Levi and Levites

Genesis chapter 49. Now I am going to divide the time. I know that preachers are horrid at dividing.

They can multiply like crazy, they can add, and if the addition doesn't work they start counting years, but I will try and divide this time and we'll be out of here at ten after five, even if I'm halfway through a statement. Genesis 49, verse 1, Jacob called unto his sons and said, gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together, here ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father.

Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. If you could only stop there. If that was all he had to say.

Verse 4, unstable as water, thou shalt not excel, because thou wentest up to my, thy father's bed, thou defilest thou it, he went up to my couch. Simeon, verse 5, and Levi our brethren, instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret.

Under their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united. For in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they dig down a wall, and so on. Verse 8, Judah.

Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow down before thee.

Judah is the lion's welt from prey. My son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, as an old lion shall rouse him up.

In our much love, verse number 10, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh coming unto him shall a gathering of the people be. Now over please to the New Testament, Acts chapter 4, Acts chapter 4, Acts chapter 4, and verse 36. Acts 4, verse 36.

And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which being interpreted, interpreted the son of a consolation, a Levite of the country of Cyprus. Now over to chapter 11, chapter 11, Acts chapter 11, verse 22. Then tidings of these things came out of the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch, who when he came and had seen the grace of God was glad and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they should cleave unto the Lord.

For he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord. Then departed Barnabas and Tarsus forth to seek Saul. Let's go back and read Luke chapter 10.

I was going to just quote from it, but just in all fairness, Luke chapter 10 for a final reading please. It's a well-known passage with a man at the side of the road. Luke chapter 10 and verse 29 really has given us the key to this man that did not want to know who his neighbor was.

Luke 10 verse 29, but he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Now we have the story, the ensuing story, and verse 32, and likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion on him. Levi and Levites take up a good deal of the portion of our Old Testament.

Much teaching is to be found in the Levites. Sometimes we have to go back to the beginning and realize where they came from. They came from Levi.

Levi was a man that did not really have that good of a start, but I think it should be an encouragement even if our start has not been that good. I'm going to show you how Levi ended up, or the Levites if you like, ended up. Before I come back to Genesis chapter 49, let me point out to you that in the New Testament there's only two Levites.

Only two. The only two Levites you have are this man unfortunately on the road there. In Luke chapter 10, Luke tells us about both Levites.

And here's a man, a priest, that maybe could have done something for this man that had fallen among thieves and was so brutalized. He comes right to the place, and he goes on the other side where he goes. Then we have another Levite, a good man.

His name is Barnabas. Let his tribe increase. God give us men like Barnabas, a man that could see and a man that could hear.

Sometimes, brethren, our vision is very short, and we are hard of hearing, even if we're not wearing hearing aids. But Barnabas could hear. He heard of the blessing, and he heard of what was going down on in Antioch.

Seemingly the church at Jerusalem, Antioch was off their radar, but he heard of this. So they send this good man, Barnabas, down to Antioch. And when he got there he could see.

Sometimes, brethren, we're blind. You know what he could see? He could see the grace of God. Now that's not hard to come to a company like this with a hall filled in a conference afternoon to see the grace of God and be glad.

But you know, there's something to go and break bread where there's seven of us to break bread, and you still see the grace of God, and you rejoice. There they are. They're so glad to see you.

And all our audiences are this size or the size of Vancouver last week, and I assure you. I have broken bread with little companies up there in Madison, Maine not that long ago, and there were seven of us, including my wife and I, that broke bread. But you know what I saw? Not how few they were.

I saw the grace of God and was glad. How about you? When was the last time that you could witness something you saw and you saw the grace of God? Brethren, I'm not saying because he's here and we're working in his neighborhood. I see the grace of God when I see a man the age or your platform before me this afternoon.

And if you weren't glad to see that, I feel sorry for you. Because there is a desperate need everywhere, in particular, where I'm standing right now for men to be raised up, to go forth the gospel, and to go before the people of God. And if the brethren don't know it, I'll tell you the sisters do.

But let's come back to Genesis chapter 49. Very interesting scene, Genesis 49. I'm one of those that believes that a preacher has just a little more imagination than most do.

However, you hope that it's sanctified so it could be helpful. But sometime I get that picture, this old man, he's in bed, you know, and old Jacob, life has been rough. Listen to what he says to Pharaoh about his years and what he hasn't attained unto and that.

There he is, kind of wrinkled up and crumpled up in that bed, sagging in the middle, and he's gonna bless these boys. Where's he gonna start? He's gonna start with his oldest. And he says, Reuben, my firstborn, my might, the beginning of my strength.

And he goes on, he says, the excellency of dignity, the excellency of power. You know, if Reuben was there, you'd think, hey, I'm firstborn in the family. Reuben was.

My dad didn't talk like this to me. He had other things to say, but Reuben would say, would you not say to those brothers, hey, get a load of this. Listen to what he said.

Hey, pop, repeat that again. Wait a minute, he's not done yet. Wait a minute, Reuben, he's not finished.

