Numbers - Chapter 3

We have seen before that in the Bible prophecy comes in patterns.  And in Chapter 3 we are once again looking at the pattern of substitution.  We saw this idea in Genesis, when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, but a ram was substituted.  In Exodus 13, verse 2 we saw God claim every firstborn Israelite as his own.  But now God substitutes Moses' and Aaron's tribe of Levi for the firstborn.  A switch is made, so that there is now a special tribe reserved for the Lord.  God says:

"I have taken the Levites from among the Israelites in place of the first male offspring of every Israelite woman.  The Levites are mine, for all the firstborn are mine."

And these substitutions point to the substitution of Jesus, with his death on the cross, taking on the death of each of us. As Matthew says (in Chapter 20) Jesus came to give his life as a ransom (or a substitution) for many.