"So the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood. 2 And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. 3 They shall keep guard over you and over the whole tent, but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar lest they, and you, die. 4 They shall join you and keep guard over the tent of meeting for all the service of the tent, and no outsider shall come near you. 5 And you shall keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel. 6 And behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting. 7 And you and your sons with you shall guard your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and that is within the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift, and any outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”
Numbers 18:1-7
The lessons and indeed the point of this chapter are not immediately apparent, and we might be tempted to pass it with some impatience as a passage in which the complicated rituals of early Israel did not have much to say to us. But this would be misleading and inadvisable: we must remember that the Scriptures disclose their best and most fruitful lessons to patient and painstaking enquiry, not to superficial examination. When we go step by step, seek- ing to find out what the Lord would have us learn here, we note in the first place the connection between the contents of this chapter and what has immediately preceded it. The rebels had just challenged Aaron in the priesthood: they had coveted his place and position and privileges. And here, God paints a clear picture of the priesthood for them, to show them it is not something to covet. He unfolds the responsibilities of priesthood, as a warning, so to speak, against carnal coveting of the office. The truth is, it is possible to covet place in the work of the Lord, and to do it as a means of self-expression, for the gratification of personal ambition, and as the expression of a lust for power, or even merely for the prestige it seems to bestow. It is odd, is it not, that what attracts from the outside, is in fact the kudos, the glory and the dignity? The other side never seems to be seen, with its solemn responsibilities match- ing every privilege in it! This is one of the important lessons the chapter proclaims, and it is so important that we shall do well to dwell on it a little further.