Numbers 8:23-26. Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “This is what pertains to the Levites: From twenty-five years old and above one may enter to perform service in the work of the tabernacle of meeting; and at the age of fifty years they must cease performing this work, and shall work no more. They may minister with their brethren in the tabernacle of meeting, to attend to needs, but they themselves shall do no work. Thus you shall do to the Levites regarding their duties.”
A Levite’s time of active service was to begin at age thirty and last until fifty according to Numbers 4:3, 23, 30. Yet their formal training began at age twenty-five, with a five-year apprenticeship. Moses, the children, of Israel, and the Levites all did as God directed them. The Levites showed the qualities of the kind of people ready to inherit the Promised Land: those who are cleansed, dedicated, and doing the work. (Guzik)
“They would no longer dismantle and transport the tabernacle and its furnishing, but they could continue to serve as guards, insuring the sanctity of the holy place.” (Cole)
“His mercy precluded a man doing the work that was demanded when he might be past his physical prime. There were to be no elderly, doddering Levites stumbling about in the precincts of the Holy Place, carrying poles too heavy for them to carry or doing things they were no longer able to do.” (Allen)
The Levitical period of service is fixed here at twenty-five years of age and upwards to the fiftieth year. “This is what concerns the Levites,” i.e., what follows applies to the Levites. “From the age of twenty-five years shall he (the Levite) come to do service at the work of the tabernacle; and at fifty years of age shall he return from the service of the work, and not work any further, but only serve his brethren at the tabernacle in keeping charge,” i.e., help them to look after the furniture of the tabernacle. “Charge” signified the oversight of all the furniture of the tabernacle (see Numbers 3:8); “work” (service) applied to laborious service, e.g., the taking down and setting up of the tabernacle and cleaning it, carrying wood and water for the sacrificial worship, slaying the animals for the daily and festal sacrifices of the congregation, etc. (Keil)
Let us always be ready to serve, willingly wanting to serve, and rejoicing in our service.
