The Covenant of Levi
Malachi 2v4-6
12th February 2021
In Malachi Chapter 2, God rebukes his priests for failing in their priestly duty. As we saw last time, the Old Covenant priests were the Levites, and the New Covenant priests are the Christians - all of us. So God's rebuke now falls on us.
God goes on to speak about the covenant of Levi:
Malachi 2v4-6
And you will know that I have sent you this admonition so that my covenant with Levi
may continue," says the Lord Almighty.
"My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this
called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name.
True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked
with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.
God makes it clear to His priesthood that He's willing to discipline us, even through curses, because God values His covenant with Levi, and wants it to continue.
Levi was the third of the twelve sons of Jacob, whom God renamed Israel and made the patriarch of all God's people. Thus Levi was the head of one of the 12 tribes of Israel, known as the Levites. However, there is no reference in the Bible to a covenant between God and the man Levi. It seems that Malachi is referring to a covenant with Levi's descendants, not with Levi himself. It's not unusual for the Bible to refer to a family, clan or tribe by the name of its patriarch. Israel's descendants are also called "Israel", Judah's descendants are called "Judah", and so on.
Incidentally, it's become fashionable to think of the idea of patriarchy as a very bad thing. The Bible says different. And as a worshipper of God the Father, I think patriarchy is a wonderful thing, when it's done well.
Moses and Aaron were Levites, and when Moses met with God on Mount Sinai, to receive the Ten Commandments and other laws, God told him to make Aaron and his sons the first Israelite priests (Exodus 28:1). When Moses came down the mountain, he saw the Israelites worshipping the golden calf, and called out "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me" and all the Levites rallied to him (Exodus 32:26). Later, in Numbers 8, God set apart the whole tribe of Levi to be priests.
In Numbers 25, the Israelite men began to commit adultery with Moabite women, and God sent a plague upon them:
Numbers 25:6-9
Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of
Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the
tent of meeting.
When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the
assembly, took a spear in his hand
and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them, right
through the Israelite man and into the woman's stomach. Then the plague against the
Israelites was stopped;
but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
We then read:
Numbers 25:10-13
The Lord said to Moses,
"Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from
the Israelites. Since he was as zealous for my honour among them as I am, I did not
put an end to them in my zeal.
Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him.
He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he
was zealous for the honour of his God and made atonement for the Israelites."
Phinehas was a Levite, and I think this covenant of peace is the covenant Malachi is talking about – not with the man Levi but with his descendants.
Phinehas was the exemplar of the kind of reverence and awe of God that God saw in the early Levites. Through Malachi, God says True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin. And God made this covenant with him.
Phinehas was willing to do whatever it takes to keep God's people holy, including putting a spear through two people in the act of adultery. Things are different in New Testament times. We don't kill people (obviously) but we need the same kind of zeal, of passion, of respect for God and His word. We too are priests, and are called to walk with God in peace and uprightness, and to turn many from sin. Will we do whatever it takes, make any sacrifice, to promote godliness?