Will you follow with me thoughtfully through a number of places and passages in the Word of God, beginning in the book of Exodus?
Exodus 32:25-26
And when Moses saw that the people were broken loose—for Aaron had let them loose for a derision among their enemies—
then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Whoso is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me.
And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
Numbers 8:9-14
And thou shalt present the Levites before the tent of meeting: and thou shalt assemble the whole congregation of the children of Israel,
and thou shalt present the Levites before the Lord.
And the children of Israel shall lay their hands upon the Levites:
and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord for a wave offering, on the behalf of the children of Israel, that it may be theirs to do the service of the Lord.
And the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks: and offer thou the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, unto the Lord, to make atonement for the Levites.
And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for a wave offering unto the Lord.
1 Chronicles 15:2
Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them hath the Lord chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto Him for ever.
1 Chronicles 15:12-15
And said unto them, Ye are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, unto the place that I have prepared for it.
For because ye bare it not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought Him not according to the ordinance.
So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel.
And the children of the Levites bare the ark of God upon their shoulders with the staves thereon, as Moses commanded according to the word of the Lord.
Malachi 2:4-5
And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that My covenant may be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts.
My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might fear; and he feared Me, and stood in awe of My name.
Malachi 3:1-3
Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire, behold, he cometh, saith the Lord of hosts.
But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
and He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto the Lord offerings in righteousness.
Turn to the Revelation.
Revelation 1:2
Who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw.
Revelation 1:5-6
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood;
and He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 1:9
I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
In passing from one passage to another through them all, you will have discerned a common link and basis in every one. In the Old Testament, the links in the chain are the history and ministry of the Levites in relation to the Lord’s testimony. None but the Levites were to carry the ark of the testimony.
These passages lead us over into the New Testament, and right at the end we find ourselves once more in the presence of this central thing in God’s mind and interest: the testimony of Jesus.
It is significant and important to note that we pass straight on from Revelation 1 into those messages in Revelation 2 and 3 concerning the overcomers. In the message to every church, and in every case, the issue is: “To him that overcometh.”
It seems perfectly clear that this whole matter runs right through the Scriptures. That service of peculiar importance and value to the Lord—the bearing up of His testimony—is that which is called the service of God.
If we want to know what the Levites really are in representation and spiritual significance, that is made perfectly clear for us in the first three chapters of the book of Revelation.
The churches were brought into being by God for the testimony of Jesus. That is, I think, beyond dispute. Wherever they are, they are meant to be the vessels of that testimony.
But here, in these representative churches of the whole dispensation in the first chapters of Revelation, we find the churches in general failing in the matter of the testimony of Jesus.
Perhaps we have not been sufficiently impressed with this fact: the book opens with the emphasis upon the testimony of Jesus. Really, the introduction for the whole book is that very phrase.
John tells us clearly that he was where he was, and that what he saw and set down in writing in Patmos related to the testimony of Jesus. He says that quite emphatically and quite clearly: it was for the testimony of Jesus.
That phrase governs this book on its first page and runs right the way through the book. You can only understand the whole of the book of Revelation if you see that everything there is centered in this which is called the testimony of Jesus. That is the explanation. Everything is accounted for by that.
Then, when that is laid down as the foundation and introduction to the whole book, the first movement of the Spirit—“I was in the Spirit”—is to the churches, which, as we have said, were brought into being for the testimony of Jesus.
That is what the Levites came into being for. Their whole history, right the way through, related to the testimony—in type and figure, of course, in the Old Testament, as represented by the ark of the covenant, or the ark of the testimony. In spiritual meaning, it is the same in both Testaments.
They came into being as a people right at the very center of the Lord’s people, in relation to the Lord’s testimony.
You want to know what the essential service of the Lord is? It is that. It is the bearing, maintaining, and carrying forward of the testimony of Jesus in the history of this world.
I repeat: the Levites came right in for that very purpose, and it is that which explains their existence and their history.
But if you want to know what the Levites represent in this dispensation, in our own day, they are presented to us in those who overcome.
If it is true that the purpose of the churches was to be vessels of the testimony of Jesus, wherever they are, then when the churches are approached, and in every case the final word is, “To him that overcometh,” it is unmistakably clear that in such people—the overcomers—you have the Levitical principle, service, and purpose carried on.
They are the people who are put in trust with the testimony. That is clear in both Old and New Testaments.
