“The greatest of legendary swords are those which no longer need to be drawn.”

Glorification

by Jacob Gucker

“The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple,
even the messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in;
behold, He shall come, 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 He shall purify the sons of Levi,
that they may offer unto the Lord
an offering in righteousness.”

— Handel’s Messiah quoting Malachi 3:1-3

In part 1 of this article we saw that Levi, the third son of Jacob and the priestly tribe in Israel, is a preacher-swordsman and guardian of Yahweh’s covenant community. We saw that God took Levi from being a man who would use his mouth and his sword to assemble men for slaughter and redeemed him to become a tribe who would use his mouth and his sword to assemble men for true worship and covenant life. In Genesis 34 Levi and Simeon used the sign of circumcision to hobble a whole city and then used their swords to destroy it. Their father prophesied that they would be scattered in Israel, and they were, but the actual scattering would be a blessing. In a moment of faithfulness at Sinai the Levites took up their swords to guard the covenant and were by that action ordained to be the priestly guardians of God’s covenant by serving in the tabernacle.

We also saw that there are quite a few places in scripture where Levi is associated with speech and the sword. Levi uses the sword for the ritual act of circumcision and slaughtering animals for sacrifice, and he uses speech to instruct Israel in Torah and to guard the truth. In this second part I will show how Levi, the preacher-swordsman, is glorified in the New Covenant to wield the Sword of the Spirit.

The End of the Sword

The symbolic relationship between speech and the sword runs throughout scripture and so Paul’s designation of God’s word as “the Sword of the Spirit” in Ephesians 6:17 is not a unique metaphor peculiar to the Apostle. It is as old as the Pentateuch, though it is most abundant in the writings and prophets, and is engrained in Paul’s biblical imagination. Consider these examples of Old Testament poetry and prophecy:

“His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.” Psalm 55:21

“…who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows…” Psalm 64:3

“There are those whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mankind.” Proverbs 30:14

“My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts— the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.” Psalm 57:4

“Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.” Jeremiah 9:8

“He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away.” Isaiah 49:2

Notice that all manner of sharp weapons are mentioned. Swords, knives, spears, and arrows are included and parallel the many different ways in which a person can impact others with the spoken word or a written decree. Most of these examples are negative, not referring to preachers but to those who cut others to pieces with their malicious words. However, the last example here is from one of the famous “servant songs” of Isaiah and prophesies of Christ who would be the embodiment of Israel, Yahweh’s servant nation.

Readers of the Psalms and Prophets take this recurring metaphor as a fitting literary device because it is poetic, but “the sword” is a concept in the mind of God which precedes the human use of sharp weapons. God placed a flaming sword at the eastern gate of the garden sanctuary of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life before any human had even sharpened a stick to wield as a weapon, and later the Levites guarded the tabernacle with man-made swords as representatives of the angels which guard the throne of God in the heavens. Furthermore, the Bible refers to angelic beings who wield swords as they carry out God’s work on earth. Thus, it seems that the sword is an enduring symbol of word and effects the word of priests and kings and prophets in the physical world.

The sword is God-made, but is it eternal? Shouldn’t we be turning our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks at some point as Isaiah, Joel, and Micah say? Shouldn’t we take up the mighty pen and engage in diplomacy rather than war? What is the end, or telos of the sword? The answer lies in the Bible’s spiraling meta-structure. That sounds like it might be confusing, but it simply means that the Bible is structured so that the end of it is a return to the beginning while also being a progression into new creation. Like a spiral, the Bible cycles through the same story again and again but with important differences and significant developments. For instance, the Bible begins in a garden paradise and ends with a paradisiacal city. It begins with the two guarded trees of life and knowledge and ends with many trees lining the river that flows from the city with fruit and leaves that are for the healing of the nations (Ezekiel 47:12). It begins with the precious gold and onyx of Havilah downstream from the garden, and ends with a garden city built with gold and precious stones. It begins with man and woman naked in the garden and ends with Christ and church clothed in glory and splendor.

The development of the garden into an eternal city is not linear. The garden does not get better and better until it becomes the city. No, the repeating pattern of exile and return in the scriptures means that the garden is walled off and its custodians banished because of sin, but it comes back as a tent in the wilderness. The two trees are lost, but they come back later in the design of the temple furniture and decorations. Israel’s tree is cut back to the stump, but God promises to make it flourish once more. The precious gold of Havilah and Ophir is mined and covers the Ark and then fills Solomon’s temple. But then the Gentiles burn the temple and the gold melts. The man becomes a polygamist with seven bald women grabbing hold of his cloak, all of them promiscuous. But then he goes back to the wife of his youth, forsaking all others, and purchases her in the slave market. She will turn again and take five husbands plus one who is not her husband before all is finished, but some bright day she will be attached to her husband and He will lead her to the water of life. Like night and day, sleeping and waking, death and resurrection, history goes forward not in a line or round in a circle, but both. Our lives are the same as we have times of joy and sorrow, plenty and want, sickness and health. The promise of resurrection and the gift of the Spirit is the promise that we are going forward, not merely round and round.

