Levi brought a stink upon the house of Jacob, according to Jacob, when Simeon and Levi murdered all the men of Hamor and Shechem to avenge the defiling of their sister Dinah.

Simeon means: to hear or a harkening and Levi means: joining or joined to and Dinah means: judgment or to judge.

Gen 34:24  And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city. 
Gen 34:25  And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males. 

Jacob tells his sons Levi and Simeon this:

Gen 34:30 You have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house. 
Gen 34:31  And they said, should he deal with our sister as with a harlot? 

Let me remind you real quick of a verse that happens four chapters later….

Gen 38:15  When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face. 

This is Judah dealing with his daughter-in-law as with a harlot. Just for reference sake.. you’ll want’ to know about this. This is Judah NOT a son of Levi by the way.~

This is a very good question that Simeon and Levi pose to their father Jacob.

Should Shechem or anyone else for that matter, deal with their sister Dinah, whose name means JUDGMENT, as they would a harlot? This is a KEY spiritual foreshadowing of WHY later on God chooses Levi and his sons to be His priests upon the earth. This so called “stink” is what made Levi stand out to the Lord, however, it’s also what caused him to bear the weight of the iniquity of his brethren until the time of Jesus Christ.

Levi and his brother Simeon killed men on behalf of the defilement of “Judgment” which is what we could call what was happening with Jacob agreeing to mix blood and share wives with the men of Hamor and Shechem, IF the Lord had NOT sanctioned that union for Dinah, considering she was the ONLY daughter of Jacob. These men were Hivites the 6th generation of the descendants of Canaan, the sons of Ham. Jacob was fearful for his life and THAT is why he considered what they did a stench. It was because Jacob hadn’t learned to trust the Lord to protect his life. We see that both Abraham and Isaac have difficulty trusting the Lord with their lives and offer up their own wives to a king to try and save their lives. The Lord stepped in on both those accounts and stopped the fruit that may have been caused by their fear and error.

Right after Levi and Simeon ask their father this question about their sister Dinah and her being treated as a harlot, God calls Jacob to Luz, a place translated as “almond tree” in the land of Canaan to a place called Bethel. This is the place that Jacob named Bethel meaning “The House of God” after the Lord appeared to him there when he was fleeing from his brother Esau.

Gen 35:1  And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. 
Gen 35:2  Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: 
Gen 35:3  And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. 
Gen 35:4  And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. 

He built an alter there in Bethel Gen 35:7 and called the place Elbethel which means “The God of the House of God”.

Gen 35:8  But Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth. 

Notice here that Rebekah’s nurse is named Deborah and she is also buried under an oak there at Bethel and that oak is called Allonbuchuth which means “the Oak of weeping” This Deborah is the same nurse maid that Laban, Rebekah’s brother and her father Bethuel gave to Rebekah when Abraham sent his servant among his brethren to find a wife for Isaac.

Gen 24:59  And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant, and his men. 
Gen 24:60  And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them. 

Rebekah is Jacob’s mother, the wife of Isaac and this nurse maid Deborah (in Hebrew the word nurse means sucking or the nursing of a child) has been with Rebekah since she was a baby from her mother Milcah’s womb, and she more than likely nursed Jacob her son as well. which was the custom for Hebrew family nurse maids.

Deborah was chosen to nurse the seed royale for the House of Abraham, those being Isaac’s children and she was chosen from the seed of Abraham’s own brother, Nahor to do it. Haven’t you ever wondered why they would throw in such a random fact like Deborah dying, a mere nurse maid, and why she died THERE, and what THAT had to do with WHAT was going on?

It’s right here at Bethel, the very first House of God, where God reached out and began a covenant with His children, that we see, after it was fully established with location and alter, two very different things are taking place at it’s grand opening, so to speak….

