Numbers 18

Numbers 18:1-7

God evidently gave these instructions to Aaron (Numbers 18:1). They deal with the boundary lines between Israelites who were not Levites, Levites, and priests. The priestly office carried great responsibility as well as great privilege. The priests bore the guilt of what all the Israelites did as well as what they themselves did. The sacrifices, of course, covered this guilt.

God gave the Levites to the priests as their assistants to help them with certain aspects of the work of the sanctuary (Numbers 18:6). Outsiders, non-priests, and Levites could not intrude on the priestly office or they would die (Numbers 18:7). “The study of the cultic use of qrb/ngs demonstrates that its meaning goes beyond simple, physical approach to the more abstract amplifications: ‘have access to,’ ‘be admitted to,’ ‘be associated with.’ In prohibitions .. . it means ’encroach.’” [Note: Jacob Milgrom, “The Cultic Use of qrb/ngs,” in Proceedings of the Fifth World Congress of Jewish Studies, 1:84. “A key phrase of this chapter is ‘I give you’ (Numbers 18:7; cf. Numbers 18:12; Numbers 18:19; Numbers 18:26, etc.). God takes care of His own.” [Note: Jensen, p. 77.

Numbers 18:8-13

God gave Aaron these instructions too (Numbers 18:8). The priests received all the heave offerings that the Israelites brought to the tabernacle. These were all the gifts that the people presented to God (Numbers 18:8-9; cf. Numbers 5:9). They included parts of the meal, sin, and trespass offerings (Numbers 18:9-10). The skin of some burnt offerings became the priests’ too, but Moses did not mention this, probably because its value was negligible. These were “most holy” offerings (Numbers 18:9). The priest also received what the offerer waved before the Lord in the peace offering (Numbers 18:11) and the gifts of first-fruits that the people offered each year (Numbers 18:12; cf. 2 Chronicles 31:5; Nehemiah 10:36; Nehemiah 10:38).

Numbers 18:14-19

Everything placed under the ban (Numbers 18:14), and the first-born of man and beast that the people redeemed or offered (Numbers 18:15-18), were “holy” offerings (Numbers 18:10; Numbers 18:19). The “everlasting covenant of salt” (Numbers 18:19) was an indestructible covenant similar to salt (cf. 2 Chronicles 13:5). The ancients used salt in the ritual of making some covenants in the Near East. “At a meal in which a covenant between two parties was sealed, people in ancient times occasionally used salt to signify the incorruptible, firm, and lasting quality of the agreement.” [Note: Maarsingh, p. 65. “The meaning appears to have been that the salt, with its power to strengthen food and keep it from decay, symbolized the unbending truthfulness of that self-surrender to the Lord embodied in the sacrifice, by which all impurity and hypocrisy were repelled.” [Note: Unger’s Bible Dictionary, 1957 ed., s.v. “Covenant of Salt.”] God gave the priests five gifts: their office, a spirit of responsibility, helpers, every provision for earthly needs, and Himself. [Note: Jensen, pp. 78-79.

Numbers 18:20

Aaron, the high priest, received a special portion.

Numbers 18:21-24

The tithes of the Israelites became the Levites’ possession (Numbers 18:21-24; cf. Leviticus 27:30-33). God gave the instructions for receiving the tithes to Moses (Numbers 18:25).

Numbers 18:25-32

The Levites were to give a tithe of the tithe they received from the people to the priests. This tithe was to include the best of what the other Israelites gave to them (Numbers 18:30; Numbers 18:32). “Whereas in heathen states, where there was an hereditary priestly caste, that caste was generally a rich one, and held a firm possession in the soil (in Egypt, for example; see at Gen. xlvii. 22), the Levites received no hereditary landed property in the land of Israel, but only towns to dwell in among the other tribes, with pasturage for their cattle (chap. xxxv.), because Jehovah, the God of Israel, would be their inheritance.” [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, 3:119. Had the Israelites been faithful in their tithing the Levites would have received about five times as much as ordinary Israelites (cf. Genesis 43:34). Unfortunately the Jews were not completely obedient to these laws. “What is to be made of the writer’s exclusion of Moses in these matters that relate so closely to the duties of the priests? Why is Moses so conspicuously left out of the picture [until Numbers 18:25]? The answer perhaps lies in the author’s desire to tell us something about the role of Moses as leader of God’s people. His role is not limited to the work of a priest. Aaron is shown here assuming most of that responsibility. In the view of the writer, then, it appears that the role of Moses was becoming more distinct from the office of priest.

Thus the writer attempts to show that Moses’ role as mediator of the covenant, already well established throughout these narratives, was not merely a priestly one. There is a concern to show that he also functioned in the role of prophet as well as king, two themes that will receive further development in the book of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 18:15; Deuteronomy 33:5). Hence as the picture of Moses develops within the Pentateuch, it more closely resembles the future messianic ruler, who is anticipated already in the Pentateuch as a prophet, a priest, and a king.” [Note: Sailhamer, p. 393.