Israelitish taxes, levies and collections. Hence not to be imposed again in a legal way on the Christian obligation to pay taxes.
The tenth of the tenth a heave-offering for the priests. Thus the members of the church that are most alive are the best supporters of the official pastorate. Care was thus taken that the priests did not receive these revenues directly from the people. Necessity for suitable forms of dues for the clergy.
Footnotes:
[1]omit of.
[2]shall be.
[3]testimony.
[4]Tent of Meeting.
[5]Tent of Meeting.
[6]And.
[7](i.e. as an office presented to them by God).
[8]as for all the hallowed things, unto thee, etc.
[9]for a portion.
[10]for dues forever.
[11]meal-offering.
[12]guilt-offering.
[13]Heb. fat.
[14]give.
[15]The first ripe fruits of all that is in their.
[16]And its ransom (as regards the ransom), from a month on (when it is a month old) thou shalt ransom, etc.
[17]five silver shekels.
[18]as a fire-sacrifice.
[19]it shall be.
[20]in return for.
[21]And no more shall (omit henceforth).
[22]Heb. to die.
[23]But the (tribe) Levi, he shall do, etc.
[24]heave.
[25]And to the Levites thou shalt speak.
[26]Heb. fat.
[27]omit have.
[28]Tent of Meeting.
[29]nor die.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v2 thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi--The departments…
thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi--The departments of the sacred office, to be filled respectively by the priests and Levites, are here assigned to each. To the priests was committed the charge of the sanctuary and the altar, while the Levites were to take care of everything else about the tabernacle. The Levites were to attend the priests as servants--bestowed on them as "gifts" to aid in the service of the tabernacle--while the high and dignified office of the priesthood was a "service of gift." "A stranger," that is, one, neither a priest nor a Levite, who should intrude into any departments of the sacred office, should incur the penalty of death.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6, 7 THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE PRIESTLY TRIBE, Num_18:1-7.
THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE PRIESTLY TRIBE, Num_18:1-7.
1. Thou and thy father’s house — High rank and privilege are thus made to bear increased responsibilities.
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The iniquity of the sanctuary — All misconduct in the sanctuary, all improprieties and all defects in service, shall be laid upon the sons of Aaron. Moreover, it was their duty not only to make expiation for these, but also for every defilement of the sanctuary by the sins of the people (Lev_16:6, note) even by their holy gifts.
Exo_28:38. All these the priests must bear away or expunge by virtue of the sanctifying power of their office. See Num_18:23, note.
Iniquity of your priesthood — This comprised every neglect of the most conscientious performance of duty, and the defects in their official acts flowing from their own inherent depravity of nature. These were wiped out on the great day of atonement. See Lev_16:16-19, notes.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–7 1. thy sons] i.e. the priests. The expression was…
1. thy sons] i.e. the priests. The expression was due to the post-exilic practice of all priests of tracing their descent genealogically to Aaron.
thy fathers’ house] Here it means the whole tribe of Levi, exclusive of Aaron and the priests.
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bear the iniquity of the sanctuary … of your priesthood] i.e. bear the consequences of the iniquity of allowing your priesthood, or the sanctuary committed to your charge, to be profaned.
1–7. The duties of priests and Levites. The priests are to have charge of the sanctuary, and the Levites are to help them; the latter, however, may not come into contact with the sacred utensils or the altar. No layman may approach on pain of death. The subject has already been treated in Num_1:50-53, Num_3:5-10; Num_3:38; and the principle of the disabilities of laymen has been illustrated in ch. 14.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 7 (1) Shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary .…
XVIII.
(1) Shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary . . . —It must be remembered that the iniquity of the sanctuary, and the iniquity of the priesthood, extended not only to the defilement of the sanctuary by the transgressions of priests and people (Lev_16:11; Lev_16:15-16), but also to its defilement by the imperfections connected with the services of the priests and the offerings of the people (Exo_28:38).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Numbers 17 - 18
Numbers 17 - 18
These two chapters form a distinct section in which we have presented to us the source, the responsibilities, and the privileges of priesthood. Priesthood is a divine institution. "No man taketh this honour unto Himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron." This is made manifest, in a most striking manner, in chapter 17. "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man’s name upon his rod. And thou shalt write Aaron’s name upon the rod of Levi: for one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers. And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony, where I will meet with you. And it shall come to pass, that the man’s rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom: and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you. And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod apiece, for each prince one, according to their father’s houses, even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their rods." Verses 1-6.
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What matchless wisdom shines in this arrangement! How completely is the matter taken out of man’s hands and placed where alone it ought to be, namely, in the hands of the living God! It was not to be a man appointing himself, or a man appointing his fellow; But God appointing the man of His own selection. In a word, the question was to be definitively settled by God Himself, so that all murmurings might be silenced for ever, and no one be able again to charge God’s high priest with taking too much upon him. the human will had nothing whatever to do with this solemn matter. The twelve rods, all in a like condition, were laid up before the Lord; man retired and left God to act. There was no room, no opportunity, because there was no occasion, for human management. In the profound retirement of the sanctuary, far away from all man’s thinkings, was the grand question of priesthood settled by divine decision; and, being thus settled, it could never again be raised.
"And Moses laid up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness. And it came to pass that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds." striking and beautiful figure of Him who was "declared to be the Son of God with power by resurrection from the dead!" The twelve rods were all alike lifeless; but God, the living God, entered the scene, and, by that power peculiar to Himself, infused life into Aaron’s rod, and brought it forth to view, bearing upon it the fragrant fruits of resurrection.
Who could gainsay this? The rationalist may sneer at it, and raise a thousand questions. Faith gazes on that fruit-bearing rod, and sees in it a lovely figure of the new creation in the which all things are of God. Infidelity may argue on the ground of the apparent impossibility of a dry stick budding, blossoming, and bearing fruit in the coarse of one night. But to whom does it appear impossible? To the infidel - the rationalist - the sceptic. and why? Because he always shuts out God. Let us remember this. Infidelity invariably shuts out God. Its reasonings are carried on and its conclusions reached in midnight darkness. There is not so much as a single ray of true light in the whole of that sphere in which infidelity operates. It excludes the only source of light, and leaves the soul wrapped in the shades and deep gloom of a darkness that may be felt.
It is well for the young reader to pause here, and deeply ponder this solemn fact Let him calmly and seriously reflect on this special feature of infidelity-rationalism - or scepticism. It begins, continues, and ends with shutting out God. It would approach the mystery of Aaron’s budding, blossoming, fruit bearing rod with a godless, audacious "How?" This is the infidel’s great argument. He can raise ten thousand questions; but never settle one. He will teach you how to doubt, but never how to believe. He will lead you to doubt everything; but gives you nothing to believe.
Such, beloved reader, is infidelity. It is of Satan who ever has been, is, and will be, the great question raiser. Wherever you trace Satan, you will always find him raising questions. He fills the heart with all sorts of "ifs" and "hows," and thus plunges the soul in thick darkness. If he can only succeed in raising a question, he has gained his point. But he is perfectly powerless with a simple soul that just believes that God Is, and God HAS SPOKEN. Here is faith’s noble answer to the infidels questions - its divine solution of all the infidel’s difficulties. Faith always brings in the very One that infidelity always shuts out. It thinks with God; infidelity thinks without Him.
Hence, then, we would say to the Christian reader, and specially to the young Christian, never admit questions when God has spoken. If you do, Satan will have you under his foot in a moment. Your only security against him is found in that one impregnable, immortal sentence, "It is written." It will never do to argue with him on the ground of experience, of feeling, or of observation; it must be absolutely and exclusively on the ground of this - that God is, and that God has spoken. Satan can make no hand of this weighty argument at all. It is invincible. Everything else he can shiver to pieces; but this confounds him and puts him to flight at once.
We see this very strikingly illustrated in the temptation of our Lord. the enemy, according to His usual way, approached the blessed One with a question - "If thou be the Son of God." How did the Lord answer Him? Did He say," I know I am the Son of God - I have had a testimony from the opened heavens, and from the descending and anointing Spirit - I feel, and believe, and realise that I am the Son of God?" No; such was not His mode of answering the tempter. How then? "It is written." Such was the thrice repeated answer of the obedient and dependent Man; and such must be the answer of every one who will overcome the tempter.
Thus, in reference to Aaron’s budding rod, if any inquire, "How can such a thing be? It is contrary to the laws of nature; and how could God reverse the established principles of natural philosophy?" Faith’s reply is sublimely simple. God can do as He pleases. The One who called worlds into existence, could make a rod to bud, blossom, and bear fruit in a moment. Bring God in, and all is simple and plain as possible. Leave God out, and All is plunged in hopeless confusion. The attempt to tie up - we speak with reverence - the Almighty Creator of the vast universe, by certain laws of nature, or certain principles of natural philosophy, is nothing short of impious blasphemy. It is almost worse than denying His existence altogether. It is hard to say which is the worse, the atheist who says there is no God, or the rationalist who maintains that He cannot do as He pleases.
We feel the immense importance of being able to see the real roots of all the plausible theories which are afloat at the present moment. The mind of man is busy forming systems, drawing conclusions, and reasoning in such a manner as virtually to exclude the testimony of holy scripture altogether, and to shut out God from His own creation. Our young people must be solemnly warned as to this. They must be taught the immense difference between the facts of science, and the conclusions of scientific men. A fact is a fact wherever you meet it, whether in geology, astronomy, or any other department of science; but men’s reasonings, conclusions, and systems are another thing altogether. Now, scripture will never touch the facts of science; but the reasonings of scientific man are constantly found in collision with scripture. Alas! alas! for such men! And when such is the case we must, with plain decision, denounce such reasonings altogether, and exclaim with the apostle, "Let God be true, and every man a liar."
Gladly would we dwell upon this point though it be a digression, for we deeply feel its seriousness. But we must, for the present, be content with solemnly urging upon the reader the necessity of giving to holy scripture the supreme place in his heart and mind. We must bow down, with absolute submission, to the authority of, not "Thus saith the Church" - "Thus say the fathers" - "Thus say the doctors;" but "Thus saith the Lord" "It is written." This is our only security against the rising tide of infidelity which threatens to sweep away the foundations of religious thought and feeling throughout the length and breadth of Christendom. None will escape save those who are taught and governed by the word of the Lord. May God increase the number of such!
We shall now proceed with our chapter.
"and Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel: and they looked, and took every man his rod. And the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aaron’s rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels; and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me, that they die not. and Moses did so: as the Lord commanded Him, so did he." Verses 9-11.
Thus the question was divinely settled. Priesthood is founded upon that precious grace of God which brings life out of death. This is the source of priesthood. It could be of no possible use for man to take any one of the eleven dead rods and make it the badge of the priestly office. All the human authority under the sun could not infuse life into a dead stick, or make that stick the channel of blessing to souls. And so of all the eleven rods put together; there was not so much as a single bud or blossom throughout the whole. But where there were precious evidences of quickening power - refreshing traces of divine life and blessing - fragrant fruits of efficacious grace - there and there alone was to be found the source of that priestly ministry which could carry not only a needy but murmuring and rebellious people through the wilderness.
And here we may naturally inquire, "What about Moses’ rod? Why was it not amongst the twelve?" The reason is blessedly simple. Moses rod was the expression of power and authority. Aaron’s rod was the lovely expression of that grace that quickens the dead, and calls those things that be not as though they were. Now, mere power or authority could not conduct the congregation through the wilderness. Power could crush the rebel; authority might strike the sinner; but only mercy and grace could avail for an assembly of needy, helpless, sinful men, women, and children. The grace that could bring almonds out on a dead stick, could bring Israel through the wilderness. It was only in connection with Aaron’s budding rod that Jehovah could say, "Thou shalt quite take away the murmurings of the children of Israel from me, that they die not.’’ The rod of authority could take away the murmurers; but the rod of grace could take away the murmurs.
The reader may refer, with interest and profit, to a passage in the opening of Hebrews 9. in connection with the subject of Aaron’s rod. The apostle, in speaking of the ark of the covenant, says," wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant." This was in the wilderness. The rod and the manna were the provisions of divine grace for Israel’s desert wanderings and desert need. But, when we turn to 1 Kings 8: 9, we read, "There! was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt." The wilderness wanderings were over, the glory of Solomon’s day was sending forth its beams over the land, and hence the budding rod and the pot of manna are omitted, and nothing remains save that law of God, which was the foundation of His righteous government in the midst of His people.
Now, in this we have an illustration, not only of the divine accuracy of scripture, as a whole but also of the special character and object of the Book of Numbers. Aaron’s rod was in the ark during its wilderness wanderings. Precious fact! Let the reader seek to lay hold of its deep and blessed significance. Let him ponder the difference between the rod of Moses and the rod of Aaron. We have seen the former doing its characteristic work in other days and amid other scenes. we have seen the land of Egypt trembling beneath the heavy strokes of that rod. Plague after plague fell upon that devoted scene, in answer to that outstretched rod. We have seen the waters of the sea divided in answer to that rod. In short, the rod of Moses was a rod of power, a rod of authority. But it could not avail to hush the murmurings of the children of Israel; nor yet to bring the people through the desert. Grace alone could do that; and we have the expression of pure grace - free, sovereign grace - in the budding of Aaron’s rod.
Nothing can be more forcible, nothing more lovely. That dry, dead stick was the apt figure of Israel’s condition, and indeed of the condition of every one of us by nature. There was no sap, no life, no power. One might well say, "What good can ever come of it?" none whatever, had not grace come in and displayed its quickening power. So was it with Israel, in the wilderness; and so is it with us now. How were they to be led along from day to day? How were they to be sustained in all their weakness and need? How were they to he borne with in all their sin and folly? The answer is found in Aaron’s budding rod. If the dry dead stick was the expression of nature’s barren and worthless condition; the buds, blossoms, and fruit set forth that living and life-giving grace and power of God on which was based the priestly ministry that alone could bear the congregation through the wilderness. Grace alone could answer the ten thousand necessities of the militant host. Power could not suffice. authority could not avail. Priesthood alone could supply what was needed; and this priesthood was instituted on the foundation of that efficacious grace which could bring fruit out of a dry rod.
Thus it was as to priesthood of old; and thus it is as to ministry now. All ministry in the Church of God is the fruit of divine grace - the gift of Christ, the Church’s Head. There is no other source of ministry whatsoever. From apostles down to the very lowest gifts, all proceed from Christ. The grand root principle of all ministry is embodied in those words of Paul to the Galatians in which he speaks of himself as "An apostle, not of man, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead." Galatians 1: 1.
Here, be it noted, is the sublime source from whence all ministry emanates. It is not of man, or by man, in any shape or form. Man may take up dry sticks and shape and fashion them according to His own will; and he may ordain and appoint, and call them by certain high-sounding, official titles. But of what use is it? We may justly say, They are only dry, dead sticks.
"Where is there a single cluster of fruit Where is there a single blossom? Nay., where is there one solitary bud? "Even one bud will suffice to prove that there is something divine. But in the absence of this there can be no living ministry in the Church of God: It is the gift of Christ and that alone that makes a man a minister. Without this it is an empty assumption for any one to set himself up, or be set up by others to be a minister.
