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Numbers Chapter
Three
Numbers 3
Chapter Contents
The sons of Aaron, The Levites taken instead of the
first-born. (1-13) The Levites numbered by their families, Their duties.
(14-39) The first-born are numbered. (40-51)
Commentary on Numbers 3:1-13
There was much work belonging to the priests' office, and
there were now only Aaron and his two sons to do it; God appoints the Levites
to attend them. Those whom God finds work for, he will find help for. The
Levites were taken instead of the first-born. When He that made us, saves us,
as the first-born of Israel were saved, we are laid under further obligations
to serve him faithfully. God's right to us by redemption, confirms the right he
has to us by creation.
Commentary on Numbers 3:14-39
The Levites were in three classes, according to the sons
of Levi; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari; and these were subdivided into families.
The posterity of Moses were not at all honoured or privileged, but stood upon
the level with other Levites; thus it was plain, that Moses did not seek the
advancement of his own family, or to secure any honours to it. The tribe of
Levi was by much the least of all the tribes. God's chosen are but a little
flock in comparison with the world.
Commentary on Numbers 3:40-51
The number of the first-born, and that of the Levites,
came near to each other. Known unto God are all his works beforehand; there is
an exact proportion between them, and so it will appear, when they are compared
together. The small number of first-born, over and above the number of the
Levites, were to be redeemed, and the redemption-money given to Aaron. The
church is called the church of the first-born, which is redeemed, not as they
were, with silver and gold; but, being devoted by sin to the justice of God, is
ransomed with the precious blood of the Son of God. All men are the Lord's by
creation, and all true christians are his by redemption. Each should know his
own post and duty; nor can any service required by such a Master be rightly
accounted mean or hard.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on
Numbers》
Numbers 3
Verse 1
[1]
These also are the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day that the LORD
spake with Moses in mount Sinai.
These —
Which follow in this chapter.
The generations —
The kindred or family. Moses his family and children are here included under
the general name of the Amramites, Numbers 3:27, which includes all the children
and grand-children of Amram, the persons only of Aaron and Moses being
excepted. And the generations of Moses are thus obscurely mentioned, because
they were but common Levites, the priesthood being given solely to Aaron's
posterity, whence Aaron is here put before Moses, who elsewhere is commonly
named after him.
In Sinai —
Nadab and Abihu, were then alive, though dead at the time of taking this
account.
Verse 4
[4] And Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD, when they offered strange fire
before the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children: and
Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest's office in the sight of Aaron
their father.
In the sight of Aaron — Under his inspection and direction, and as their father's servants or
ministers in the priest's office.
Verse 6
[6]
Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that
they may minister unto him.
Present them —
Offer them to the Lord for his special service. This was promised to them
before, and now actually conferred.
Verse 7
[7] And
they shall keep his charge, and the charge of the whole congregation before the
tabernacle of the congregation, to do the service of the tabernacle.
His charge —
That is, Aaron's, or those things which are committed principally to Aaron's
care and oversight.
Of the congregation —
That is, of all the sacrifices and services which are due to the Lord from all
the people, because the people might not perform them, in their own persons,
therefore they were to be performed by some particular persons in their stead;
formerly by the first-born, Numbers 8:16, and now by the Levites.
Before the tabernacle — Not within the tabernacle, for the care of the things within the holy
place was appropriated to the priests, as the care of the most holy place was
to the high-priest.
Verse 8
[8] And they shall keep all the instruments of the tabernacle of the congregation,
and the charge of the children of Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle.
Of the children of Israel — Those things which all the children of Israel are in their several
places and stations obliged to take care of, though not in their persons, yet
by others in their stead.
Verse 9
[9] And
thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron and to his sons: they are wholly given
unto him out of the children of Israel.
Given to him — To
attend upon him and observe his orders, and ease him of his burden.
Verse 10
[10] And
thou shalt appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall wait on their priest's
office: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.
The stranger —
That is, every one who is of another family than Aaron's; yea, though he be a
Levite.
That cometh nigh — To
execute any part of the priest's office.
