And of Levi he said.
Levi
Levi was the third son of Jacob and Leah, and his name commemorated the desire and hope of his mother, that her husband’s heart would be “closely joined” to her now that she had borne him three sons (Genesis 29:34). The Hebrew word from which “Levi” is derived means “to adhere,” or “to be closely joined.” An undesigned prediction lay hid in the name thus given; for Levi was ordained by God to be the official link of union betwixt the whole nation of Israel and its spiritual Head. Through the Levitical priesthood the descendants of Jacob were to be joined unto God in a peculiar covenant; and this fact is distinctly connected with the meaning of Levi’s name by an inspired utterance recorded in Numbers 18:2. Yet, during the lifetime of Levi himself, this high spiritual destiny of his tribe could scarcely have been guessed; for this third son of Jacob was joined to his elder brother Simeon in deeds of violence and cruelty that drew upon them a common curse, which in Simeon’s case, as we have seen, made every “blessing” of the tribe impossible. The dying patriarch Israel, speaking by the spirit of prophecy, formally disinherited both these men from their natural share in the promised land of Canaan. They were to be “divided” and “scattered” (Genesis 49:7). And this curse was never recalled in its terms, nor abolished in the case of Levi any more than it was in the case of Simeon; only the wonder working providence of God converted it into an occasion of blessing and honour for the one tribe, whilst leaving it in its original force of a punishment for the other tribe. The exclusion of the Levites from a landed inheritance, and their dispersion amongst the other tribes of Israel, became the highest tokens of the Divine favour towards them, and the means by which they were recognised as the channels of heavenly grace to all the nation. This remarkable change of a curse into a blessing deserves to be studied and remembered by those who are conscious of having brought themselves under the inevitable penalties of past wrong-doing. Those penalties cannot perhaps be recalled, but they can be converted into marvellous opportunities of good in a circle far wider than has been affected by the former evil. And for such a miracle of grace to be accomplished, it is only needful that human repentance and self-consecration should work together with the providence of heaven. (T. G. Rooke, B. A.)
Urim and Thummim
In the blessing of Levi by Moses, the usual order of these two mysterious words is reversed, and Thummim is put before Urim. There is probably a reason for this, namely, to suggest that Levi’s zeal for the “right and perfect way” of God, amid the general defection at Horeb, was his real title to the honourable office of interpreting God’s “light” and God’s “truth” from His holy oracles. This supreme devotion of himself to “right” was indeed the sole condition of his blessing and of the Divine election which it declared. (T. G. Rooke, B. A.)