Numbers 1-4

“Now behold, I have taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel instead of every first-born” (3:12).  The first-born son of a family was everything in the ancient world: he was the hope of the future.  With Abraham and Isaac, and in Egypt during the first Passover, God claimed the firstborn, demonstrating His authority and teaching His creation about their sin- debt to the Creator.  The entire Levitical tribe belonged to God as priests, symbolically representing the sons of Israel.

On our own, we cannot pay our sin-debt to God.  Instead He gave His beloved Son for us.