Numbers 3-4

“Take the Levites for me in place of all the firstborn of the Israelites ...” (3:41). The Lord declared that the firstborn males of the Israelites belonged to him. Just as the people of Egypt had dedicated themselves to idolatry, leading to the death of their firstborns (13), so the people of Israel belonged to the Lord, leading to life. The Levites, the tribe dedicated to the Lord in substitution for the firstborn males, led the people in holy worship to the God of Life.

“They are to be mine. I am the Lord” (3:13). Through Christ, we become God’s “special possession,” a “royal priesthood” like the Levites, called to declare his praise to the world (I Peter 2:9).