There were upwards of six hundred thousand men above the age of twenty, besides the Levites and women and children, probably more than two millions altogether. But Jehovah gathered them all around Himself, as a father would gather his children, and covered them with the skirts of His cloud, both by night and by day.—“He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night.” (Ps. cv. 39.) Thus was the Lord’s family in the place of rest, peace, and blessing. The blood of the everlasting covenant had been sprinkled on the mercy-seat within the vail, and judgment had been executed on the sin-offering outside the camp. God was now a wall of fire around His people, and the glory in the midst of them. Oh that Israel had known—oh that Israel had understood the loving-kindness of the Lord, and so put all their trust in Him! (See Deut. xxxii, xxxiii.)
In the position and service of the Levites there is always much that is interesting to the Christian. They were typical of the Church (or of the individual Christian) in service, just as the priests were typical of the Church in worship. The fact of the Levites being taken for the service of the Lord in place of the first-born, gave them a very special character. They were first-fruits unto the Lord. Thus it is that the Church is, as the first-fruits, holy to the Lord—“the church of the first-born ones.” (Jas. i.; Heb. xii.)
As the Levites thus became God’s possession for service, and belonged wholly to Him, so it is with the Church. We are redeemed—we are not our own—we are bought with a price; therefore we are to glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits, which are His. We are to serve the living God, in communion with Christ our great High-Priest above. The calling of the Church, however, is a much higher thing than the position of the Levites; for she is one with Christ, and the Holy Ghost gives the capacity and the gift for Christian service.
In conclusion, we may safely affirm that there is no truth in Christianity of such importance, or of such practical power, as the blessed truth of the Church’s relationship to Christ. “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power.” (Col. ii. 9, 10.) We can only be men of war, worshiping priests, serving Levites, in the highest and truest sense, in the proportion that we live in the power of this great truth. We are joined to the Lord by the one Spirit; our life is hid with Christ in God. May we be content to be the Lord’s hidden ones as to this world, and only to be seen and known as His servants, until He come, then shall we also appear with Him in glory.
May the Lord accompany with His own rich blessing, and clothe with His own divine power, this volume of “NOTES ON NUMBERS;” and may He accept it as service to Himself, and use it for His own glory, and to His name alone be undivided praise. Amen.