“They will be mine,” says the Lord of Armies. “On that day I will make them my special possession. I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
I have chosen the other Levites from among the Israelites to help you. They are a gift given to the Lord to do whatever work is necessary at the tent of meeting.
“Take the Levites to be substitutes for all the firstborn Israelites and the animals of the Levites to be substitutes for their animals. The Levites will be mine. I am the Lord.
At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the Lord’s promise, to stand in the Lord’s presence when they serve him as priests, and to praise his name, as they still do today.
We need a chief priest who is holy, innocent, pure, set apart from sinners, and who holds the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne.