THE LEVITES: A Model for Ministry (Joshua 21)
I have a number of books that were written by mega-church pastors on how to develop a biblical model
for ministry. Some of these pastors are household names like, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Charles & Andy
Stanley, and possibly Ted Haggard.
Now Ted Haggard wrote a book entitled, Primary Purpose. On the back cover of the book is this statement: "You
can change your city's spiritual climate." It goes on to say, "It happened in Colorado Springs & it can happen
in your city too."
For you that don't know him, Ted Haggard was the founding pastor of the 4800 member New Life Church in
Colorado Springs, Colorado. And thru his ministry he didn't just positively affect people who came to his
church, but also had an enormous affect on the city of Colorado Springs. Unfortunately, a number of years ago,
he was found to have a moral failure & now he's out of ministry.
But my main point is that God raises up people & churches to impact their communities & find ways to change
their cities spiritual climate. This morning, we are going to look at the forerunner of all these movements as
we look at The Levites: A Model for Ministry.
But before we study the Word of God, let's read it as it's found in Joshua 21:1-8 & 41-45.
1Now the family heads of the Levites approached Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the
other tribal families of Israel 2at Shiloh in Canaan and said to them, "The LORD commanded through Moses that
you give us towns to live in, with pasturelands for our livestock." 3So, as the LORD had commanded, the
Israelites gave the Levites the following towns and pasturelands out of their own inheritance:
4The first lot came out for the Kohathites, clan by clan. The Levites who were descendants of Aaron the
priest were allotted thirteen towns from the tribes of Judah, Simeon and Benjamin. 5The rest of Kohath's
descendants were allotted ten towns from the clans of the tribes of Ephraim, Dan and half of Manasseh.
6The descendants of Gershon were allotted thirteen towns from the clans of the tribes of Issachar, Asher,
Naphtali and the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.
7The descendants of Merari, clan by clan, received twelve towns from the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Zebulun.
8So the Israelites allotted to the Levites these towns and their pasturelands, as the LORD had commanded
through Moses. 41The towns of the Levites in the territory held by the Israelites were forty-eight in all,
together with their pasturelands. 42Each of these towns had pasturelands surrounding it; this was true for
all these towns.
43So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it
and settled there. 44The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not
one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD handed all their enemies over to them. 45Not one of all the
LORD's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.
As we look at Joshua 21, we discover that God sovereignty set aside 48 cities for the tribe of Levi and
scattered them throughout the nation. They were called to be communities of spiritual life, first of worship,
then of nurture, then of witness.
We've heard before in these studies that God did not intend for the tribe of Levi to have their own
territorial allotment. He scattered them through the nation in all these different cities.
Now we've come to the final act of settlement of all the tribes. The Levites came to Shiloh, the center of
worship and administration in the nation, and made their request. The request was based on the word of God
previously revealed in the Pentateuch through Moses.
Look at Joshua 21:1-3, where the Levites claimed their rightful place in the land: "Then the heads of the
fathers' houses of the Levites came to Elea'zar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of
the fathers' houses of the tribes of the people of Israel; and they said to them at Shiloh in the land of
Canaan, "The Lord commanded through Moses that we be given cities to dwell in, along with their pasture lands
for our cattle." So by command of the Lord the people of Israel gave to the Levites the following cities and
pasture lands out of their inheritance."
Let's review a bit of the history of the tribe of Levi and their place in the nation. All throughout the forty
years of the wilderness period of Israel's history, the tribe of Levi primarily served the worship life of the
nation.
- They always camped the closest to the tabernacle, literally surrounding the tabernacle as it moved through
the wilderness.
- It was important for the Israelites to have qualified, authorized people to minister in the tabernacle.
- The Levites had responsibility for transporting the ark of the covenant from place to place.
- Remember, as we studied the crossing of the Jordan River in chapters 3 and 4, it was the Levites who stood
all day in the bed of the Jordan River and held the ark of the covenant high.
- The Levites were in charge of maintaining the tabernacle itself with all its cords and curtains and
coverings.
- They had responsibility for all of the sacred furniture of the tabernacle, all the vessels for worship and
sacrifice, and all the poles and boards and bars that held the tent up.
But now the tabernacle wasn't moving anymore; it was going to be settled in Shiloh, a central location.
Eventually the tabernacle would end up in Jerusalem, the capital of the united monarchy. But the worship
leadership of the Levites would continue on, first in Shiloh and later in Jerusalem.
