07.03. Levi
LEVI. THE Lord works for his own glory by raising "the poor from the dust and the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes." Out of strange materials, surely, did He rear up the house of Israel! And nothing might excite in us more amazement than his dealings with LEVI, from whose loins He is pleased to cause a most noble line of priests and sanctuary-ministers to descend. Sovereign grace! what may not thy love and wisdom bring to pass! In the tribe of Levi, as in Reuben and Simeon, we trace in all after-ages the taint of his first father’s sin, and find that sin giving a peculiar complexion to his lot; while, at the same time, we trace no less distinctly throughout all after-generations, a reference to the origin of his name, which means "Joined," or in an abstract form, "Joining."
1. At his birth Leah thought (Genesis 29:34) that Jacob would be completely won over by this third son, presented to him as another arrow wherewith to fill his quiver. "Now, this time shall my husband be joined to me, because I have born him three sons." She knew the power of benefits, how a gift makes room for a man, pacifying anger, and prospering a man’s plans (Proverbs 17:8 and Proverbs 18:16). Probably her hope was realized, for her next son gets the thankful name of "Praise" (Judah), as if all were going on to her mind. From his birth, then, Levi was one whose province and mission seemed to be to join together parties that otherwise might have stood aloof and alone.
2. Next follows the history of his youth; and there he teaches how sin may join men together. In Jacob’s prophetic utterance (Genesis 49:3) he appears as the close confederate of Simeon in cruelty and blood- "Simeon and Levi are brethren."
What a union!
"0 my soul, come not that into their secret."
They combine; hand joins in hand, and the enterprise appears successful. But they who sin together must suffer together they must be joined in punishment. And so the sentence comes forth on Levi, as on Simeon: "I will divide him in Jacob, And scatter him in Israel."
He drags this clanking chain on his foot in all succeeding time. He gets no portion or lot like his brethren, no compact territory; but is divided and scattered over the length and breadth of the land, getting forty eight cities for his habitation, furnished by the other eleven tribes. He is to be found north, south, east, and west; in Judah, in Ephraim, in Asher, in Gad, in Reuben, "scattered and divided," because he joined Simeon in sin.
3. But there are other aspects of his history. The history of his descendants, who were joined to Moses at Sinai, teaches God’s way of joining alienated men to Himself. It was the day of the golden calf and its terrible scenes. The proclamation ran through the camp, "Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me" (Exodus 32:26). None stirred a foot but the men of the tribe of Levi; and they joined Moses in executing the Lord’s vengeance on the idolaters; for they girded on their swords, passed from gate to gate through the camp, slew all they met, even brothers, and companions, and neighbours-all, in order to win the blessing promised. For the clause of the proclamation was to this effect, "Consecrate yourselves to-day unto the Lord, every man upon his son and upon his brother, that He may bestow upon you a blessing to-day." In this they honoured the holiness and justice of the Lord, dreadful as the action might appear; and this homage to Jehovah’s justice and holiness was accepted at their hand. Is it not ever thus? It is when a sinner is brought to sympathize with the Lord’s views of sin, and with the Lord’s justice in his wrath against it, that the Lord is reconciled to him. The sinner’s acknowledgment of the cross, where the sword smote the man who was our Brother and the Almighty’s Fellow, is equivalent to the action of Levi, in drawing the sword against the sin around him.
4. Yet again. The history of Levi’s descendants, who ministered before God in the sanctuary, teaches us yet more fully God’s way of joining to Himself alienated men; for the Levites stand there, from age to age, handling the sacred vessels, and engaging in the rites that exhibit the Divine plan of reconciliation. It is they, and only they who, as priests of Aaron’s line, present the sacrifices-the blood, the fat, the incense, the drink-offering-all, in short, that tells of man re-joined to God. He is LEVI ("JOINING") in all his history. Day by day thus he, in the atoning sacrifice, set forth God’s justice honoured; God’s holy abhorrence or sin; God’s flaming and consuming wrath against the sinner who goes on in his trespass, refusing to bring it to the altar and to the blood. Levi at Sinai, and Levi in the tabernacle and temple, is alike a witness for God’s unbending holiness and immaculate justice, even while He receives the guilty in the appointed way.
