Chapter 18
The Levites given to Aaron to guard the tent of meeting, but NOT to come too near. Only Aaron and his sons could go in, and they were obligated to guard all that was within the tent.
This interesting verse:
1 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. [Num 18:1 ESV]
Any sins or misdeeds connected with the sanctuary and Aaronic priesthood would be born only by them. They most likely will have to make sacrifices of atonement that apply only to them, and then separate atonement sacrifices for the people. The whole tribe of Levi is to guard the sanctuary so that those who should not be there are not killed, and if outsiders "break in", which is unholy, then not only these, but the priests will also die for letting it happen. Being an Aaronic priest was a great honor, but it was not without its drawbacks. It was never to be taken lightly.
2021 - This year, it seems to me that after Korah, the people of the camp were further restricted from approaching the tent of meeting. There are those last few verses of 17, where the people are now afraid even to go near the tabernacle, and now these verses. Note also that 18 starts with "So..." as if connecting it to what came before in 17. They were afraid to come near the tabernacle. So at the beginning of 18 God puts additional responsibility on Aaron and the Levites. He makes them all priests, not just Aaron and his descendants. The Levites weren't to come near the altar. Surely this is about the altar of incense, not the altar outside where all those sacrifices are made? I see no way that Aaron and his sons alone could do all the work of sacrifice without help. MSB does not address it this way, says very little at all about it. At the end of 17, MSB says the people's realization that Aaron was chosen of God led to a reaffirmation of Aaron and his sons as priests. Maybe so, but it seems to me that there was more to it than that. Were the people bringing sacrifices ever let into the outer court of the tabernacle where the laver and altar were? If so, then this seems to be a change. If not...then MSB is right.
2023 - This verse:
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. [Num 18:3 ESV]. The word used here for altar can be traced back all the way to Gen. 8.20 when Noah built his altar. This word is used for the altar on which the burnt offerings were sacrificed and also for the altar of incense, within the tent of meeting. Somehow, you have the court, which is enclosed by curtains that go all the way around the tent, and then inside, as you walk past the laver and the altar, you get to the tent itself. Inside the tent is the Holy of Holies, and this is where the lampstand, the table of shewbread, and the altar of incense are located. And beyond that, through the veil, is the Holy of Holies, containing the Ark and the Mercy Seat. I find it very difficult to say that this vs 3 is about the altar of sacrifice. I just do not see how the massive amount of work that would be associated with all the countless sacrifices being made could be handled by Aaron and his sons alone. What does sanctuary mean? And why would the altar need to be "added" to the injunction about the sanctuary?
Still 2023 -
This verse is the first time the word used in 3 above is used anywhere in the Bible. In this verse from Exodus, the word is translated "holy", in the phrase holy ground. So we see that this is the ground right up next to God. It turns out that this word, qodesh, pronounced like kodesh, is translated as holy 262 times and as sanctuary only 68 times. So...what about "shall not come near the holy vessels or to the altar...In any case, back to the original point, this DOES in fact all point to the interpretation that Aaron and his sons, and only Aaron and his sons, could approach that altar on which all the sacrifices were burnt. I don't see how they could possibly do that by themselves.
Still 2023 - So there are many consequences to Korah's rebellion. It seems to have been the most serious attempt to unseat Moses...by first unseating Aaron. They wanted to be the chosen, they wanted to override God's sovereign choice. (Like when a man decides he's a woman). Because of this, there's this stepped expansion of the buffer between where God dwells, above the Mercy Seat, and the sons of Levi, and then also the congregation. Remember that Korah was a Levite. His rebellion, his presumptuousness, his ambition, results not only in his death, but in his entire tribe, and then his entire people, being pushed back further away from God. Wow! And all these new rules are a part of that expanding buffer.
Still 2023, this verse:
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. [Num 18:5 ESV]. This instruction is given directly to Aaron. Never again wrath...It almost seems that Korah and his followers not only demanded to be priests like Aaron, but they presumed to begin functioning as such, and they had sacrificed on the altar and they had gone into the tent. No one had stopped them. Perhaps previously, the Levites had been allowed in these places to clean and maintain and to service the holy items and the altar, but when they decided that proximity also granted them the right to offer sacrifices and to "approach" the holy items, they should have been stopped, and there was no one to stop them. So God says here to keep them back forever, because if they are so impertinent again, both they AND Aaron and his sons, are going to die.
And this verse:
8 Then the LORD spoke to Aaron, "Behold, I have given you charge of the contributions made to me, all the consecrated things of the people of Israel. I have given them to you as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual due. [Num 18:8 ESV]
God speaks directly to Aaron, as he always does to Moses. This is a very rare thing.
Aaron and the priests were to receive as their portion many of the things offered to God. Some things only the males could eat but most things, any clean person could eat. These were given the priesthood in perpetuity. Imagine the temptation...
The Levites are given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance. Yet they were also to give a tithe of the tithe.
19 All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the LORD I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the LORD for you and for your offspring with you." [Num 18:19 ESV]
2021 - I have noted this verse before and tried to contrast people as salt of the earth with people as light of the world under the new covenant. Salt and light. But reading it now, I get more context. It was the covenant between God and the priesthood of Aaron that was a covenant of salt. This does not seem here to apply to all the people. Yet I know that elsewhere, with any offering made to God, salt was to be included. It is not in any of the original instructions for sacrifices, but shows up later. This verse in Numbers, after the revolt of Korah, is the first place we see it mentioned at all, and here it seems exclusive to the priesthood.
2021 - This verse, in connection with the 2021 note above about the people no longer coming near the tabernacle at all:
22 so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. [Num 18:22 ESV] So first, after the golden calf, God wasn't going to be in the camp at all. But he relented because of Moses' pleadings, and dwelt in the Holy of Holies, behind the veil, a little separated from direct contact with the people. Now, after the revolt of Korah, the people are pushed back further. Not only to outside the tent, but there was an additional buffer. They couldn't even come near the tent. This was all during the 40 years of wandering also. They had been turned back from Canaan, then Korah and the rebellion, and now this.