Daily Devotion | Numbers 3:40–51 | 2026 April 10

Title: Daily Devotion | Numbers 3:40–51 | 2026 April 10

Scripture: Numbers 3:40–51 (ESV, reference only)

Date: 2026 April 10

Speaker: Rev. John Chen

Transcribed, translated & edited by: Joseph Wang (Yufan)

Dear brothers and sisters, peace be with you. We thank God for His grace that has brought us to a new day to study Daily Devotion. Today we are studying Numbers chapter 3, verses 40 to 51. Let us pray.

O God, how greatly You love us. Lord, You allow us to serve You, and You allow us to belong to You. Lord, what great mercy this is that You have given to us. We are people who have a Lord; we are people who have a Master. Lord, have mercy on us, lead us, and enable us to follow You and obey You better. We pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Brothers and sisters, today we come to Numbers chapter 3, this passage from verse 40 to verse 51. Yesterday I mentioned that, actually, yesterday we did not speak on chapter 3, verses 11 to 13 either. So today we will speak on this theme, namely, what it means for the Israelites to be consecrated to Jehovah.

In chapter 3, verses 11 to 13, it says, “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the people of Israel. The Levites shall be mine. For all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated for my own all the firstborn in Israel, both of man and of beast. They shall be mine: I am the Lord.” Here we see that through Moses, through what God said to Moses, Scripture is telling us, and telling Israel, that there is a certain concept that we must establish.

What is this concept? It is that when God struck down the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, in fact, the firstborn sons of Israel and their firstborn livestock also should have been struck down. We must grasp this logic. If we do not grasp this logic, then we will not understand what this means. That is to say, in fact, the Israelites in the land of Egypt were not more righteous than the Egyptians.

When God brought the last plague, when He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt on that night, in fact, the firstborn sons of Israel and the firstborn of their livestock also should have been struck down. This is a background that we need to know, or we may say, this is God’s logic. You need to understand God’s logic. And through the lamb’s blood being applied to the doorposts and the lintel, they were able to pass over that disaster.

What does it mean that they passed over the disaster? The symbolism is very clear. In Scripture, it means that the lamb stood in their place. And after the lamb stood in their place, those firstborn Israelites, and also their firstborn livestock, were no longer their own. Whose were they? They were God’s. So this is a concept that we need gradually to establish, because this concept runs throughout the whole Bible. That is to say, for the Israelites, they were never autonomous.

They had only two choices: either to be servants of Pharaoh, or to be servants of Jehovah. I think this kind of condition is a tremendous reminder to us as human beings. But strictly speaking, ever since the West—and many currents of thought in China were imported from the West—in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, one defining feature of Western thought has been this: we are autonomous, we are free, we do not need to be anyone’s servants.

This is obviously Satan’s lie. Because when man says that he will no longer be God’s servant, no longer follow God’s statutes and rules, and no longer walk after God, then in fact he is following Satan. He is being deceived by Satan. And what Satan wants most is man’s autonomy. The more autonomous man becomes, the happier Satan is, because the more autonomous man becomes, the more he follows him.

But in fact, as creatures, and especially as Christians, we must know in our hearts that as creatures, there is not even one moment in which we can exist independently from God. The very fact that man is created tells us that man is not autonomous at all. So here, in chapter 3, verses 11 to 13, God tells Israel in a very direct way: when I struck down the firstborn and the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, actually all the firstborn among Israel also should have been struck down. Therefore, after they were covered by the lamb and by the lamb’s blood, they should belong to Me. They should belong to Me.

So what do all the firstborn sons and all the firstborn livestock represent? What do the Egyptians represent? And what do the Israelites also represent? For the Egyptians, when God struck down Egypt’s firstborn, beginning from Pharaoh’s son all the way to the livestock in the city, it signified God’s total curse upon the whole of Egypt. That is to say, God struck down all your property. Every breathing firstborn was struck down, and the livestock were struck down. This shows that everything that had the breath of life was struck down.

And for the Israelites, it means the same thing. That is to say, when the Israelites were in Egypt, their firstborn sons and their firstborn livestock also should have been struck down. Now they belong to Jehovah. So I think that verses 11 to 13 give us a very clear biblical concept. Man may not accept this concept, and may not understand it, but Scripture is very clear: all people and all livestock must belong to Jehovah and be holy to Him.