Does the reader thoroughly own this great principle? Is it as clear as a sunbeam to his soul? has he any difficulty respecting it? If so, we entreat him to seek to divest his mind of all preconceived thoughts, from what source soever derived; let will rise above the hazy mists of traditional religion; let him take the New Testament, and study as in the immediate presence of God, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 14; and also Ephesians 4: 7-18. In these passages he will find the whole subject of ministry unfolded; and from them he will learn that all true ministry, whether it be apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, or evangelists, all is of God - all flows down from Christ the exalted Head of the Church. If a man be not possessed of a bona fide gift from Christ he is not a minister. Every member of the body has a work to do. the edification of the body is promoted by the proper action of all the members, whether prominent or obscure, "comely" or "uncomely." In short, all ministry is from God, and not from man; it is by God, and not by man. There is no such thing in scripture as a humanly ordained ministry. All is of God.
We must not confound ministerial gifts with office or local charge. We find the apostles, or their delegates, ordaining elders and appointing deacons; But this was quite a distinct thing from ministerial gifts. ’Those elders and deacons might possess and exercise some specific gift in the body; the apostle did not ordain them to exercise such gift, but only to fulfil the local charge. The spiritual gift was from the Head of the Church, and was independent of the local charge altogether.
It is most necessary to be clear as to the distinction between gift and local charge. There is the utmost confusion of the two things throughout the entire professing church,, and the consequence is that ministry is not understood. The members of the body of Christ do not understand their place or their functions. Human election, or human authority in some shape or another, is deemed essential to the exercise of ministry in the Church. But there is really no such thing in scripture. If there be, nothing is easier than to produce it. We ask the reader to find a single line, from cover to cover of the New Testament in which a human call, human appointment, or human authority, has anything whatsoever to do with the exercise of ministry in its very fullest range. We boldly assert there is no such thing.* Ah, no; blessed be God, ministry in His Church is "not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead." "God hath set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him." (1 Cor. 12: 18) "But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. wherefore He saith, When he ascended up on High, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.....and he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith. and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Ephesians 4: 7-13.
{*Even in the matter of appointing deacons, in Acts 6, we see it was an apostolic act. "Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business." ’The brethren were allowed to select the men, inasmuch as it was their money that was in question. But the appointment was divine. And this, be it remembered, had reference merely to the business of deacons who were to manage the Church’s temporal affairs. But as regards the work of evangelists, pastors, and teachers, it is wholly independent of human choice and human authority, and rests simply upon the gift of Christ, Ephesians 4: 11.}
Here all the grades of ministerial gift are placed on one and the same ground, from apostles down to evangelists and teachers. They are All given by the Head of the Church and, when bestowed, they render the possessors responsible, at once, to the head in heaven, and to the members on earth. The idea of any possessor of a positive gift from God waiting for human authority, is as great an insult to the divine majesty as if Aaron had gone with his blooming rod in his hand, to be ordained to the priesthood by some of his fellows. Aaron knew better. He was called of God, and that was quite enough for him. and so now, all who possess a divine gift are Called of God to the ministry, and they need nothing more save to wait on their ministry, and cultivate their gift.
Need we add that it is vain for men to set up to be ministers unless they really do possess the gift? A man may fancy he has a gift, and it may be only a vain conceit of his own mind. It is quite as bad, if not worse, for one man to go to work on the strength of his own foolish imagination, as for another to go on the strength of the unwarrantable authority of his fellows. What we contend for is this - ministry is of God as to its source, power, and responsibility. We do not think that this statement will be called in question by any who are disposed to be taught exclusively by scripture. Every minister, whatever be his gift, should be able, in his measure, to say, "God has put me into the ministry." But for a man to use this language without possessing any gift, is, to say the least of it, worse than worthless. The people of God can easily tell where there is real spiritual gift. Power is sure to be felt. But if men pretend to gift or power without the reality, their folly shall speedily be manifest to all. All pretenders are sure to find their true level, sooner or later.
Thus much as to ministry and priesthood. The source of each is divine. The true foundation of each lies in the budding rod. Let this be ever borne in mind. Aaron could say," God put me into the priesthood;" and if challenged for his proof, he could point to the fruit-bearing rod. Paul could say, "God put me into the ministry;’’ and when challenged for his proof, could point to the thousands of living seals to his work. Thus it must ever be in principle, whatever be the measure. Ministry must not be merely in word or in tongue; but in deed and in truth. God will not know the speech, But the power.
But, ere we turn from this subject, we deem it most necessary to impress upon the reader the importance of distinguishing between ministry and priesthood. The sin of Korah consisted in this, that, not content with being a minister, he aimed at being a priest; and the sin of Christendom is of the same character. Instead of allowing ministry to rest upon its own proper New Testament basis, to exhibit its proper characteristics, And discharge its proper functions, it is exalted into a priesthood, a sacerdotal caste, the members of which are distinguished from their brethren by their style of dress and certain titles. There is no foundation whatsoever for these things in the New Testament. According to the plain teaching of that blessed book, all believers are priests. Thus, in Peter we read, "But ye [not merely the apostles, but all believers] are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood." (1 Peter 2: 9) so also in Revelation "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father." (1 Peter 1: 5, 6) God, in pursuance of the truth set forth in the foregoing passages, we find the Apostle Paul, by the Holy Ghost, exhorting the Hebrew believers to draw nigh, and enter with boldness into the very holiest of all. (Heb. 10: 19-22) And further on he says, "By him therefore [i.e., Jesus let us offer The sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But to do good, and to communicate, forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Hebrews 13: 15, 16.
How marvellous it must have appeared to Jewish saints - to those trained amid the institutions of the Mosaic economy, to be exhorted to enter into a place to which the very highest functionary in Israel could only approach once a year, and that but for a moment! And there to be told that they were to offer sacrifice, that they were to discharge the peculiar functions of the priesthood. All this was wonderful. But thus it is, if we are to be taught by scripture, and not by the commandments, the doctrines, and the traditions of men. All Christians are priests. They are not all apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, or evangelists; but they are all priests. The very feeblest member of the Church was as much a priest as Peter, Paul, James, or John. We speak not of capacity or spiritual power, but of the position which all occupy in virtue of the blood of Christ. There is no such thing in the New Testament as a certain class of men, a certain privileged caste, brought into a higher or nearer position than their brethren. All this is flatly opposed to Christianity - a bold traversing of all the precepts of the word of God, and the special teachings of our blessed Lord and Master.
Let no one suppose that these things are unimportant. Far from it. They affect the very foundations of Christianity. We have only to open our eyes and look around us in order to see the practical results of this confounding of ministry and priesthood. And we may rest assured that the moment is rapidly approaching when these results will all assume a far more awful character, and bring down the very heaviest judgements from the living God. We have not yet seen the full antitype of "the gainsaying of Core;" but it will soon be manifested: and we solemnly warn the Christian reader to take heed how he lends his sanction to the serious error of mixing up two things so entirely distinct as ministry and priesthood. We would exhort him to take this whole subject up in the light of scripture. we want him to submit to the authority of God’s word, and to abandon everything that is not founded thereon. It matters not what it is; it may be a time-honoured institution; an expedient arrangement; a decent ceremony supported by tradition, and countenanced by thousands of the very best of men. It matters not. If the thing has no foundation in holy scripture, it is an error, and an evil, and a snare of the devil, to entice our souls, and lead us away from the simplicity that is in Christ. For example, if we are taught that there is, in the Church of God, a sacerdotal caste, a class of men, more holy, more elevated, nearer to God, than their brethren - than ordinary Christians; what is this but Judaism revived and tacked on to Christian forms? And what must be the effect of this, but to rob the children of God of their proper privileges as such, and to put them at a distance from Him, and place them under bondage?
We shall not pursue this subject any further just now. Enough, we trust, has been suggested to lead the reflecting reader to follow it up for himself. We only add, and that with special emphasis, let him follow it up only in that light of scripture. Let him resolve, by the grace of God, to lay aside everything which rests not upon the solid and sacred basis of the written word. Thus, and thus alone, can he be preserved from every form of error, and led to a sound conclusion on this most important and interesting question.
The closing lines of chapter 17 furnish a remarkable illustration of how quickly the human mind passes from one extreme to another. "The children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish. Whosoever cometh anything near unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?" In the preceding chapter, we see bold presumption in the very presence of the majesty of Jehovah, where there should have been profound humility. Here, in the presence of divine grace and its provisions, we observe legal fear and distrust. Thus it is ever. Mere nature neither understands holiness nor grace. At one moment we hearken to such accents as these, "All the congregation are holy;’’ and the next moment, the word is, "Behold we die, we perish, we all perish." The carnal mind presumes where it ought to retire; it distrusts where it ought to confide.
However, all this becomes the occasion, through the goodness of God, of unfolding to us, in a very full and blessed manner, the holy responsibility as well as the precious privileges of the priesthood. How gracious it is - how like our God, to turn His people’s mistakes into an occasion of furnishing deeper instruction as to His ways! It is His Prerogative, blessed be His name, to bring good out of evil; to make the eater yield meat, and the strong, sweetness. Thus "the gainsaying of Core" gives occasion for the copious volume of instruction furnished by Aaron’s rod; and the closing lines of chapter 17 call forth an elaborate statement of the functions of Aaron’s priesthood. To this latter we shall now proceed to direct the reader’s attention.
"And the Lord said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons, and thy father’s house with thee, shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. All thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring them with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness. And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die. And they shall be joined unto thee, and beep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all the service of the tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you. and ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar: that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel. And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel: to you they are given as a gift for the Lord, to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest’s office for every thing of the altar, and within the veil; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest’s office unto you as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death." Num. 18: 1-7.
Here we have a divine answer to the question raised by the children of Israel," Shall we be consumed with dying?" "No," says the God of all grace and mercy. And why not? Because "Aaron and his sons with him shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar; that There be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.’’ Thus the people are taught that in that very priesthood which had been so despised and spoken against, they were to find their security.
But we have to notice particularly that Aaron’s sons, and his father’s house are associated with him in His high and holy privileges and responsibilities. the Levites were given as a gift to Aaron, to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. They were to serve under Aaron, the head of the priestly house. This teaches us a fine lesson, and one much needed by Christians at the present moment. We all want to bear in mind that service, to be intelligent and acceptable, must be rendered in subjection to priestly authority and guidance. "And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee." This stamped its distinct character upon the entire range of Levite service. The whole tribe of workers were associated with and subject to the great high priest. All was under his immediate control and guidance. So must it be now, in reference to all God’s workers. All Christian service must be rendered in fellowship with our great High Priest, and in holy subjection to His authority. It is of no value otherwise. There may be a great deal of work done, there may be a great deal of activity; but if Christ be not the immediate object before the heart, if His guidance and authority be not fully owned, the work must go for nothing.
But, on the other hand, the smallest act of service the meanest work done under the eye of Christ, done with direct reference to Him, has its value in God’s estimation, and shall, most assuredly, receive its due reward. This is truly encouraging, and consolatory to the heart of every earnest worker. The Levites had to work under Aaron. Christians have to work under Christ. We are responsible to Him. It is very well and very beautiful to walk in fellowship with our dear fellow-workmen, and to be subject one to another, in the fear of the Lord. Nothing is further from our thoughts that to foster or countenance a spirit of haughty independence, or that temper of soul which would hinder our genial and hearty co-operation with our brethren in every good work. All the Levites were "joined unto Aaron,’’ in their work, and therefore they were joined one to another. Hence, they had to work together. If a Levite had turned his back upon his brethren, he would have turned his back upon Aaron. We may imagine a Levite, taking offence at something or other in the conduct of his fellows, and saying to Himself, "I cannot get on with my brethren. I must walk alone. I can serve God, and work under Aaron; but I must beep aloof from my brethren inasmuch as I find it impossible to agree with them as to the mode of working." But we can easily see through the fallacy of all this. For a, Levite to adopt such a line of action would have produced nothing but confusion. All were called to work together, how varied soever their work might be.
Still, be it ever borne in mind, their work did vary and, moreover, each was called to work under Aaron. There was individual responsibility with the most harmonious corporate action. We certainly desire, in every possible way, to promote unity in action; but this must never be suffered to trench upon the domain of personal service, or to interfere with the direct reference of the individual workman to his Lord. the Church of God affords a very extensive platform to the Lord’s workers. There is ample space thereon for all sorts of labourers. We must not attempt to reduce all to a dead level, or cramp the varied energies of Christ’s servants by confining them to certain old ruts of our own formation. This will never do. We must, all of us diligently seek to combine the most cordial unanimity with the greatest possible variety in action. Both will be healthfully promoted by each and all remembering that we are called to serve together under Christ.
Here lies the grand secret. Together, under Christ! May we bear this in mind. It will help us to recognise and appreciate another’s line of work though it may differ from our own; and, on the other hand, it will preserve us from an overweening sense of our own department of service, inasmuch as we shall see that we are, one and all, but co-workers in the one wide field; and that the great object before the Master’s heart can only be attained by each worker pursuing his own special line, and pursuing it in happy fellowship with all.
There is a pernicious tendency in some minds to depreciate every line of work save their own. This must be carefully guarded against. If all were to pursue the same line, where were that lovely variety which characterises the Lord’s work and workmen in the world? Nor is it merely a question of the line of work, but actually of the peculiar style of each workman. You may find two evangelists, each marked by an intense desire for the salvation of souls, each preaching, substantially, the same truth; and yet there may be the greatest possible variety in the mode in which each one seeks to gain the self-same object. We should be prepared for this. Indeed we should fully expect it. And the same holds good in reference to every other branch of Christian service. We should strongly suspect the ground occupied by a Christian assembly if there were not ample space allowed for every branch and style of Christian service - for every line of work capable of being taken up in individual responsibility to the great Head of the priestly house. We ought to do nothing which we cannot do under Christ, and in fellowship with Him. And all that can be done in fellowship With Christ can surely be done in fellowship with those who are walking with Him.
Thus much as to the special manner in which the Levites are introduced in our chapter, in connection with Aaron and his sons. To these latter we shall now turn for a few moments, and meditate on the rich provision made for them, in the goodness of God, as well as the solemn functions devolving upon them, in their priestly place.
"And the Lord spake unto Aaron, Behold, I also have given thee the charge of mine heave-offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto thee have I given them, by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, by an ordinance for ever. This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every oblation of theirs, every meat-offering of theirs; and every sin-offering of theirs, and every trespass offering of theirs, which they shall render unto me, shall be most holy for thee and for thy sons. In the most holy place shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it: it shall be holy unto thee." Verses 8-10.
Here we have a type of the people of God looked at in another aspect. They are here presented, not as workers, but as worshippers; not as Levites, but as priests. all believers - all Christians - all the children of God, are priests. There is, according to the teaching of the New Testament, no such thing as a priest upon earth, save in the sense in which all believers are priests. A special priestly caste - a certain class of men set apart as priests, is a thing not only unknown in Christianity, but most positively hostile to the spirit and principles thereof. We have already referred to this subject, and quoted the various passages of scripture bearing upon it. We have a great High Priest who has passed into the heavens, for if He were on earth He should not be a priest. (Compare Heb. 4: 14 and 8: 4 "Our Lord sprang Out Of Judah; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood." Hence, therefore, a sacrificing priest on the earth is a direct denial of the truth of scripture, and a complete setting aside of the glorious fact on which Christianity is based, namely, accomplished redemption. If there is any need of spriest now, to offer sacrifice for sins, then, most assuredly, redemption is not an accomplished fact. But scripture, in hundreds of places, declares that it is, and therefore we need no more offering for sin. "But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption." (Heb. 9: 11, 12) So also, in Heb. 10 we read, "By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." And again, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin."
