Levi By Signs

This article explains how to identify the lost tribe of Levi using signs. This includes the Swiss Guards, national neutrality and traditional industries like clock making.

Sign Based Identification

There are many unique characteristics of the modern Swiss people that match specific features of the tribe of Levi given in the Bible.

Swiss Flag

The Swiss flag maps to the tribal arrangement when the camps were assigned to locations after leaving Egypt. The entire chapter of Numbers 2 details the arrangement, with various tribes assigned to compass directions. Levi was in the center.

¹⁷Then the Tent of Meeting and the camp of the Levites will set out in the middle of the camps. They will set out in the same order as they encamp, each in his own place under his standard. Numbers 2:17 (Numbers 2:17 NIV)

So the Swiss flag describes their location in the middle of the camp. This is a sign for Levi.

Central Location

Just as the Levites were centrally located in the camp layout as the ancient tribes traveled around in the wilderness, Switzerland itself is centrally located in Europe. They are completely surrounded by other lost tribes.

Swiss Guards

The Swiss Guards are a special military group made up of members of the Swiss armed forces that are assigned the task of guarding the Pope.

They have a ceremonial function, and dress in period costumes for this task. They also have a serious modern guard function, and dress in plain clothes for this task. All are expert in use of weapons and the technical issues of protecting the Pope in his public appearances.

This is strange given that they are from a different nation than Italy, which would be the presumed protectors of the Pope. The Levites, though, were charged with protecting the tabernacle and the high priest at the temple. Notice the last phrase in the following quote.

⁵¹Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall do it. Anyone else who goes near it shall be put to death. (Numbers 1:51 NIV)

The Levites were the keepers of the Tabernacle, and later the Temple in Jerusalem. That duty continues as the Swiss Guards stand watch at the Vatican.

Neutrality

The Swiss are well know for their historical neutrality. This has made the country a refuge for wealth fleeing war zones around the world, supporting their traditional banking industry.

This shows up in the census counts taken at the time of the Exodus. Those census counts were of the other tribes only, not Levi.

The counts were of adult men only, able to serve in the army. The tribe of Levi was not counted, they were to remain out of any wars. They were to tend to the problems of the Tabernacle, as the Swiss do now as Swiss Guards at the Vatican.

The following is one of the relevant passages.

³²These are the Israelites, counted according to their families. All those in the camps, by their divisions, number 603,550. ³³The Levites, however, were not counted along with the other Israelites, as the LORD commanded Moses. Numbers 2:32-33 (Numbers 2:32-33 NIV)

Though a civil war marks the general time of the Levite seal date, the country has maintained a neutral stance even through 2 major world wars fought around all of her borders.

Note that the Levites were eventually counted. But note, their census included all males from 1 month old and up.

³⁹The total number of Levites counted at the LORD's command by Moses and Aaron according to their clans, including every male a month old or more, was 22,000. Numbers 3:39 (Numbers 3:39 NIV)

This was a near match to the total number of first born in the other tribes.

Tax Collecting

The Levites were also supported through tithing, also called tax collecting in the Bible.

²⁶"Speak to the Levites and say to them: `When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the LORD's offering. (Numbers 18:26 NIV)

The Swiss banking industry, interest collectors, is a modern expression of this same idea.

Time Keepers

The Levites also had time-based functions in the ancient community. Their movement marked the movement of the rest of the tribes.

³giving orders to the people: "When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. ⁴Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the ark; do not go near it." (Joshua 3:3-4 NIV)

That function appears to be reflected in the traditional clock making industry located in Switzerland.

Government Officials

The Levites were also responsible for many of the governmental functions. The modern equivalent is an extensive set of United Nations offices located in Geneva.

The symbol for government given in the Bible is mountain and its various synonyms. This includes island, hill, rock and so on. The location of Switzerland in the Swiss Alps is a match to this function as keepers of the government functions.

Jacob's Blessing

Jacob's blessing over Levi is paired with Simeon and reads more like a curse:

⁵"Simeon and Levi are brothers -- their swords are weapons of violence. ⁶Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. ⁷Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel. Genesis 49:5-7 (Genesis 49:5-7 NIV)

Like most other countries in Europe, Switzerland had its share of immigrants. But, unlike nearly every other European nation, there are essentially no colonies. All of her immigrants ended up hidden inside other countries.

This causes the Seal Date strategy to point at a city state, and not at the country itself. We look at that next.

Phil Stone 2007-10-20 2008-09-16 2016-11-10 2022-04-27