Verse 12
[12] And
I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead
of all the firstborn that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel:
therefore the Levites shall be mine;
The first-born —
Who were God's property, Exodus 13:12, and to whom the administration of
holy things was formerly committed, which now was taken away from them, either
because they had forfeited this privilege by joining with the rest of their
brethren in the idolatrous worship of the calf, or because they were to be
mainly concerned in the distribution and management of the inheritances which
now they were going to possess, and therefore could not be at leisure to attend
upon the service of the sanctuary: and God would not commit it to some other
persons in each tribe, which might be an occasion of idolatry, confusion,
division, and contempt of sacred things, but to one distinct tribe, which might
be entirely devoted to that service, and particularly to the tribe of Levi;
partly out of his respect to Moses and Aaron, branches of this tribe; partly as
a recompence of their zeal for God against idolaters, and partly because it was
the smallest of the tribes, and therefore most likely to find both employment
in, and maintenance for the work.
Verse 15
[15]
Number the children of Levi after the house of their fathers, by their
families: every male from a month old and upward shalt thou number them.
From a month old —
Because at that time the first-born, in whose stead the Levites came, were
offered to God. And from that time the Levites were consecrated to God, and
were, as soon as capable, instructed in their work. Elsewhere they are numbered
from twenty-five years old, when they were entered as novices into part of
their work, Numbers 8:24, and from thirty years old, when
they were admitted to their whole office.
Verse 25
[25] And
the charge of the sons of Gershon in the tabernacle of the congregation shall
be the tabernacle, and the tent, the covering thereof, and the hanging for the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
The tabernacle —
Not the boards, which belonged to Merari, Numbers 3:36, but the ten curtains.
The tent —
The curtains of goats hair.
The coverings —
That is, the coverings of rams-skins and badgers-skins.
Verse 26
[26] And
the hangings of the court, and the curtain for the door of the court, which is
by the tabernacle, and by the altar round about, and the cords of it for all
the service thereof.
The cords — By
which the tabernacle was fastened to the pins, and stretched out, Exodus 35:18.
Verse 27
[27] And
of Kohath was the family of the Amramites, and the family of the Izeharites,
and the family of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzzielites: these are
the families of the Kohathites.
Of Kohath —
This family had many privileges above the others: of that were Moses and Aaron,
and all the priests: they had the chief place about the tabernacle, and the
care of the most holy things here, and in the land of Canaan they had twenty
three cities, which were almost as many as both their brethren received. Yet
the posterity of Moses were not at all dignified or distinguished from other
Levites. So far was he from seeking any advantage or honour for his own family.
Verse 28
[28] In
the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, were eight thousand
and six hundred, keeping the charge of the sanctuary.
Keeping —
That is, appointed for that work, as soon as they were capable of it.
Of the sanctuary — That
is, of the holy things contained in or belonging to the sanctuary.
Verse 31
[31] And
their charge shall be the ark, and the table, and the candlestick, and the
altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary wherewith they minister, and the
hanging, and all the service thereof.
The hanging —
Which covered the most holy place, for all other hangings belonged to the
Gershonites.
The service —
That is, all the other furniture belonging to it.
Verse 32
[32] And
Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall be chief over the chief of the
Levites, and have the oversight of them that keep the charge of the sanctuary.
Chief —
Next under the high-priest; whence he is called the second priest, 2 Kings 25:18, and in case of the high-priest's
absence by sickness or other necessary occasions, he was to perform his work,
and he had a superiority over all the rest of the priests and Levites.
The chief of the Levites — That is, over those three persons, who were each the chief of their
several families, Numbers 3:24,31,34.
Verse 38
[38] But
those that encamp before the tabernacle toward the east, even before the
tabernacle of the congregation eastward, shall be Moses, and Aaron and his
sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of
Israel; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.
For the charge —
Either in their stead, that charge which they were obliged to keep, if God had
not committed it to those: or for their benefit; for their preservation, as the
word may be rendered.
Verse 39
[39] All
that were numbered of the Levites, which Moses and Aaron numbered at the
commandment of the LORD, throughout their families, all the males from a month
old and upward, were twenty and two thousand.
