Numbers 18:14 belongs to the chapter's instructions about the duties and provisions of the priests and Levites, explaining the priesthood and its support, for everything in Israel devoted to God belongs to the priest. It stands within Numbers 16-19, which give an awful and sad record of sin and God's object-lessons to teach the true way. The chapter's instructions are relevant to those who challenge God's appointed order and seek the authority held by others.
Everything devoted in Israel was given to Aaron and his sons, the priests, for the sacred work they performed for the Lord. That provision belonged with their charge over the people's offerings and included the portions of sacrifices not burned, the first of everything that ripened in the land, the best of the oil, wine, and wheat, and the firstfruits offered to God, and everyone clean in their house, every eligible member of each priest's family, could eat of it. The chapter shows God set apart the tribe of Levi from the other tribes for the service of the tabernacle with no inheritance of land among Israel, providing for His ministers by having the other tribes pay a tenth into the treasury, with the tithes of the children of Israel given by the Lord to the Levites to inherit in place of land, for the tithe is the Lord's and is holy unto the Lord.
The first ripe fruit indicates what the whole crop from that plant will be, and first-fruits are a type of Christ, whom God has given to man as the first-fruits, so man is asked to give back to God the first and best of all increase. The offering of first-fruits was very closely connected with bringing in the tithe, so withholding first-fruits is included in robbing God in tithes and offerings. What was devoted in Israel belonged wholly to God, so the devoted city of Jericho was not spoil for Israel but God's possession, the first-fruits of the land given to Israel as stewards, and its people and goods were devoted to God and perished because they clung to sin rather than yielding to Him.
In the teaching of those who so used it, the verse gives everything devoted or consecrated in Israel to the priest to cover whole carcasses consecrated to God, as in the tale where Aaron takes a widow's two consecrated sheep entire and marches off, leaving the widow and her orphan daughters overwhelmed with affliction. In that use the claim shows the avarice of the priests and the oppressive nature of the requisitions of the Mosaic ritual, a yoke which neither the fathers nor the present generation were able to bear, though the tale told to prove it is exaggerated yet contains many true features.
Numbers 18:14 belongs to the chapter's instructions about the duties and provisions of the priests and Levites, explaining the priesthood and its support, for everything in Israel devoted to God belongs to the priest. It stands within Numbers 16-19, which give an awful and sad record of sin and God's object-lessons to teach the true way. The chapter's instructions are relevant to those who challenge God's appointed order and seek the authority held by others.
Everything devoted in Israel was given to Aaron and his sons, the priests, for the sacred work they performed for the Lord. That provision belonged with their charge over the people's offerings and included the portions of sacrifices not burned, the first of everything that ripened in the land, the best of the oil, wine, and wheat, and the firstfruits offered to God, and everyone clean in their house, every eligible member of each priest's family, could eat of it. The chapter shows God set apart the tribe of Levi from the other tribes for the service of the tabernacle with no inheritance of land among Israel, providing for His ministers by having the other tribes pay a tenth into the treasury, with the tithes of the children of Israel given by the Lord to the Levites to inherit in place of land, for the tithe is the Lord's and is holy unto the Lord.
The first ripe fruit indicates what the whole crop from that plant will be, and first-fruits are a type of Christ, whom God has given to man as the first-fruits, so man is asked to give back to God the first and best of all increase. The offering of first-fruits was very closely connected with bringing in the tithe, so withholding first-fruits is included in robbing God in tithes and offerings. What was devoted in Israel belonged wholly to God, so the devoted city of Jericho was not spoil for Israel but God's possession, the first-fruits of the land given to Israel as stewards, and its people and goods were devoted to God and perished because they clung to sin rather than yielding to Him.
In the teaching of those who so used it, the verse gives everything devoted or consecrated in Israel to the priest to cover whole carcasses consecrated to God, as in the tale where Aaron takes a widow's two consecrated sheep entire and marches off, leaving the widow and her orphan daughters overwhelmed with affliction. In that use the claim shows the avarice of the priests and the oppressive nature of the requisitions of the Mosaic ritual, a yoke which neither the fathers nor the present generation were able to bear, though the tale told to prove it is exaggerated yet contains many true features.