Adam had no physical weapon to fight the serpent in the garden. His sword was the word of God. He failed to wield it against the serpent and so God had to replace him with the flaming sword and cherubim. In the covenant with Noah the sword became the tool of the civil government to punish evil. Noah was authorized to pass judgement on murderers and man-slaying beasts. In the Mosaic Covenant the Levites were to guard the garden-tent with their swords. By God’s grace they were also teachers of the word. Their privilege was a shadow of better things to come. But what makes the word in the end better than the word in the beginning? Man in the garden had the word and the breath of life with which to speak it, but his breath and his life were merely his own spirit, a gift of God, yes, but not the greatest gift. Furthermore, the word of the gospel was not complete then and now is. In Christ we have the gift of the Holy Spirit and the fully-forged sword of the Spirit. Thus, the telos or end of “the sword” is the whole council of God in the mouth of man, extended by the Holy Spirit.

We see what has happened and will continue to happen to the sword, but we still need to find out what happened to Levi in the New Testament. In Malachi chapter 3 there is a prophecy that the Lord will suddenly come to His temple and will purify the sons of Levi like a refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap. If we take this to be the coming of Jesus Christ, then in what sense are the sons of Levi refined? Are we still waiting?

Levi in the New Exodus

As we learned in part one this article, the book of Exodus begins with a faithful Levite couple. According to the Gospel of Luke, the first chronological event event of the New Exodus in Jesus is the appearance of an angel to a righteous Levite named Zechariah, telling him that his barren and aged wife would give birth to a son. He appeared to him while he was on duty in the temple, burning incense at the hour of prayer. Zechariah did not believe and Gabriel, who stood in the presence of God and was sent to speak to Zechariah, took away the Levite’s ability to speak until the good news had come to pass. Once again, we see a Levite with a speech problem. Zechariah is thus unable to speak the customary benediction and leaves Israel waiting. The priest remains mute and deaf until after the baby is born. And yet, his tongue is not loosed on the day of birth, but rather on the eighth day after he is born. The eighth day is the day of his circumcision, the day of his ritual rebirth into the nation of priests. It does not say who wielded the knife, but it might have been Zechariah himself if not a local Levite. Either way, Zechariah’s speech returns to him on the day of circumcision, showing that priestly speech and priestly cutting go hand in hand.

When John, the forerunner of Christ, went out to preach and to baptize, it was priests and Levites who came out to him, suspicious of what he was doing. This is because he was baptizing and the ancient purpose of baptism in Israel was to ordain priests. What was this son of Zechariah, this son of Levi, doing out in the desert baptizing people at the Jordan river? The Jews sent priests and Levites to find out because it was an overt and highly symbolic action. By baptizing people in the Jordan river he was essentially giving them a new Exodus and reentry into the holy land. They were getting a new entrance into the promises of Abraham.

The book of Hebrews deals with the fact that Jesus is the great high priest, despite the fact that he is not from the tribe of Levi. This would be a problem if the writer of Hebrews did not know that Jesus was in another priestly order altogether. Jesus is in the order of Melchizedek, the priest-king of Salem to whom Abraham gave tithes after the battle of the kings. Messianic kings like David, Solomon, and Jesus are in this priestly line. Hebrews also speaks of the uselessness of the Levitical sacrifices and temple service in the new age, for Christ is the new temple. He is the everlasting high priest and His sacrifice is the final sacrifice for atonement of sins. On the other hand, this does not mean that the Levitical priesthood is abolished altogether. No, if God can raise up sons for Abraham from the stones, He can certainly raise up sons for Levi! If He did not accomplish this, He would not be faithful to His promise to purify the sons of Levi.

Since baptism is a sign of ordination into priesthood, all those who are baptized into Christ are sons of Levi. They take up the Sword of the Spirit to circumcise hearts for God by the word of God. They take up the Sword of the Spirit to prepare people to offer themselves as living sacrifices as their new service of worship (Romans 12:1). Ours is a two-edged sword, “piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 12:4). It is also the sword by which we guard the Lord’s table. Just as the flaming angelic sword guarded the tree of life and the Levites guarded the bread of the presence with their swords, the bread and wine of the Lord’s table is ours to guard from those who are not baptized into the new temple of God. and is the standard by which we solemnly cut people off from the Lord’s table who are living in open rebellion to their baptismal testimony.

