Numbers 3: The Sons of Aaron --- 2019/06/07

Rev. Dr. Alfonso Espinosa, pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Irvine, California, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Numbers 3.

Nadab and Abihu ate and drank with God on Mt. Sinai and beheld the otherworldly sapphire at His feet. They were the eldest sons of Aaron, the original high priest. And yet, as Numbers 3 reminds us, they were executed for their disobedience. Human sin is serious, and it will be dealt with seriously in the encampment around the Tabernacle.

Thus the priesthood fell to Aaron’s younger sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, who hadn’t joined their father and brothers on the mountain. Although they came from the tribe of Levi, were set aside as priests. Eleazar oversaw the rest of the tribe, the non-priests who are actually called “Levites.” Although God has a claim on the life of every firstborn son of Israel, God allows the Levites to “redeem” them so that Israel’s firstborn can stay with their families. To redeem the firstborn, roughly 22,000 Levites were taken into service of the Tabernacle in the place of the roughly 22,000 firstborn sons of Israel. This redemption foreshadows our Lord Jesus, who doesn’t redeem merely one for one, but redeems the entire people of God by Himself.