Word of Encouragement (03/23/2023)
And of Levi he said, "Give to Levi your Thummim, and your Urim to your godly one, whom you tested at Massah, with whom you quarreled at the waters of Meribah; 9 who said of his father and mother, 'I regard them not'; he disowned his brothers and ignored his children. For they observed your word and kept your covenant. 10 They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law; they shall put incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar. 11Bless, O LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his hands; crush the loins of his adversaries, of those who hate him, that they rise not again."(Deut. 33:8-11)
In the second half of his blessing on Levi, Moses deals with the priestly responsibilities, of which he mentions two: teaching the rest of Israel God’s rules and law; to offer sacrifices on the altar.
We are all familiar with the second (offering sacrifices). When we think of priests, we think of their service at the tabernacle/temple, especially assisting the people with their sacrifices to the LORD. And this role is what gets more focus throughout the Old Testament. That is understandable because the center of Israel’s life was the temple, and the sacrifices that were offered there, which addressed their sin problem, were what allowed them to approach God in worship. And so, Jesus Christ came as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29) so that we might worship God in spirit and truth.
But not all the priests served at the temple all at the same time; there were too many of them. So, they took turns and served only for a certain period in a year or even years (Luke 1:9, 23). Then, what did they do when they were not serving at the temple? The first part of v. 10 gives us an answer: “They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law.” This was the reason that the Levitical priests were divided and assigned to live among the twelve tribes of Israel. When they were not serving at the temple, they were supposed to teach the law to their respective tribes.
We get a glimpse of this when the Jews got together after coming back from their exile in Babylon to hear the law read by Ezra. We are told, “Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading” (Neh. 8:7-8). We don’t know how faithfully the priests carried out their teaching responsibility. We suspect, from Israel’s history of covenant unfaithfulness and idolatry, that it was not done well.
But we can see why the teaching responsibility of priesthood was so important. Without the proper knowledge of God’s law, the sacrificial system would be like pouring water into a bottomless bucket; it may be likened to a thief, who has no desire to stop stealing, coming to the temple regularly to offer sacrifices for God’s forgiveness. The purpose of the sacrificial system was not to give people license to sin. In fact, the sin and guilt offerings were for unintentionally committed sins, not for intentional sins (e.g., Lev. 4:2)! The religious norm set for the Israelites was to be well-acquainted with God’s law and observe it faithfully. This was unlikely to happen when the people were ignorant of God’s law because they were not properly taught by the priests.
The Israelites could have blamed the priests for their ignorance of God’s law. But it is hard for us to make the same excuse, isn’t it? I trust that you have ample opportunities to grow in the knowledge of God’s Word in our church. And unlike the Israelites of old, we have God’s full revelation readily available to us in the Bible. How about all the great teachings available everywhere these days? True, just because we have a lot of head knowledge of God’s Word doesn’t mean we live by it. But, without it, we cannot hope to live according to God’s design, can we? And God has given us the Holy Spirit, who has regenerated our hearts and works in us to sanctify us in conformity to Christ. May the Lord increase our desire to take advantage of all the preaching and teaching ministries of our church so we can grow in our understanding of God’s will. To that end, let us pray for greater hunger for God’s Word. Let us also pray for the ones entrusted with preaching and teaching to speak truthfully, powerfully, and effectively!