Numbers 4:20

_AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES AND UNTO AARON, SAYING,_ Cut ye not off ... - a solemn admonition to Moses and Aaron to beware, lest, by any negligence on their part, disorder and improprieties should creep in, and to take the greatest care that all the parts of this important service be apportioned to the proper parties, lest the Kohathites should be disqualified for their high and honourable duties. The guilt of their death would be incurred by the superintending priests, if they failed to give proper directions, or allowed any irreverent familiarity with sacred things....

4-20 The Kohathites were to carry the holy things of the tabernacle. All the holy things were to be covered; not only for security and respect, but to keep them from being seen. This not only marked the reverence due to holy things, but the mystery of the things signified by those types, and the darkness of the dispensation. But now, through Christ, the case is altered, and we are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace....

Verse Numbers 4:20. _WHEN THE HOLY THINGS ARE COVERED_] Literally, כבלע _keballa_, when they are _swallowed down_; which shows the promptitude with which every thing belonging to the holy of holies was put out of sight, for these mysteries must ever be treated with the deepest reverence; and indeed without this they could not have been to them the representatives of heavenly realities. See the concluding note....

TO SEE WHEN THE HOLY THINGS ARE COVERED - Render: to see the holy things for an instant. The expression means Iiterally” as a gulp,” i. e. for the instant it takes to swallow....

EXPOSITION THE DUTIES OF THE LEVITES (Numbers 4:1). NUMBERS 4:2 TAKE THE SUM OF THE SONS OF KOHATH. The Levites having been separated from the other tribes, the Kohathites are now to be separated from amongst the other Levites for the most honourable and sacred duties. To them the preference was given presumably because the priests were Kohathites. NUMBERS 4:3 FROM THIRTY YEARS OLD AND UPWARD. The age at which they became liable for service was shortly after reduced to twenty-five ...

BUT THEY SHALL NOT GO IN TO SEE WHEN THE HOLY THINGS ARE COVERED,.... They were not to be present while they were packing up, test they should see any of them with their eyes; they were not to go in until they were quite covered out of sight; which may signify the hiding of the mysteries of grace in those things under the former dispensation, when even the Levites themselves were not admitted to a sight of them; see Ephesians 3:4; LEST THEY DIE; by the immediate hand of God....

Numbers 4:1. _And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, after their families, by the house of their fathers,_ There were three families, those of Kohath, Gershon, and Merari, and to each of these families a different service was allotted. First, they were to be numbered. «The Lord knoweth them that are his,» and he takes count of all his people. Numbers 4:3. _From thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation._ They were to take up this work as a warfare; for, though it was a peaceful work, yet it is described as being a warfare: and he who serves the Lord, though that service be perfect peace, will not serv

CHAPTER 4 The Service of the Levites and their Numbering _ 1. The children of Kohath; their service (Numbers 4:1)_ 2. The sons of Gershon; their service (Numbers 4:21) 3. The sons of Merari; their service (Numbers 4:29) 4. Their numbering for service (Numbers 4:34) This chapter enters more fully into the service of the Levites. They are mustered for service “from thirty years old and upwards even unto fifty years old.” As we saw in the previous chapter, their service was to carry the holy things of Jehovah through the wilderness. The wilderness is for us the type of the world through which we p

A CENSUS OF THE LEVITES QUALIFIED TO SERVE ABOUT THE TABERNACLE, AND THE APPORTIONMENT OF THEIR DUTIES. This census includes all males between 30 and 50 (_cf._ 1 Chronicles 23:3). In Numbers 8:23 the limits of age are 25 and 50 (and the LXX substitutes 25 for 30 in this passage also); in 1 Chronicles 23:24; 2 Chronicles 31:17; Ezra 3:8 the inferior limit is 20, and no superior limit is specified. The variation no doubt corresponds to changes which prevailed at different periods. The task of packing the contents of the Tabe

TO SEE. Compare Exodus 19:21; 1 Samuel 6:19....