This settles the great question as to priesthood and sacrifice for sin. Christians cannot be too clear or decided in reference to it. It lies at the very foundation of true Christianity, and demands the deep and serious attention of all who desire to walk in the clear light of a full salvation, and to occupy the true Christian position. There is a strong tendency towards Judaism - a vigorous effort to engraft Christian forms upon the old Jewish stem. This is nothing new; But, just now, the enemy seems peculiarly busy. We can perceive a great leaning towards Romanism, throughout the length and breadth of Christendom; and in nothing is the leaning more strikingly apparent than in the institutions of a special priestly order in the Church of God. We believe it to be a thoroughly antichristian institution. It is the denial of the common priesthood of all believers. If a certain set of men are ordained to occupy a place of peculiar nearness and sanctity, then where are the great mass of Christians to stand?
This is the question. It is precisely here that the great importance and gravity of this whole subject are made apparent. Let not the reader suppose that we are contending for some peculiar theory of any particular class or sect of Christians. Nothing is further from our thoughts. It is because we are convinced that the very foundations of the Christian faith are involved in this question of priesthood that we urge its consideration upon all with whom we have to do. We believe it will invariably be found that in proportion as Christians become clear and settled on the divine ground of accomplished redemption, they get further and further away from the Romanism and Judaism of an order of priests in the Church of God. And, on the other hand, where souls are not clear, not settled, not spiritual; where there is legality, carnality and worldliness, there you will find a hankering after a humanly appointed priesthood. Nor is it difficult to see the reason of this. If a man is not himself in a fit state to draw nigh to God, it will be a relief to him to employ another to draw nigh for him. And, most certainly, no man is in a fit state to draw nigh to a holy God who does not know that his sins are forgiven - has not got a perfectly purged conscience - is in a dark, doubting, legal state of soul. In order to come boldly into the holiest of all, we must know what the blood of Christ has done for us; we must know that we ourselves are made priests to God; and that, in virtue of the atoning death of Christ, we are brought so near to God that it is impossible for any order of men to come between. "He hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and made us priests unto God and his Father." (Rev. 1) "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light." and again, "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2: 5, 9) "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Hebrews 13: 15, 16.
Here we have the two great branches of spiritual sacrifice which, as priests, we are privileged to offer, namely, praise to God, doing good to men. The very youngest, the most inexperienced, the most unlettered Christian is capable of understanding these things. Who is there in all the family of God - in all the priestly household of our divine High Priest, who cannot, with his heart, say, "The Lord be praised" And who cannot, with his hand, do good to His fellow? And this is priestly worship, and priestly service - the common worship and service of all true Christians. True, the measure of spiritual power may vary; But all the children of God are constituted priests, one as much as another.
Now in Numbers 18 we are presented with a very full statement of the provision made for Aaron and his house; and, in that provision, a type of the spiritual portion of the Christian priesthood. And surely we cannot read the record without seeing what a royal portion is ours. "Every oblation of theirs, every meat offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, and every trespass offering of theirs, which they shall render unto me, shall be most holy for thee and for thy sons. In the Most holy place shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it: it shall be holy unto thee."
It demands a very large measure of spiritual capacity to enter into the depth and meaning of this marvellous passage. To eat the sin offering, or the trespass offering is, in figure, to make another’s sin or trespass one’s own. This is very holy work. It is not every one who can, in spirit, identify himself with the sin of his brother. To do so in fact, in the way of atonement, is, we need hardly say, wholly out of question. There was but one who could do this; and He - adored for ever be His name! - has done it perfectly.
But there is such a thing as making my brother’s sin my own, and bearing it in spirit before God, as though it were my own. This is shadowed forth by Aaron’s sons eating the sin offering, in the most holy place. It was only the sons who did so. "Every male shall eat it.* It was the very highest order of priestly service. "in the most holy place shalt thou eat it." We need to be very near to Christ in order to enter into the spiritual meaning and application of all this. It is a wonderfully blessed and holy exercise; and it can only be known in the immediate presence of God. How little we really know of this the heart can testify. Our tendency is, when a brother has sinned, to sit in judgement upon him; to take the place of a severe censor, to look upon his sin as a something with which we have nothing whatever to do. This is to fail sadly in our priestly functions. It is refusing to eat the sin offering in the most holy place. It is a most precious fruit of grace to be able so to identify oneself with an erring brother as to make his sin one’s own - to bear it in spirit before God. This truly is a very high order of priestly service, and demands a large measure of the spirit and mind of Christ. It is only the spiritual who really enter into this; and alas! how few of us are truly spiritual! "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." (Gal. 6: 1, 2) May the Lord give us grace to fulfil this blessed "law!" How unlike it is to everything in us! How it rebukes our harshness and selfishness! Oh! to be more like Christ in this as in All beside!
{*As a general principle, the "son" presents the divine idea; the "daughter," the human apprehension thereof: the male" sets forth the thing as God gives it; the "female" as we realise and exhibit it.}
But there was another order of priestly privilege, not so high as that which we have been considering. "And this is thine: the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons, and to the daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it." Verse 11.
The daughters of Aaron were not to eat of the sin offerings or the trespass offerings. They were provided for according to the utmost limit of their capacity; but there were certain functions which they could not discharge - certain privileges which lay beyond their range - certain responsibilities too weighty for them to sustain. It is far easier to have fellowship with another in the presentation of a thank offering than it is to make his sin our own. This matter demands a measure of priestly energy which finds its type in Aaron’s "sons," not in his "daughters." We must be prepared for those varied measures amongst the members of the priestly household. we are all blessed be God, on the same ground; we all stand in the same title; we are all in the same relationship; but our capabilities vary; and while we should all aim at the very highest standard of priestly service, and the very highest measure of priestly capacity, it is of no possible use to pretend to what we do not possess.
One thing, however, is clearly taught in verse 11 and that is, we must be "clean" in order to enjoy any priestly privilege, or eat of any priestly food - clean, through the precious blood of Christ applied to our conscience - clean, through the application of the word, by the Spirit, to our habits, associations, and ways. When thus clean, whatever be our capacity, we have the richest provision made for our souls, through the precious grace of God. Hearken to the following Words: "All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer unto the Lord, them have I given thee. And whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the Lord, shall be thine; every one who is clean in thy house shall eat of it." Verses 12, 13.*
{*Let the reader consider what the moral effect must be of taking the above passage literally and applying it to a certain priestly class in the Church of God: Take it typically and spiritually, and you have a striking and beautiful figure of the spiritual food provided for all the members of the priestly family, which is, in one word Christ in all His preciousness and fullness.}
Here, assuredly, we have a princely portion provided for those who are made priests unto God. They were to have the very best, and the very first of everything which the Lord’s land produced. There was "The wine which maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart." Psalm 104: 15.
What a figure have we, in all this, of our portion in Christ! The olive, the grape, and the finest of the wheat were pressed and bruised, in order to feed and gladden the priests of God; and the blessed Antitype of all these has, in infinite grace, been bruised and crushed in death, in order that by His flesh and blood, He might minister life, strength, and gladness to His household. He, the precious corn of wheat, fell into the ground and died, that we might live; and the juices of the living vine were pressed to till that cup of salvation of which we drink, now, and shall drink for ever, in the presence of our God.
What, therefore, remains? What do we want, save an enlarged capacity to enjoy the fullness and blessedness of our portion in a crucified, risen, and glorified Saviour? We may well say, "We have all and abound." God has given us all that even He could give - the very best He had. He has given us His own portion. He has called us to sit down with Himself, in holy, happy fellowship, and feast upon the fatted calf. He has caused our ears to hear, and our hearts, in some small degree, to enter into these most marvellous words, "let us eat and be merry."
How wonderful to think that nothing could satisfy the heart and mind of God but to gather His people round Himself and feed them with that in which He Himself delights! "Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ." (1 John 1) What more could even the love of God do for us than this? And for whom has He done it? For those who were dead in trespasses and sins - for aliens, enemies, guilty rebels - for dogs of the Gentiles - for those who were far from Him, having no hope, and without God in the world - for those who, had we our deserts, should lie now burning in the eternal flames of hell. Oh! what wondrous grace! What profound depths of sovereign mercy! And, we must add, what a divinely precious atoning sacrifice, to bring poor self-destroyed, guilty, hell-deserving sinners into such ineffable blessedness! - to pluck us as brands from everlasting burnings, and make us priests to God! - to take away all our "filthy garments" from us, and cleanse, clothe, and crown us, in His own presence, and to His own praise! May we praise Him! May our hearts and lives praise Him! May we know how to enjoy our priestly place and portion, and to wear our mitre well! We can do nothing better than praise God - nothing higher than to present to Him, by Jesus Christ, the fruit of’ our lips giving thanks to His name. This shall be our everlasting employment in that bright and blessed world to which we are hastening, and where we shall soon be, to dwell for ever with Him who has loved us and given Himself for us - our own blessed Saviour God - to go no more out for evermore.
In verses 14-19 of our chapter we have instruction as to "the firstborn of man and beast." We may remark that man is placed on a level with the unclean beast. Both had to be redeemed. The unclean beast was unfit for God; and so was man, unless redeemed by blood. The clean animal was not to be redeemed. It was fit for God’s use, and was given to be the food of the entire priestly household - sons and daughters alike. In this we have a type of Christ in whom God can find His perfect delight the full joy of His heart - the only object, throughout the wide universe, in which He could find perfect rest and satisfaction. And - wondrous thought - He has given Him to us, His priestly household, to be our food, our light, our joy, our all in all for ever.*
{*For further remarks on the subject presented to Numbers 18: 14-19, the reader is referred to "Notes on Exodus," chapter 13 we are anxious to avoid, as much as possible any repetition of what has been gone into in previous volume.}
’’Jesus, of thee we ne’er would tire:
The new and living food
Can satisfy our heart’s desire,
And life is in thy blood.’
The reader will notice, in this chapter, as elsewhere, that every fresh subject is introduced by the words, "And the Lord spake unto Moses," or "unto Aaron." Thus, from verses 20-32, we are taught that the priests and Levites - God’s worshippers and workers, were to have no inheritance among the children of Israel, but were to be absolutely shut up to God Himself, for the supply of all their need. Most blessed position. Nothing can be more lovely than the picture here presented. The children of Israel were to bring their offerings, and lay them down at the feet of Jehovah, and He, in His infinite grace, commanded His workers to pick up these precious offerings - the fruit of His people’s devotedness - and feed upon them, in His own blessed presence, with thankful hearts. Thus the circle of blessing went round. God ministered to all the wants of His people; His people were privileged to have the rich fruits of His bounty with the priests and Levites; and these latter were permitted to taste the rare and exquisite pleasure of giving back to God of that which had flown from Him to them.
All this is divine. It is a striking figure of that which we should look for in the Church of God now. As we have already remarked, God’s people are presented, in this book, under three distinct phases, namely, as warriors, workers, and worshippers; and in all three they are viewed as in the attitude of the most absolute dependence upon the living God. In our warfare, in our work, and in our worship, we are shut up to God. Precious fact. "All our springs are in Him." What more do we want? Shall we turn to man or to this world for relief or resource? God forbid! Nay, rather let it be our one grand object to prove, in our entire history, in every phase of our character, and in every department of our work, that God is enough for our hearts.
It is truly deplorable. to find God’s people, and Christ’s servants, looking to the world for support, and trembling at the thought of that support being withheld. Only let us try to imagine the Church of God, in the days of Paul, relying upon the Roman government for the support of its bishops, teachers, and evangelists. Ah! no, dear reader; the Church looked to its divine Head in the heavens, and to the divine Spirit upon earth, for all its need. Why should it be otherwise now? The world is the world still; and the Church is not of the world, and should not look for the world’s gold and silver. God will take care of His people and of His servants, if they will only trust Him. We may depend upon it, God’s gift is far better for the Church than the government gift - no comparison in the estimation of a spiritual mind.
May all the saints of God, and all the servants of Christ, in every place, apply their hearts, earnestly, to the consideration of these things! And may we have grace to confess, practically, in the face of a godless, Christless, infidel world, that the living God is amply sufficient for our every need, not only while passing through the narrow archway of time, but also for the boundless ocean of eternity. God grant it for Christ’s sake!
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–7 STATUS AND REVENUES OF PRIESTS AND LEVITES (verses Num_2:1…
STATUS AND REVENUES OF PRIESTS AND LEVITES (verses Num_2:1 Num_4:1 Num_19:1) but even where the communication refers to things wholly and peculiarly within the province of Aaron, it is usually made to Moses, and only through him to his brother. (see e.g., Num_8:1-3) This change in the form of the message may point to a later date, i.e., to a time subsequent to the gainsaying of Korah, when the separate position of Aaron as the head of a priestly caste was more fully recognized than before, and he himself somewhat less under the shadow of his greater brother. Thou and thy sons and thy father"s house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary. Aaron"s father"s house, according to the analogy of Num_17:2, Num_17:3, Num_17:6, was the sub-tribe of the Kohathites, and these had charge (to the exclusion of the other Levites) of the sanctuary, or rather sacred things. (vDqMih, as in Num_10:21. Septuagint, twn agiwn) See on Num_4:15. This mention of the Kohathites in connection with the sanctuary is an incidental proof that these instructions were given in view of the wanderings in the wilderness, for after the settlement in Canaan no Levites (as such) came into contact with the sacred furniture. It is not easy to define exactly the meaning of "shall bear the iniquity (wOAta WacTi) of the sanctuary." The general sense of the phrase is, "to be responsible for the iniquity," i.e., for anything which caused displeasure in the eyes of God, "in connection with the sacred things and the service of them;" hence it meant either to be responsible for such iniquity, as being held accountable for it, and having to endure the penalty, or as being permitted and enabled to take such accountability on oneself, and so discharge it from others. This double sense is exactly reflected in the Greek word airein , as applied to our Lord. (Joh_1:29) The priests, therefore (and the Kohathites, so far as they had anything to do with the sanctuary), were responsible for all the unholiness attaching or accruing to it, not only by reason of all offences committed by themselves, but by reason of that imperfection which clung to them at the best, and made them unworthy to handle the things of God. In a further and deeper sense they might be said to be vicariously responsible for all the iniquity of all Israel, so far as the taint of it affected the very sanctuary. (see on Exo_28:38 Lev_16:16) The iniquity of your priesthood. The responsibility not only for all sinful acts of omission and commission in Divine service (such as those of Nadab and Abihu, and of Korah), but for all the inevitable failure of personal holiness on the part of those who ministered unto the Lord. This responsibility was emphatically recognized and provided for in the rites of the great day of atonement.
Vers. 1-32. Responsibilities and privileges of God"s servants.
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We have in this chapter, spiritually, the status of those who are iereiv tw Yew and doulai Ihsou Cristou , as being the inheritance of the Lord, and (in this world) "having nothing, and yet possessing all things." Much that has been considered under the head of chapters 3, 4, and 8 is applicable here. Consider, therefore
I THAT A HEAVY RESPONSIBILITY WEIGHED UPON PRIEST AND LEVITE IN RESPECT OF THE SANCTUARY, OF WHICH THEY HAD THE CHARGE AND THE HANDLING. Whatever pollution came upon it was chargeable upon them in the double sense,
(1) that if due to them, they should suffer for it;
(2) that whether due to them or not, they should be bound to purge it by atonement.