It was on Levi as joined to the Lord, and as thereafter to be the tribe which should in a manner join others to the Lord, that Moses poured out his full and fervent blessing (Deuteronomy 33:8-11). He begins, in that blessing, with the mention of the "Urim and Thummim " (Lights and Perfections; i.e., complete light and complete perfection), but he nowhere describes what this Urim and Thummim mean. Many are the theories on the subject; but perhaps the simplest of all is that which understands it to be the LAW, which in the ark was written on tables of stone, but which within the folds of the breastplate was written on some other material, yet set fort. the same truth, viz., that He who goes for us into God’s presence, as priest and mediator, must have the law on his heart, must honour and magnify that law, which is perfect, and which is all light and no darkness at all. With allusion, then, to this typical priest, Moses sang- "Let thy Urim and thy Thummim belong to the man of thy Holy One;" let it be ever in charge of the appointed priest. The priest is called ******* "the man of thy Holy One" (like Psalms 80:17,*****); that Holy One whom they tempted at Massah, along with the other tribes of Israel. Their share in that provocation is mentioned that they might in no wise be elated because of this honour. Let the breastplate which contains the law be ever in charge of the priest who is at the head of thy tribe; and be thou ever zealous for that law, even as when at Sinai thou showedst thyself on the Lord’s side, in spite of father, mother, brethren. This is the tribe who shall in all after-ages have the high honour of teaching all Israel- "They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law;
They shall put incense before Thee, and whole burnt-offerings upon thine altar." A blessed work, surely! showing men by type and symbol, as well as by clearer word, the way of acceptance with God-the way of acceptable worship-the way of daily service. And in so doing his "substance" is blessed, his "works" are pleasing to God, and his "foes" are powerless, smitten by the God whom Levi serves.
Now, this tribe being scattered all over the land in their forty-eight cities, with their enclosures (not "castles," as translated in 1 Chronicles 6:54) for cattle and flocks, walked everywhere as witnesses for God in the: happy days of their early service; for Malachi (Malachi 2:6) declares about Levi in those days, "The law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity." See those men of Levi at Hebron, teaching that lately arrived manslayer, who has there found a city of refuge! See that Levite at Sychem, near Jacob’s Well, gathering round him a group of the men of Ephraim, to teach them the teachings which daily go on in the temple at Jerusalem! See them opening up the law to a company on the fragrant hills of Gilead beyond Jordan; see them at Ramoth Gilead, or at Mahanaim, or by the banks of Arnon, testifying by their very presence for God’s justice, holiness, mercy, and loving-kindness. This is a joining tribe all over! He is LEVI in his history, as well as in his birth.
5. But Levi is rich in suggestive lessons, in almost every view you can take of him. We might teach from his case much about sin; e. g., sin separating man and man, as seen in Jacob’s family at the time of Levi’s birth; sin separating man and God, as seen in the effects of his foul conspiracy against Shechem; man, separated by sin, brought back to God through justice honoured. More particularly we might weave a whole web of spiritual truth from the threads of Levi’s history by using different stages of his existence- to illustrate different doctrines. It stands thus: (a) In the turning of his curse into a blessing, or, in other words, by making use of his scattered and divided condition as the very means of pervading Israel with the knowledge of Jehovah, we have an illustration of the Lord’s way in redemption. While Simeon’s curse (divided and scattered) is left unalleviated, Levi’s is used for great ends of good. This is altogether like the Lord, who in sovereignty passes by whom He will, and shows favour where He will, but in both cases from reasons of highest holiness and wisdom, though hidden from us. (b) In the history of Levi’s youthful days we see a full-length portrait of the natural man. It is forbidding and repulsive, exhibiting all the strength of original corruption. He was educated in. Jacob’s tents, under a godly father’s care; was accustomed to stand at God’s altar and see the sacrifice; often heard the story of his father’s vision at Bethel; was kept as much as Joseph from the Canaanite idolatries; and yet, alas! the evil is unsubdued, and godly education is thrown away upon the man. Nay, fierce, cruel passions appear, and the young man rushes forth to gratify them. Under Jacob’s roof the viper is