The Armor of God

Many of us have learned about putting on “the armor of God” in Sunday School. The glossy pages of the Sunday School book told us that Paul is referring to the armor and weapons of a Roman soldier. Usually there is a labeled graphic of the soldier, gladius in one hand and a scutum shield in the other, complete with a helmet that has a red broom on top. And let us not forget the fact that Paul mentions a breastplate, but says nothing about a back plate, so let’s not retreat! Forward to victory as a conquering phalanx; it’s the Christian way!

There is good reason to believe that Paul is not thinking of a Roman soldier. He was not necessarily searching for a metaphor at all because the Bible and the Apocrypha already contained such devices. For instance, Isaiah 59:17 says, “He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head….” Paul’s imagination was more Hebraic than Roman; it is more likely that he is describing the armor and weapons of a decked out temple guardian. If we look for comparisons in the high priest alone, as some have, we will fail to find the whole picture. He had a nice breastplate and belt and turban, but not a shield or sword. However, if we look to the Levitical guardians in 2 Chronicles 26, we will find a good reference for a more Hebraic picture. We can also see a wonderful picture of what Christian Levites are all about.

In that passage the mother of wicked King Ahaziah killed off all her son’s children. The entire Davidic line came down to a single surviving infant whose nurse hid him away while his grandmother killed the rest of his brothers. The high priest’s wife hid Joash in the House of the Lord where he grew up as a child of the temple precincts. In the child’s seventh year Jehoiada the high priest called upon all of the priests and Levites who were on guard in the temple to take up sword, spear, and shield and to surround the boy King and guard him within the house of God as he was given the Kingdom. The boy grew up in the temple precincts; he was practically a Levite himself, but he was the true heir to the throne.

The Kings of Israel have often flirted with priesthood. David ate the bread of the presence and wore the linen ephod and danced before the Ark. Solomon worshipped before the Ark in the tabernacle of David. Uzziah went too far, burning incense at the altar of incense, a skin disease breaking out upon his brow which kept him out of God’s house until the day of his death. Each of these were kings of Salem, now Jerusalem, like Melchizedek. Their closeness to priesthood anticipates Jesus. Joash, surrounded by armed and armored Levites, is a picture of Christ, the ultimate Priest-King, standing in the temple with all His holy warriors around Him. Sadly, Joash did not remain faithful after Jehoiada died. He grew up in the temple and presumably got his food from the Levitical portions, but he was ultimately unfaithful to God, even murdering Zechariah, Jehoiada’s son, in the house of Yahweh. Many Christians grow up, as it were, in the temple precincts, but do not endure to the end, proving that they never had saving faith.

From Pentecost to Pentecost

Many Christians think that Pentecost is a single event in the book of Acts. Actually, it is a holy day that is still celebrated by a great number of Christians. It refers to the 50th day after Passover when the children of Israel entered covenant with God. Like the Levites, the first disciples of Jesus were ordained for priestly service at Pentecost. The first Pentecost of the old epoch included the giving of the law and the tabernacle and the Levites rising up with their swords to defend the covenant, in which 3000 of their brothers fell. The first Pentecost of the new epoch included the gift of the Holy Spirit, the temple of the body of Christ, and the apostles rising up to pierce their brothers with the Sword of the Spirit. After the Spirit falls upon the disciples in tongues of fire and they speak in all of the various languages that are represented among the throng who came up for Pentecost, Peter stands up to preach and reveal the meaning of it all by saying:

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” Acts 2:22-24.

“Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” Acts 2:33.

Peter, an ordained Priest who has been baptized in water and baptized in the Holy Spirit, preaches to the men of Israel and the effect is circumcision of the heart:

“Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:37-38.

The verb translated here as “cut” is a word used nowhere else in the Bible or other Greek literature. It is formed by the preposition kata and the word nusso. Nusso is often used of grievous wounds and is only used in Matthew and John to describe the piercing of Jesus’ side with a spear. The preposition seems to indicate a deep or thorough stabbing or piercing. The usage here is metaphorical because of the context. Peter’s words, empowered by the Spirit, are piercing the hearts of his hearers. The employment of this particular word with the ultimate effect that three thousand people are added to the church on the same calendar day on which the Levites took up their swords to kill three thousand of their covenant breaking brethren, heralds the fact that God has fulfilled His promise to refine and purify the sons of Levi with the fire of the Holy Spirit. The spiral of biblical history has come round again to Levi and his sword, but now his speech and his sword are one in the same. The children of Israel had once again succumbed to idolatry, crucifying Jesus at the hands of sinful men and paying homage to Caesar. Peter tells his audience that the only way forward is baptism. Levi has delivered the death blow and they must be baptized in order to die with Jesus and be raised again and filled with the Holy Spirit. Being baptized, they are able to go into the new temple and eat of the holy food. They themselves are empowered by the Spirit to wield the word of God to defend this sanctuary of life. They are true Levites, for their lips guard knowledge and truth is in their mouth.

