The Levitical Covenant

Parties

And the LORD said to Moses, "Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him My covenant of peace: And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel." -- Numbers 25:10-13 (ESV)

Conditions

So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that My covenant with Levi may stand, says the LORD of hosts.

  • My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him.

It was a covenant of:

  1. fear, and he feared Me. He stood in awe of My name.
  2. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips.
  3. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and
  4. he turned many from iniquity.
  5. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and
  6. people should seek instruction from his mouth,
  7. for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

Malachi 2:4-7 (ESV)

Confirmation

Not recorded other than "the LORD said to Moses" (Numbers 25:10)

Some suggest it was the anointing oil (Exodus 29:7), special garments (Exodus 28:2-4), Urim and Thummim (Exodus 28:30), Aaron's staff (Numbers 17:1-11), the perpetual fire on the altar (Leviticus 6:13) or the ritual cleansing (Exodus 29:4).

Broken

  1. But you have turned aside from the way.
  2. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction.
  3. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts, and
  4. so I make you despised and
  5. abased before all the people,
  6. inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.”

Have we not all one Father?
Has not one God created us?
Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant5 of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts!

And this second thing you do:

  1. You cover the LORD's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.

But you say, “Why does he not?”

Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking?

Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

"For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her", says the LORD, the God of Israel, "covers his garment with violence", says the LORD of hosts.

So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless. You have wearied the LORD with your words.

Yet, some scholars reason that this covenant cannot be broken although humans can be disobedient:

The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: “Thus says the LORD: If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, then also ... My covenant with the Levitical priests My ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so **I will multiply the offspring of ... the Levitical priests who minister to Me.” -- Jemeriah 33:19-22 (ESV)

For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is His name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.

For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God.

For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD, your Redeemer.

“This is like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but My steadfast love shall not depart from you, and My covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the LORD, Who has compassion on you.

-- Isaiah 54:5-10 (ESV)

Consequences

And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to My name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. -- Malachi 2:1-3 (ESV)

For example:

But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the LORD his God and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.

But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the LORD who were men of valor, and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the LORD God.”

Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the LORD, by the altar of incense.

And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead!
And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the LORD had struck him.
And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the LORD.

-- 2 Chronicles 26:16-21 (ESV)