“There’s no better book with which to defend the Bible than the Bible itself.” —D.L. Moody
The Lord accepted the Levites in place of the firstborn sons in Israel. However, there were fewer Levites than firstborns, by 273, so instead of an exchange, a redemption price of five shekels was made for the overage, and given to Aaron. Some have wondered how this could be. “All the firstborn males, according to the number of names from a month old and above, of those who were numbered of them, were twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three” (Num 3:43)? Weren’t there 603,550 males fit for military service (2:32)? William Kelly helps us with this. He explains that the firstborns counted, as in Egypt, would only be single males, not fathers, grandfathers, or great-grandfathers. Then, in probably half the families the one born first was a girl, or they only had daughters. Also some were still under a month old and were not counted, and some had died before reaching the age of 20. When this is all factored in, it means one child in four would be an actual firstborn son to be redeemed. So when we see what seems to be a discrepancy, let’s do our homework, and soon we’ll discover that the difficulty was in our brain, not in God’s Book. Robert Dick Wilson was Professor of Semitic Philology at Princeton Seminary. During his youth, he determined to answer the so-called Higher Critics of the Bible. To do so, he spent fifteen years in language study, fifteen years in biblical examination, and fifteen years to publish his findings. In all, he mastered 45 languages and dialects! His conclusion after a lifetime of study? “Whenever there is sufficient documentary evidence to make an investigation, the statements of the Bible, in the original texts, have stood the test.” Isn’t it heartening to be able to trust God’s Word!