Levi purified is like the third son of Jacob and Leah; he takes up his sword to defend the covenant community, but instead of creating a false community, he uses his sword of the Spirit to attach people to God and build the church. Leah’s hope was that the child would help her to be attached to her husband, but his destiny was even greater than all her hopes, for now he attaches the bride of Christ to the Bridegroom and the two become one in order to unite heaven and earth. The artfulness of God in turning Levi’s sin around and using him to save the bride and the bride the world is worthy of awe, thanksgiving, and praise. However, we are not quite at the end of it all. Levi’s scattering in Israel was a consequence redeemed and it is an echo of what happened at the tower of Babel. In this story, all things are redeemed and glorified, even the tower of Babel.

Garden, Tower, Tower, Garden

When the day of Pentecost came the believers and devout Jews and God fearing people from every nation were together in one place. Yahweh had drawn the powers of Sin together to condemn it in the flesh of Jesus on the cross, but He had also drawn together people of different tongues to hear of this mighty work in their own language. In this moment God reversed the scattering of Babel, for He was bringing His people together to begin work on a new city and a new tower, a tower that would connect heaven and earth. The church is that tower and those who build it have a liturgy that God loves, for they do not sing to one another of their own greatness, but of the glory of God. Jesus Christ is the building that bridges heaven and earth. Like those who built the tower of Babel, we rejoice as we work. The tower of Babel was made with the dust of earth that had been mixed with water and burned and hardened by fire. Human beings are but dust, but by adding the water of baptism and the fire of the Spirit, God fashions them into bricks for building His tower, the church. Thus, God has turned the song of Babel into a song that we can sing:

“Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly!”

Each Christian is a baked brick in God’s tower and a son of Levi, refined by fire.The church is the city that comes down out of heaven in the book of Revelation and in it is the tree of life, available to all without measure. The final New Creation city is the garden glorified, and no unclean thing may enter it.

Conclusion

Legendary swordsmen are greater in legend than in life, and the greatest of legendary swords are those which no longer need to be drawn. On earth a sheathed ceremonial sword is a sign of prosperity and peace and the rule of a good king. Swords are forged to bring about the rule of Kings and are sheathed in times of peace and that is the best we can do in the governments of man. But God sheathed His sword after the death and resurrection of Christ by reforging it as Word, and this is a return to the garden of Eden. Those who are in Christ are all children of Levi and legendary swordsmen. With the full armor of God we can block and parry the fiery shafts of the evil dragon, the serpent of old and fulfill our vocation as priests to God. We who were in Christ at His death are in Christ in His victory. Like the Levites who gathered to Moses at Sinai and the priestly guardians who gathered around Joash, we are gathered around Christ as He conquers the nations by His word.

“And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron…” Revelation 19:14-15

Jacob Gucker is a librarian at BMA Theological Seminary in Jacksonville, Texas. He lives with his wife and baby daughter at Preacher’s End Farm where she raises vegetables and pastures chickens and he looks up from his books to help out.

“Although the Bible has no corporeal legendary swords, it does have a kind of legendary swordsman.”

Redemption

by Jacob Gucker

The “legendary sword” theme in myth, legend, and literature is ancient and enduring. From King Arthur’s Excalibur to the Legend of Zelda’s “Master Sword,” powerful blades have slain dragons and orcs and banished all kinds of evil. Often the sword can only be wielded by a chosen hero who has shown himself worthy. Sometimes the sword, possessing a will of its own, chooses the wielder. Storied blades are close to the truth. Although the Bible has no corporeal legendary swords, it does have a kind of legendary swordsman.

Levi, the third son of Jacob and Leah got his name because “Levi” sounds like the Hebrew word for “attach.” Leah named him hoping that her husband would be attached to her, since she had always been in second place behind her younger sister. What she could not know then was that her Levi would play an important role in the redemption of the whole world. He would be called to “attach,” or join together heaven and earth. He would be called to join people to God and to one another by the words of his mouth, and he would be ordained to keep and guard the family of God by the sword of his hand. First, Levi would have to be redeemed.

In order to understand the fall, redemption, and glorification of Levi we have to go back to the creation of the world and the Garden of Eden. God created the cosmos by the word of His mouth, speaking and bringing into existence the heavens and the earth. He made the world to be a reflection of heaven and in the world He planted a sanctuary garden. Into the garden He installed the man and gave him a priestly vocation of keeping the garden for the sake of the world, forming his wife from his side to stand shoulder to shoulder in their task.

