If you skip the first five books of the Bible, the big question looming in the rest of the Old Testament is why the Levites are chosen from all the tribes to be priests unto God. In a way, it’s a question that Korah would later have—“Don’t you know that all of Israel is special?!” (Numbers 16:3)—so why elevate any above the rest?
That question is answered in two parts. The first comes by way of Levi’s obedience during the Golden Calf incident. In Exodus 32, the Levites are the only ones who rally around Moses against the idolatry of Israel. God then tells the Levites in Exodus 32:29 to “dedicate themselves to the Lord,” which many believe to be the call to priestly service.
There’s some argument as to the timing of it all, though. A few chapters earlier, God expressly tells the sons of Aaron that they are going to be priests (Exodus 28:1-4), so it’s thought that God had the tribe of Levi in mind from the beginning.
This is evidenced by God’s argument in Numbers 3:13 that, on the day all the firstborn in Egypt died, He also separated all the firstborn of Israel to Himself. As He states, God could’ve mandated that all the firstborn of every tribe be dedicated to Him. Instead, He’s taking the tribe of Levi to be His priests (ref. also Numbers 8:14-19).
This places the selection of Levi as the priestly tribe a few months before the golden calf incident. But why does God choose Levi instead of just taking the firstborn from every tribe, as He claims He could have done?
I’m not God, so I don’t have the specific answer to that question. But think about the logistics of dedicating the firstborn from every single family in every single tribe. The genealogies themselves would be a mess, and that would bleed over into inheritance/property issues.
The two numbers are shockingly similar as well, which makes for an almost perfect exchange.
According to Numbers 3:39, the number of total Levite males was 22,000. Four verses later, the number of firstborn males in the entire nation of Israel was 22,273—a near one to one swap. The rest, according to Numbers 3:45-51, are ransomed at five shekels apiece.
But there’s a symbolic aspect to this, as well. The tribe of Levi, at the time of Exodus, is the smallest. They have 22,000 people, which is ten thousand less than the next smallest tribe, Manasseh (32,200).
God’s selection of Levi follows a theme: God is able to take the smallest, most numerically unimposing group of people (or individuals) and turn them into something useful. He did it with David, He did it with the twelve apostles, and He does it with all Christians.
Has He done it with you?
