TRIBES
It is a curious fact that tribes are mentioned in the Old Testament three hundred and two times but only eighteen times in the New Testament. Why is that?
The only way to understand this difference is through understanding of the Old/First Covenant and New Covenant. Here are the main features of each covenant:
- Old/First Covenant religion deals with written letters or codes of religious laws that can be seen and read.
- The New Covenant law is all spiritual (i.e. it is not religious) because New Covenant laws are written on the hearts of New Covenant disciples.
Like nations and cities, tribes symbolically represent religious organizations and religious people. Since religious organizations are fixtures in Old/First Covenant religion, it makes perfect sense that tribes should be mentioned often in Old Testament scriptures. And, since religious organizations are anathema to the New Covenant, it makes perfect sense that tribes should be mentioned very little in New Covenant scriptures.
The primary exception to this rule of reference to tribes in the New Testament is the tribe of Judah which was Jesus’ tribe. The tribe of Judah and Jesus are important features of the New Testament because Jesus and the tribe of Juda symbolically represent all New Covenant disciples who are never associated with religion. In fact, the essence of Jesus’ mission was to tell people to stop practicing religion, stop listening to religious leaders and start listening to God’s voice.
Jesus’ message reveals the primary difference between the Old/First Covenant and New Covenant: Obey God’s commands to listen to his voice.
New Covenant disciples always listen to God’s voice and never listen to the voices of Old/First Covenant religious leaders who do not listen to God’s voice and encourage their followers to listen to them — not to God’s spoken voice.. Thus it can be said that religions that always feature religious leaders are anathema to the New Covenant.
The other significant exception to New Covenant references to tribes is found in the tribe of Levi. Old/First Covenant tribes always followed the teachings of the Tribe of Levi which is the priestly tribe and the Kohanim, which is a subset of the Levites. Levites and Kohanim are symbolical models of Pastors, Priests, Rabbis, Apostles, Bishops, Elders, Deacons, Overseers, Popes, Missionaries and Evangelists.
The tribe of Levi is mentioned often in the New Covenant as priests and scribes who opposed Jesus and conspired to have him executed because his message to the people threatened their positions as religious leaders. Jesus’ contentious relationship with religious leaders (i.e. Levites/priests) symbolically represents the tribulations that New Covenant disciples will experience when they share Jesus’ message about quitting religion and listening to God’s voice.