They are the people who, in the first place and in the last place, react against all departure from what is called the testimony of Jesus.
They are the people in whom God’s full thought concerning His church is represented. In saying these things, I am saying a great deal, and it is supported and backed up by the Word of God.
Whenever the Lord was going to take a new step, whenever a crisis was reached in the onward march of God in eternal history, the Lord called for the Levites. They came to the fore and sanctified themselves.
They are the people of the crisis, and of the crises, all the way through.
We could say that the Lord was at a loss and at a disadvantage when the Levites were out of their place and out of their condition. The Lord was unable to go on until the Levites came into their place and sanctified themselves.
That, I think, is clear. I will only touch on one or two of the instances of which we have read. We do not recognize that a very serious crisis was reached there at Sinai. Moses was in the mount, and, as we have read, the people broke loose.
That is a tremendously impressive bracketed sentence: they would be made a derision among their enemies. You can see through that; we can see through that.
There is one thing that the enemy and all the hosts of enemies in the heavenlies are set upon: it is to make the church of Christ a derision in this universe, so that the universe can sneer at it and say, “That is Your church, is it? That is Your church?”
When they had broken loose, everything in that onward march of God from Egypt to the land was brought to a standstill. The crisis turned upon the Levites. The prospect opened up through the Levites.
There could be no movement forward. Everything was in suspense until the Levites came forth and took up this issue of being a derision among their enemies. They took responsibility to answer that challenge, to deal with that thing and get it out of the way, that the people of God should go on.
Now, pass over all those centuries to the time of David. Another crisis in the onward movement of God had been reached. The testimony was to be brought to Jerusalem.
David’s unfortunate, impulsive action—making the Philistine cart for the testimony—created a very link with this world and opened the door to death. Everything was again brought to a standstill. The ark was in the house of Abinadab a long time.
Then David was exercised before the Lord about this whole matter. When he had got over his offendedness with the Lord—dear friends, the Lord’s dealings with us can sometimes bring about a controversy between us and the Lord—until we get through that, nothing is going to happen.
The Lord does not do things without a reason. He does not bring everything up short, nor bring in judgment and discipline, without a very good reason. Very often, we take the whole thing personally and are just affected toward the Lord. David was grieved with the Lord that day.
Well, David, you will have to get rid of that, however long it takes, before the Lord will move on. However, David, being the man that he was, with a heart for God, searched the matter out and had the right kind of exercise about it all.
He turned to the Word. You will always find it in the Word somewhere. It is there—the answer to all our difficulties, problems, and controversies. It is there somewhere, clear and straight.
As David was exercised before the Lord, turning over the pages of the Word, he came upon it. There was the answer to everything: “None ought to bear the ark, save the Levites.”
When the Levites came into their place, were sanctified, and resumed their work, things went on.
I just take those two instances, which are sufficient to indicate this: every forward movement, every fresh advance in the great purpose of God, is bound up with this Levitical principle and people.
You will not challenge me, I am sure, on this: the state of the churches in Revelation was a military crisis. The Lord was saying, in effect, quite definitely and positively, “I cannot go on any further with you. Indeed, I will have to remove your lampstand out of its place. We just cannot go on.”
We have come to a crisis; we have come to a standstill. You can go no further. If there is to be any future, it will be with those who take up the Levitical principle of sanctification, of holiness, amongst the Lord’s people.
And within the future rests the word, “To him that overcometh.” I feel that we are right in saying that those who, in those chapters, are referred to as those who overcome are the people who spiritually and actually step right into the place, meaning, and service of the Levites.
Let us make it perfectly clear before we go any further. While in the old dispensation the Levites were a tribe, a people by themselves, a separate community in a sense, they only embodied—as all other things in the old dispensation embodied—spiritual truth which belongs to all dispensations and which is the law of all God’s movement forward to His end.
Today the Levites are not a separate class, a separate people, an association, an institution, a fellowship, or anything like that.
Today, the Levites are those people of God who do what the Levites of the Old Testament did, in a spiritual way. They are the people who embody all that thought and purpose of God, whose hearts are given to that, and who are prepared to react against everything that threatens or assails it.
It is usually, as we find in both the Old and the New Testaments, a matter of corruption. Corruption.
Constantly in the Old Testament, the Levites had to sanctify themselves. Look in the book of Ezra, for instance, at how the Levites had to sanctify themselves for this service of the Lord: a sanctified people.