Listen to the language, superb, that he's saying about his son. My might, the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, the excellency of power. The old man's not finished.

Then he says, concerning this same man, unstable as water, thou shalt not excel, because thou wentest up to thy father's couch. Thou didst defile it, and thou wentest up to my bed. And Reuben never did excel.

When I go to Simeon Levi, the next two, that brings me to the Levi. You know, what's said about them really isn't that good either. You know, oh, he says, my soul, come not into their habitations.

Instruments of cruelty are with them. It's brutal what he has to say about Simeon Levi. As you would look at Simeon Levi and stroke them off or stroke Reuben off and say, nobody will come out of Reuben that'll amount to much, and nobody did.

But we'll come back to why some came out of Levi like they did. But now he comes to Judah. My, that must have been easy for Judah.

Judah wasn't Reuben in character, and he wasn't Simeon, and he wasn't Levi. But listen to the language that he begins when he speaks about Judah and goes on to speak of him. Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise.

Thy hand shall be upon the neck of thine enemies, thy father's children shall bow down before thee, and so on. Now, the question is this. Why so hard on Reuben? Why so hard on Levi? Doesn't even mention Judah's past, and he had a past that wasn't good either.

You remember that? What made the difference? Here's a man that was big enough to say he was wrong. Here's a man that repented. Here's a man that would look at a harlot that trapped him and say she was more honorable than me.

And because of that repentance publicly and in his heart, it's never brought up again. Isn't that wonderful? I've been enjoying about the prodigal. There's a lot of things the father brought up for the prodigal.

He brought up, you know, his shoes, his ring, and different things. He had the calf and everything else. There's one thing that the father never brought up about the prodigal was his past.

Never said to him, okay, I was gonna say buckwheat, but he wouldn't say that. He'd say, okay, boy, what are you doing down there? What are you up to? Never brought the past up. Are you like that, brethren? Are you gonna hold the past against somebody else forever and not break bread with them because they didn't have a past that you think wasn't as good as yours? You're wrong.

Now, Levi, I believe there was repentance of Levi. In fact, I'll prove it to you. Maybe not publicly, but there's repentance before God.

There's things in our lives, brethren and sisters, that we do have to repent before God and just get along with God and say, I was wrong. In a minuteness presence, if it means you've got to go publicly or go to somebody and say I was wrong, do it. If at times I've had to say to people, listen, this proves me wrong, I will come to your home, get down on my knees in front of you and admit I'm wrong.

That's Levi. You say, how do you know that happened with Levi? Well, just turn a few pages in your Bible. You come to Genesis chapter 32.

It's the issue of the calf and what happens with Levi. Boy, that was an easy scene. Just don't write that one off easy, because Levi is the man that stands up and from then on, it's like the gates, one after the other, open for Levi.

I'll go into that. So when I go back to Levi in the Old Testament, when I see him and what has happened in that sad, tragic chapter of 48 and Shechem and the men, and there they are, wreathing in pain and sorrow. And you look at Levi.

That's Levi, the natural man. That's the natural man. Hey, did that to your sister, what would you do? There are some things to be justified.

He could have looked around his brother and said, you boys aren't man enough. In Levi went. Maybe did it for the wrong reasons.

It was a hard chapter. That's why the next chapter, of course, follows on it. It's not in...Exodus chapter 32, now it is not Levi, the natural man.

It is Levi, the spiritual man. If you like, it's Levi, the unregenerate man with the men of Shechem. It is Levi, the regenerate man, Exodus chapter 32.

When I come to the New Testament, to my two Levites of the New Testament, only two. The man that will pass that man on the side of the road, what does he do? Die, which is natural. The unregenerate man has no interest in a person being saved.

Never. But come to a man like Barnabas, okay? A man like Barnabas. It wasn't his work.

He could have said, hey, this is going to a magazine here. If there's any laurels, I'm taking them here. These boys come here, they got no letter of commendation.

They don't know a pocket full of pens, as Mr. Paisley used to say, the big Bible bag. Nothing against you, Scott. They would say, hey, these guys don't count.

No. Who saw the work done there? I don't know. Did it matter? He was glad when he saw the grace of God.

That's your regenerate man. That's your spiritual man. You know how big a man he is? He could have said, hey, this is my pond.

Nobody's going to fish here. Seeks for Saul of Tarsus. Seeks for Saul.

Brings Paul in on it, a much younger man. That sometimes isn't easy to do. And we're reading about, you know, Barnabas and Paul, Paul and Barnabas, and it switches.

And pretty soon it's Barnabas and Paul and Barnabas and Paul. Do you know why? Because a regenerate man can handle that. The spiritual man can handle it.

But come back to Levi, just for a minute, if you would like. Levi, the natural man. In fact, really, I think the key to the chapter is in verse 2, when Jacob says, gather yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, there's your natural man.

Ye sons of Jacob, and harken unto Israel, there's your spiritual man. And then he begins. And so we have Levi here, unfortunately, at his father's bedside as he's dying.

He's the natural man. Too bad that the old man didn't live to see what that boy would bring forth. Who would come forth from the loins of a man like Levi? Never lived to see that.