In making the plants and animals God simply spoke, but in making man, He summoned the heavenly council saying, “Let us make man in our image.” It takes a community with a singular purpose to say, “Let us make…” and it comes to pass. The perfect community is the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A good deal more went into the making of human beings than the rest of creation with God forming man of the dust of the ground and then breathing into him the breath of life, but man was still created via speech. It was, however, a particularly divine form of speech; God took council. This will be echoed in Genesis 11 when people, having been enlightened by knowledge, take council to build the tower of Babel.

Unlike the animals, God made mankind in His own image. As a result, man could speak with God and it was his duty to speak the words of God. When the serpent came into the garden with its forked tongue, it spoke for the evil one, derailing the liturgy of the first temple, and leading man and woman to worship the creature, rather than the creator. They had no weapons to wield against the serpent, but they did not need them; they had the word of God. When they failed to speak true in the face of temptation, they committed sacrilege, and God drove them out and kept them out by posting cherubim and a flaming sword at the gate to guard the way back to the tree of life.

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

The “primordial history” portion of Genesis ends in chapter 11 with the tower of Babel. Much happens in the intervening passages, including the total destruction and recreation of the world by a flood. In the new world, man grows in his wisdom and knowledge for good and ill. He establishes towns and he makes tools. He makes wine and musical instruments and develops animal husbandry. By chapter 11 he has become more like God and he attempts to do what the Godhead had accomplished in the creation by building a false version of the community that the original garden was meant to become, a city. At this point it is important to remind readers that the Bible ends with a city coming down from heaven. Here, humanity tries to get on the fast track to the end by building a city that reaches to heaven. Like God, man takes council saying,

“Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

The Godhead echoes this language saying:

And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

This passage is parallel to the creation story at the beginning. The humans are speaking in the cohortative mood, taking council and creating their own temple with the intention of making a name for themselves and to prevent themselves from being dispersed. The Godhead comes down to inspect their city and to see the tower that their speech has wrought. He confuses their language, the very thing that distinguishes them as united, enlightened human beings. They were operating like the godhead, speaking together and creating together. One might even say that they are “whistling while they work” for the language of this passage is filled with word plays that give it all a musical quality. It is as if the people are singing antiphonally to one another the liturgy of the human temple. Their tower is pathetic, though. They think it is high, but God still must condescend from heaven to earth to see it.

In the garden, Adam allowed the serpent to derail the liturgy of God’s temple, and now God is derailing the liturgy in their temple! God intends to build His own city, but it would not be complete for thousands of years. He begins His long work in the next chapter with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve tribes of Israel. Israel fathers Levi, and Levi gets himself into similar trouble with similar consequences as the people at the Tower of Babel.

Atrocity in Israel

When Israel was a sojourner in the land of Canaan, he bought a piece of land on which to place his tent (Genesis 34) and dwelt there. When the prince of the land noticed Israel’s daughter, Dinah, he took her and slept with her, defiling and humiliating her. Drawn to her, he insisted that she be his wife. Jacob did not want to cause trouble in the land, but his sons were reasonably incensed against Hamor and his lusty son, Shehem. Therefore, they deceived them and said, “If you become a part of us by being circumcised, we will give you our sister in marriage.”

The men of the city were circumcised and while they were all healing up, Levi and Simeon sacked them and killed them all, taking their wives and little ones for themselves. Israel was put out with them. Their underhanded deception and murder of a whole city was not justified, even in light of what Shechem did to their sister. Israel remembered their deeds and before he died, speaking about each son in turn, spoke words over their lives. He judged each son according to the quality of his life. Of Simeon and Levi he said:

“Simeon and Levi are brothers;
weapons of violence are their swords.
Let my soul come not into their council;
O my glory, be not joined to their company.
For in their anger they killed men,
and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.”
(Genesis 49:5-7)

Simeon and Levi’s actions stand in stark contrast with the calling of God for Abraham and the nation of Israel. They deceived the people of Shechem by inviting them into their covenant community and used the sign of the covenant as an opportunity to slaughter them all. They built a false community, founded upon deceitful language, and destroyed it. The text of Genesis 49 does not say it, but it seems that Jacob’s words are the words of God over the twelve tribes. In fact, it is from this passage that we get strong foreshadowing of David and Jesus:

“The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”

The result of Israel’s speech is that Simeon and Levi would be scattered throughout Israel. Simeon would be distributed within Judah alone and Simeon looks like little more than a tag-a-long with Judah in the conquest of their territories (Judges 1). Levi, on the other hand, had no inheritance in Israel. Levi would be scattered throughout the tribes. From this we can see that their evil council to build a false community has practically the same effect as that of the people of Babel. There’s no mention here of confused tongues, but the Levites will have an interesting relationship with speech from here on out. Furthermore, all of the elements in this prophecy will come up again and again. Levi will continue to be a community builder and guardian, a wielder of speech and swords and even a slayer of beasts and men. He keeps this vocation to this day, but only because of repentance and faithfulness and redemption.

