Deuteronomy 33:8-11 - Moses' Blessing.

The blessing of Levi; or, entire devotion to God a necessary qualification for ministerial service.

Moses and Aaron were themselves of the tribe of Levi. Consequently, Moses is here speaking of his own tribe; he forecasts its future; he seems in a remarkable manner to revoke the harsh sentence of the patriarch Jacob upon it. Nor is this altogether unaccounted for. The tribe had manifested a genuine repentance by a remarkable zeal for God's honor on several occasions. It was the tribe, moreover, which God had selected from the rest, to minister in holy things; and these facts, blending themselves with a painful reminiscence of his own breakdown at Meribah, give the character to the blessing of Moses. The points therein which furnish a basis for historic and homiletic teaching are these:

1. Here is an office divinely appointed and assigned to a particular tribe—"thy holy one" ( Deuteronomy 33:8 ).

2. Here is a history, in some sort chequered and sad, connected with the tribe ( Deuteronomy 33:8 )—"Massah," "Meribah" ( Numbers 20:1-13 ). There had been a grievous failure on Aaron's part too, as well as on that of Moses ( Exodus 32:1-35 ; Exodus 33:1-23 .). Still, as a whole, the tribe had been marked by great zeal for God, great concern for his honor, and great devotion to his service ( Deuteronomy 33:9 ; cf. Numbers 8:14-26 ; Numbers 25:1-15 ; Exodus 32:26-28 ). The honor of God was deemed by this tribe paramount to all personal and family considerations.

3. Here is a commission for the discharge of varied duties resting on the tribe ( Deuteronomy 33:10 )—teaching, incense, sacrifice (see Deuteronomy 10:8 ; Malachi 2:4-7 ). The duties of the priesthood were more varied than is generally supposed (cf. Dean Stanley on the Jewish Church, vol. 2. lect. 36.). Whatever a man could be or do to help his people in prayer, work, war, worship, knowledge, or life,—all this was charged upon the priest.

4. Here is a danger espied to which the tribe would be liable ( Deuteronomy 33:11 )—"them that rise against him;" "them that hate him." This hatred had already manifested itself in jealousy ( Numbers 16:3 , et seq .). It is very suggestive that we find one of the Reubenites, a tribe which had lost its birthright , concerned in that conspiracy. There always has been and there will be jealousy and odium towards God's ministers, as "taking too much upon them." As Moses had found it out already, he knew by some experience what it was likely to be in the future. Hence:

5. Here is a prayer which takes its shape from a review of the varied facts named above ( Deuteronomy 33:11 ), that a blessing might attend on their consecrated energies: " Bless , Lord, his strength;" that the work might be accepted in God's sight; and that the enemies and haters of the tribe, who rose up in jealousy against the office and those who filled it , might be put to utter shame! £

Here is a mass of truth suggested of great interest and value.

I. There is a ministry appointed by God under the Christian economy.

II. To this office great honor now belongs.

III. Its faithful discharge makes varied demands on those who hold it.

IV. These demands cannot be rightly met without entire and unreserved consecration.

V. However faithful God's ministers may be, they wilt certainly meet with hatred and opposition.

VI. That their work may, in the midst of all difficulty, be divinely accepted and guarded, may well be made matter of earnest prayer.