nourished; under Jacob’s shadow grows the all-blasting upas-tree; self-will, revenge, murderous hatred, are developed amid holy counsels and holy example. Levi, with his brother Simeon, even dares to use the sacrament of circumcision as a preparation for assault, urging the men of Shechem to use it only in order to unfit them for defence. It was a deed as foul as if we had persuaded an unarmed company to sit down at the Lord’s table, and then came upon them with weapons of death as they were eating the bread and taking the wine. And what is all this but the unfolding of the natural heart, "deceitful and desperately wicked"? Over such a one hangs the curse, the indignation, and wrath of an insulted God. "I will divide them, I will scatter them!" (c)Yet see how God can change the natural man and remove the curse. Go to the foot of Horeb on the day of the golden calf (Exodus 32:25-29), and there you find how the Spirit of God had silently been penetrating Levi’s families. Not only were Amram and Jochebed illustrious instances of grace and faith, with their three renowned children, Miriam, Aaron, and Moses; but now behold, the tribe, as a whole, rises up on the Lord’s side! How different from the days of Shechem! It is even as when the jailor was awakened by the Spirit, and his whole household with him. And thus Levi is consecrated to the Lord for ever, and becomes a tribe that does nothing but serve and minister for God. (d) But again; in him we see the privileges of the new man. The Lawgiver himself (so just is it to deal bountifully with the forgiven) pronounces the ample blessing of Deuteronomy 33:8-11. He gets guidance and guides others: God guides Levi, and Levi guides Israel. As it is still in the Church; God teaches sinners by a man taken from the same pit and miry clay, from the same curse and corruption. He has fellowship with God, approaching Him with the incense, in prayer, praise, meditation, and multiform service. There is blessing on his substance, too; and he is accepted in his works (1 Corinthians 15:58): victory is before him; he is more than conqueror. (e) Once more, here are the new man’s duties. Chosen, but not for any good in him beyond his brethren, he handles no more "instruments of cruelty" (Genesis 49:5), but, on the contrary it is his part now to bear the vessels of the tabernacle (Numbers 3:6-8), or, as it is expressed, "to keep the instruments of the tabernacle of the congregation." They enter into God’s assembly, and each has his own department of work: none is idle; for gratitude constrains them, forgiving love presses them onward. But, as in the Church still: they do not all serve in the same manner. There are three families in Levi, of whom one (Gershon) carries the tent, with its coverings and hangings; another (Kohath), the table, candlestick, and altar; and the third (Merari) the boards, bars, pillars, and sockets. So everyone serves, none envying the other, none complaining, none interfering; for God has appointed each one’s sphere. They served in the desert, on its sands; they served in Zion, but at last they reached the gold-covered floor of Solomon’s temple. Is not all this the history of the saints?
Besides all these teachings, Levi might furnish many other lessons. "THE LORD was his inheritance," is often repeated, telling all men where they will find enough. A true Levite’s song was Psalms 16:5-6. Again; this was the tribe that furnished so many singers to the Lord’s service, the Korahites, and other bands, with Heman, Ethan, Asaph, and the like. This tribe sent its representatives to David’s help armed for battle (1 Chronicles 12:26-28) with twenty and two captains. Of this tribe many were the thousands who gave up for the Lord houses and lands, glebes and manses, in the days of Jeroboam (2 Chronicles 11:14). And there is something in reserve for them in the latter days, when "the sons of Zadok," descendants of Phinehas (whose zeal won special promises for his seed), shall minister in that mysterious temple spoken of by Ezekiel the prophet (Ezekiel 44:15).
How strange to find a name LEVIATHAN ("the joined serpent") resembling Levi’s. But very different is their history and work. While Levi, joined to God, and joining others, is a blessing in the earth, Leviathan (Isaiah 27:1) joined in his scales, is forming confederacy and gathering together earth’s kings against the Lord and his Anointed. This crocodile of Egypt was the emblem of Antichrist, that enemy of God, who, with all his violence and power as "king over the children of pride" (Job 41:1-34), seeks to disjoin men from their only Saviour. But the Lord’s sword smites him (Isaiah 27:1); while Levi, who drew the sword for his Lord (Exodus 32:1-35), receives the blessing, and along with his brethren takes root again, and re-appears in holy beauties in the glory of the latter days (Isaiah 66:21).