I’m still very early in this journey to discover the 613 laws of Torah within the New Testament. While I’m only 23 commandments in, I’ve already run across several where I found myself thinking, “I’m not sure this one is here.” Each time I find myself in prayer asking God to reveal it to me. He hasn’t denied that request yet. That’s the case for this 23rd positive commandment as enumerated by Maimonides.
P23 – For the Levites to serve in the sanctuary, as Numbers 18:23 states: “And the Levite shall serve….”[1]
When I read this section of Torah initially, I had no clue where to even begin looking within the Apostolic Writings. Where do the Levites show up in their commanded service in the Temple?
The New Testament is a revelation showing us how Jesus lives out the instructions given by Moses. The entire message is what it looks like to live out the instructions by imitating Jesus through discipleship. Our Master ook His ministry to the heart level. He taught His disciples how to physically live out the literal commands that applied to them, but He also taught them to live it out from their spirit. He demonstrated that ideal through His sacrificial service – the Kingdom was His sole focus. He didn’t seek to make a living and He didn’t strive to grow rich. His ministry existed through the generosity of those placing their faith and allegiance in Him.
And that’s the key to P23!
I didn’t realize it until I was consulting Jewish sources to see what they were saying about this commandment in Numbers 18:23. What I found that finally triggered my understanding was in a book called “Shenei Luchot HaBerit, Torah Shebikhtav, Eikev, Torah Ohr[1].” It’s an easy title! Go on, say it ten times fast…I’ll wait.
Tongue twister exercises over? Great!
More than just the entertaining title, the contents of the book helped me find this teaching in the New Testament. This resource talked about how this command (and other accompanying commands to the Levites) required sacrificial service. The Levites don’t have easy lives! Their appointment to serve in the Temple required a great deal of faith. The Levites received no inheritance within the land and thus found themselves highly dependent on their people for regular gifts as commanded by the Torah.
The commentary above says it like this:
“The members of the tribe of Levi were the principal teachers of Torah amongst the people. The gifts the Torah sets aside for the Levites are designed to free the Levites from the burden of having to earn a living. They then can devote themselves to their principal task of disseminating Torah knowledge.”
If Yeshua was spending His ministry showing how to live out His Torah from the heart, this idea would seem to take a central role in that. Of course, I realize this is not a literal quote of P23 in the New Testament, but this is the heart of it. He wasn’t here to recreate what Moses already gave, He was here to live it out and show the world what it looks like.
Throughout His ministry, He subsisted on the gifts of others and ministered to others regarding the Torah. His cousin John did the same, sustaining himself on honey and locusts in the desert while he taught the masses to return to Torah and to prepare the way for the Messiah. When Yeshua sent out His disciples on their first mission, He required the same faith from them as He sent them out among the Jewish people with zero resources.
Mark 6:8 (ESV)
8He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts—
This sacrificial service didn’t end at the cross either. The message continues through the rest of the New Testament. Paul said it this way in Galatians:
Galatians 6:6 (ESV)
6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.
If that’s not good enough, Paul makes it more clear with a direct correlation to this idea of the sacrificial service of the Levites and Priests in 1st Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 9:9–14 (ESV)
9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? 10 Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. 11 If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12 If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. 13 Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? 14 In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. (emphasis mine)
Those that serve the Kingdom sacrificially “shall serve” the King who is our High Priest. The Levites serve the earthly Temple on Mount Moriah, but just as our Master is the High Priest of the Heavenly Temple, it seems that those within the Body of Messiah, who serve sacrificially, are performing the Levitical role within that Heavenly Temple context. They step into the role as the primary teachers of Scripture to the Body of Messiah.
Ultimately, when looking for P23, we don’t need to look any further than the first pages of Matthew or any page within that Apostolic Writing. Sacrificial service for the Kingdom of Heaven is the central message communicated to us by the Apostles from Matthew to Revelation. From the ministry of John the Immerser that opened the New Testament era to the Lamb standing as though slain in Revelation.
Numbers 18:23 (NKJV)
23 But the Levites shall perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a statute forever, throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.
Colossians 3:23–24 (NKJV)
23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.