Under the revelation of Scripture, humanity cannot possibly be autonomous. All autonomy is a lie. Either we serve God, or we are serving Satan. I think this is a concept that we especially need to be clear about. And when we are consecrated to Jehovah, brothers and sisters, you must remember that this is not as though God is coming to harm us. You may say, “Oh, I have finally come out from Pharaoh, and now I have become God’s slave again. That seems really unfortunate.”

But this is completely wrong. The actual fact is that, as creatures, to be set apart by God, to belong to Jehovah, is the greatest glory of the creature.

That is what we said concerning verses 11 to 13. Now then, let us turn back and begin here to count the number of the Israelites. What was their number? It says here that all the names of the firstborn in Israel were to be recorded. Why were the names of the firstborn recorded? Because they were to belong to Jehovah as holy. “I am the Lord. You shall take the Levites for me instead of all the firstborn among the people of Israel.”

That is to say, theoretically speaking, according to God’s logic—and remember this—it is all the people who belong to Jehovah, not merely the firstborn. The firstborn is only a representative. You need to understand this. When the firstborn sons and the firstborn livestock are consecrated to Jehovah, when God says, “They are mine,” this does not mean that only the firstborn sons and the livestock belong to Jehovah. In fact, they are representative. And what is the meaning of that symbol? The meaning is that all the Israelites belong to Me; all of them wholly belong to Me. It is not just one class of people. It is not just the firstborn sons, lest someone try to evade the matter and say, “Anyway, I am not the firstborn son, so I do not have to belong to Jehovah.”

No. The firstborn son represents the entire family as belonging to Jehovah. And what do we see here? In theory, all the firstborn sons of Israel should have been consecrated; they all should have served; the firstborn sons should have served the tabernacle of Jehovah; the firstborn sons should have ministered at the tabernacle and the altar. In theory, that is how it should be. Then here God makes another transfer. And what is that transfer? It is this: I am not going to use your firstborn sons. Whom will I use? I will select just one man—no, I will select one tribe—to serve Me. And that tribe is the tribe of Levi.

So the numbers must match. How many are there in the tribe of Levi? How many firstborn are there in Israel? Once those numbers match, what does that show? It shows that every one of you in Israel belongs to Me.

Remember, if we go back to the previous model, then all the firstborn sons from among Israel would be chosen and brought here to the tabernacle to do the work of offering and service. Remember, when a family offered up its firstborn son to perform this service at the altar, in fact it meant that every person in the whole nation of Israel was turning toward Jehovah, and all had to provide for that firstborn so that he could serve at the altar. This is the logic that we need to have.

But now God changes the model. He says, I am not going to use your firstborn sons. I am going to use the Levites in their place. Therefore, the number of the Levites must correspond to the number of the firstborn sons. So here they begin to count among Israel, that is, to count the firstborn sons. And what is the number? Twenty-two thousand, two hundred and seventy-three.

What kind of number is that? It means that at that time, the Israelites had twenty-two thousand, two hundred and seventy-three households—there were that many households. In those households, we say, there were six hundred thousand men able to bear arms, those above twenty years old. So if you roughly work it out, with about two million people in total, then each household, roughly speaking, had around one hundred people. That is, one family, one large clan grouping, was about one hundred people. Then with this total of about two million people, the numbers roughly line up.

Then God says here that the Levites are to be taken instead of the people of Israel, and the same is true regarding the livestock: the livestock of the Levites are to be taken in place of theirs. But what was the final result? The firstborn among Israel turned out to be more numerous than the Levites. They exceeded them by two hundred and seventy-three persons. So how many Levites were there when the number was taken? There were twenty-two thousand, right? Twenty-two thousand. But among Israel there were twenty-two thousand, two hundred and seventy-three. So there were two hundred and seventy-three extra.

And this matter could not be handled carelessly. So what was to be done? These two hundred and seventy-three people each had to pay five shekels as redemption money. And to whom was this redemption money to be given? It was to be given to Aaron and to Aaron’s sons, so that the total number of the firstborn and the total number of the Levites could be made equal. You must fill up the number. Therefore, verse 49 says that Moses took the redemption money from those who were over and above those redeemed by the Levites. And from the firstborn of the people of Israel he took the money of redemption. According to the shekel of the sanctuary, the total came to one thousand three hundred and sixty-five.

