NOTES for Num 4:1-49
As we read in the previous chapter, the Levites had a special status and a special ministry. Now we learn how they were to carry the tabernacle of the covenant through the wilderness in disassembled form. And just as yesterday we spoke about the typological meaning of the Old Testament Levites, so today we should think about what relation this special status of the Levites has to all of us.
Following the same typology, we will see that we are called to a task no less great, and even greater, than the one to which the 'sons of Levi by their families' were called. For with the coming of Christ, carrying the holy thing through the wilderness becomes a calling to bear His image and His glory in the heart. Is this not what the apostle says in 2 Cor 4:6-7, and is this not the calling of God-bearers that we can read in the book of Numbers when we read it through the prism of New Testament revelation?