We see that Jacob, after collecting all the idols and gold offerings from the children of Israel, he decides to HIDE their false gods, and their gold fineries under an oak at Bethel, which means “The House of God”, THEN we see Deborah the family nurse maid to the seed of Abraham, she dies and is ALSO buried under an oak at Bethel “The House of God” and this oak is given the name “The Oak of Weeping”. Weeping? Why you may ask? Because Jacob hid those accursed things in hopes of retrieving them and using them later, and God made sure to have Deborah buried under the “Oak of Weeping” to stand as witness against this sin of Jacob before the alter and House of God forever.

Jacob could have cast those accursed things into a river or threw them on the dung heap but he HID them instead. Which shows his motive.. and we see it play out more later on in this article but for now, let’s get back to Levi and his zeal for Judgment on behalf of God.

In the book of Exodus chapter 32 we can see this type of zealous behavior from the sons of Levi and it really draws the attention of the Lord.

Exo 32:26  Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. (they joined themselves with Moses, like the name Levi says)
Exo 32:27  And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. 
Exo 32:28  And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

Then Moses immediately after, tells the sons of Levi this:

Ex 32:29 “Today you have been ordained for service to the LORD, since each man went against his son and his brother; so the LORD has bestowed a blessing on you this day.”

The Lord used the sons of Levi to purge the entire house of Israel by killing 3000 people that very day. Why you may ask? Because such idolatry would not be tolerated in the land promised to them by the Lord.. After the Lord finished releasing His judgment upon the children of Israel here, he makes Moses tell them THIS before they take one step into His promised land given to Abraham and his seed.

Exo 34:12  Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: 
Exo 34:13  But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: 
Exo 34:14  For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: 
Exo 34:15  Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; 
Exo 34:16  And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.

We can see this zeal for judgment play out again in the story of Phineas the grandson of Aaron from the high priests of the sons of Levi: Remember, Judah went a whoring first when he went to find a harlot and found his daughter in law instead. Tamar was proclaimed to be more righteous than Judah, by Judah himself before the congregation. He accused her of going a whoring when HE was the one that went whoring. Judah’s judgment was skewed. We can see the results of it here.

Num 25:1  And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. 
Num 25:2  And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. 
Num 25:3  And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. 
Num 25:4  And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel. 
Num 25:5  And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor. 
Num 25:6  And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 
Num 25:7  And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; 
Num 25:8  And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. 
Num 25:9  And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. 

God establishes a covenant with the sons of Levi through Phineas the son of Aaron.

Num 25:11 Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned My wrath away from the Israelites; for he was zealous for My sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in My zeal.

Num 25:12 Declare, therefore, that I am granting HIM My covenant of peace.

Num 25:13 It will be a covenant of everlasting priesthood for him and his descendants, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.

This included ALL of the seed of Levi through Phineas and after Phineas according to their generations. ALL the sons of Levi were priests in service to God for the congregation, but we see God choosing Aaron and his seed to be the High Priests over all the priests of the Tribe of Levi as well as the all the 12 tribes, on behalf of God to His people. God established an everlasting covenant of high priesthood and peace with the sons of Phineas, the son of Aaron, which are more than likely the 24 Elders that sit before the Lord attending to their everlasting priesthood of peace, offering praise and witness before the Father day and night. They are the only elders this could be, honestly.

Let’s break down WHO the original sons of Levi are, because THEY are WHO this article is about.

Levi had 3 sons. Exo 6:16

Gershom, his name means EXILE and he was born before Jacob’s family went to Canaan

Kohath, his name means ASSEMBLY, and he is the progenitor of the Tribe of Levi.

Merari, his name means BITTER and he is recognized as the head of the Levitical family aside from the tribe of High Priest.

Gershom his 1st born had two sons Libni and Shimi.

Kohath his 2nd born had 4 sons Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel.

Merari his 3rd born had 2 sons Mahali and Mushi.

These are ALL sons of Levi. The O.G.’s so to speak…12 in total.

The Book of Numbers confirms the legacy of the High Priests of God, chosen by God, through the tribe of Levi ONLY.