They would serve in the temple, that place of unified corporate worship in the life of the nation. They would
assist in all of the great annual feasts and festivals, the high holy days for the nation. They would lead
musical worship in great choirs and orchestras, and become composers of psalms and hymns of praise for the
nation. They would be part of the sacrificial system as the problem with sin was dealt with in the life of the
nation.
But the text in Joshua 21 tells us that they were supposed to live scattered all through the nation. God
didn't want the Levites concentrated around Shiloh, or eventually around Jerusalem. God planned this so that
they could model worship as a lifestyle and teach it as they traveled back and forth between their home towns
and the temple. And in addition to their singing alleluias and amens, their very lives were to become sacred
alleluias as they traveled throughout the nation in this responsibility of worship leadership.
The second ministry of the Levites in the land was that of nurture, or the teaching of the Law. They were to
influence each tribe to be faithful to the Lord.
Moses himself had prophesied of this ministry of the tribe of Levi on the plains of Moab before they entered
the land in Deuteronomy 33:9b-10a, "For they observed thy word, and kept thy covenant. They shall teach Jacob
thy ordinances, and Israel thy law..."
So in fulfillment of that promise of God that Levi would have this nurturing ministry in the nation, the
Levites became the teachers, theologians, storytellers, counselors, and inspired preachers in that new society
in the land. They were responsible for integrating into a coherent body the history of God's work among his
people.
In other words, these 48 Levitical cities became centers of teaching about God's covenant relationship with
his people and what a covenant lifestyle was all about. They were places where people like Rahab and her
family, converts who needed understanding of the Israelite faith, could come to be initiated into the
important truths of what it meant to be a people in relationship with God.
This Levite ministry of spiritual nurture continued to the period of the monarchy. Second Chronicles 17,
written hundreds of years later during the reign of Jehoshaphat, described a teaching team King Jehoshaphat
sent from Jerusalem throughout Judah. The team was made up of five of his own princes, two priests, and nine
Levites.
This is what it says about the team (verse 9): "And they taught in Judah, having the book of the law of the
Lord with them; they went about through all the cities of Judah and taught among the people."
The common people didn't have copies of the Scriptures available to them, so it was important that the Levites
be able to explain the sacred Scriptures to the people and identify with them. These Levitical cities
scattered throughout the nation were located such that nobody would ever be too far away from a place where
they could have the Scriptures explained to them.
I made a wonderful discovery last week in studying verses 9-42: These Levitical cities were also supposed to
be cities of witness or outreach. These verses are a broad survey of each city. In verses 9-26 the
twenty-three cities of Kohath are summarized. In verses 27-33 the thirteen cities of Gershon are summarized.
In verses 34-40 the final twelve cities of Merari are summarized.
Verse 41 concludes, "The cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the people of Israel were in
all forty-eight cities with their pasture lands. These cities had each its pasture lands round about it; so it
was with all these cities."
Those 48 cities are listed in very careful detail. If you look at a map of Canaan and note the location of
each of the 48 cities, you see that even though they were selected from every tribe, they were not evenly
distributed throughout the land. Those 48 cities formed an oval around the center of the nation.
Remember that under Joshua the Israelites had pacified the central section north to south, but there were
frontier lands remaining that completely surrounded the nation. These lands were inhabited by the Philistines
on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Sidonians in the north by Tyre and Sidon (now Lebanon), and the Amalakites
and the Midianites in the desert.
It jumped off the page at me as I looked at the map of these cities: God chose not to cluster the cities of
the Levites in the center where it was safe and secure, but he scattered them out on the frontiers.
The geography suggested to me that those cities were to stand as a clear substitute for the pagan Canaanite
high places of worship and the shrines, altars, and idolatrous paraphernalia that were present in the land at
the time of the conquest.
In other word, the Levites were to be a "saturation presence" in the land in place of pagan worship. Their
cities were to be cities of witness, constantly reminding the unbelieving nations all around Israel about the
God who had saved that nation out of bondage in Egypt, sustained them in the wilderness, brought them into the
land, and led them in the conquest of the land he gave them.
Another observation I made reading this list of the 48 cities is that the 6 cities of refuge are listed here
among the cities of the Levites. Part of the Levitical ministry was to guarantee safety and due process of law
to those who fled to these cities for refuge.
The Levitical cities were to be places of worship, nurture, witness, and safety. Can you see the clear
parallels between these cities and what we're supposed to be as the local church that God has placed in our
community?