Never lived to see him bring much joy. I preached with men. They went to their father's grave.

Father, as far as they know, their father died. They weren't saved. Father never had the joy of seeing them saved.

That's hard. I know preachers that have lost sons. That was one of the hardest graves, likely, that they ever went to.

So we have an Exodus chapter 32, if you like, Levi, after regeneration. He will take sides with the Lord. Who's on the Lord's side? And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him, unto the Lord.

What a change. What a potential. Simeon, Levi, Jacob said, we're brethren.

And Jacob didn't know this was going to happen. God did. That's why we have what we have in Genesis chapter 39.

You know, Levi's a man that started out with everything going against him, really, and ended up with everything going for him, for him. Think of the Levites as we know them. You know, the tribe of Levi produced some great men in our scriptures, great men in our Bible, in the Old Testament, particularly an Aaron, a Moses, a Phinehas, a Samuel, a Jehoiada, an Ezekiel, an Ezra, an Malachi, John the Baptist, Matthew, Mark, all from Levi.

Even though they're not called Levites, some of those in the New Testament. Nice to see that. God is a God of grace.

God is a very unforgiving God, a kind God. So unfortunately, we see this scene here. I am not sure, but if I had to write an exam to try and pass it, you would ask me who pushed Joseph into that pit, I would say it was Simeon.

I don't think Jacob was as deceived as sometimes he lets on. He gives himself away, really. You know what he says to the brethren? Me, ye have bereaved.

You've done it! You've done it! I don't think those boys are any different than some of these young boys that I have to work around today that thought they could pull one over on the old man. Hard job. Old Jacob wasn't fooled.

Look at a man that can, we're talking about a walk today, a man that can pull his feet up into his bed right at the end of the road. Isn't it nice to be with a man that has control over his walk right to the end of his life? Levi, he had a past. He had a piety, if you like.

He had a posterity. But his start, there's rivalry at his birth. Between Leah and Rachel, go back and see it.

There's cruelty in his behavior, but there's recovery. Cruelty, rather, in his behavior, yes, but there is recovery in his bravery. Man that will stand up.

God give us true Levites. I think that it is sweet, if it is not touching, that in 1 Chronicles, rather, chapter 15, after the scene that we have in chapter 14 and chapter 13, where that ark gets put upon a new cart, and it's making its way up, and Uzzah puts forth his hand, and he goes, just being a careful wagoneer, you would think, to steady that ark. As a result, he's smitten to death.

You know, David had some hard funerals. I'm looking at the faces of some today that had some hard funerals. David had some hard funerals.

Absalom and Abner, well, David tells you, they died at their own doings. Didn't have to happen. But there were other funerals he attended where I'm afraid David's fingerprints were on that coffin.

One of them had to be Uriah. That must have been a hard funeral to attend. The other had to be that infant's son.

You can't tell me his heart didn't break as he buried that boy. My father is not an emotional man. Ninety-six years of age, he needs your prayers.

Only saw him cry twice in my life. Saw him cry at the death of a baby daughter, a young sister. And I saw him cry in the north of Ireland while my mother died.

Here was a man that we're looking at here today. David. And it says, Uriah, the infant's son, and now it's Uzzah.

But what does chapter 13 and verse 11 say? The only time you have the expression, in your Bible. And it says this in chapter 13, verse 11, and well, chapter 13 is when it says that David was displeased because of the Lord's anger being kindled against Uzzah. In other words, David was part of that.

We can easily put the finger on Uzzah, but David really was part of it. But more than that, there's another time. And you go to that chapter and it says that the children of the Levites, the children of the Levites bear the ark.

You know, that tells me something that's so encouraging. I think it's the desire of every parent. Every spiritual man, hey, whether the boys make a go at business or what, yeah, you want them to do that.

But really, to have priestly men, men that can carry the ark the appointed way, the only time you have the expression, the children of the Levites, that ark is going on their shoulders. They're carrying it. Levi wasn't around to see that, but I think he'll be around to hear about it.

How about you today, your brother? Am I speaking to younger men up to my age? Mr. Sweeter didn't want to believe it the other day. He trusted me with a $395,000 airplane to fly back to Ontario, Wisconsin. I told my wife, well, he's got a lot of confidence in a 55-year-old pilot.

What are you laughing for? Same reason he did. He said, I told him I was behind the airplane all the way because it had one of these big glass cockpit panels in it. I was behind it.

No, no. He said, you weren't behind the airplane. I wouldn't let you have it.

You're behind the age. Let's go over quickly to the New Testament. I know there's some boys sitting on my left.

They're going to laugh if I don't cut at it. Ten after, I'm going to cut it. Come to the New Testament.

Never mind the man at the side of the road. Give me a man like Barnabas. Here's our Levite.

This is the man that we want to be, isn't it? A man like him. Just look at the difference in him versus a man like, we're not even giving his name. It's not worth talking about.

Here's a man that sees the grace of God and he's glad. He rejoices. You know what he can do? He can rejoice in the work of others.

God bless his word.