Num 8:24,25 This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years old or more shall come to take part in the work at the Tent of Meeting, but at the age of fifty, they must retire from their regular service and work no longer.

    

There aren't many references in the Bible to specific ages, but this is one of the few. It's quite intriguing isn't it, when you remember that these are God's directions through Moses, His wisdom. It's all about the working age of the Levites, those chosen by God to work and serve in the Tabernacle or Temple. Now we aren't given reasons for these specific ages and so we must speculate.

 

First of all their starting age for working in the Tabernacle or the Temple was twenty five. Bearing in mind that an Israelite boy came of age at twelve, this leaves him a reasonable time to get married and start a family. In other words by the time he is twenty five he is fairly mature and past the careless and carefree age of the teens years. Those who serve the Lord are to have a fair measure of maturity about them. (They were actually later ‘counted' from the age of twenty [see 1 Chron 23:27 ] but that isn't necessarily the same as working age).

 

But then they are to retire by the age of fifty. I'm not sure that that is any indication of declining abilities, but of course it may be. Twenty five years was the maximum they could serve and thereafter they were simply cared for by the remaining tribes. They were thus respected and honoured. How different from today!