Two and twenty thousand — If the particular numbers mentioned Numbers 3:22,28,34, be put together, they make
22,300. But the odd 300 are omitted here, either according to the use of the
holy scripture, where in so great numbers small sums are commonly neglected,
or, because they were the first-born of the Levites, and therefore belonged to
God already, and so could not be given to him again instead of the other
first-born. If this number of first-born seem small to come from 22,000
Levites, it must be considered, that only such first-born are here named as
were males, and such as continued in their parents families, not such as had
erected new families of their own. Add to this, that God so ordered things by
his wise providence for divers weighty reasons, that this tribe should be much
the least of all the tribes, as is evident by comparing the numbers of the
other tribes, from twenty years old, Numbers 1:3-49, with the number of this from a
month old; and therefore it is not strange if the number of their first-born be
less than in other tribes.
Verse 41
[41] And
thou shalt take the Levites for me (I am the LORD) instead of all the firstborn
among the children of Israel; and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the
firstlings among the cattle of the children of Israel.
Instead of the first-born — Such as are now alive of them, but those which should be born of them
hereafter are otherwise disposed.
Of the Levites —
Not that they were to be taken from the Levites, or to be sacrificed to God,
any more than the Levites themselves were; but they together with the Levites
were to be presented before the Lord by way of acknowledgment, that the Levites
might be set apart for God's service, and their cattle for themselves as God's
ministers, and for their support in God's work.
Verse 46
[46] And
for those that are to be redeemed of the two hundred and threescore and
thirteen of the firstborn of the children of Israel, which are more than the
Levites;
For those that are to be redeemed — 'Tis probable, in the exchange they began with the eldest of the
first-born, and so downwards, so that those were to be redeemed, who were the
two hundred, seventy three youngest of them.
Verse 47
[47] Thou
shalt even take five shekels apiece by the poll, after the shekel of the
sanctuary shalt thou take them: (the shekel is twenty gerahs:)
Five shekels —
Which was the price paid for the redemption of a first-born a month old.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Numbers》
03 Chapter 3
Verses 1-13
The priests which were anointed.
Aaron and his sons: parents and children
In Numbers 3:1-4 we have--
I. An incidental
illustration of the exalted personal character and the divine mission of Moses.
II. An intimation
that the duties of the ministers of religion demand for their faithful
discharge their entire consecration thereto.
III. An example of
wicked sons descending from a godly parent.
IV. An example of
the widest difference of character and destiny in children of the same parents.
Our subject utters earnest counsels--
1. To the children of godly parents. Trust not in the character and
prayers of your parents for salvation. These are of priceless value, yet they
will not avail to your salvation apart from your own faith and obedience. (See Ezekiel 18:1-32.)
2. To parents. Be diligent and faithful in the discharge of your duty
to your children.
The dedication of the
Levites--
Church work and workers
verses 5-10.
I. The offices of
the church are divinely instituted.
II. There are
different ranks in the offices of the church as instituted by God.
III. The lowliest labour
in the service of God is sacred and blessed.
IV. God also
appoints the persons to fill the various offices in his church.
V. Intrusion into
sacred places and duties awakened the stern displeasure of the Lord.
Conclusion:
1. Encouragement to those who are called of God to Christian work. He
who has called you to your work will sustain you in it, make it efficient by
His blessing, and confer upon you rich rewards.
2. Admonition as to our estimate of the ministers of the Lord. They
“are ambassadors for Christ.” God Himself speaks through them to men. (W.
Jones.)
God’s claim upon man’s service:
From Numbers 3:11-13, we learn--
I. God’s claims
upon man’s service are incontestable. Upon what are they grounded?
1. Upon what He is in Himself.
2. Upon what He does for man.
II. There is a
correspondence between the gifts and the claims of God. His demands are
proportioned to His bestowments.
1. This is righteous.
2. This is beneficent.
III. The divine
arrangements are ever marked by infinite wisdom and kindness. (W. Jones.)
The measure of the Divine demands upon man:
I. God gave the
best he had to effect our salvation.
