God’s Economy
5 min read
11 The LORD also said to Moses, 12 “I have taken the Levites from among the Israelites in place of the first male offspring of every Israelite woman. The Levites are mine, 13 for all the firstborn are mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set apart for myself every firstborn in Israel, whether human or animal. They are to be mine. I am the LORD.”
Numbers 3:11-13
Our God is the God of justice. Every life that is taken because of sin must be redeemed by the giving of another life. That does not mean that God sinned when He took the lives of all the firstborn in Egypt. It was Pharaoh who took their lives because of his hardened heart. God gave him every chance to obey and release the Hebrews and told him what the consequences of his disobedience would be. Their lives were in Pharaoh’s hands.
So God redeemed the life of every firstborn of Egypt that was taken with the firstborn of every Israelite. But instead of taking the firstborn of every family, God elected the entire tribe of the Levites to redeem the firstborn of Israel, and by extension, the firstborn of Egypt that were taken.
It would be pointless to try to calculate God’s economy here. God is God, and we are not. And it would be completely wrong to suggest or to think that the Israelites or the Levites got a very bad deal in their covenant with God.
The Israelites were chosen to be the people of God, to fill the earth with His glory through God-fearing, God-honoring, God-worshiping, God-loving communities and families. Originally, Adam (that is, all of humanity) had been chosen for that purpose. But then, the fall.
And then Abraham and his descendants were chosen for God’s purpose, through Abraham’s grandson, Israel (Jacob). In a sense, in their role of filling the earth with the glory of God, the Israelites were supposed to provide redemption to the rest of humanity from idolatry. But instead, they themselves fell into the idolatries of the world.
So God sent His very own Son into the world to provide the redemption that Adam could not and that Israel could not, so that in Him and through Him the people of God might finally fulfill God’s purpose to fill the earth with His glory through God-fearing, God-honoring, God-worshiping, God-loving communities and families, the church.
Every believer and every church has been bought (redeemed) by the blood of Christ. But our redemption is not the end in itself. God has purchased our lives with the sacrifice of His Son in order that we might fulfill His purpose to fill the earth with His glory.
And if we don’t get that, it’s like getting a college degree, or a JD, or an MD, or a PHD, or winning the Lotto, and then sitting at home watching Netflix all day, every day, eating rice and soup.
Father, You are unchanging. Your ways are unchanging. Your plan is unchanging. Thank You for redeeming my life—providing freedom for me from sin and death. But let me not rest idly in my redemption. Use me and use us to fulfill Your purpose. Be glorified in us. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