Even so all the faithful in Christ Jesus are deeply responsible for all the shame, reproach, and disparagement which comes upon that temple which is themselves, (Eph_2:22 1Ti_3:15 Heb_3:6) and that in the following senses:
1. So far as such evils may be due to their own sin or carelessness. (Mat_18:6, 7 Rom_14:15, 16 1Co_10:32 2Co_6:3 1Th_5:22)
2. So far as the evil can be undone or counteracted by their own piety and zeal. (Mat_5:16 Php_2:15, 16 1Pe_2:12)
3. If this cannot be, then at least to this extent, that they bear it on their heart in sorrow and in prayer. (Eze_9:4 Dan_9:20 1Co_12:25, 26 2Co_11:29) Nothing is worse than the complacency with which Christians regard the scandals of religion, although such are often due in part to themselves, or might in part be cured by their own efforts, or should at least be a cause of inward grief and humiliation to them as members of Christ.
II THAT A SIMILAR RESPONSIBILITY ATTACHED TO THE PRIESTHOOD IN RESPECT TO ALL FAULTS AND IMPERFECTIONS ATTENDING ITS EXERCISE. Even so it is no light or trivial thing to have received an unction from the Holy One, making us, in any sense of the words, priests unto God. There are no vain titles in the kingdom of heaven to gratify man"s love of distinction; whatever we have is a dispensation committed unto us; (1Co_9:17) any ministry in discharged, made a scandal or offence, is ruin to the soul. (1Co 4:2Co 1Co_4:17 1Ti_4:16 Rev_3:2, Rev_3:15, Rev_3:16)
III THAT THEY WERE UNDER SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY TO WATCH THEIR WATCH AND OBSERVE THE DUTIES OF THEIR OFFICE ABOUT THE SANCTUARY AND THE ALTAR, lest wrath should come upon the people. Even so the custodians of Divine truth are under special obligation to guard most carefully and reverently the two doctrines of Jesus in heaven ("that within the vail," Heb_6:19, Heb_6:20) and of Jesus upon the cross, (Heb_9:14) lest, either being tampered with, damage should accrue to the souls of men.
IV THAT THE OFFICE OF THE PRIESTS WAS "A SERVICE OF GIFT." Even so every office in the Church of God is a service, for there is no such thing as a sinecure in the kingdom of heaven; and it is a service of gift, because it is not a matter of earthly honor, or of pay, or of human choice, or even of personal aptness, but of free grace and gift on the part of God a trust conferred, a bounty bestowed.
V THAT THE PRIESTS "WERE PARTAKERS WITH THE ALTAR." Even so hath the Lord ordained, &c. ; (1Co_9:13, 1Co_9:14)
Consider again, with respect to the Levites
I THAT THEY WERE GIVEN TO AARON TO "WATCH HIS WATCH" AND "THE WATCH OF ALL THE TABERNACLE." Even so are all the kindred of Christ given unto him to be his soldiers and servants to keep his watches, and to be the guardians of his spiritual house until he come again. (Mar_13:35-37 1Co_16:13 Eph_5:15 Rev_16:15)
II THAT WHILE EVER WATCHFUL AND ON THE ALERT, THEY MUST NOT INTRUDE UPON THE SACRED THINGS OF THE SANCTUARY? OR THE ALTAR, ON PAIN OF DEATH.
Even so it is fatal presumption and loss of spiritual life when men leave their practical duties to "intrude" by vain speculation into "those things which they have not seen" in the heavenly state; or when they pry curiously into the unrevealed mysteries of the cross, "which things the angels desire to look into," yet forbear, because it is not given them to understand. (Col_2:18 1Pe_1:12)
Consider again, with respect to Aaron and the people at large
I THAT EVERY OBLATION OR OFFERING OF THEIRS WAS GIVEN TO AARON. Even so everything which the piety or gratitude of man freely offers to God has been made over to Christ, as the High Priest of our profession, by an indefeasible title. (Mat_11:27 Mat_28:18 1Co_3:23)
II THAT THE FIRST AND BEST (THE FAT) OF EVERYTHING was TO BE GIVEN TO GOD AND TO AARON. Even so ought every faithful person to dedicate the first and best of all he has (or is) to the Lord and his Christ. It is a fearful thing to put him off with the odds and ends of our time, the gleanings of our mind and thought, the stray coins of our wealth.
III THAT EVERYTHING UNDER A BAN A VOW, OR CURSE WAS GIVEN TO AARON. Even so does every soul devoted to destruction, every soul under the curse, belong to Christ, because he was made a curse for us, and devoted himself to death and wrath for our redemption; wherefore all souls are his, being given unto him of the Father for his portion.
IV THAT ALL THE PEOPLE WERE TO PAY TITHES TO THE LEVITES, AND THE LEVITES THEMSELVES TO AARON, and thus the principle was doubly maintained that a tenth part of all was due to God for the support of religion. Aaron did not pay tithes, because he was the figure of Christ himself. Even so all good Christian people are bound, not of necessity to give an exact and literal tenth, but certainly no less than that, unless they think that their obligation to God is less than that of the Jews. This may be enforced by the following considerations:
1. We are as much beholden for all we have to the mere bounty of Providence as the Jews.
2. We are in at least as much danger of covetousness as they.
3. We are much more in the practice of luxury and superfluity than they.
4. We are more distinctly called to a voluntary choice of (comparative)poverty than they. (Mat_13:22 Mat_19:23 1Ti_6:6-10)
5. There is more need of abundant offerings now than then, because we have all the world to evangelize, instead of a single temple with its services to maintain.
6. Our giving should be more ample, just because it is left to the holy impulse of faith and love. God has refrained from demanding a tenth in order that we might freely give more. (Mal_3:10 Mat_26:13 Act_2:45 Act_20:35 Phm_1:19, &c.);
V THAT THE LEVITES, HAVING "HEAVED FROM THE BEST" OF ALL THEY RECEIVED, WERE THEN TO ENJOY THE REMAINDER WITH A CLEAR CONSCIENCE. Even so the servants of Christ, when they have dedicated (and only when) the best of all they have time, money, talents, opportunities, influence to the direct service of Christ, may enjoy the good things which fall to them with singleness and gladness of heart. (Luk_11:41 Act_2:46 1Ti_6:18; and cf. 1Ki_17:13 sq. )
Consider again, with respect to priests and Levites
THAT THEY HAD NO INHERITANCE AMONGST THE TRIBES, BUT THE LORD WAS THEIR PORTION AND THEIR INHERITANCE. Even so hath the Lord given unto us no inheritance in this world, because he himself is ours, as we are his. We do indeed have (most of us) many things richly to enjoy, but these are Dot our own, as the world counts its good things its own, but are only lent for an uncertain season; (Luk_16:11, 12 what we have here is "another man"s," as distinguished from "our own and that we have anything at all is only of indulgence, not of right, nor of promise; (Mat_19:21 Luk_12:33Jo Luk 16:33 Act_14:22 Jam_2:5) and, further, whatever we have we hold only on condition of giving it up at once, without complaint or astonishment, if called thereunto. (Luk_14:26 Heb_10:34 Jam_1:10 Rev_3:17 Rev_12:11)
Nevertheless, we are not poor, though having nothing; but rich beyond compare, having the Pearl of great price, and the Treasure (albeit "hid" for the present, Col_2:3), and the bright and morning Star, (2Pe_1:19) and in him all things indeed. (1Co_3:21, 22 2Co_4:18 Rev_3:20; cf. Gen_15:1 b; Psa_16:5 Psa_73:26, &c.);
Consider again, with respect to sacrifice
THAT CERTAIN THINGS MOST HOLY MIGHT BE CONSUMED ONLY WITHIN THE SACRED PRECINCTS BY THE PRIESTS THEMSELVES; OTHERS HOLY, BUT NOT SO HOLY, AT HOME BY ALL MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY. Even so there are things pertaining to the one sacrifice for sin with which none may intermeddle but the priest himself of the sacrifice; others which may be shared in common amongst all members of the family of Christ. Or, in another sense, there are aspects of the atonement which can only be made our own in a religious solitude and retirement, and which are profaned by being brought abroad; others, again, which befit the common and social life of Christian people, always providing that no "uncleanness," i.e., no unrepented sin, hinder them from having part or lot therein.
HOMILIES BY E.S. PROUT Vers. 1-7. The responsibility of authority.
Recent assaults on the priesthood give occasion for a reaffirmation of its prerogatives. Lest this should tend unduly to elate the family of Aaron, the same Divine oracle which confirms to them their distinguished privileges insists on their grave responsibilities.
I THE DISTINGUISHED PRIVILEGES OF THE PRIESTS.
1. The priest"s office is described as "a service of gift," conferred by God himself. (Heb_5:4)
2. It was confined to the family of Aaron (verse 2).
3. It had special duties into which not even the priests" kindred, the Levites, might intrude. (verse 3 Num_4:4-15)
4. The priests had authority over the Levites as their ministers (verse 2), and over the people in a variety of ways: teachers; (Lev_10:11) mediators of blessing; (Num_6:22-26 Deu_21:5) judges; (Deu_17:8-13) sanitary officers. (Le 13, 14)
5. Provision was made for their daily wants, that they might "attend upon the Lord" without distraction (verses 8-15).
6. They were thus, as mediators, the means of averting wrath from the nation (verse 5).
II THEIR GRAVE RESPONSIBILITIES. Lest Aaron"s "pride" should "bud", (Eze_7:10) even as his rod had, and the priests should be exalted above measure through the abundance of their privileges, they are reminded of some of their responsibilities.
1. The priests and their father"s house (the Levites or Kohathites) had to "bear the iniquity of the sanctuary". (cf. Exo_28:38) Some errors might be atoned for, but they were responsible for any profanation of the tabernacle.
2. The priests alone had to "bear the iniquity of their priesthood." An annual atonement provided, (Lev_16:6) but not for such willful transgressions as Nadab"s, or for gross neglect. (e.g., Lev_22:9)
3. They had a responsibility in regard to the Levites, not to allow them to intrude into the priest"s office, that neither they nor ye also die" (verse 3).
4. The neglect of these duties might be fatal to others as well as to themselves (verses 3, 5).
These two truths admit of various applications.
1. To Christian rulers, to statesmen called to the duty of governing a country on Christian principles, but incurring tremendous responsibility thereby. Illustrate from the history of Jeroboam. (cf. Jer_45:5 Luk_12:48)
2. To Christian teachers. (1Ti_3:1, yet Jam_3:1) The burden of responsibility quite to account for the "Nolo Episcopari. Yet where God calls to the honour he will give strength and grace for the burden. P.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Ver. 1. The iniquity of the sanctuary and priesthood.
It is full of significance that this provision for the iniquity of the sanctuary and priesthood stands first among the regulations of this chapter. Though God had separated Aaron, and in recent transactions exalted and glorified him, he had not thereby made it an easy or certain thing to serve in this office of priest as in all respects one was required to serve. God had called Israel to be his own people, and honoured them, but they were very perverse in all their ways. It is therefore far from wonderful that Aaron and the Levites, being of the same flesh and blood as rebellious Israel, should have fallen short in the holy service to which they were appointed. That rebellious spirit Korah, who was a Kohathite, shows how much iniquity could attach to the sanctuary; and the iniquity of the priesthood is amply shown in Aaron"s conduct when he made the golden calf, and joined Miriam in her envious outbreak against Moses. But even apart from such capital instances of transgression, we may be sure there was continual iniquity both in sanctuary and priesthood things done too often in a formal, listless way, priest and Levite alike conscious that the heart was not always in the work. It was necessary to provide also for imperfections in the offerings. The animals without blemish were only relatively so, not blemished so far as the contributors knew, the very pick, doubtless, of the flocks and herds. There was sincerity of purpose, but there could not be completeness of knowledge. Hence we are led to consider
I THE INEVITABLE SHORTCOMINGS IN OUR HOLIEST SERVICES. Considering how much we fall short even in our relations to men, how deficient in equity, benevolence, and gratitude, we may well feel that the iniquity of our religion must be a very large and serious matter indeed. In relation to God, bow ignorant is the understanding, how dull the conscience, how languid are the affections! What formality and preoccupation in the worship! how apt we are to turn it as far as we can into mere selfish pleasure, from music or eloquence! And when in the mercy of God we become more sensitive to his claims, more spiritually-minded, better able to estimate rightly this present evil world, then also we shall see our shortcomings in a clearer light. Faults that are not noticeable in the dim light of this world"s ethics become not only manifest, but hideous and humiliating, when the light that lighteth every man coming into the world shines upon them. The holier we become, the humbler we become; the nearer we draw to God, the more conscious we are of the difference between him and us. We neither repent nor believe as we ought. Praise, prayer, meditation, good works, gospel efforts, all are seen to be not only imperfect, but lamentably so.
II THE PECULIAR DANGERS WHICH BESET THOSE ENGAGED IN SPECIAL SERVICE. The Levites, however reverently they might at first bear the ark and the holy vessels, would gradually and insensibly contract a sort of indifference. The burdens would become like other burdens, thoughtlessly and mechanically borne. It is no easy matter for such as have to exhibit God"s truth to an indifferent world to keep above indifference themselves. All the more reason, therefore, that they should be on their guard. There must needs be iniquity both in priesthood and sanctuary, but woe either to Aaron or his sons, or any Kohathite who presumed on this as an excuse for relaxing from the strictest attention. Though we cannot attain entire perfection, we are bound to labour on, getting more and more out of mediocrity and formality. Remember the humility, caution, and self-distrust with which Paul invariably speaks of his own attainments, ever magnifying the grace of God, ever confessing his need of Divine support, and the instant failure and danger which come from its withdrawal. Formality in any special work which God may require from his people, say, the exposition and enforcement of his truth, is ruinous. Christian work can never come to appear impossible, but it must never cease to appear difficult. It must always require attention, concentration, self-denial, and patience. It was a saying of J.J. Gurney, "The ministry of the gospel is the only thing I know which practice never makes easy.
III THE DIFFUSIVE, PENETRATIVE POWER OF SIN. It is not so much as assumed that iniquity of the sanctuary and priesthood could be guarded against. However much was done in this direction, something would be left undone, needing to be provided for in the way of atonement. Sin is working in us and against us even when we are not conscious of it. It is a vain thing to make out that there is not much after all of sin in us, that it is a stage of weakness, ignorance, and imperfection out of which we shall naturally grow. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Numbers 18 Nu 19
TITHES AND CLEANSINGS
Numbers 18 Nu 19
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1. DUTIES AND SUPPORT OF THE MINISTRY
The statutes of chapter 18, are related to the rebellion of Korah by a clause in Num_18:5, "Ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary and the charge of the altar: that there be wrath no more upon the children of Israel." The enactments are directed anew against any intrusion into the sacred service by those who are not Levites, and into the priesthood by those who are not Aaronites. It is clearly implied that the ministry of the tabernacle is held under a grave responsibility. The "iniquity of the sanctuary" and the "iniquity of the priesthood" have to be borne; and the Aaronites alone are commissioned to bear that iniquity. The Levites, though they serve, are not to touch the holy vessels lest they die. The priesthood, "for everything of the altar, and for that within the veil," is given to the Aaronites as a service of gift.