II. The son gave
himself. Let us sacrifice ourselves to God as He sacrificed His Son for us.
1. Thus only can we attain to a high ideal in religion. Be the best
possible Christian: be not content with mediocrity: aim high.
2. This is the best way to be useful. The power of Christianity is in
the fact of Christ giving Himself. Our influence for good is in proportion to
our selfsacrifice.
3. This is the way to enjoy religion. The more we give of self to
God, the more will He give of Himself to us. Let all think of what God has done
for them, and consider what returns they have made to Him. (David Lloyd.)
The necessity of a standing ministry
We see in this place, how Moses immediately after the numbering of
the people, that meddled not with the ministry of the word, or killing of the
sacrifices, or serving in the tabernacle, or carrying of the ark, or teaching
of the people, handleth in the next place the fashion of the ministry. For let
there be never so great order or good policy in the commonwealth, yet if the
care of the ministry be neglected, all is to little purpose. We see from hence
the goodly order that God observeth in this great army. He establisheth among
them most carefully the holy ministry to the end they might be instructed in
the Word. Hereby we learn that among all nations and people under the heavens,
the ministry of the Word ought to be planted and established, to guide them in
the ways of godliness.
1. A certain and settled ministry is an evident token that God hath a
church and a people to be begotten by the immortal seed of the Word.
2. Without the light of the Word the people remain in darkness and
cannot see: they grope at noonday, and know not what they do--as it was in
Egypt when the plague of palpable darkness was sent among them (Exodus 10:23).
3. The necessity of a ministry is so evident that all the Gentiles
had their priests and prophets that attended on their profane and superstitious
altars, and it was their first care to establish a religion, such as it was,
among them. If it were thus among them who saw darkly, and were without the
true light of the Scripture, much more ought we to learn it, that have been
taught better things, and have the sure word of the prophets to guide us.
4. Such is our frailty, that notwithstanding we live under a settled
ministry, and have given our names to the faith, yet we are ready to start back
again. For as the body is prone to pine away without supply of daily food, so
are our souls ready to perish, being destitute of the heavenly manna of the Word
of God.
Uses:
1. There is offered unto us this truth arising from the doctrine
itself, that the preaching of the Word by the minister, and the hearing of it
by the people, is no ceremony nor a matter of indifferency, such as may either
be done or left undone at our own discretion, but it is such a part of the
public service of God as ought not to be neglected without great sin.
2. It serveth to reprove divers abuses.
3. Must the ministry be established among all people under heaven?
Then let every one of us be careful for our parts to plant it among us, and to
bring it home to the places of our abode.
4. Let the ministers be careful to discharge their calling, and to
teach the people in season and out of season. They must be lights of the world,
and as savoury salt to season them with wholesome doctrine.
5. Let the people carefully attend to the ministry of the Word, where
it is settled and planted, with a good conscience, as to God’s holy ordinance
vouchsafed unto them. Let them bring attention in hearing, diligence in
marking, and obedience in practising. Let them not use any delays to shift off
the performance of this duty. (W. Attersoll.)
Consecrated lives:
In the artist’s studio a fleck of paint lies upon the palette. It
is so much colour and nothing more; till, taken up by the brush of the master
and laid upon the canvas, it becomes a rosy flush on beauty’s cheek, or a
lustrous cloud in a golden sunset. So has many a mean and common life been
touched by the Master’s hand to higher uses; so has many an humble believer
been caught up from the poverty of his earthly lot to be a glorious spirit
before the throne of the “Eternal Light.”
Vocation is in a line with fitness
If we agree that the Christian ministry is a vocation for the
teaching, in various forms, of Christian righteousness, the question next
comes, What is meant by a “call” to it? Is this anything different from that
inward impulse to a specific form of work which arises in a man from a
consciousness of special gifts in that direction? In that sense a man may be
said to be called to the work of a musician or artist. The parents of Mozart,
when they found their son, at the age of seven, playing before the crowned
heads of Europe, need have been in no doubt as to his life work. It was
revealed in his gifts more plainly than it could have been by a voice from
heaven. And when, on the other hand, Mozart’s own son, once asked whether he
loved music, replied by flinging down some coins on the table and exclaiming,
“That’s the only music I care for,” it was equally evident that whatever he
came into the world to do, it was not to follow in the steps of his father.
