God's Peace Contract: Part 2 (Malachi 2.1-9)

The Covenant
But what is this covenant? What was the covenant that was made with Levi. As I said, this was more of an indirect covenant. If you look at the various covenants of the Bible you are likely not going to find this one among the lists, but it was still a contract that God made with Levi.
My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts, (Malachi 2.5-7, ESV).
Now let's put this into perspective. I want to give you a brief history lesson. Back in when Jacob was still alive he had 12 sons and some daughters. One of the daughters that we know of by name was named Dinah. Dinah was a beautiful woman whom the Prince of Shechem took a liking to, to the point he raped her and then wanted to marry her. This was fine with Jacob but not Dinah's brothers, Simeon and Levi. They devised a plot of vengeance and carried it through. All the men of Shechem were slaughtered under this plan. This on the other hand did not please Jacob, and he held on to this anger until he died. At his death he handed out blessings upon some of his sons and curses upon others. This is what he said to Levi.
Simeon and Levi are brothers;
weapons of violence are their swords.
Let my soul come not into their council;
O my glory, be not joined to their company.
For in their anger they killed men,
and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
and scatter them in Israel.
(Genesis 49.5-7, ESV)
In other words, Jacob cursed Simeon and Levi. They were to have no great part in the story of Israel. Simeon went on to live up to that curse. His tribe ultimately was absorbed by the tribe of Judah. But the tribe of Levi, beat the curse, though not exactly how you would expect.
Another incident occurred after Israel was delivered from Egypt. You may have heard about it. Aaron fashioned a calf made of gold for the people of Israel to worship. Moses, rightly angry, stood firm against such sin. This is the account of what happened next:
And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the LORD’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day," (Exodus 32.25-29, ESV).
Did you see what happened? The tribe of Levi, after nearing the edge came back, stood with on the side of the LORD their God, and because of their willingness to stand firm with the LORD, they received God's blessing!
God had turned their cursing by their own father, into a blessing! But because now the Levites were no longer willing to stand on the side of the LORD their God, God threatened to discipline them and turn their blessing back to a cursing.
Not too much later the Israelites were camping in Shittim and the Hebrew children began to worship false gods again and the men began sleeping with the foreigners. God sent a judgment upon them in which ultimately 24,000 people died, and it would have been more if Phinehas, Aaron's grandson, (not Eli's son who acted wickedly) had not stepped in and stopped the adultery. And it is here, due to Phinehas' zeal for God, his love and devotion to the Lord that God made a covenant with the Levites.
And the LORD said to Moses, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel,’” (Numbers 25.10-13, ESV).
This covenant that God made with Phinehas and all the Levite priests was to bring peace to the Levites as well as the nation of Israel. It was God's promise to continue on with the Aaronic priesthood through Phinehas' descendants. And it was done because of the devotion and the zeal for which they had for God's name!