Numbers 18 - In this chapter it
is made very explicit that for all times only the Levites are to do service at
the tent of meeting and of the Levites only
those of Aaron’s family are to be priests of the sanctuary. Out of the offerings and sacrifices
established the Levites shall be entitled to the meat.
They
are also entitled to every first-born
male but he is to be ransomed by
payment of five shekels of silver. The
Levites are entitled to this tithe because of their service to the Lord and
because the work of service will prevent them from having a share in the
Promised Land. And out of all the tithes
contributed by the people, the house of Aaron will be entitled to a tithe of
the tithes.
The
Lord calls the arrangement he makes with the tribe of Levi and “inviolable
covenant to last forever before the Lord, for you and for your descendants”
(18:19). Schocken editors translate it a “covenant of salt” because salt
prevents decay. So we see the entire religious establishment assigned its
duties and stations and the whole placed at the center of Israeli life and
culture, both physically and economically the
Levites are at the center of the community for in a very real sense they are
responsible for holding it together and holding it under the protection of the
Lord.
Irenaeus of Lyons
(c.180 AD)
Selections from the Work Against Heresies
Book V – Redemption
and the World to Come
The New Creation in
Christ “Recapitulates” the Old
Some Glimpses of
Irenaeus’ Teaching on the Last Things
33 – It is “[b]ecause of
this, when he came to his Passion, that he might declare to Abraham and those
with him the glad tidings of the opening of the inheritance, after ha had given
thanks as he held the cup, and had drunk of it, and given to the disciples, he
said to them: ‘Drink of this, all of you. For this is my blood of the new
covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. For I say to you
that I will not drink of the produce of the vine, until that day when I shall drink
it with you new in the Kingdom of my Father.’”
There
will be “hundredfold” rewards for the faithful in the “times of the Kingdom,
that is, on the seventh day, which is sanctified, in which, in which God rested
from all his works which he made; this is the true Sabbath of the just, in
which they will have no earthly work to do, but will have a table prepared
before them by God, who will feed them with dainties of all kinds.”
Just
like references to the Promised Land to Abraham, later promises to Isaac and
Jacob, also are metaphorical and relate primarily to the ultimate restoration
of all the earth to God’s original plan. When Isaac blesses his son Jacob, he
says “’Behold the smell of my son is as the smell of a rich field, which God
has blessed.’ The field [here referred to] is the world—and therefore he added:
‘God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fertility of the earth,
abundance of grain and of wine. And the nations will serve you, and princes
will worship you, and you will be Lord over your brother, and the sons of your
father will worship you. . . If one does not take this as referring to the
destined [times] of the Kingdom, he finds himself in great contradiction and
confusion . . . For not only did the nations not serve Jacob in his life, but
he, when he set forth after this blessing, served his uncle Laban the Syrian
for twenty years. Not only was he not made lord of his brother, but he himself
worshiped Esau his brother, when he came back from Mesopotamia to his father
and offered many gifts to him.”
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