A certain "iniquity," corresponding to the holiness of the tabernacle and its vessels, attends the service which is to be done by the priests. Their entrance into the sacred tent is an approach to Jehovah, and from His purity there is thrown a defilement on human life. The idea thus represented is capable of fine spiritual realisation. With this embodied in the law and worship, there is no need to look in any other direction for that evangelical poverty of spirit which the better Israelites of an after time knew. Here prophecy found in the law a germ of deep religious feeling which, rising above tabernacle and altar, became the holy fear of Him who inhabits eternity. The creation throughout its whole range, in the very act of receiving existence, comes into contrast with the creative Will and is on a lower moral plane, to which the Divine purity does not accompany it. The seraphim of Isaiahs vision feel this severance to a certain extent. They are so far apart from God that His holiness is not enjoyed unconsciously, as the element of life. It shines above them and determines their attitude and the terms of their praise. With their wings they cover their faces, and they cry to each other, "Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory." Even they "bear the iniquity" of the great temple of the world in which they minister. On fallen man that iniquity lies with almost crushing weight. "Woe is me!" says the prophet, "for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts." Thus the soul is brought into that profound consciousness of defect and pollution which is the preparation for reverent service of the Highest. The attribute of holiness remains with God always, and His mercy in forgiving sin in no way detracts from it. The eternity of God sets Him so far above transitory men that He can extend compassion to them. "Art Thou not from everlasting, O Jehovah my God, mine Holy One? We shall not die." But His touch is, to the sinful earth, almost destruction. When the Lord the God of hosts toucheth the land it melteth, and all that dwell therein mourn. {Amo_9:12} When a people falls from righteousness the Divine holiness burns against it like a consuming fire. "We are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment: and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind take us away Thou hast hid Thy face from us, and hast consumed us by means of our iniquities" (Isa_64:6-7).
The idea of the identification with the Holy God of the sanctuary dedicated to Him, so that from the porch of it falls the shadow of iniquity, is still further carried out in Num_18:1, where it is declared that Aaron and his sons shall "bear the iniquity" of their priesthood. The meaning is that the priesthood as an abstract thing, an office held from Jehovah and for Him, has a holiness like the sanctuary, and that the entrance into it of a man like Aaron brings to light his human imperfection and taint. And this corresponds to a consciousness which every one who deals with sacred truth and undertakes the conduct of Divine worship in the right spirit is bound to have. Entering on those exalted duties he "bears his iniquity." The sense of daring intrusion may almost keep back a man who knows that he has received a Divine call. To the heavenly muse the poet can but reply:-
"I am not worthy even to speak
Of Thy prevailing mysteries;
For I am but an earthly muse
And darken sanctities with song."
With regard to the Levites whom Aaron is to bring near "that they may be joined unto him," it is singular that their duties and the restrictions put on them are detailed here as if now for the first time this branch of the sacred ministry was being organised. In the actual development of things this may be true. Difficulties had to be overcome, the nature of the statutes and ordinances had to be explained. Now the time of practical initiation may have arrived. On the other hand, the attempt of Korah to press into the priesthood may have made necessary a recapitulation of the law of Levitical service.
For the support of the Aaronites the heave offerings, "even all the hallowed things of the children of Israel" were to be given "by reason of the anointing." The meal offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings, as most holy, were to be for the male Aaronites alone: heave offerings of sacrifice, again, "all the wave offerings," were to be used by the Aaronites and their families, the reservation being made that only those without ceremonial defilement should eat of them. The first-fruits of the oil and vintage and the first ripe of all fruits in the land were other perquisites. Further, the firstborn of man and of beast were to be nominally devoted; but firstborn children were to be redeemed for five shekels, and the firstlings of unclean beasts were also to be redeemed. The children of Aaron were to have no inheritance in the land. In these ways however, and by the payment to the priests of the tenth part of the tithes collected by the Levites, ample provision was made for them.
For the Levites, nine-tenths of all tithes of produce would appear to have been not only sufficient, but far more than their proportion. According to the numbers reported in this book, twenty-two thousand Levites-about twelve thousand of them adult men-were to receive tithes from six hundred thousand. This would make the provision for the Levite as much as for any five men of the tribes. An explanation is suggested that the regular payment of tithes could not be reckoned upon. There would always be Israelites who resented an obligation like this; and as the duty of paying tithes, though enjoined in the law, was a moral one, not enforced by penalty, the Levites were really in many periods of the history of Israel in a state of poverty. It was a complaint of Malachi even after the captivity, when the law was in force, that the tithes were not brought to the temple storehouses. The Deuteronomie laws of tithing, moreover, are different from those given in Numbers. While here we read of a single tithe which is to be for the Levites, which, if paid, would be more than sufficient for them, Deuteronomy speaks of an annual tithe of produce to be eaten by the people at the central sanctuary by way of a festival, to which children, servants, and Levites were to be invited. Each third year a special tithe was to be used in feasting, not necessarily at the sanctuary, and again the Levites were to have their share. It is supposed by some that there were two annual tithings and in the third year three tithings of the produce of the land. But this seems far more than even a specially fertile country could bear. There was no rent to be paid, of course; and if the tithes were used in a festival no great difficulty might be found. But it is clear at all events that more dependence was placed on the free will of the people than on the law; and the Levites and priests must have suffered when religion fell into neglect. Israel was not ideally generous.
2. WATER OF PURIFICATION
The statute of Num_19:1-22 is peculiar, and the rites it enjoins are full of symbolism. It is implied that water alone was unable to remove the defilement caused by touching a dead body; but at the same time the taint was so common and might be incurred so far from the sanctuary that sacrifice could not always be exacted. In order to meet the case an animal was to be offered, and the residue of its burning was to be kept for use whenever the defilement of death had to be taken away.
A red heifer was to be chosen, the colour of the animal pointing to the hue of blood. The heifer was to be free from blemish, a type of vigorous and prolific life. The charge of the sacrifice was to be given to Eleazer the priest, though the high-priest himself might not undertake a duty the performance of which caused uncleanness. The ceremonies must take place not only outside the tabernacle court, but outside the camp, that the intensity of the uncleanness to be transferred to the animal and purged by the sacrifice may be clearly understood. The heifer being slain, the priest takes of its blood and sprinkles it towards the tent of meeting seven times, in lieu of the ordinary sprinkling on the altar. The whole animal is then burnt, and while the flame ascends the virtue of the residuent ashes is symbolically increased by certain other elements. These are cedarwood, which was believed to have special medicinal qualities, and also may have been chosen on account of the long life of the tree; some threads of scarlet wool which would represent the arterial blood, instinct with vital power; and hyssop which was employed in purification.
The priest, having presided at the sacrifice, was to wash his clothes in water and bathe, his flesh and hold himself unclean till the even. The assistant who fed the fire was in like manner unclean. These were both to withdraw; and one who was clean was to gather the ashes of the burning and, having provided some clean vessel within the camp, he was to store up the purifying ashes for future use by the people. Finally, the person who did this last duty, having become tainted like the others, was to wash his clothes and be unclean for the day. The ashes were to be used by mixing them with water to make "water for pollution"; that is, water to take away pollution. Special care was to be exercised that only living water, or water from a flowing stream, should be used for this purpose. It was to be applied to the defiled person, vessel, or tent, by means of hyssop. But, again, the man who used the water of purification in this way was to wash his clothes and be unclean until even.
Here we have an extra-sacerdotal rite, not of worship-for as ordinarily used there was no prayer to God, nor perhaps even the thought of appeal to God. It was religious, for the sense of defilement belonged to religion; but when under the necessity of the occasion any one applied the water of purification, his sense of acting the priestly part was reduced to the lowest point. The efficacy came through the action of the accredited priest when the heifer was sacrificed, it might be a year previously. So, although provision was made for needs occurring far from the sanctuary, no opening was left for any one to claim the power belonging to the sacerdotal.office. And in order to make this still more sure it was enacted (Num_19:21), that though the sprinkled water of purification cleansed the unclean, any one who touched it being himself clean should de facto be defiled. The water was declared so sacred that unless in cases where it was really required no one would be disposed to meddle with it. The sanctity of the tabernacle and the priesthood was symbolically carried forth to the most distant parts of the land. All were to be on their guard lest they should incur the judgment of God by abusing that which had ceremonial holiness and power.
The idea here is in a sense directly opposite to that which we associate with the sacred word, by which Divine will is communicated and souls are begotten anew. To use that word, to make it known abroad is the duty of every one who has heard and believed. He diffuses blessing and is himself blessed. There is no strict law hedging about with precautions the happy privilege of conveying to the sin-defiled the message of forgiveness and life. And yet may we not call to recollection here the words of Paul, "I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage; lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected." In a spiritual sense they should be clean who bear the vessels of the Lord; and every deed done, every word spoken in the sacred Name, if not with purity of purpose and singleness of heart, involves in guilt him who acts and speaks. The privilege has its accompanying danger; and the more widely it is used in the thousand organisations within and without the Church, the more carefully do all who use it need to guard the sanctity of the message and the Name. "In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some unto honour, and some unto dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these"-the profane babblings of those who do not handle the word of God aright-"he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, meet for the Masters use, prepared unto every good work."
3. DEFILEMENT BY THE DEAD
The statute of the water of purification stands closely related to one form of uncleanness, that occasioned by death. When death took place in a tent, every one who came into the tent and every one who was in the tent, every open vessel that had no covering bound upon it, and the tent itself (Num_19:18) were defiled; and the taint could not be removed in less than seven days. Whoever in the open field touched one who had been slain with a sword, or had otherwise died, or touched the bone of a man, or a grave contracted like defilement. For purification the sacred water had to be sprinkled on the defiled person, on the third day and again on the seventh day. Not only the aspersion with sacred water, but, in addition, cleansing of clothes and of the body was necessary, in order to complete the removal of the taint. And further, while any one was unclean from this cause, if he touched another, his touch carried defilement that continued to the close of the day. To neglect the statute of purification was to defile the tabernacle of Jehovah: he who did so was to be cut off from his people.
The law was made stringent, as we have already seen, partly no doubt for the purpose of preventing the spread of disease. And to that extent the preservation of health was presented as a religious duty; for only in that sense can we understand the statement that he who did not purify himself defiled the tabernacle of Jehovah. Yet the stringency cannot be altogether due to this, for a bone or a grave would not often communicate infection. The general principle must be received by way of explanation, that death is peculiarly repugnant to the life of God, and therefore contact with it, in any form, takes away the right of approach to the sanctuary. That this idea goes back to the fall and the death penalty then pronounced might seem a reasonable conclusion. But the same thought does not apply to the defilement connected with birth. If the statute regarding uncleanness by death rested on the connection of death with sin, making "death and mortal corruption an embodiment of sin," the thought was obscured by many other laws regarding uncleanness. The aim we must believe was to make the theocratic oversight of the people penetrate as many as possible of the incidents and contingencies of their existence.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 In this chapter we have the answer of the…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
In this chapter we have the answer of the Lord to the cry of the people recorded at the close of the preceding chapter. And after the confirmation of the priesthood of Aaron and his family, these Divine directions as to the duties and emoluments of the Priests and Levites come in very appropriately. The greater part of these directions were addressed by the Lord directly to Aaron (Num_18:1-24). But the regulations as to the tithes to be paid by the Levites to the Priests were addressed to Moses, as the head of all Israel (Num_18:25-32).
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Num_18:1. The iniquity of the sanctuary. “i.e., the guilt of the offences which an erring people would be continually committing against the majesty of God, when brought into contact, through the ordinances, with the manifestations of His presence. Cf. Exo_28:38; also Num_8:19.”—Speaker’s Comm.
The iniquity of your priesthood, “As the priests themselves were but men, they could no more than others abide it, if God were extreme to mark what was done amiss. An atonement was consequently ordained for them (Leviticus 16); and they were strengthened to bear the iniquity of their own unintentional offences, by being entrusted with the ceremonial means of taking it away. The word ‘bear’ has, in the Old Testament, this double sense of ‘enduring’ and ‘removing;’ but in the person of Christ, who atoned by His own endurance, the two are in effect one.”—Ibid.
And thy father’s house with thee. “The father’s house of Aaron, i.e., the Levitical family of Kohath, was also to join in bearing the iniquity of the sanctuary, because the oversight of the holy vessels of the sanctuary devolved upon it (Num_4:4, sqq.).—Keil and Del.
Num_18:2. Thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi.… may be joined unto thee. “There is a fine paronomasia, or play upon words, in the original. Levi comes from the root lavah, to join to, couple, associate: hence Moses says, the Levites, yillavu, shall be joined or associated with the priests; they shall conjointly perform the whole of the sacred office, but the priests shall be principal, the Levites only their associates or assistants.”—Adam Clarke, LL.D.
Num_18:4. A stranger, i.e, everyone who was neither a priest nor a Levite. Comp. Num_1:53; Num_3:7.
Num_18:5. Ye shall keep, &c. Ye, viz., Aaron and his sons.
Num_18:7. I have given your priest’s office, &c. “This office, which brought them into the closest fellowship with the Lord, was a favour accorded to them by the grace of God. This is expressed in the words, ‘as a service of gift (a service with which I present you) I give you the priesthood.’ ”—Keil and Del.
Num_18:8. By reason of the anointing. Keil and Del. et al. translate, “for a portion.”
Num_18:10. In the most holy place, i.e., “in the court of the tabernacle (see Lev_6:9; Lev_6:19; Lev_7:6), which is called ‘most holy’ here, to lay a stronger emphasis upon the precept.”—Keil and Del.
Every male. Only the males of the priestly families could eat of the things mentioned in Num_18:9.
Num_18:11. To thy sons and to thy daughters. Both the males and females of the priestly families, provided they were legally clean, might eat of the things mentioned in this verse.
Num_18:15. Surely redeem.… redeem. “A stronger expression is intentionally used in reference to the redemption of the first-born of man than in reference to that of unclean beasts. For the rule as to the former admitted of no exception: the owner of the latter, if unwilling to redeem, might destroy the beasts (Exo_13:13; Exo_34:20). Usually, of course, he would redeem them, but in the case of a diseased or maimed animal he might well be excused from making a payment for that which, if redeemed, would be worthless. As to the mode of redemption of unclean beasts, it had been originally enjoined that the first-ling of an ass should be redeemed with a lamb. But the owner of the beast might not be always able to provide a lamb, especially in the wilderness, and the liability was accordingly commuted (Lev_27:27). Into all the details of this the present ordinances do not enter. Their object is not so much to prescribe accurately to the people what should be paid, as to assign to the priests their various revenues.”—Speaker’s Comm.
Num_18:19. A covenant of salt. “That is, an incorruptible everlasting covenant. As salt was added to different kinds of viands, not only to give them a relish, but to preserve them from putrefaction and decay, it became the emblem of incorruptibility and permanence. Hence, a covenant of salt signified an everlasting covenant. Among the Asiatics, eating together was considered a bond of perpetual friendship; and as salt was a common article in all their repasts, it may be in reference to this circumstance that a perpetual covenant is termed a covenant of salt; because the parties ate together of the sacrifice offered on the occasion, and the whole transaction was considered as a league of endless friendship. See Lev_2:13.”—A. Clarke, LL D.
Num_18:20. Comp. Deu_10:9; Deu_18:1-2; Jos_13:33. “No tract of land was peculiarly assigned to them, as were to the other tribes, as fields nor vineyards; they had fields appointed them, and they had houses and cities devoted to the Lord which fell to them, and others they had by gift or legacy, or by purchase, as had Jeremiah, the priest, and Barnabas, the Levite, Jer_32:9; and Act_4:36-37; but they had no share in the distribution of the land of Canaan at the time of the division of it among the tribes; no, not even in the spoil of the cities of the land of Canaan when they were conquered.”—Evang. Synopsis.
