Seed of Levi (Assassins)

Reading:   Exodus 32

The third son of Jacob was quite a battle-tested, mean, sword-worthy, warrior of a man.  He, Levi, along with his older brother Simeon, took part in one of the greatest plays of retribution ever recorded (see Double Dragon).  I bring this up because I wanted to refresh your memory as to who Levi was...now, fast forward several generations and we find the descendants of Levi mixed among the Israelites that fled Egypt.

Moses had been away for 40 days, conversing with God, and the people had given up hope of ever seeing him again.  In their anxiety, the Israelites decided they needed something to give them hope and therefore created a golden calf (in less than 40-days they fell to idolatry even after all the miracles they had witnessed - crazy!!).  In the midst of their discussion, God explained to Moses that his people had fallen to idolatry and...

EXODUS 32:8-10, 14

8    They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 

9    And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: 

10    Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. 

Moses, frustrated with his "stiffnecked" people but pleading for mercy, asked for some time that he might deal with them.  The subsequent response from God is somewhat confusing (in the King James Version of the Bible)...

14    And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. 

Why does The Lord have need to repent?  If He is "all" there should be no mistake made that needs retracting, right?  Well, in the JST (Joseph Smith Translation) version of the verse, God's response makes a lot more sense...

14    And the Lord said unto Moses, If they will repent of the evil which they have done, I will spare them, and turn away my fierce wrath; but, behold, thou shalt execute judgment upon all that will not repent of this evil this day. Therefore, see thou do this thing that I have commanded thee, or I will execute all that which I had thought to do unto my people.  

Moses is directed to "execute judgement" and he certainly does!  Moses discovers that the Levites, descendants of the crazy rape-revenging Levi, are among his followers and gives them the task of taking up the sword against the idolatrous faction of the people.  They do as instructed and slay 3,000 men - BOOM - how's that for executing judgement!  The blood of Levi proves strong in his seed...done!

~Kipling