The 13th chapter Joshua tells us in verse 14 that “Only to the tribe of Levi he had given no inheritance; the sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance, as He said to them.” Then in verse 33 Joshua said, “But to the tribe of Levi Moses had given no inheritance; the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as He had said to them.” Yet we will be told again by Joshua in 21:41 that “All the cities of the Levites within the possession of the children of Israel were forty-eight cities with their common-lands.”
The tribe of Levi were not given a specific geographic piece of land they were scattered amongst all the tribes and given 48 cites within each of the tribes to dwell in. Perhaps you aren’t aware that not all Levites were priests but all priests were Levites. At any rate here in this chapter they come to Joshua with these words recorded for us in verse 2 “The Lord commanded through Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with their common-lands for our livestock.” You see these Levites had to wait until their brethren in the other tribes received their inheritance and began to settle there cites as it would be in 48 cites that they would make their home.
Have you ever felt like your life was hung up on others getting their act together so that you could receive what God has for you? If you have ever felt like that then you can relate to those Levites who were in the back of the line waiting for others to step forward so they could move into the promises of what God had for them. Just how did this tribe get into this predicament to begin with?
So here is where we gain insight into our own lives by looking at the tribe of Levi.
• First that which the tribe of Levi saw as a delay based upon others was in reality something that was designed to remind them not to become impatient with others. That was their ancestor’s problem as Levi allowed his own insecurity with his father to cause him to lash out at those that had nothing to do with the sin against his sister. Saint’s listen up, God’s work in blessing us goes much further than material things, it goes into the spiritual arena where he knows our frame and designs His blessings around the things that continually transform us into His image. Our heavenly Father knows how to give us good things my friends and some times the “good things” He gives aren’t things that we would at first glance call “good” but everything that comes into our lives is designed to draw us closer to Him and if it hasn’t then the problem lies not with the Father but with what we have done with what He has given us.
• Secondly what initially Levi saw as a curse upon him for his lack of patience his ancestor’s learned was a blessings to keep them close to God by serving the Lord and His people. We can trace the beginning of this tribe’s transformation to something that happened during the exodus. You remember the account where the tribes formed a golden calf idol to worship during Moses absence while he received the commandments. When Moses came down he saw that the camp was all involved in worship of the idol and even his brother Aaron hadn’t stepped up to stop the idolatry. So Moses said, “whoever is on the Lord’s side come to me” and only the tribe of Levi came forward. So here was a tribe that had taken things in their own hands now were willing to step over and serve only the Lord. How cool is that?
The Lord spoke through a father concerning the weakness of a son but over time transformed them into those who were steadfast in their worship of God and now were given the blessing of serving the Lord and serving His people. Hear the words of Paul in 2 Cor. 12:10 where he speaks of this personally saying, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”