Num_18:21. Comp. Lev_27:31-33; Neh_10:37; Neh_12:44.
Num_18:22-23. Comp. Num_1:53 and Num_8:19.
Num_18:26. The Levites are here commanded to give to the priests, as an offering to the Lord, a tithe of the tithes which they received.
Num_18:27. Shall be reckoned, &c. “That is, it should be as acceptable to God as if they had fields and vineyards, threshing-floors and wine-presses, of their own, from whence corn and wine were taken.”—Dr. Gill.
Num_18:29. Of all the best thereof. Heb. as in margin, “Of all the fat”
Num_18:32. Neither shall ye pollute, &c. “Rather, ‘And by not polluting the holy things of the children of Israel, ye shall not die.’ ”—Speaker’s Comm.
A GRAVE PERIL AND A GRACIOUS PRECAUTION
(Num_18:1-7)
Two preliminary points:
First: Here is the answer of the Lord to the cry of the people. The inquiry concerning the approach to the tabernacle of the Lord, with which the preceding chapter closes, receives a clear response in the paragraph now before us. Man may draw near to God, but it must be in the way which He has appointed. Mic_6:6-8; Joh_14:6.
Second: Here is a solemn reminder to Aaron that his great honours involved great responsibilities. The Lord had abundantly vindicated his priesthood, and now He reminds him of the serious responsibilities of his charge. “Thou and thy sons and thy father’s house with thee shall bear,” &c. (Num_18:1). “And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary,” &c. (Num_18:5). Wherefore let them “not be high-minded, but fear.” (See pp. 32, 33.) (a)
Let us now consider—
I. The grave peril referred to.
There was danger that the wrath of God might be again kindled against them by reason of—
1. Sin in relation to consecrated places and things. No one was to come nigh unto these except upon such occasions as were permitted by God, e.g., when bringing their sacrifices to the priests, &c. “A stranger shall not come nigh unto you.” “The stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.” Korah and his company had sinned in this way, and they were consumed by “fire from the Lord.” Aaron and his sons, with the Levites as assistants, must bear the responsibility of the charge of the sacred places and things. As with the Israelites there was danger of sin by unwarranted approach to the tabernacle; so our best services are imperfect; even our worship is marred by wandering thoughts and lukewarm affections; our religious exercises need the merits of the gracious Saviour. (b)
2. Sin in consecrated persons. “The Lord said unto Aaron, … Thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood” (see Explanatory Notes on Num_18:1). The holiest of men in the holiest office is, in the present state, exposed to temptation, and liable to sin, and stands constantly in need of “the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” (c)
Sin, whether in priests or in people, is a perilous thing; it issues in death (Jas_1:15); it kindles the wrath of God. “Sin and punishment,” says Trapp, “come under one name, as being tied together with chains of adamant: where the one dines the other will sup; where the one is in the saddle, the other will be upon the crupper. Nemo crimen gerit in pectore qui non idem Nemesin in tergo. Sin doth as naturally draw and suck judgments to it, as the loadstone doth iron, or turpentine fire.”
II. The gracious precaution against this peril.
By appointing the priests and Levites to the charge of the consecrated places and things; by appointing to them means of atonement for sin (Leviticus 16); and by solemnly warning the people against intruding into sacred places or intermeddling with sacred duties, the Lord endeavours to guard them against the perils to which they were exposed. But there are several particulars which call for notice:—
1. The Divine distribution of duty. To the priests and the Levites respectively certain duties were allotted (comp. chaps. 3, and 4, and see pp. 48, 49, 56, 57).
2. The Divine recognition of differences of rank amongst men. The Levites, though brethren to the priests, were to serve them. They shall “be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee.” Differences of rank are inevitable amongst men. (See pp. 12, 13.) The Church of Christ is no exception in this. (See p. 48.) As the Levites were to serve under Aaron, so Christians work under Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest. (d)
3. In the differences of rank the common brotherhood of all must not be lost sight of. Though servants to the priests, the Levites were their brethren. “Thy brethren” (Num_18:2); “your brethren the Levites” (Num_18:6). In the Christian Church differences of rank do not invalidate the brotherhood of all. The elders of the Church are not to be “lords over God’s heritage.” “One is your master, Christ; and all ye are brethren.” Even “HE is not ashamed to call them brethren.” (e)
4. Men of every rank are called to service. The priests must serve; so also must the Levites; and those who belonged to neither of these orders were called to serve in other departments of the national life. From the highest to the lowest no one was exempted from this obligation. (See pp. 13, 56, 57.)
5. Each must faithfully fulfil his own service, and abstain from intrusion into the province of others. The Levites were not to interfere with priestly duties: “They shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die.” They who were neither priests nor Levites were to abstain from all the sacred functions connected with the tabernacle. “A stranger shall not come nigh unto you.” “The stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.” No one must intermeddle with duties which belonged not to him. An excellent rule for all times and places.
6. The faithful discharge of appointed duty promotes the safety of the entire people. “Ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar; that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.” The welfare of the whole community is affected beneficially or injuriously by the conduct of each member of it. The faithfulness of even the feeblest and most obscure member contributes to the security and prosperity of the entire commonwealth. (f)
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) The greater the trust is of work and power that is committed to us the greater is our danger of contracting guilt, by falsifying and betraying that trust. This is a good reason why we should neither be envious at others’ honours nor ambitious ourselves of high places, because great dignity exposes us to great iniquity. Those that are entrusted with the charge of the sanctuary will have a great deal to answer for. Who would have the care of souls who considers the account that must be given of that care?—Matthew Henry.
(b) The temple itself is full of vacant worship. It resounds with rash vows and babbling voices. It is the house of God; but man has made it a nest of triflers, a fair of vanity, a den of thieves. Some come to it, as reckless and irreverent as if they were stepping into a neighbour’s house. Some come to it, and feel as if they had laid the most High under obligation, because they bring a sheaf of corn or a pair of pigeons; whilst they never listen to God’s Word, nor strive after that obedience which is better than sacrifice. Some come, and rattle over empty forms of devotion, as if they would be heard because of their muses speaking. And some, in a fit of fervour, utter vows which they forget to pay; and, when reminded of their promise by the “angel” of the church, they protest that there must be some mistake: they repudiate the vow, and say it was an error.—James Hamilton, D.D.
(c) As a man who in the morning washeth his hands, and goes abroad about his business and affairs in the world, though he doth not puddle in the mire, or rake among dunghills, yet when he returns home again to dinner, or at night, if he wash, he finds that he hath contracted some uncleanness and that his hands are foul: we cannot converse in an unclean and dirty world with our bodies, but some uncleanness will fasten upon them. So it is with the soul; the souls of the best, of the purest, of the holiest, though they do not rake in the dunghill, and wallow in the mire of sin basely and filthily, yet they do from day to day, yea from moment to moment, contract some filth and uncleanness. And in this sense it is that “there is no man that liveth and sinneth not.” Every man hath a “fountain of uncleanness” in him; and there will be ever some sin, some filthiness bubbling and boiling up, if not flowing forth.—Caryl,
(d) The Levites were to serve under Aaron, the head of the priestly house. This teaches us a fine lesson, and one much needed by Christians at the present moment. We all want to bear in mind that service, to be intelligent and acceptable, must be rendered in subjection to priestly authority and guidance. The whole tribe of workers were associated with and subject to the high priest. All was under his immediate control and guidance. So must it be now in reference to all God’s workers. All Christian service must be rendered in fellowship with our Great High Priest, and in holy subjection to His authority. It is of no value otherwise. There may be a great deal of work done, there may be a great deal of activity; but if Christ be not the immediate object before the heart, if His guidance and authority be not fully owned, the work must go for nothing. But, on the other hand, the smallest act of service, the meanest work done under the eye of Christ, done with direct reference to Him, has its value in God’s estimation, and shall most assuredly receive its due reward. This is truly encouraging, and consolatory to the heart of every earnest worker. The Levites had to work under Aaron. Christians have to work under Christ. We are responsible to Him.—Anon.
(e) You recognise in every nation, in every tribe, your fellow men, your brethren. Go to Egypt, and stand among the Sphinxes, the Pyramids, the old and wondrous temples, and you are a stranger in a strange land, and it seems scarcely less than a ghastly dream. Go farther East, behold the ruined architecture, revive the manners and customs of the Syrian and Babylonian empires, and you seem still among a strange people. If they should rise and speak to you, their tongues would be as strange to you as yours would be to them. But let a maiden speak her love, and instantly you know that voice. The works that their hands wrought are wondrous. The affections that throb in their hearts are familiar. The things that they lived for outwardly—see how widely you are separated from these. How different are their laws, their institutions, and their methods of commerce from ours! How strange to us are their political economy and their ecclesiastical system! Touch that which man fashioned and formed, and man is disjointed, and split apart by rivers, and mountains, and times, and ages; but touch the human heart, and let that speak, and all men rise up and say, “That voice is my voice.” Reach but the feeling of love, and every human being says, “It is my brother; it is my sister.” Strike those cords that bring out the experience of grief, and every man wails with the hoary wailers of antiquity. Man is not a unit by virtue of the fruits of his intellect and the works of his hand, but by virtue of those eternal identities of sentiment and affection which are common to all men in all nations and ages.—H. W. Beecher.
(f) No man has a right to say he can do nothing for the benefit of mankind, who are less benefited by ambitious projects than by the sober fulfilment of each man’s proper duties. By doing the proper duty in the proper place, a man may make the world his debtor. The results of “patient continuance in well-doing” are never to be measured by the weakness of the instrument, but by the omnipotence of Him who blesseth the sincere efforts of obedient faith alike in the prince and in the cottager.—H. Thompson.
THE FIDELITY OF ONE, THE SAFETY OF MANY
(Num_18:5)
This applies—
I. To ministers of the Gospel, who are—
1. To preach the whole truth.
2. To guard the ordinances of religion.
3. To urge the performance of duty, that the people of their charge may be saved from sin and wrath.
II. To civil rulers,
Who are to make and enforce laws to maintain and increase the tone of public morality.
III. To heads of families,
Who, by example and precept, should seek to form good characters and correct evil habits in their children and servants.
An illustration of fidelity.—The fidelity of the keepers of the lighthouse once on Minet’s Ledge, near Boston, may well be imitated. In the terrible April gale of 1851, this beautiful structure was destroyed. Two men were in it at the time; and a vast multitude were gathered upon the shore, waiting, in anxious distress, for the expected catastrophe. Every hour, however, the bell tolled the time, and ever the light pierced the dark raging storm, and bid the sailor beware. No howling blast could silence the one, or rising wave extinguish the other. At last, one giant wave, mightier than the rest, rose up and threw its arms around the tower, and laid it low in the waves. Then alone was the bell silent; then alone did the light cease to shine.—J. M. Reid.—Biblical Museum.
THE DIVINE PROVISION FOR THE PRIESTS AND LEVITES, AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE MAINTENANCE OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
(Num_18:8-32)
The main subject of this portion of the history has already engaged our attention (see pp. 84–86); but there are additional matters brought before us here which demand notice.
The Redemption of the Firstborn (Num_18:15-16) has also been already noticed by us (see pp. 59, 60).
“These regulations concerning the revenues of the priests and Levites were in perfect accordance with the true idea of the Israelitish Kingdom of God. Whereas in heathen states, where there was an hereditary priestly caste, that caste was generally a rich one, and held a firm possession in the soil (in Egypt, for example; see at Gen_47:22), the Levites received no hereditary landed property in the land of Israel, but only towns to dwell in among the other tribes, with pasturage for their cattle (chap. 35), because Jehovah, the God of Israel, would be their inheritance. In this way their earthly existence was based upon the spiritual ground and soil of faith, in accordance with the calling assigned them, to be the guardians and promoters of the commandments, statutes, and rights of Jehovah; and their authority and influence among the people were bound up with their unreserved surrender of themselves to the Lord, and their firm reliance upon the possession of their God. Now, whilst this position was to be a constant incitement to the Levites to surrender themselves entirely to the Lord and His service, it was also to become to the whole nation a constant admonition, inasmuch as it was a prerogative conferred upon them by the Lord, to seek the highest of all good it the possession of the Lord, as its portion and inheritance.”—Keil and Del.
The following observations are suggested—
I. That the maintenance of the Christian ministry devolves upon the Christian Church.
This nation of Israelites was separated unto the Lord, and is thus an illustration of the Church. God ordained that the priests and Levites should be supported by the nation; the Christian ministry should be supported by the Christian Church.
1. This is righteous. The priests and Levites were required to renounce the paths of worldly ambition and profit; they had no share in the inheritance of the children of Israel (Num_18:20; Num_18:24); they were to devote themselves unreservedly to the promotion of the religious interests of the people. Inasmuch as they gave their time, their strength, &c., to serve the people, the people could not neglect to provide for them without dishonesty. The Christian minister has a right to a liberal maintenance from the church which he serves. What the Lord said to the Levites might be said to ministers to day respecting the provision made for them, “It is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation” (Num_18:31). (a)
2. This is advantageous. It promotes the prosperity of the Church. (See pp. 85, 86.)
3. This is scriptural. Mat_10:9-10; Luk_10:7; 1Co_9:7-14; Gal_6:6; 2Th_3:8-9; 1Ti_5:17-18.
II. That Christian ministers of every grade who are devoted to the service of the Church have a right to support from the Church.
God gives directions for the worthy support of the high priest, the priests, and their servants, the Levites, also. The claims of the poor, hard working curate upon the Church for a respectable maintenance are, in the sight of God, as binding as those of the wealthy and lordly bishop. The claims of many of the most faithful and useful ministers, who are working in inconspicuous spheres, are most sadly and sinfully overlooked by the Christian Church. (b)
III. That the Christian ministry should be supported liberally by the Church.
“The revenue which the Lord assigned to the Levites and priests, as His servants, consisting of the tenths and firstfruits, as well as certain portions of the different sacrificial gifts that were offered to Him, appears to have been a very considerable one, especially if we adopt the computation of J. D. Michaelis (Mos. Recht. i. § 52) with reference to the tithes. ‘A. tribe,’ he says, ‘which had only 22,000 males in it (23,000 afterwards), and therefore could hardly have numbered more than 12,000 grown up men, received the tithes of 600,000 Israelites; consequently one single Levite, without the slightest necessity for sowing, and without any of the expenses of agriculture, reaped or received from the produce of the flocks and herds as much as five of the other Israelites.’ But this leaves out of sight the fact that tithes are never paid so exactly as this, and that no doubt there was as little conscientiousness in the matter then as there is at the present day, when those who are entitled to receive a tenth often receive even less than a twentieth. Moreover, the revenue of the tribe which the Lord had chosen as His own peculiar possession, was not intended to be a miserable and beggarly one; but it was hardly equal, at any time, to the revenues which the priestly castes of other nations derived from their endowments.”—Keil and Del. It is deplorable that the Christian Church, with its richer spiritual heritage, should fall so far below the Jewish Church in this respect.