Hebrews 10:25 challenges us not to neglect the assembling of ourselves together, because something unique
happens when we all gather together as people of God, expressing music of praise and worship, praying
together, being challenged through the Scriptures and through the table of the Lord.
We are tremendously privileged to be part of an extended family of God gathered in worship. And the Scriptures
teach that our corporate worship is to overflow so that our individual lives express worship and praise of
God.
Wherever we go in our communities, our lives become alleluias to the Lord. We have a lifestyle of worship, of
thankfulness and delight in who the Lord is, that is attractive and intriguing to people.
The leaders of this church are committed to these things. This is the expansion of our commitment to the goal
of nurture is found in God Himself: To know the Lord, to be like the Lord, to do the Lord's will.
We are committed to knowing the Lord through the Spirit and through the work of Christ. We are committed to
becoming like the Lord. We are committed to doing the Lord's will. Life-related Biblical instruction will
underlie all our efforts to bring believers to spiritual maturity. We will communicate "the whole counsel of
God" methodically & expositionally-teaching the great liberating principles of Scripture in every creative
way possible.
Also this must happen in the context of relationships within the community of faith, whether in one-on-one
mentoring, small intimate groups, or a more formal classroom setting. We can't go it alone in life. We need
the spiritual nurture of instruction, counsel, and mutual support in the body of Christ.
Again, we need to be an evangelistic church. And our evangelism is not an option, but is driven by a clear
mandate of our Lord Jesus. Also our evangelism is done in the confidence that we are Christ's ambassadors, His
ministers of reconciliation.
Thus, we desire to compassionately serve unbelievers in physical and material ways, whether they are in the
process of being saved or have rejected the gospel. We need to be committed to helping the body at MAC live out
a lifestyle of witness. Like the Levites, we individually are to be a saturation presence in our communities.
But like the frontier location of the Levitical cities, this kind of lifestyle is going to place us
uncomfortably close to those who don't yet have a relationship with Christ. It can feel better to do
evangelism from a distance-leafleting, pamphleting, using phone mail, and so forth-because when we get close
to people who don't know Christ yet, we can get hurt.
Further, if we get close to people in our communities, they're going to see us for who we are; they'll either
see the credibility of our witness because of our Christ-likeness or holy living, or they'll see the hypocrisy
that we're comfortable with. It's risky and complicated to get close to people in evangelism.
There are many people today, both Christian and non-Christian, who do not see the local church as a place of
refuge. They don't see MAC as a place where they can be understood and accepted, where they can be at home.
We live in a frightening world, and being a Levitical city of refuge means functioning in unsecured territory
as a place of stability, acceptance, truth, and patient support for Canaanites who are in the long, slow
process of being transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son.
Our passage in Joshua 21 ends with three affirmations of faith in verses 43-45. These verses are the
conclusion of the long section on the settlement of the land, chapters 13-21. But these closing verses can
also be applied to our own calling to be the church of Jesus Christ here and now.
For the same resources that were available to Moses, Joshua, all the tribes of Israel, and the Levites
themselves are available to us. We at MAC can be a city of refuge, a city of the Levites. And we ought to read
these verses against the backdrop of God's amazing grace, because this closing section is really a grateful
recognition of God's grace, his faithfulness, his consistent follow-through.
"Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land which he swore to give to their fathers; and having taken
possession of it, they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their
fathers; not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their
hands. Not one of all the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to
pass."
He gave Israel the land. He kept the covenant. He consistently adhered to the relationship he had established
with Moses and with the fathers.
What the ten spies forty years earlier hadn't believed at all did come true. God gave them what he promised,
because Joshua and the people believed him and obeyed his word.
At the close of his life, Joshua affirms that in Joshua 23:14: "And now I am about to go the way of all the
earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one thing has failed of all the good things
which the Lord your God promised concerning you; all have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed."
As people of God today, we can claim these same assurances by faith.
- God's covenant relationship with us will not be violated or canceled.
- God's power and wisdom are just as available to us to give us victory over whatever foe we face.
- And finally, God's promises can be trusted no matter what the circumstances may be.
The covenant of God, the power of God, and the promise of God are the spiritual resources we can depend on as
we claim our inheritance in Jesus Christ. And we at MAC are determined to grow more and more into a church
that reflects the heart of God: a worshipping church, a nurturing church, a witnessing church.
Do you want to come along?