Bamidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) — God’s Purpose and Not Our Own
The first Torah Portion for the book of Numbers is all about … numbers. However, there is a great deal to learn from this passage that has little to do with numbers and all about the sovereignty and majesty of God.
In the first two chapters of Numbers, we find Moses, at the command of God, conducting a census of military-aged men from each of the tribes (except for Levi) and then arranging those tribes in a square surrounding the tent of meeting and the tribe of Levi. The total number of fighting men for the nation of Israel was 603,550 individuals. Now we could stop for a moment and attempt to contemplate how a family group of 70, when Jacob arrived in Egypt, had blossomed into a nation with an army of over half a million (please note that this is not a census of everyone, just fighting-aged men). God had indeed blessed the sons of Jacob and Joseph (since two of the tribes are Manasseh and Ephraim) even in the midst of slavery and oppression for they are now on their wilderness journey. By the way, I actually believe in the literalness of the numbers and not just that Moses engaged in some figurative accounting, as some do.
However, this portion will focus in on three rather unusual verses in chapter three (verses 11-13).
And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn that opens the matrix among the children of Israel: therefore the Levites shall be mine; Because all the firstborn are mine; for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast: mine shall they be: I am the Lord. (KJV – Public Domain)
In this section, God states that while all the people of Israel belong to Him, he is going to set aside the men of Levi as a substitute for the firstborn sons of all the tribes of Israel. They are set aside to be priests (as is elaborated upon in the rest of chapters three and four) and for His purposes.
On first glance, these verses could be (in our modern human understanding) an awkward and difficult passage to read. Why is God demanding unconditional loyalty and priesthood from the tribe of Levi? What if someone named “Menachem Levi” wanted to be a carpenter and not a priest? Why can he not have a say in the matter?
The answer, therefore. cannot be found in our 21st-century prism of “rugged individualism” but in the 3,500-year-old reality of the twelve tribes. Levi was the smallest of the tribes but had stood up at Mount Sinai against the idol worshippers. They were the tribe of Moses and Aaron. They were not more important than any other tribe (and this is crucial to remember), but God had chosen them to be the priests for His people. He could have demanded that the firstborn of every family (regardless of what tribe) be a priest, but he selected a select group for a particular purpose. And today, regardless of who we are or where we live, God has a purpose for us as well. We must follow this purpose regardless of our human desires because He truly knows best. God often goes in a direction that we are not accustomed to in our 21st-century world. I am glad for this because it goes to illustrate that God’s purposes are far beyond our imagination or understanding. Shalom.