Vocation here undoubtedly is in a line with fitness. The tools are for him who can use
them. (Christian World.)
God improves the life given to Him in service:
It is said of vapours, that rising out of the earth, the heavens
return them again in pure water, much clearer, and more refined than they
received them; or as it is said of the earth, that receiving the sea-water and
puddle-water, it gives it better than it received it in the springs and
fountains, for it strains the water and purifies it, that whereas when it came
into the bowels of the earth it was muddy, salt, and brinish, it returns pure,
clear, and fresh, as out of the well-head waters are well known to come. Thus,
if men would but give up their heart’s desire, and the strength of their
affections unto God, He would not only give them back again, but withal much
better than when He received them, their affections should be more pure, their thoughts
and all the faculties of soul and body should be renewed, cleansed, beautified,
and put into a far better condition than formerly they were. (J. Spencer.)
From a month old.
Dedication of infants to God
That He taketh them from a month old is a thing of good
use, and we may note it, for it notably showeth that we may destinate our
children to God before they be fit for any other course of life. In the Gospel,
those parents that brought little children to Christ are chronicled up for an
eternal praise of them, and for an example to all parents to the end of the
world. Matthew calleth them “little children.” Luke calleth them “babes,” even
such as yet hanged upon the breast, effectually noting how soon we should bring
them to Christ. Satan’s envy even against these babes to be brought to Christ
appeareth there, and our Saviour’s unspeakable good against that malice,
commanding them to be brought unto Him, and not to be hindered, taking them in
His arms, putting His hands upon them, blessing them, and graciously affirming,
that “of such is the kingdom of God.” A natural parent wishes all good to his
child, and as he is able, procureth it, even as the root spreadeth his sap to
the branches without grudge or exception; and a religious parent, above all
worldly good, careth for God’s holy fear to be planted in his child. For the
effecting whereof soon he bringeth him unto Christ, knowing that the first liquor
put into a vessel is of great force ever in the same. Alas, what will the whole
world profit them, were we able to give it them, ii eternally they be
damned--yea, they and we both, they for not knowing Christ, and we for not
bringing them to Christ. Wherefore earnest is that commandment of the Holy
Ghost, “Fathers, bring up your children in instruction and information of the
Lord.” Abraham is registered up for this care; and whilst this Book of God
remaineth it will be found written to their praise that Timothy’s grandmother
and mother brought him up in the knowledge of the Scripture from a child.
Honour may shine and glory may glitter, but how soon covered with a cloud.
Beauty much wished, but permanent with neither wishes nor wisdom whatsoever.
Only the good gotten by bringing children to Christ remaineth for ever in his
reward. And therefore let religious parents have a care of it, even soon, soon,
remembering this place, that the Levites, appointed for His service, He would
have numbered from a month old. (Bp. Babington.)