God seals it with the miracle of Aaron’s rod budding, representing the Tribe of Levi being chosen by God and Aaron to be its His High Priest among ALL his brethren.

Amram, is the 1st born son of Levi’s 2nd son Kohath, whose name means ASSEMBLY.

Amram is the father of Aaron, Moses and Miriam. Ex 6:20
Amram took his aunt, his grandfather Levi’s daughter, Jochebed to be his wife.

Both of Moses’, Aaron’s and Miriam’s parents are the seed of Levi through Kohath.

Izhar the 2nd son of Kohath had 3 sons and their names are Korah, Nepheg and Zichri.

God purges the entire bloodline of Levi of the seed of Korah the 1st born son of Izhar, the 2nd son of Kohath for his rebellion. Korah’s seed were Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph, they were the Korhites.

We are going to stay focused hence forward on the seed of Kohath from the sons of Levi, because this is where we find Amram, the father of Aaron, Miriam and Moses. Amram lived 137 years.

Aaron took Elisheba as his wife. Elisheba is the daughter of Aminadab, the sister of Naashon. A daughter of Aram the 5th descent from Judah.

Aaron a son of Levi married a daughter of Judah and all the sons of Aaron and Elisheba are referred to as “the sons of Aaron” and their daughter as “the daughters of Aaron”
Their sons are Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

Two sons make the cut and two don’t.

The Lord continues to pare down the sons of Levi to purge them of inequity. Levi means “joined” basically a pairing, and He is having to pare back impurities of that pairing or joining of Levi.. Nadab and Abihu are the product of those impurities, and they get purged from the sons of Aaron.

Aaron and his sons received a tenth of all the offerings received by the children of Israel, meaning after the sons of Levi received all the tenth from the other 11 tribes of Israel, the sons of Levi corporately had to give Aaron and his sons and daughters a tenth of all that.. this is what they offered to the Lord, and Aaron and his sons and daughters got to partake of it. The sons of Aaron held the highest authority amongst all the children of Israel. There were no kings in house of Israel as of yet.

So now we have Eleazar and Ithamar as the remaining sons of Aaron.

Eleazar, the 3rd born of Aaron, took a daughter of Putiel as wife and they had Phinehas.

Phineas means: mouth of brass.

Putiel may have been a son of Put the 3rd son of Ham because Putiel means afflicted of God. Put=afflicted, El=God.

We also see more of God purging the sons of Levi of their impurities through the hand of Phinehas.
Phinehas was Aaron and the daughter of Putiel’s 1st born.

Okay, let me pause here for a moment. God is not playing games with the sons of Levi, He wants them to be as pure in heart as they are in their patriarch’s blood. Set apart completely unto Himself. CLEAN.

We see in Numbers that God tells Moses NOT to number the Tribe of Levi amongst the other children of Israel:

Num 1:48  For the LORD had spoken unto Moses, saying, 
Num 1:49  Only thou shalt not number the tribe of Levi, neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel: 
Num 1:50  But thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony, and over all the vessels thereof, and over all things that belong to it: they shall bear the tabernacle, and all the vessels thereof; and they shall minister unto it, and shall encamp round about the tabernacle. 
Num 1:51  And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down: and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. 
Num 1:52  And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts. 
Num 1:53  But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony. 
Num 1:54  And the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did they. 

Let me pause again to point out that children of Israel were blessed and protected as long as they followed this simple prescription from God, but the office of King was installed due to the murmurings of the children of Israel, and He installed for them a King, but WHO was it that God used to wield such authority on His behalf? None other than a PRIEST of the Tribe of Levi, Samuel.

It was set up from the beginning of Israel and their covenant with God that the sons of Levi through the branch/rod of Aaron would be the final say on matters pertaining to God among their brethren. Up until the time of Saul, the children of Israel would not go out to battle or make any corporate decision without consulting the priests first.