It is impressive, I think, and significant again, that John the Baptist was said to go before the face of the Lord, and that the result of his ministry would be to prepare a people for the Lord.
That is the principle of the Levite. The Old Testament and the New Testament meet in John the Baptist.
The prophecy of Malachi—“My messenger, sent before My face to prepare My way before Me”—has, on the authority of our Lord Himself, its fulfillment in John the Baptist. “This is Elijah, if ye will receive it.”
He went before the face of the Lord, preparing the way of the Lord and securing a people prepared for the Lord.
Then what? The Lord Jesus began to be about thirty years of age, entering upon His ministry. It was the age of the Levites beginning their ministry. You see how we can gather around this from all directions and all connections.
It makes clear, if it needs making clear, that the Lord’s testimony, the onward movement of God, and the reaching of His full end rest with the people who embody all that is meant by Levi.
Well, if we have got that background, we are able to go on.
The thing which the Levite, or the Levites, in all times represents is a people sanctified for the Lord, set apart for the Lord—holy unto the Lord.
When the generality of the Lord’s people, who are the Lord’s people, are not like that, the Lord cannot go on until He has in the midst of them a people like that.
He must have that which represents His mind. He is not going on unless He has something which answers to His mind, though it be in the midst of His people. That is where He will go on. He demands that people set apart for the Lord.
That opens up one line of very instructive teaching right through the Scriptures. It introduces us to that whole course of God reacting to situations by the Levites, or by this principle of Levi.
You see where they first came in, as we have read in Exodus 32. See what had happened. Moses had gone up into the mountain and was away too long for the people’s patience. As it is put, they broke loose; they cast off restraint.
They evidently, under the counsel and instruction of their own hearts, made that calf—a golden calf—from the gold that was intended for the sanctuary in which God was to have the whole place, the whole place.
They had brought in that day the evil powers which said, in effect, “God shall not have that place; we will have it. We will take the very gold intended for God and make it the basis and instrument of our worship.”
It is very difficult, dear friends, to fail to see behind all this the persistent breaking in from that evil world—the powers of evil—against God’s throne, against God having everything, at all costs seeking to draw it away from God and take it from Him.
Well, it was the Levites who took their stand over that. Whether they understood all that it meant or not, we do not know; but it was the Levites who, in effect, said, “No. No, we will not permit anything to be taken from the Lord.”
The Lord is to have His rights in fullness. We stand for that at any cost—at any cost.
It proved to be a very costly thing. As you know, they had the command of Moses to take the sword against their own kin—yes, in their own families, amongst their own children. Brother, very costly things; but they did it.
They evidently did see the seriousness of this breaking in of evil, and what it implied: this touch of corruption. Touch of corruption—for that is what it was. It was spiritual fornication.
They saw something of the meaning of it. That day all the sons of Levi said to that, positively and utterly, “No.”
God made His covenant that day with Levi. Later, He took the tribe of Levi and set them apart as the ministers of the sanctuary, to be in close touch with Himself in relation to all His purpose in His people.
Want to know what Levi is? That is Levi, to begin with.
But, oh, the tragedies—the old tragedies. The enemy said, “Very well. So Levi draws this upon themselves. Then the Levites must be the focal point of our attention and our activities.”
It is one constant history of the Levites: the Levites being corrupted and put out of their place, in order to arrest the whole movement of God.
And, as I have said, every time God wanted to go further, He had to bring the Levites into a new place of sanctification—holiness unto the Lord. When that was done, at any time, then the movement went on; God went forward.
I could pile up the evidence, the data, and the material on this principle, this Levitical principle, but I think that is enough to begin with.
This is a people in the midst of God’s people who, whatever the cost, and with an utter devotion for God and for His rights and the fullness of His thought and purpose concerning His people, stand for Him.
I say again, they are not a distinct cult, but they are spiritual people amongst the Lord’s people who are marked out by this.
They are not going to allow themselves to be touched by the corruption that is in this world and at the hand of the defiler.
You have only to read those chapters in the prophecies of Malachi. There is one thought all the time before you. They are terrible chapters, are they not? Terrible chapters.
God is saying, “Ye are cursed with a curse, even this whole nation,” showing His fiery judgment touching their lives, in the family and in the fields, everywhere. Terrible things are in that book.
But notice that the focal point of all those prophecies is the Levites, and it heads up to this: the messenger of the covenant will come suddenly to His temple. The Lord whom ye seek shall sit as a refiner’s fire and purify the sons of Levi.