Church membership of children:
What, then, is this infant membership? What conception can we take
of it which will justify its Christian dignity? A great many persons who are
very sharp at this kind of criticism appear to have never observed that
creatures existing under conditions of growth allow no such terms of
classification as those do which are dead and have no growth; such, for
example, as stones, metals, and earths. They are certain that gold is not iron,
and iron is not silver, and they suppose that they can class the growing and
transitional creatures, that are separated by no absolute lines, in the same
manner. They talk of colts and horses, lambs and sheep, and it possibly not
once occurs to them that they can never tell when the colt becomes a horse, or
the lamb a sheep; and that about the most definite thing they can say, when
pressed with that question, is that the colt is potentially a horse, the lamb a
sheep, even from the first, having in itself this definite futurition; and,
therefore, that while horses and sheep are not all to be classed as colts and
lambs, all colts and lambs may be classed as horses and sheep. And just so
children are all men and women; and if there is the law of futurition in them
to justify it, may be fitly classed as believing men and women. And all the
sharp arguments that go to cover their membership as such in the Church with
absurdity, or to turn it into derision, are just such arguments as the
inventors could raise with equal point to ridicule the horsehood and sheephood
of the young animals just referred to. The propriety of this membership does
not lie in what those infants can or cannot believe, or do or do not believe,
at some given time, as, for example, on the day of their baptism; but it lies
in tile covenant of promise, which makes their parents parents in the Lord;
their nurture a nurture of the Lord, and so constitutes a force of futurition
by which they are to grow up imperceptibly into “faithfuls among faithfuls,” in
Christ Jesus . . . The conception, then, of this membership is, that it is
potentially a real one; that it stands, for the present, in the faith of the
parents and the promise which is to them and to their children, and that on
this ground they may well enough be accounted believers, just as they are
accounted potentially men and women. Then, as they come forward into maturity,
it is to be assumed that they will come forward into faith, being grown in the
nurture of faith, and will claim for themselves the membership into which they
were before inserted. Nor is this a case which has no analogies that it should
be held up as a mark of derision. It is generally supposed that our common law
has some basis of common sense. And yet this body of law makes every infant
child a citizen; requiring, as a point of public order, the whole constabulary
and even military force of the state to come to the rescue or the redress of
his wrongs, when his person is seized or property invaded by conspiracy. This
infant child can sue and be sued; for the Court of Chancery will appoint him a
guardian, whose acts shall be the child’s acts; and it shall be as if he were
answerable for his own education, dress, board, entertainments, and the damages
done by his servants, precisely as if he were a man acting in his own cause.
Doubtless it may sound very absurdly to call him a citizen. What can he do as a
citizen? He cannot vote or bear arms; he does not even know what these things
mean, and yet he is a citizen. In one view he votes, bears arms, legislates,
even in his cradle; for the potentiality is in him, and the state takes him up
in her arms, as it were, to own him as her citizen. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
Verses 33-39
These shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle.
The placing of the Levites throughout the host
In this division we see more particularly that which was in part
noted before, namely, the several situations that these Levites had about the
tabernacle, which they compassed round about that they might not be far from
any of the people of God, but always resident among them. This teacheth us that
God will have every part of His people taught. None are too high in regard of
their great places; none are too low in regard of their obscure callings; none
are too good to be taught, whatsoever their degrees be. This will be made plain
by divers reasons.
1. Consider the titles that are given unto God in the Scriptures. He
is worthily called the King of His Church, and the Lord and Master of His
house. Is not He “the Shepherd of Israel that leadeth Josephlike sheep”? (Psalms 80:1). Will a shepherd that hath
any care of his sheep, or any love unto them, look unto some of them and not to
all? Will a king regard only the chief cities and most populous places of his
kingdom, and suffer the rest to live as they list, without laws and good
orders? Or will the master of a house look to some in his family, and not to
all?
2. Such is the grace and goodness of God, that He would have all His
people come to knowledge. Such as know not His will are none of His servants.
If then He require the understanding of His ways, not only of rich men, of
great men, of learned men, and of the ministers, but of all the people, we must
hereof conclude that He hath ordained that all of them should have the means of
knowledge and salvation offered unto them, and published among them.
3. The Word of God was penned for all estates, degrees, and
conditions of men.
4. All persons, whatsoever they be, have souls to save: simple
persons, small congregations, little assemblies, as well as others that ale
many in number.
Uses:
1. It is God’s ordinance that every congregation should have a
learned minister to teach them the true religion and fear of God.
2. It is required of the ministers of the Gospel, whom the Holy Ghost
hath made overseers of their several flocks, to look to their whole charge from
one corner of it to another. They are to give an account for every soul that dies through
their ignorance or through their negligence.
3. We have warrant from hence to desire most earnestly that the
kingdom of God may flourish everywhere. Christ our Saviour teaches us to pray
that His kingdom may come (Matthew 6:10), and so to be erected in
the hearts of men.
4. This doctrine serveth as an instruction to all magistrates (as
their places serve them)
to further the preaching of the Word, and to furnish such places as belong unto them with
able teachers. (W. Attersoll.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》