Right after Saul is anointed King by Samuel, that’s when we start to see the break down of the whole blessed and protected system that God had established with the seed of Abraham.

We begin to see men transgressing against this holy ordination of God and His ordained chain of command and these Kings started making priests of men that were not from the Tribe of Levi.

1 Kings 12:31 Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and appointed from every class of people priests who were not Levites..

2Ch 13:9  Have you not cast out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and have made for yourselves priests after the manner of the nations of other lands? so that whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a priest of them that are no gods?
2Ch 13:10  But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him; and the priests, which minister unto the LORD, are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business: 

Right here the Lord once again draws a hard line between man made priests and priests chosen by GOD.

During the time of the Prophet Jeremiah:

Jer 33:19  And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying, 
Jer 33:20  Thus saith the LORD; If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, that there should not be day and night in their season; 
Jer 33:21  Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. 
Jer 33:22  As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto Me. 

Just like we see the Prophet Samuel, the 1st Judge in all of Israel rebuking the first King Saul and proclaiming the tearing of his kingdom away and it being given to another more worthy. We can see the roles being played out, it’s the Priest that hears from God to direct the Kings to execute His will upon the earth. God+Priest+King joined together in unity on behalf of the people of God as a representation of God’s kingdom upon the earth. Mankind had gotten things so bass ackwards that The Lord had to send Ezekiel a prophet from the sons of Levi to say, from this point on…. these only are my priests

During the time of Ezekiel: God tells Ezekiel that only the sons of Zadok are the only ones left that God considers His Priests and only THEY may dwell within the sanctioned off area given for the sanctuary of the Lord Ez 48:10-11

Eze 48:10  And for them, even for the priests, shall be this holy oblation; toward the north five and twenty thousand in length, and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south five and twenty thousand in length: and the sanctuary of the LORD shall be in the midst thereof. 

Eze_48:11  It shall be for the priests that are sanctified of the sons of Zadok; which have kept my charge, which went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.

Zadok means: “righteous”
He was the high priest, the son of Ahitub of the house of Eleazar the son of Aaron, and 11th in descent from Aaron; he joined David after Saul’s death and supported him against Absalom and Adonijah; He anointed Solomon as king. Once this happened, they once again experienced peace, protection and blessings. High Priest, Zadok Prophet, Nathan and King Solomon working the way God intended them to.

1Ch 29:22  And did eat and drink before the LORD on that day with great gladness. And they made Solomon the son of David king a second time, and anointed him unto the LORD to be the chief governor, and Zadok to be priest. 
1Ch 29:23  Then Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him.

So the promise of God to David to continually have his seed sit upon the throne as king in Israel and the promise to Aaron for his seed to continually be His priests, that minister to Him and to His people was in it’s beginning stages, and they flourished as long as they didn’t mess with the ordained chain of command put in place by God Himself.

Eze 43:19  And thou shalt give to the priests the Levites that be of the seed of Zadok, which approach unto me, to minister unto me, saith the Lord GOD, a young bullock for a sin offering. 
Eze 43:20  And thou shalt take of the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the settle, and upon the border round about: thus shalt thou cleanse and purge it.

 

Eze 44:15  But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near to Me to minister unto Me, and they shall stand before Me to offer unto Me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD: 
Eze 44:16  They shall enter into My sanctuary, and they shall come near to My table, to minister unto Me, and they shall keep My charge. 

There you go, the sons of Levi, and what role they play among the children of God. There never really was a successful King or government that separated Church and State matters that found themselves pleasing to God. Those systems were designed by God to function as GOD designed them to. There are no loopholes without retribution. Working alone, they will DEFILE GOD’S JUDGMENT, like we see Jacob and his sons do many times throughout the Scriptures, and how I started this article.

I pray this article has blessed you, I decided to write it when the Lord woke me up very early saying “You must bring forth PURE sons of Levi.” I got to studying and writing right away.

God bless you all, may you be free and set free in Jesus name!