All right. Five shekels each. Verses 40 to 51. In this way the account was balanced. So from this perspective, the whole nation of Israel, by means of this method, by adding this redemption money bit by bit, made the number of the Levites correspond to the number of the households and the clans. And once this was joined together, all the people belonged to Jehovah. So here what we see is that all the Levites were replacing the firstborn of Israel in serving God. The number was fully matched, and so God completed this matter.

All right. The family of Levi serves Me. But the premise of the Levite family serving God is that they are serving God in the place of Israel’s firstborn sons. So very clearly, the whole house of Israel, the entire nation, has to support the tribe of Levi, because these are your firstborn. This is what represents all your inheritance in Israel.

So here we see first that the Levites replace the firstborn. And very clearly, God raises their position by one level. The Levites stand in a nearer relationship to God. Because the meaning of the firstborn is that within the family he must become an example. He must follow his father, imitate his father, and then after his father passes away, the firstborn must take up responsibility for the whole family.

Now this typology of the firstborn very naturally leads us to think of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is our Firstborn; He is the Firstborn of the whole human race. He is called the Son of Man, and the meaning of that is that He is the representative of the whole human race, the second Adam, the second representative of mankind. And this Son of Man must bear all the conduct, all the responsibility, of all those who are within this people of His. So as the representative of the covenant of grace, the Lord Jesus Christ became the Firstborn. He redeemed our sins. He fulfilled all righteousness. Therefore all who trust in Him can be called righteous.

So this meaning of the firstborn appears again and again in Scripture, and it also tells us what the meaning of the firstborn is. The meaning of the firstborn is that he is to become the example for the people. So as for the Levites, they were to become the example for the whole nation. It was not enough for them merely to possess the title of the firstborn. Nor was it simply that their work was different, as though they merely served at the altar while others simply did ordinary work. It is not that simple. Rather, these Levites truly had to obey God’s statutes and ordinances as firstborn sons would, and they had to live out a glorious pattern.

So here God also established a kind of order. Among the Israelites, He specially selected one tribe, the tribe of Levi, so that this tribe of Levi might have such a glorious life, know the law, serve at the altar, and thus be able to teach the Israelites to follow God, just as the firstborn stands in the family. Therefore, in the design of Israel as a people, the tribe of Levi is an extremely important tribe. Because if the tribe of Levi prospers, then the whole nation of Israel prospers. On the other hand, if the tribe of Levi falls into corruption, then obviously the nation will also fall into corruption.

Why? Because they are the ones who explain the law. They are the ones who understand Scripture. If this priestly class becomes lacking, then the whole nation will sink into darkness. And this condition is exactly the pattern that we see in the book of Judges.

In the book of Judges, the Levites fell. The two sons of Eli, right, began to become corrupt. Then the people also began to become corrupt. And when the people became corrupt, the Levites themselves fell to the point of wandering on the streets. In the end they entered into a pattern of mutual destruction: Levites harming Israelites, and also harming Levites. This mutual-destruction pattern is how the whole nation began to decline more and more. If the whole priestly class, if this firstborn class, becomes weak, then the whole faith will become deeply corrupted.

So why does God keep prescribing again and again that the Levites must do this and do that? In Numbers—and next time, in our next study, we will still speak about the Levites, about how they pack up the tabernacle and how they do these things—why is that? Because this tribe has been specially set apart to serve at the altar. They must learn the law. They must teach the law to Israel. They draw near to God. They are this priestly community. They bring blessing down from God, and they also bring the needs of Israel before God.

On every Day of Atonement, they make atonement for Israel, so that the whole nation may live under God’s blessing. So as we have repeatedly mentioned before, for the Israelites, God’s blessing and God’s curse were the most important matters for them as a nation. In fact, this is equally applicable today. Do not think that these Old Testament stipulations were only for the people of the Old Testament, that they were useful only in the old era, and that now we are in a new age and we rely on science or on something else. That is completely wrong.

The reason for the flourishing of a nation still lies in Jehovah’s blessing or Jehovah’s curse. If Jehovah blesses, that nation will prosper. If Jehovah curses that nation, that nation will decline. This is inevitable, because everything is centered on God. It is just that Scripture has revealed this truth. And of course, after it is revealed, some may not accept it. That is their matter of not accepting it; it does not mean it is not the truth. This is something we need to understand.