Redemption

People love to flatten it down into simple transactions, believing that redemption is about “getting saved.” One believes that the transaction of Jesus dying on the cross saves him from his sin, and he is saved. The historical events and cultural background of Jesus matter little, and the process of redemption for individuals is likewise reduced to instant pudding. Want pudding? Just add water! The redemption of Levi is no simple transaction, but a thing worked out in space and time. Obviously, Levi is a tribe, and not an individual man throughout most of the Bible, and we’re not just talking about the redemption of the one man, but of the whole tribe, and ultimately, the whole nation of Israel.

Nevertheless, there was something about Levi’s faithfulness to his sister, Dinah. It was zealous, though misguided faithfulness to the covenant, and God would redeem it for good. However, it would come through acts of faithfulness and despite acts of sin and rebellion. God would also redeem his mouth and his sword.

The birth order of Israel’s sons roughly prefigures the history of the Old Testament and New Testament eras with three sons being key. Levi, Judah, and Joseph are Priests, Kings, and Prophets, respectively. This cycle can be seen at several levels, but suffice it to say that Israel’s leaders were priests in the era of the Mosaic Tabernacle, then Kings (David, Solomon, etc.) and then prophets (Isaiah, Daniel). The cycle repeats in John the Baptizer who was a Levite, and Jesus who is Son of David and reigning King, and the Church which consists of Spirit-led speakers who prophesy in Christ to the nations. Jesus is the consummate priest, king, and prophet.

The book of Genesis ends the story of the sons themselves and Exodus begins the story of the tribes which bear their names. The story of the nation of Israel begins with a Levite man and woman giving birth to a son, Moses. Named for the fact that he was drawn alive from the water of the Nile while other Hebrew boys were being drowned, he would lead Israel up from Egypt and through the waters of the Red Sea, to be drawn alive from the waters while Pharaoh’s armies drowned. Like Moses when he was a baby, they didn’t even get that wet! Now, consider that the New Testament begins with Levite Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth giving birth to a son who leads people through the waters of baptism in the Jordan river, and you are seeing the aforementioned priest, king, and prophet pattern. Furthermore, it is the priests and Levites who are sent to inquire as to the nature of John’s baptism and message.

It is in Exodus that we begin to see Levi’s explicit relationship with speech and the sword. God commanded Moses to speak for Him to Pharaoh, but Moses complains about his “uncircumcised lip.” Aaron would be his mouthpiece:

“Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well.” (Exodus 4:12-14)

God explicitly refers to Aaron as “your brother, the Levite” and the fact that he can speak well. This is ironic because Moses is a Levite as well, but it is Aaron who will be the father of the Levitical priesthood. The calling of Levi is already in the works, but again, redemption is worked out in space and time and another event will bring Levi into his redemption.

At mount Sinai, after the people commit idolatry by forming the golden calf and feasting in its presence, Moses bids that anyone who is on Yahweh’s side take up his sword:

And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the LORD’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.” (Exodus 32:26-29)

This episode is the immediate cause of Levi’s redemption. With the Spirit of God hovering over Sinai, the Word thundered from the heart of heaven that swift justice consume the transgressors, and Levi became a proper guardian of God’s holy temple. In their idolatrous revelry the people had broken through the barriers which had been set about the mountain sanctuary. Any sharp weapon is an extension of the mouth, and the sword is a fitting punishment for those who refuse to listen. All people are destined to be cut; they will either have their hearts circumcised by the word, or they will be cut off from the earth by the sword. Just as Adam and Eve followed the word of the serpent to feast from the forbidden tree, and so were cut off from the tree of life by Cherubim with flaming sword, so did Levi and his flashing sword become a guardian angel of God on that day, cutting off many of those who feasted with the golden calf, about 3000 souls.

Zeal for the covenant name is zeal for the covenant community. Loving Yahweh is loving people. Loving God is loving one’s sister and brother and companion. Love, food, and fellowship are on one side of the sword, and dereliction, starvation, and death are on the other. The same is true of the Word of God. The sword is the word extended to those who will not hear and the word is the sword given to those who will. Levi earned his priesthood by being a defender of the covenant. This moment in the tribe of Levi was a moment of redemption and victory. His sword went from being a weapon of murder to an implement of covenant guardianship. The tribe’s motives were similar when it was Levi the man taking revenge for his sister’s honor, but now, rather than building a false community, he was protecting the true covenant community.