IV. That all the members of the Church should contribute to the maintenance of the ministry.
Every one who brought a sacrifice contributed a portion of the same to the priests, and those who had children or cattle contributed the firstborn, and those who cultivated the soil presented the choicest of their productions and the firstfruits, and to the Levites all the tithes were given. So that, in one way or another, all contributed to the support of the priests and Levites. And surely the principle is just that all who receive the services of the Christian ministry should contribute to its support. (c)
V. That all should contribute proportionally to the maintenance of the ministry.
Every Israelite contributed a tenth of his possessions to the cause of God. The rule for the Christian should be, “Every man according to his ability” “As God hath prospered him.” “Freely ye have received, freely give.” (d)
VI. That out of their maintenance Christian ministers should offer a portion to the Lord. (Num_18:25-29.)
“The Levites had to give up the tenth of all the tithes they received to the priests; and the priests were to offer to Jehovah upon the altar a portion of the firstfruits, heave-offerings, and wave offerings that were assigned to them. Consequently, as the whole nation was to make a practical acknowledgment, in the presentation of the tithe and firstfruits, that it had received its hereditary property as a fief from the Lord its God, so the Levites, by their payment of the tenth to the priests, and the priests, by presenting a portion of their revenues upon the altar, were to make a practical confession that they had received all their revenues from the Lord their God, and owed Him praise and adoration in return (see Bähr, Symbolik, ii. pp. 43 sqq.).—Keil and Del. And the Christian minister, being liberally maintained by the Church, should be an example of liberality, honouring God and doing good to men with his temporal goods.
Application:—
1. Let the Church recognise and do its duty in relation to the ministry; and do it as unto the Lord, and then it will become a privilege.
2. Let ministers be faithful and diligent in the discharge of their duties, &c.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) You listen to a minister suspiciously because he is paid for preaching. Very good. I only insist upon your being consistent throughout; then what will happen? When you are drowning, you will ask the life-boat men whether they are paid for their services, and on being told that they live by their occupation, you will nobly perish in the deep. When your house is in flames, you will demand, notwithstanding the stifling smoke and cracking timbers, whether the fire-escape men are paid for their work, and on learning that they have a pound a week, you will embrace the flames with a martyr’s rapture. Of course you will do so. But let me tell you that men who try to save life never can be paid! A man may pay for his coat, but he can never pay for the services which, by the blessing of God, redeem and sanctify his nature.—Joseph Parker, D.D.
(b) All in the ministry, whatsoever their gifts be, are to be accepted; yea, though their gifts oftentimes be small and slender. True it is, they must all have some gifts to fit them to teach the people, but howsoever they be inferior to many others, yet for their office sake they must be regarded. I do not say, the people should depend upon them that are utterly ignorant and unlearned, but if meanly gifted in comparison of others, the people must not forsake them, neither wander from one Levite to another. Mark, therefore, that ministers endued with a small, and yet a competent measure of gifts, may, notwithstanding, do unto God good service in the Church, and gain glory to His Name. He putteth His rich treasures in vessels, not of silver and gold, but of earth. Among the Apostles, it is to be thought that some had greater gifts than others; some were “the sons of thunder,” and some “laboured more abundantly than others,” no doubt according to the gifts they had received, yet all profitable to the Church. There is “a difference of gifts by the same Spirit,” nevertheless all “given to profit withal” (1Co_12:4-7). And Paul saith, he spake with tongues more than others (1Co_14:18). Experience teacheth this among ourselves, that many of mean gifts and little human learning, yet have been profitable teachers, and powerful instruments of much good in the Church of God, and gaining many to Him.—W. Attersoll.
(c) As the great principle of love to Christ will not allow the more opulent to give scantily, so neither will it permit the poorest to come before Him empty. It was one of the Divine enactments even of the legal dispensation—None shall come before Me empty. But that which was matter of law with the Israelite, the Christian will seize as a golden opportunity for evincing his love to Christ; and will bring, though it be only a grain of incense for an offering, or a leaf for that wreath of praise and honour which the Church delights to lay at the feet of Christ. Whatever Scripture example others may profess to copy, he will select the example of the benevolent widow; and, while others content themselves with only admiring it, he will often reflect on its imitableness. Nor will the language of the Apostle be ever heard by him but as an address to himself,—“Let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” “These hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to those that are with me. I have showed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Agreeably with these sentiments, the man who, at one time, imagined that his poverty quite exempted him from the obligations of charity, and only rendered him an object of it, is no sooner made the partaker of grace, than he feels himself impelled to place some offering on the altar of Christian benevolence; and, with the ready eye and hand of affection, he soon detects, for this end, some small superfluity which can be retrenched, or some leisure time which can be profitably employed. And when his mite like offerings, the fruit of hard self-denial, or of the sweat of his brow, is presented, nothing could inflict on his grateful heart a deeper wound than to see that offering rejected on the ground of its comparative insignificance, or of his supposed inability to give it. It is the offering of a sinner’s gratitude to a Saviour’s love, and heaven rejoices over the oblation.—John Harris, D D.
(d) It is observable that Abraham and Jacob, on particular occasions, voluntarily devoted to God—what afterwards became a Divine law for the Jewish nation—a tenth of their property. Without implying that their example has any obligation on as, we may venture to say that one tenth of our whole income is an approved proportion for charity, for those who, with so doing, are able to support themselves and families. For the more opulent, and especially for those who have no families, a larger proportion would be equally easy. For some, one half would be too little; while, for others, a twentieth, or even a fiftieth, would require the nicest frugality and care. Indeed, of many among the poor it may be said, that if they give anything they give their share, they cast in more than all their brethren.
But in determining the proportion to be made sacred to God, the Christian would surely rather exceed than fall short of the exact amount. With whom is he stipulating? For whom is he preparing the offering? Well may the recollection put every covetous thought to instant flight tinging his cheek with shame at the bare possibility of ingratitude; and impelling him to lay his all at the feet of Christ. Only let him think of the great love wherewith Christ hath loved him, only let him pass by the cross on his way to the altar of oblation, and his richest offering will appear totally unworthy of Divine acceptance. When Christ is the object to be honoured, the affection of the pardoned penitent cannot stop to calculate the value of its alabaster box of precious ointment—that is an act to which a Judas only can stoop—its chief and sole regret is that the unction has not a richer perfume and a higher value.—Ibid.
THE SUPREME CLAIMS OF GOD
(Num_18:12)
“All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine and of the wheat, the first-fruits of them they shall offer unto the Lord.”
God claims that the first and the best of man’s possessions shall be devoted unto Him.
I. Let us illustrate this claim.
1. It applies to ourselves.
(1) He claims the best of our persons. He asks for our supreme love. “My son give Me thine heart.” “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,” &c.
(2) He claims the best of our life. Youth, with its freshness and enthusiasm and hope, is His. “They that seek Me early, shall find Me.” “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.” Manhood, with its maturity and strength and firmness and wisdom, is His. He summons men to His service,—“Son, go work to-day in my vineyard.” He condescends by His Apostle to entreat men to comply with His demands. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies,” &c. He will not be satisfied with the dregs of life, or with the fragments of life; He demands its first, and best, and all.
2. It applies to our possessions.
(1) Our time He claims: not the remnant, after the claims of business and pleasure have all been met. He will be served in all. His demand must be met first, or it is slighted.
(2) Our treasures also He claims. Man of wealth! God lays His hand upon thy property, and calls it His own. Man of genius! God calls thee to lay thine eloquence and logic, thy poetry and philosophy, upon His altar. Consecrate thy gifts to Him. Even the friend or relative who is more dear than life to us, He asserts His claim upon, and we are bound to submit. He demanded the first-born of Israel as peculiarly His; and He may claim that our first-born, or our Benjamin, shall be entirely surrendered to His service here, or He may call them away to serve Him in higher spheres. The choicest of our possessions and of ourselves; all that we have and all that we are, He asserts His right to.
II. Let us enforce this claim.
We may do this on the following grounds:
1. He has given to us whatever of good we possess. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” &c. “What hast thou that thou didst not receive?” “He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” “He giveth us richly all things to enjoy.” He gives to us not absolutely, but as to stewards. &c. (a)
2. He gave His BEST to us. How dear is His Son to Him! “Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth.” “My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Yet He gave Him to us. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” &c. And He gave Him to humiliation and want, to suffering and sorrow, to shame and death. “He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.” Having given His Best so freely to us—and such a Best! He surely has an indisputable right to our best. (b)
3. If we have complied with His great demand, and given ourselves to Him, we shall not hesitate to give Him the best of our possessions. If we have given our hearts fully to Him, we shall not keep back anything which He requires of us. (c)
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Think of the right which He has in all you possess. There is a sense in which no man can be said to possess an exclusive and irresponsible right in property, even in relation to his fellow-creatures. The land which he calls his own, is still guarded and watched over by a public law which would hold him responsible for its destruction. But if man thus claims a common interest in the most independent description of property, how much more does God bold a right in your possessions? He created them at first; and hence He has an original and supreme property in them. The world is His, and the fulness thereof. He continues them in existence every moment; and is thus every moment asserting afresh His original rights and establishing a new title to dominion over them. You have not brought into existence a single mite; all that you have done is to collect together what He had made ready to your hands. And whence did you derive the skill and ability to do this? “Thou must remember the Lord thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth.” Hence He cautions you against the sin of “saying in your heart, my power, and the might of mine own hand, hath gotten me this wealth,” lest you should fall into the consequent sin of forgetting that He is still the supreme Proprietor of all you possess. And hence too He solemnly reminds you that your enjoyments are His gifts, only in the sense that you had nothing wherewith to purchase them, and not in the sense that He has given away His right in them: that they are deposited with you as His steward, not alienated from Him and vested in you as their master; that both they and you are His to do with as seemeth good in His sight.
The moment you lose sight, therefore, of His absolute right to all you possess, you are embezzling your Lord’s property, and realizing the character of the unjust steward. Ton are provoking God to resume His own, and to transfer it to more faithful hands.… Then hasten to His throne and acknowledge His right. Take all that you have into His presence, and dedicate it afresh to His service. Inscribe His blessed name on all your possessions.—John Harris, D.D.
(b) “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” “Herein is love!” The universe is crowded with proofs of His beneficence; but here is a proof which outweighs them all. How much He loved us we can never compute; we have no line with which to fathom, no standard with which to compare it, but He so loved us that He sent His only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins. “Herein is love!” “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.”.…
Nor is this all: He invites you to advance from the altar of sacrifice to the holiest of all within the veil;—in other words, He bath given you Christ that He may give you Himself. It was by wandering from Him that man first became selfish and unhappy. It was by losing Him that man was reduced to the necessity of looking for happiness in the creature. And, because no single kind of created good can satisfy the soul, man sought to accumulate all kinds, to monopolize every thing—he became selfish. But the blessed God, by offering to bring you back again to Himself, is offering to make you independent of all inferior things; to put you in possession of a good which shall enable you to look down with disdain on those things about which others are selfish; to lead you to an infinite good; a good, therefore, about which you need not be selfish, for were all the universe to share and enjoy it with you, it would still be an unexhausted infinite fulness of happiness.
Now let the most miserly individual come suddenly into the possession of great wealth, he would be conscious, at least for a short time, of kind and generous emotions. What then should be your emotions at discovering that, through Christ, you have found a God? And think, what a God He is! Enumerate His perfections; call up in your mind His exalted attributes; recollect some of the displays of His glory, the splendours of His throne, the amplitude of His dominions, the angelic orders of His kingdom, the richness of His gifts, the untouched ocean of happiness yet in reserve for His people—and when your mind is filled, repeat to yourself the wondrous truth, “This God is my God for ever and ever.” And, then, think what it is to have Him for your God: it is to have a real, participating, eternal interest in all that He is; to have Him for your “all in all”; to be “filled with all the fulness of God.” Christian, are you aware of your wealth? have you yet awoke to a conscious possession of your infinite wealth? Do you not feel that you could give away the world itself as a trifle, while you stand and gaze at these infinite riches? All who have truly and fully returned to God have felt thus. They gazed on this glory and the world was eclipsed; they thought of it, and their heart became too large for earth; they reached after it, and the world fell from their hands, from their hearts. Having found the true source of happiness, they would fain have had all mankind to come and share it with them. And when He commanded them to call the world to come to Him and be happy, they gave away everything, even life itself, in the noble employ, and from love to His name.—Ibid.
(c) It is related in Roman history, that when the people of Collatia stipulated about their surrender to the authority and protection of Rome, the question asked was, “Do you deliver up yourselves, the Collatine people, your city, your fields, your water, your bounds, your temples, your utensils, all things that are yours, both human and divine, into the hands of the people of Rome?” And on their replying, “We deliver up all,” they were received. The voluntary surrender which you, Christian, have made to Christ, though not so detailed and specific as this formula, is equally comprehensive. And do you not account these your best moments when you feel constrained to lament that your surrender comprehends no more? Can you recall to mind the way in which He has redeemed you, the misery from which He has snatched you, and the blessedness to which He is conducting you, without feeling that He has bought you a thousand times over? that you are His by the tenderest, weightiest obligations? And when you feel thus, how utterly impossible would it be for you at such a moment to stipulate for an exception in favour of your property!—to harbour a mental reservation in favour of that!
Can you think of the blessedness attending the act itself of dedication to God,—that you are wedding yourself to infinite riches, uniting yourself to infinite beauty, allying yourself to infinite excellence; giving yourself to God, and receiving God in return, so that henceforth all His infinite resources, His providence, His Son, His Spirit, His heaven, He Himself, all become yours, to the utmost degree in which you can enjoy them,—can you think of this without often repeating the act? without feeling that bad you all the excellencies of a myriad of angels, His love would deserve the eternal devotion of the whole? Realize to your own mind the nature of Christian dedication, and the claims of Him who calls for it, and so far from giving penuriously to His cause, you will take every increase of your substance into His presence and devote it to His praise; you will regard every appeal which is made to your Christian benevolence as an appeal to that solemn treaty which made you His, and you will honour it accordingly; you will deeply feel the penury of all riches as an expression of your love to Him; Lebanon would not be sufficient to burn, or the beasts thereof an offering large enough to satisfy the cravings of your love.—Ibid.
THE SUPREME PORTION OF MAN
(Num_18:20)
“The Lord spake unto Aaron;.… I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.”
“The possession of the priests and Levites did not consist in the revenues assigned to them by God, but in the possession of Jehovah, the God of Israel. In the same sense in which the tribe of Levi was the peculiar possession of Jehovah out of the whole of the people of possession, was Jehovah also the peculiar possession of Levi; and just as the other tribes were to live upon what was afforded by the land assigned them as a possession, Levi was to live upon what Jehovah bestowed upon it. And inasmuch as not only the whole land of the twelve tribes, with which Jehovah had enfeoffed them, but the whole earth belonged to Jehovah (Exo_19:5), He was necessarily to be regarded as the greatest possession of all, beyond which nothing greater is conceivable, and in comparison with which every other possession is to be regarded as nothing. Hence it was evidently the greatest privilege and highest honour to have Him for a portion and possession (Bähr, Symbolik, 2 p. 44). “For truly,” as Masius writes (Com. on Josh.) “he who possesses God possesses all things; and the worship (cultus) of Him is infinitely fuller of delight, and far more productive, than the cultivation (cultus) of any soil.”—Keil and Del.
God is revealed in His Word as the portion of all godly souls (see Psa_16:5; Psa_73:26; Psa_119:57; Lam_3:24). This is the pre-eminent portion; no inheritance can be compared with this.
I. This portion is all-sufficient
God is the portion of His people inasmuch as they possess His mind; He has revealed to them His thoughts and will concerning them. They possess His heart; He is profoundly and affectionately interested in their welfare; He loves them with an infinite love. Our position is that having Him they have all-sufficiency,—they have—
1. His wisdom for their direction. “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine eye.”
2. His power for their protection. “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress,” &c. (Psa_91:2-13). “He will not suffer thy foot to be moved,” &c. (Psa_121:3-8).
