Go and teach all nations
Numbers 1:47-54
God gives a special job to Levi’s tribe; they had to look after God’s Tent
v47 Moses did not count the families in Levi’s tribe when he registered the other tribes.
v48 The LORD had said to him,
v49 ‘Do not include Levi’s tribe in this census of the Israelites.
v50 Instead, Levi’s tribe must be responsible for God’s Tent. They must look after everything that is in it. They must take care of it. They must camp round it. And they must carry it whenever you move the Israelites’ camp.
v51 Whenever you leave a place, Levi’s tribe must take apart God’s Tent. When you arrive at a new place, Levi’s tribe must put God’s Tent together again. If anyone from another tribe comes near to God’s Tent, that person will die.
v52 All the other tribes must camp in their own groups, with their own flags.
v53 But Levi’s tribe must camp round God’s Tent. They must look after it. They must not let people go near to it. If people go near to it, I shall be very angry with the Israelites.’
v54 The Israelites did everything that God ordered Moses to do.
Comment:
Verses 47-54 - God did not want Levi’s tribe to be soldiers. They had a different job. It was a very important job. They had to look after God’s Tent.
Levi was Jacob’s third son (Genesis 29:34). Levi had three sons. Their names were Gershon, Kohath and Merari (Genesis 46:11). Moses and Aaron were Kohath’s descendants (Numbers 3:14-24). Aaron was the first High Priest. The High Priest had the most important duties in God’s Tent. Aaron’s sons were priests. They helped Aaron. Men from Levi’s tribe helped the priests to do their duties. The High Priest was their leader. They had to carry the parts of God’s Tent whenever the Israelites traveled. Men from Levi’s tribe had to put the parts together again when the Israelites stopped to camp.
Also, Levi’s tribe had to look after God’s Tent. It was the most important place in the camp. God is everywhere. But he was in God’s Tent in a special way. The priests worshipped God there. It was a very holy place. The Israelites had to respect it. If they came too near to it, they would die.
God is good completely. But every person has sinned. So, in order to come close to God, the Israelites had to offer sacrifices.
But it is different for us. Christians can be close to God. This is not because we do good things. It is because Jesus, God’s son, suffered the punishment for our sins on our behalf. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice. So we do not need to offer sacrifices of animals. Jesus’ blood takes away all our sins and makes us clean inside our hearts. We must confess our sins to God, so that he will forgive us. We must believe that Jesus died on our behalf. And we must invite him into our lives. We can come and talk to God at any time. God invites us to come close to him! (Hebrews chapter 10).
Only Levi’s tribe served God in his holy Tent. They belonged to God in a special way. But, because of Jesus’ sacrifice, all Christians belong to God in a special way, like priests (1 Peter 2:5).
But the events in this book happened many centuries before Jesus came. So Levi’s tribe had to make sure that the Israelites respected God’s Tent.
The people did everything that God wanted (verse 54). They obeyed him completely. But they did not obey him afterwards. The rest of the book emphasizes this.
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Text from the EasyEnglish Bible Version and Commentary - used with permission - © 2009, Wycliffe Associates (UK) - For more information about EasyEnglish Publications, visit their website: www.easyenglish.info.
Go and teach all nations