Now in the final portion of our time, I want to speak briefly about application—what does it mean for us that the Levites replace Israel and are consecrated to Jehovah? What does this mean for us in practice?

First, at the level of the church: God will raise up in the church certain ordained servants—pastors, elders, and deacons, as well as coworkers. These people, in their essence, are not more holy than the rest of the congregation. That is certain. Everyone is a sinner, everyone has weakness. However, God, within a people, will especially call some individuals to arise and to devote themselves particularly to serving His Word, studying theology, building up the church, and managing the affairs of the church. Such an arrangement is in accordance with Scripture.

It is not like certain evangelical tendencies that flatten everything into complete equality, saying that we are all equally moved by the Holy Spirit in the same way. That is not the case. God raises up certain people in the church—like the tribe of Levi—to do what? To diligently study God’s law, and to faithfully carry out the work of teaching. Pastors, elders, and deacons—what are they to do? They are to teach God’s law.

This does not mean that ordained servants are more holy than ordinary members of the congregation—there is no such principle—but they must indeed set an example. They must live out a holy life, so that the people in the church may follow them.

From a Reformed doctrinal perspective, we have also said that the workplace is also a field. One of the greatest emphases of the Reformation is that the whole world is, as it were, the Christian’s monastery—every person can glorify God in their own vocation. This is certainly true. But I have also mentioned that, in the matter of glorifying God and in understanding God’s law, there is an order of priority—not a priority of status, for status is equal, but a priority of order.

In terms of order, God indeed has a tribe—the Levites—who represent Israel in belonging to Jehovah. Therefore, the church must support such people. Why? So that they can better devote themselves to studying God’s statutes and ordinances. They are no longer occupied with other matters. This does not mean that other work is more secular or inferior. Rather, it means that God’s calling for this group is specifically to follow Him in a concentrated way. Therefore, the polity of the Reformed Presbyterian church, in my view, accords very well with Scripture, in that there are ordained servants. This is the first point.

The second point is at the level of our personal practice. Brothers and sisters, you must remember that every person belongs to Jehovah. If you do not belong to Jehovah, then you belong to the devil. This is not a matter of whether you choose or do not choose—it is a fact. The only question is whether you have been awakened to it.

Since all of us, through this pattern—through offering the firstborn son to God, through offering the firstborn livestock to God—have already been consecrated to Jehovah, this does not mean, as I have already said, that only the firstborn belong to Jehovah. It means that every person must belong to Jehovah and be holy to Him. Therefore, brothers and sisters, Jehovah is our Master.

And as His servants, as His people, we ought to obey Him. God’s statutes and ordinances are to be understood from this perspective. Why must every one of us obey the law? Why must we live a holy life? Because you are a citizen of the kingdom. This kingdom has its laws. You will not find any nation where the people act lawlessly and yet that nation prospers.

So from the individual perspective, we speak of living a holy life. From God’s perspective, we speak of obeying the law—you are living according to the laws of this kingdom. When you obey the laws of the kingdom, the laws of heaven, it means that God’s blessing will come upon that people.

The blessings described in Leviticus chapter 27 will come upon that people. And what does this show us? It shows us again why we must live a holy life. Because you are a citizen of this kingdom. You are someone who has a Master. What servant is there who does not obey his master?

So in Romans chapter 6, after Paul has spoken about our union with Christ, what does he immediately exhort? In chapter 6, verse 12, he says: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.”

Do you see Paul’s line of reasoning here? You either serve sin, or you serve God. You cannot not serve. And of course, there are many such passages in Romans. For example, in chapter 6, verse 22: “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”

So the outcome of being God’s servants is eternal life. Therefore, I believe that whether in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, whether Moses or Paul, their line of thinking is consistent. We as a people wholly belong to God. Therefore, we must live a holy life and follow God.

Because the price has already been paid. Every person has been counted. And what is the purpose? It is to tell you that every member of the church belongs to Jehovah. So may God lead us to live a life that truly belongs to Jehovah—to live in this kingdom by obeying His statutes and ordinances, and to live a life that glorifies Him.

All right, today’s sharing ends here. Thank you, everyone.