Big Idea
This month's memory verse
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I have chosen the Levites from among the Israelites to serve as substitutes for all the firstborn sons of the people of Israel. The Levites belong to me,
Numbers 1
Registration of Israel’s Troops
1A year after Israel’s departure from Egypt, the Lord spoke to Moses in the Tabernacle* in the wilderness of Sinai. On the first day of the second month* of that year he said, 2“From the whole community of Israel, record the names of all the warriors by their clans and families. List all the men 3twenty years old or older who are able to go to war. You and Aaron must register the troops, 4and you will be assisted by one family leader from each tribe.
5“These are the tribes and the names of the leaders who will assist you:
16These are the chosen leaders of the community, the leaders of their ancestral tribes, the heads of the clans of Israel.”
17So Moses and Aaron called together these chosen leaders, 18and they assembled the whole community of Israel on that very day.* All the people were registered according to their ancestry by their clans and families. The men of Israel who were twenty years old or older were listed one by one, 19just as the Lord had commanded Moses. So Moses recorded their names in the wilderness of Sinai.
5Then the Lord said to Moses, 6“Call forward the tribe of Levi, and present them to Aaron the priest to serve as his assistants. 7They will serve Aaron and the whole community, performing their sacred duties in and around the Tabernacle.*8They will also maintain all the furnishings of the sacred tent,* serving in the Tabernacle on behalf of all the Israelites. 9Assign the Levites to Aaron and his sons. They have been given from among all the people of Israel to serve as their assistants. 10Appoint Aaron and his sons to carry out the duties of the priesthood. But any unauthorized person who goes too near the sanctuary must be put to death.”
11And the Lord said to Moses, 12“Look, I have chosen the Levites from among the Israelites to serve as substitutes for all the firstborn sons of the people of Israel. The Levites belong to me, 13for all the firstborn males are mine. On the day I struck down all the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, I set apart for myself all the firstborn in Israel, both of people and of animals. They are mine; I am the Lord.”