The prophecy concerning his scattering does come to pass, but in a redemptive way. The tribe of Levi will be dispersed throughout the whole land and he will have no inheritance, but Yahweh Himself will be his inheritance! Levi will serve God in the Tabernacle and the Temple and he will be distributed throughout Israel to keep and serve in the whole nation. He will speak the words of the various liturgies in worship and he will wield a knife in the priestly duties of sacrifice and circumcision. He will continue to “slay men” and “hamstring oxen,” (Genesis 49) but now he will help men offer sacrifices representing themselves to God. Levi will help men to die to themselves and be attached to God, whether they were born in Israel, or whether they are grafted in to the nation’s tree.

Levi is not only proficient in the use of swords, however. All sharp edged or piercing weapons are extensions of human speech in the Bible. When Israel united itself to the Baal of Peor and a son of Simeon took a Midianite princess into his family, Phinehas the Levite showed his zeal for the covenant community with his spear:

When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. (Numbers 25:7-8)

This act earned Phinehas a special covenant of “perpetual priesthood.” According to Psalm 106, Phinehas’ actions are “counted to him as righteousness.” This echoes the language of Genesis when Abraham believes God, and it is credited to him as righteousness. Phinehas is not only believing in his heart but confessing with his spear that Yahweh Sabaoth is Lord!

The redemption of Levi has twists and turns, just as with the rest of Israel. We now turn to several major examples of the chaos that ensues when Levites do not keep covenant with Yahweh.

A Tale of Two Levites: Judges 17-21

These chapters at the end of Judges show the corruption and chaos that results when everyone in Israel does “what is right in his own eyes.” Chapters 17-18 are a story about a Levite from Bethlehem who travels to Ephraim, and it forms an interlocking literary unit with chapters 19-21, which feature a Levite from Ephraim who travels to Bethlehem.

The Levite from Bethlehem

The first story is about a certain Micah of Ephraim, a man who stole money from his own mother and returned it. She forgave him and used some of the money to create graven images. He takes a Levite from Bethlehem into his house and installs him as his own personal priest to Yahweh and a host of other household gods, as though the God of Israel was but one among many. He sets up a shrine with idols and a linen ephod. It’s a sweet deal for a lawless Levite from the “house of bread” who is now a servant in a house full of false gods. Despite the idols, Micah thinks that having his own Levite priest to Yahweh is bound make him prosperous.

Along come members of the tribe of Dan, looking for a portion of the land to call their own. They tell the Levite to ask God if their venture will succeed and he tells them that it will go well for them. They go on to find the people of Laish, a quiet and unsuspecting people prospering in a good area. They decide to raid the town and take it for themselves, but not before they go back to snatch up the Levite and the idols. Coming upon Micah’s house with 600 men, they plan to take everything, even the women and children, leaving Micah with nothing. They come to the gate of Micah’s house and the Levite asks them what they are doing.

And they said to him, “Keep quiet; put your hand on your mouth and come with us and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?”

The faithless Levite folds like a house of cards and leaves Micah with nothing. No Levite should be guarding a house full of idols, but this one did for as long as it was profitable. When the time came for him to guard the gate of his master’s house, he put his hand over his mouth. The Danites go on to attack the peaceful people of Laish, killing them with the sword and burning their city. They rebuild the city for themselves and dwell there with a line of priests to call their own. There was no King in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

The Levite from Ephraim

The companion story of the Levite from Ephraim is one of the Bible’s most unsettling accounts. The story is about a Levite whose concubine leaves him to go back to her father’s house in Bethlehem. He goes to speak kindly to her, hoping she will return. Arriving at Bethlehem, he abides with her father for almost a week. The text repeatedly highlights her father’s hospitality and their eating and drinking each day. Her father urges him to stay longer, but he takes his concubine and leaves. Unwilling to lodge at Jebus, the city that would one day be Jerusalem, the very house of Yahweh and the city of the King, the Levite instead turns in at Gibeah.

The language of what follows is conspicuously like that of the account of Lot and the angels in Sodom from Genesis 19. A seemingly hospitable Ephraimite meets him in the square and urges him not to spend the night there, but to come in and commune with him. The wicked men of Gibeah try to beat down the door like Sodomites that they might sexually assault the Levite. The owner of the house bids that they take his virgin daughter together with the concubine and have their way with them. They refuse to listen and the owner of the house thrusts the concubine without and shuts the door. After they ravage her all night, she staggers toward the door where her adonai was abiding in safety. She collapses on the threshold of the door as the morning light dawns and she dies. Up to this point the narrator has referred to her as a concubine or youthful girl, but for the first time in the passage, the narrator calls her “Isha,” woman, wife.

The text refers to the Levite as “Ish” just once in the beginning of the passage, and he received the hospitality of her father, but he does nothing to show that he is her husband and she is his wife. The Levite did nothing to spare her, but allowed himself to be closed up inside the house, safe and sound. Whereas the Levite in the previous story stood aside while the Danites carried him off, the Levite in this story closes the door on his own flesh. He hauls her home on his donkey and then does an appalling thing:

And when he entered his house, he took a knife, and taking hold of his concubine he divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. And all who saw it said, “Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day; consider it, take counsel, and speak.”

The Levite takes not sword, but knife to divide her. There are relatively few words translated “knife” in the Bible, and there are only four times that this particular word is used, and two of those occurrences are in Genesis 22 where Abraham nearly sacrificed his only son, Isaac:

Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

The sheer irony of this Levite using a sacrificial knife to cut up his poor concubine should not be missed. He is not attached to her, but tosses her aside so flippantly that she is ravaged to death right outside the door where he was safe until morning. Then, he cuts her up like an animal sacrifice and sends a piece of her to each tribe in Israel so that the whole covenant nation would know what the sons of Benjamin at Gibeah did. The narrator urges the reader to consider, take counsel, and speak to the matter.

This introduces the next part of the story in which we see the covenant community being ripped apart, rather than drawn together. The troubled nation of Israel comes together to take counsel and speak as to what to do about the tribe of Benjamin and it leads to war against one of the tribes. The Levite switches places with the whole nation. He tells the nation which has “assembled as one man” to “give your advice and counsel here.” Then, “as one man,” the nation takes action and goes up against Benjamin to “burn out” the transgressors. They take a tithe of the people, ten of a hundred, a hundred of a thousand, a thousand of ten thousand to go against Benjamin, Judah first. Truly, the whole world has turned upside down!

Throughout the Bible Israel and the church are the bride of God and priests and pastors are liturgical husbands who represent God to the people. They represent Christ to the church. Priests, Levites, and pastors are meant to “speak kindly to her,” to offer her forgiveness in times of unfaithfulness. But this Levite does not lay down his life for his unfaithful bride. He leaves her to die by the door. “Ephraim” means “fruitful,” but this Levite from Ephraim and his wife are not fruitful. The closed door where she dies symbolizes the closing of her womb. It symbolizes the fact that the nation of Israel is bearing no fruit, and if the nation does not bear fruit in the form of faithful children, there can never be a Messiah to save her. Levi was supposed to be distributed to Israel to serve in every place, but this Levite distributed his wife in twelve pieces to the twelve tribes. He used his sacrificial knife to divide the woman and she became a fire in every tribe that nearly burned the whole nation down. This is not the fire of Yahweh’s altar. This is strange fire! Moreover, the whole ordeal leads to the desolation of Benjamin and a need for women to be wives to the men of Benjamin. There was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

A Future Reforging

In Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, Yahweh takes up a case against the Levites and the men of Judah for their failure to worship from the heart and keep their speech pure.

“My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.”

“But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts.”

The covenant here refers to the one God made with the Levites through the covenant-guarding actions of Phinehas. It references the fact that Levites are teachers and preachers as well as those who offer sacrifices to God, and this was particularly true of the non-priest Levites who were scattered throughout Israel to be local pastors. God is cross with the Levitical priests in Malachi for several reasons, one of which is that Levi is supposed to speak the truth and guard knowledge with his lips. The Hebrew word for “guard” is often translated as “keep” and refers to keeping the garden, the tabernacle, the temple, and the covenant. The act of guarding the sanctuary of God implies the use of a sword. Again, the sword is an extension of the mouth and speech. The good news is that in Malachi 3, God promises that the “the Lord… will suddenly come to his temple,” and that “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver….”

Conclusion to Part 1

This article has shown the role of speech in the creation of the world and the formation of covenant community. It has shown that Levi’s sin of using the sign of circumcision to create a false church in order to deceive and destroy the men of Shechem caused him to be scattered throughout Israel. God graciously redeemed this consequence by acknowledging Levi’s covenant faithfulness at Sinai with ordination; Levi would be distributed throughout the land to become a mediator between God and Israel. The third son of Jacob and Leah was ordained to be a sword-wielding guardian of the people and the temple of God. Born to a woman who hoped that his birth would attach her to her husband, Levi was redeemed to serve as a representative husband to Israel with sword in hand and truth in mouth to attach people to God and to one another. When the Levites failed to live up to their calling, chaos ensued in the covenant community.

Nevertheless, God will go on to refine and “purify the sons of Levi,” glorifying them to serve in the same capacity for the sake of the whole world. Part 2 of this article will set out the glorification of Levi in the New Testament.

Jacob Gucker is a librarian at BMA Theological Seminary in Jacksonville, Texas. He lives with his wife and baby daughter at Preacher’s End Farm where she raises vegetables and pastures chickens and he looks up from his books to help out.