Putting the Number Back in Numbers

I've recently finished off an essay on Numbers 25:4-13 (Phinehas killing an Israelite who was getting busy [read as bizz-ay] with a Midianite, so Phinehas speared them through the stomach) and its relationship to an Old Testament theology of atonement. Now I'm not going to bore you with my essay answer (at least not yet), but I did want to bore you with an age-related law which was found within Numbers.

As part of my study I carefully read through Numbers looking for sections that anticipated and ultimately would help explain chapter 25. But what caught my attention along the way was the age-related conditions on service in the temple.

This is what it says in Numbers 4:1-3:

The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "Take a census of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their clans and their fathers’ houses, from thirty years old up to fifty years old, all who can come on duty, to do the work in the tent of meeting.

And again Numbers 8:23-26:

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "This applies to the Levites: from twenty-five years old and upward they shall come to do duty in the service of the tent of meeting. And from the age of fifty years they shall withdraw from the duty of the service and serve no more. They minister to their brothers in the tent of meeting by keeping guard, but they shall do no service. Thus shall you do to the Levites in assigning their duties."

Now of course, I would never want to argue this as prescriptive of today's Christian ministers. Moving from the Old Testament to modern application is always difficult, especially in relation to priests as Jesus is our great high priest, and we affirm the priesthood of all believers. Yet it is interesting to ponder these age restrictions. 

At first I thought the "late-blooming" of (25 or 30) might have to do with the increased life expectancy (Moses lived to 120), but there is a retirement age as well (50). Why on earth are there age limits on firstly, allowing a Levite to start working in the temple, and then the age to ship him out to pasture?

At the very least (and I am aware it is different for everyone), there is a time when people reach maturity, and there is a time when people need to retire from a particular role. I love hearing of young blokes stepping up to take responsibility. But there is also a particular beauty in old blokes stepping down. Not in the sense of being pushed, or no longer being of value, or simply having "passed their use-by date", but in recognising 'I've had my time, now others must take the baton'.

Because its never pretty when they hold on too long. Or for that matter, when the young ones start too early.