After marking off the tribes that are posted on the east and south sides of the Tabernacle (but before saying who will be on the west and north sides), God specifies that the Levites will be in the middle next to the Tabernacle (Numbers 21:7).
There are two ways you can interpret this premier positioning. The first is by saying that because of their status as the priestly tribe and the ones chosen to commune most directly with Jehovah, they need to be closer. Their job is at the Tabernacle. God is simply trying to cut down on their morning commute.
The other is by talking about them relative to the other tribes. This makes the most sense to me, as their job was not just to interact with God, but to do so on behalf of everyone else. They were in between God and man spiritually, but now are in between God and man physically.
This is alluded to at the end of Numbers 1. In verse 53, God says that the Levites are here “so that there will be no wrath on the congregation of the sons of Israel.”
What does that mean? Is God a powder keg, just waiting to explode and annihilate the Israelites? Is He still not over the golden calf at Sinai? Are the Levites the only thing stopping God from obliterating everyone?
God repeats this same type of warning in Numbers 8:19, but uses the word “plague” instead of wrath. It’s the same idea—punishment is involved in both—but the word is fitting considering what happens with the rebellion of Korah in Numbers 16.
We’ll eventually get to that story, but the Reader’s Digest version is Korah wanted power for himself, didn’t understand why Moses was special, and God intervened to show who was really in charge. As a result, a plague broke out (Numbers 16:41-50).
Then, in Numbers 18:5, God again reiterates the job of the Levites as attending to the Tabernacle so that “wrath” would not come about. God is emphatic that the Levites—and no one else—will work at the tent of meeting. Not Korah. Not anyone.
Levi’s positioning is both a blessing and a charge given to them. They alone have the experience of working in such close communion to God, but they also aren’t able to share that load with anyone else. It’s given to them only.
It’s also a message to other people. What God has separated and made holy, no one else is able to barge in and take for themselves. The Levites stood between man and God, both as the protector of the house and as a mediator for the sins of the nation.