3. Hit providence for their supply. “No good will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” “Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.” “My God shall supply all your need,” &c.
4. His grace for their spiritual support. “My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” “God is able to make all grace abound toward you,” &c. (2Co_9:8).
5. His Heaven for their home. “In my Father’s house are many mansions,” &c. (Joh_14:2-3). He has begotten them “to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled,” &c. (1Pe_3:5). “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them,” &c. (Rev_21:3-4).
Well did Savonarola enquire, “What must not he possess who possesses the Possessor of all?” (a)
II. This portion is joy-inspiring.
In the realization of the presence and love of God there is the highest, holiest joy. “In Thy presence there is fulness of joy,” &c. The perfection of the blessedness of heaven is in the full manifestation of His gracious presence. Possessing Him,—
1. The joy of satisfied affections is ours. “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” The heart loves God, and rejoices in being loved by Him who is infinitely true and beautiful and good, who changeth not, and who abideth for ever.
2. The joy of sweet and sanctified fellowship is ours. “Our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” The influence of this fellowship was well expressed by the two disciples at Emmaus,—“Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us?” &c.
3. The joy of true progress is ours. Under the influence of His blessed presence all the capacities and faculties of our being are quickened into holy activity, and sustained in continuous progress. Realizing His presence and fellowship our being grows into likeness to Him; are such growth is unspeakably joyous. Thus the conscious possession of God as our “part and inheritance” is the highest blessedness. (b)
“O this is life, and peace, and Joy,
My God, to find Thee so—
Thy face to see, Thy voice to hear
And all Thy love to know.”—Bubier.
III. This portion is inalienable.
Where shall we find a secure and lasting inheritance. Not in this world; not in anything material, or temporal. Riches are not inalienable; they “certainly make themselves wings; they fly away,” &c. “Trust not in uncertain riches.” Pleasures are not inalienable. The pleasures of this world can only be enjoyed for a season, and that a brief one. Honours are of very uncertain tenure; the hero of one day is frequently execrated the next. Friends are not abiding; sometimes they are lost to us by in faithfulness; sometimes they are removed from us by death. Our bodily health is precarious. Even our mental sanity and strength we cannot claim as unchangeably, and for ever ours. There is but one immutable and inalienable “part and inheritance,” that is GOD. He changes not; “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” “With Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” He abideth for ever; He loveth for ever. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” Even death cannot deprive us of this inheritance. “My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” Death rather makes our inheritance more fully and perfectly ours; it introduces us to a more complete and constant realization of His presence. After death “we shall see Him as He is.” “So shall we ever be with the Lord.” (c)
Is this “part and inheritance” ours?
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) We have a right, each of us—if we are in Christ—we have a right to expect this sufficiency, because it is promised in the Bible. We gather it from the declarations of Scripture. Listen to them, they are yours. “Thus saith the Lord who created thee. O Jacob, who formed thee, O Israel, Fear not, I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name” What a beautiful thought that is! Just get the meaning and beauty out of it. How many thousands of believers, thousands upon thousands of believers, have there been in the world from the beginning of its history until now—thousands in the patriarchal ages who looked through the glass, and who saw, dimly, the streak of the morning in the distance, and, even with that streak of light, were glad—thousands, in the prophetical times, who discerned it in the brightness of a nearer vision—thousands who looked in its full-orbed lustre, when Christ came into the world—thousands upon thousands, since that time, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb—thousands who are now upon the earth, working out their salvation with fear and trembling—thousands upon thousands that shall come into the Church in the time of its millenial glory, when the gates of it shall not be shut day nor night, because the porter shall have no chance of shutting them, the people crowd in so fast. Now, get all that mass of believers, past, present, and future, a company that no man can number; and to each of them God comes in this promise, and says, “I have called thee by thy name, I know all about thee,”—that is, I have not a merely vague, indefinite knowledge of thee; as an individual believer I know thy name, I could single thee out of millions, I could tell the world all thy solicitudes, and all thy apprehensions, and all thy hopes, and all thy sorrows—“I have called thee by thy name.” Oh, precious promise! Take it to your hearts, “I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine; when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee; and through the rivers”—deeper than the waters—“they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flames kindle upon thee.”—Listen again. “The Lord God is a sun and shield”—light and protection; that nearly embraces all our wants—“He will give grace and glory.” Is there anything left out? And if there are any of you so perversely clever and so mischievously ingenious in multiplying arguments in favour of your own despair, that you can conceive of some rare and precious blessing that is not wrapped up either in grace or glory—“No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” “Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God.” “Cast all thy care” “Nay,” the rebel heart says, “there is some little of it I must bear myself; something that has reference to the heart’s bitterness, that it alone knoweth; or to the heart’s deep, dark sorrow, with which no stranger intermeddles—that I must bear myself.” “Cast all thy care upon Me, for I care for thee.” What! distrustful still? Can you not take God at His word? Hark! He condescends to expostulate with you upon your unbelief; “Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord”—how often have you said that in the time of your sorrow! you know you have—“My way is hid from the Lord, my judgment is passed over from my God. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint.” He does not merely take his swoon away and leave him weakly; He makes him strong. “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength”.… Brethren, are you in Christ? Then all that belongs to the covenant is yours. Yours is the present heritage, yours is the future recompense of reward.—W. M. Punshon, LL.D.
(b) Haws, that are for hogs, grow upon every hedge; but roses, that are for men, only grow in pleasant gardens. Though many have counterfeit jewels, yet there are but a few that have the true diamond; though many have their earthly portions, yet there are but a few that have God for their portion.… Why have the saints in heaven more joy and delight than the saints on earth, but because they have a clearer and a fuller knowledge of their interest and propriety in God than the others have? The knowledge of a man’s propriety in God is the comfort of comforts. Propriety makes every comfort a pleasurable comfort, a delightful comfort. When a man walks in a fair meadow, and can write mine upon it, and into a pleasant garden, and can write mine upon it, and into a fruitful cornfield, and can write mine upon it, and into a stately habitation, and can write mine upon it, and into a rich mine, and can write mine upon it; oh! how doth it please him? how doth it delight him? how doth it joy and rejoice him? Of all words, this word meum is the sweetest and the comfortablest. Ah! when a man can look upon God and write meum; when he can look upon God, and say, “This God is my portion;” when he can look upon God and say with Thomas, “My Lord and my God” (Joh_20:28), how will all the springs of joy rise in his soul! Oh, who can but joy to be owner of that God who fills heaven and earth with His fulness? who can but rejoice to have Him for his portion, in having Whom he hath all things, in having Whom he can want nothing? the serious thoughts of our propriety in God will add much sweet to all our sweets; yea, it will make every bitter sweet.”—Brooks.
(c) None of your dearest and most cherished loves are at all worthy to sit upon the throne of your heart—far down in the scale must they be placed, when the God who gave them to you is brought into comparison. That broad bosom of your beloved husband beats fondly and faithfully, but when death lays it low, as ere long it must, how wretched will be your condition if you have not an everlasting Comforter upon whose breast to lean! Those dear little sparkling eyes, which are like stars in the heaven of your social joy, if these be the gods of your idolatry, how wretched will you be when their brightness is dim, and the mother’s joy is mouldering back to dust! Happy is he who hath an everlasting joy and an undying comfort; and there is none in this respect like unto the God of Jeshurun. There would be fewer broken hearts if hearts were more completely the Lord’s. We should have no rebellious spirits if, when we had our joys, we used them lawfully, and did not too much build our hopes upon them. All beneath the moon will wane. Everything on these shores ebbs and flows like the sea. Everything beneath the sun will be eclipsed. You will not find in time that which is only to be discovered in eternity, namely an immutable and unfailing source of comfort.—C. H. Spurgeon.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v7
Numbers
SERVICE A GIFT
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Num 18:7.
All Christians are priests-to offer sacrifices, alms, especially prayers; to make God known to men.
I. Our priesthood is a gift of God’s love.
We are apt to think of our duties as burdensome. They are an honour and a mark of God’s grace.
1. They are His gift-
{a} The power to do. All capacities and possessions from Him.
{b} The wish to do. ‘Worketh in you to will.’
{c} The right to do, through Christ.
2. They are a blessing.
{a} Note the good effects on ourselves-the increase of fellowship with Him, the strengthening of all holy desires.
{b} The future benefits. Apply this to prayer and to effort on behalf of our fellow-men.
II. Our priesthood is to be done as a service-under a sense of obligation to a master, with diligence {an [Greek: ergon], not a [Greek: parergon]}.
III. Our priesthood is to be done as a gift to God-to be done joyfully, giving ourselves back to Him: ‘Yield yourselves unto God’-’your reasonable service.’
Then only do we really possess ourselves, and ‘all things are ours, for we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Duties and Maintenance of Priests and Lévites
The Duties and Maintenance of Priests and Lévites
I. The priests are responsible for the iniquity of the sanctuary and the priesthood, i.e. for their profanation at any time by unauthorised persons and by the sins of the priests themselves. On the Day of Atonement the high priest offers sacrifices to make atonement for himself and the sanctuary: see on Leviticus 16.
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2. Levi] 'joined': see Gen_29:34.
8-19. The provision for the maintenance of the priests. The priests receive part of the meal offerings (Lev_2:3), the sin and guilt offerings, except when these are presented by the priests on their own behalf (Lev_4:26), the heave portion of the peace offerings (Leviticus 3), the first fruits of oil, wine, and wheat (Num_18:12-13), devoted things (Num_18:14 see on Lev_27:21-28 firstlings of clean animals, the redemption price of the firstborn of men and unclean beasts (Num_18:15-18), and the tithe of the tithe paid to the Levites (Num_18:25-28).
9. Most holy] see on Lev_2:3.
16. See Num_3:47; Lev_27:6. Shekel] see on Exo_38:24.
19. Covenant of salt] i.e. an indissoluble covenant: see on Exo_30:35.
20-24. The priests and Levites have no inheritance in the land of promise. By way of compensation the tithes are given to the Levites, who in turn give a tithe to the priests (Num_18:26).
20. Those who are separated to the service of God are taught to depend on Him. He sends no one into warfare at his own charges: see 1Co_9:7-14.
25-32. The Levites are to tithe their own tithe and present it to the priests as a heave offering, as the ordinary Israelites do with the produce of their fields. The remainder they are allowed to enjoy in the same manner as others: cp. Lev_27:30.
31. In every place] not restricted, as in the case of the priests, to the holy place: see on Lev_2:3.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v1 i.e. be responsible for every neglect or offence relation…
bear
i.e. be responsible for every neglect or offence relation to. CF. Exo 28:38. (See Scofield "Exo 28:38").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 8. Priesthood and Iniquity and the Recompense of the…
8. Priesthood and Iniquity and the Recompense of the Priesthood
CHAPTER 18
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1. The iniquity borne by the priesthood (Num 18:1-7)
2. The recompense of the priests (Num 18:8-19)
3. The inheritance of the priests (Num 18:20-32)
“Aaron, thou and thy sons and thy father’s house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.” This is evidently in answer to the question, “Shall we be consumed with dying?” (Num 17:13) The ministry of the priests and the Levites keeping the charge of the tabernacle and the charge of the altar “that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel” (verse 5). The priesthood which had been the object of rebellion was to be their security. If it had not been for the priestly service they would have all been consumed by the wrath of God. Christ is again here in view, He who ever liveth and intercedeth for His own people; Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins. He bore the iniquity and the wrath Himself.
The recompense of the priests is fully described in the second section of this chapter. In conclusion of it we read, “It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee.” It is an indissoluble and inviolable covenant. The recompense of the priest and his house must be applied to the reward which Christ has, the joy which is His and His people, His house, sharing it with Him. The two sections harmonize beautifully. Aaron had no inheritance in the land. His inheritance is the Lord. “I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.” The Levites had no inheritance in the land, but received tithes. Aaron’s was the better portion, and such is ours in Christ.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Office of the Priests and Levites
The Office of the Priests and Levites
v. 1. And the Lord said unto Aaron, for the fact of his priesthood was now practically unchallenged among the children of Israel, Thou and thy sons and thy father’s house with thee, the entire family in all its descendants, shall bear the. iniquity of the Sanctuary, they were to consider themselves responsible for the removal of any defilement which might come upon the Tabernacle and its equipment while it was being used for purposes of worship: and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood, whatever impurities and imperfections still clung to them in the work of their calling. It was for the removal of these sins as they resulted from the natural sinful condition of men that the animal atonement had been ordered by God, Lev 16:16.
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v. 2. And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, causing them to come near to the Sanctuary with him. for the purpose of ministering, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee, in the position of assistants in the worship of Jehovah; but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the Tabernacle of "Witness, as being actually in charge of the sacrifices and of the various acts of atonement connected with the offerings.
v. 3. And they shall keep thy charge, observe and do those things which they were directed to do by the priest, and the charge of all the Tabernacle, in the matter of transporting the Tabernacle and its appointments and performing such other offices as were connected therewith; only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the Sanctuary, those inside the Tabernacle, and the altar, of incense, that neither they, nor ye also, die; for every person that approached these without proper command and authority risked immediate death, as the people had now repeatedly seen.
v. 4. And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep the charge of the Tabernacle of the Congregation for all the service of the Tabernacle; and a stranger, a layman not belonging to the tribe of Levi, shall not come nigh unto you. Cf Num 1:53; Num 3:7.
v. 5. And ye shall keep the charge of the Sanctuary and the charge of the altar, this special function was limited to the priests alone; that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.
v. 6. And I, behold, I have taken your brethren, the Levites, from among the children of Israel; to you they are given as a gift for the Lord to do the service of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. Cf Num 3:9; Num 8:16-19.
v. 7. Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest’s office for everything of the altar, all the service connected with the golden altar of incense, where the priests were daily employed, and within the veil, for the high priest entered into the Most Holy Place once every year, on the great Day of Atonement, Lev 16:2; and ye shall serve. I have given your priest’s office unto you as a service of gift, out of free grace and mercy, to stimulate all the greater diligence; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death, since this service was the exclusive duty of the family of Aaron. In a far better and higher sense it is true that we Christians have been given the rights of the universal priesthood of the New Testament by God’s free gift in Jesus Christ, whence it follows that we should appreciate this blessing all the more highly.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6 all sins committed against the sanctuary
all sins committed against the sanctuary
This can be stated in active form. AT: "all sins that anyone commits against the sanctuary" (See: Active or Passive)
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all sins committed by anyone in the priesthood
This can be stated in active form. AT: "all sins that anyone in the priesthood commits" (See: Active or Passive)
anyone in the priesthood
"any priest"
translationWords
Yahweh
Aaron
son
sin
commit
sanctuary
priest
member
tribe
Levi
servant
tent
covenant
decree
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 7 18:1-32 The instructions given here arose from the need…
18:1-32 The instructions given here arose from the need demonstrated in ch 17 for clear boundaries between the people and the priests and Levites. The distinctive privileges of the Levites were matched by significant responsibilities. One very important aspect of their work was to safeguard the Tabernacle from unauthorized entry (ch 16).
18:1-4 The Lord gave special authority to Aaron, his sons (the priests), and his relatives (the Levites), all of whom were held responsible for offenses against the sanctuary. But the priests alone were held responsible for their own violations of God’s instructions for their service.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.