Numbers 3:39-51
In contrast to the other children of Israel, the Levites were numbered from the age of one month. Consider little Samuel, Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5), John the Baptist (Luke 1:15), Paul (Galatians 1:15). Their setting apart preceded their call to the service of the Lord at the appropriate time. Young Isaiah, as soon as he had heard the good news that "thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged", was ready to respond spontaneously to the Lord’s appeal, "Here am I; send me" (Isaiah 6:7-8). From his vision on the road to Damascus, Paul learns from the Lord’s mouth that he is appointed to be "a minister and a witness" (Acts 26:16). No redeemed person is his own property. If he has by grace turned to God from idols, it is like the Thessalonians, "to serve the living and true God . . . " (1 Thessalonians 1:9). The same teaching is derived from the end of our chapter. The Levites were substituted for the firstborn in Israel, that is to say for those whom divine grace had spared from death by virtue of the blood of the lamb. In other words, each redeemed one becomes a servant of the One who has saved him from death, and snatched him from the power of the world and its ruler. Are we not among the "firstborn" in the family of God through the abundance of the privileges we have received? May the Lord make us aware of His rights over our lives (2 Chronicles 29:11).