With that, you pass out of the Old Testament into the New, so far as our Bible is concerned, and the great Levite comes: the great Levi, the Lord Jesus.
In Him we see the whole principle, the whole meaning, and the whole history of the Levites summed up. He is the full, final Levite.
The corrupter assails; the tempter attacks: “Throw away this Levitical principle. If Thou be the Son of God…” But this Levite prevails. To the last cost, to the last cost, He overcomes.
He says to us, as He said to those around Him, “Fear not; I have overcome the world.” I have overcome. The great Levite, the great Overcomer.
And now, to the churches: “To him that overcometh.” The testimony of Jesus—He overcame. That testimony is deposited with the churches: “To him that overcometh.”
I do trust you are seeing far more than I am saying. I am presenting you with a matter that has far too many details to compass at any one time. If you see what it amounts to, that is the important thing.
Sooner or later, this whole question of God going on to His end in fullness will arise. Then it will be a matter of our spiritual condition—whether He can go on with us.
The matter of our spiritual condition is whether He has that which is necessary to Himself for going on in the midst of His people.
I am not speaking condemnatorily of anyone. I am simply taking out of history and presenting this: all those who are the Lord’s people are not after this kind.
All who are the Lord’s people are not, in a spiritual sense, Levites. They are intended to be; they are meant to be; the Lord would have them be. But the fact is, they are not. They are not.
For various reasons, some of which are mentioned in the messages to the churches. But the reason is what the Lord calls defilement—corruption. That is a very, very large word. It covers a lot of ground and embodies a lot of things.
But it is a sanctified people prepared for the Lord—people who are really, really separated unto the Lord.
Now, dear friends, I am quite sure that the Lord’s disciplines are all in that direction. It is a terrible thing—you may not like it put this way, but sooner or later you will come to realize what is involved—it is a terrible thing for the Lord not to discipline us.
No greater loss could be suffered by us than if the Lord’s eyes of flame saw something wrong and He did not deal with it. That would be a terrible thing for Him, for His church, and for spiritual history.
He must, and sooner or later He will. He will.
You may think this is a very solemn word. Well, I think for this reason—and I can tell you that this is not just a studied subject for this time; it is a deep and heavy burden—the Lord wants to go on.
He wants to carry His testimony further. He wants to do a new thing. He wants to bring His people on.
In order to do so, He must have that which is represented by Levi. He must have a people in the midst of His people who really do embody the fullness of His thought. That people must be a holy people—a holy people.
These are strong words: “He shall sit as a refiner.” A refiner, as of gold and silver.
The picture has often been used, you know, in connection with those words: the refiner of gold and silver heats and heats under the crucible, and looks in until the dross is consumed and he can see his own face reflected in the metal. Then he says, “It is all right. It is finished.”
It is not that just for the Lord we endure the fire, the spot, or the judgments, but for Him to see His own face—to see His own face, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ—in our hearts.
There is a purpose why the Lord brings such a word to us at this time. It is perhaps challenging, but let us realize that there is a word linked with prospect.
The Lord is a Lord who wants to go on, who wants to reach new regions, and to attain His full end. He wants to do this. He wants to do something new and ever new amongst His people.
If I have not misread and misinterpreted this whole history of His people, to do it He must have the people in the midst of His people who answer to Him on the one side concerning His desire, and answer the enemy on the other side, who would deprive Him of His desire.
The enemy would corrupt, he would pollute, he would cause this loss to the Lord. Levi says, “No, never. Never. Whatever it costs, never.”
We may talk like that over service for the Lord: “We will go where the Lord wants us. We will suffer whatever is involved in serving the Lord in any part of the world.” We talk like that.
Dear friends, let us bring that into this realm. There is a cost of sanctification—a great cost.
It is in holiness, in sanctification, that the service rests: not in works, not in traveling about, not in meetings, but in holiness of life. That is the heart of service to the Lord.
He will bring you to that sooner or later. Sooner or later, He will bring it to that. We may go on for some time, but we will come to a terrible crisis if the Lord sees that which is not holy.
But again, it is a positive, not a negative, word. The Lord would say something to us gathered here this day. He wants to go on. He wants to move. He wants to do things, because He is like that.
But even the Lord is held up by the Levites, as is so clear. Whenever the next step is to be taken, the Levites must come into their condition and into their position before the Lord. That will make us truly able to serve Him.