Joshua 21:1-42
“The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup” (Psa. 16:5).
The provision for the slayer’s need being fully met, the inheritance of the Levites is set out. “Unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave not any inheritance: the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance.” “The sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance” (Josh. 13:33,14). Thus, though “scattered in Israel,” according to the prophecy of Jacob, and possessing but a small territory, their inheritance crowns the blessings bestowed upon Israel, shines the brightest of them all.
To the tribe of Levi was committed the service of the sanctuary, the custody of Jehovah’s law, and the culture of the hearts of His people. “They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law” (Deut. 33:10). They were the influencing power in Israel, and their influence flowed from the nearness of their position to God.
With the material blessings of Israel before our eye – their land flowing with milk and honey, and fed with depths springing out of valleys and hills – it is not difficult to discern the peculiar position occupied by Levi. And, spiritually understood, in the Levites’ inheritance we see the believer’s most perfect portion; for while we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ – while we have in Him pleasures bestowed upon us for evermore, we have beyond all blessings which are conferred upon us through Christ – Christ Himself. Indeed we are brought into the blessings of Christianity that we may delight in Christ. God has saved us and brought us to Himself, for no less an end than being like the Lord and knowing as we are known (1 Cor. 13:12). His grace towards us reaches even beyond deliverance from wrath and entrance into life; thus while we contemplate His mercy – the forgiveness of our sins, the end of the first creation, death and resurrection with Christ – the Spirit of God dwelling in us would have us reach forth, in order that we may realize and abide in our portion now. “That I may know Him,” is the aim of the energy of the new life. Paul so longed to grasp his portion that he would fain have passed clean out of this earth to reach it, for Christ in glory was to him experimentally what He is verily to all believers, “the prize of the high calling of God.”
Every event recorded in the Book of Joshua has a voice in itself, and also in the order in which the events are recorded there is instruction, as in the inheritance of Levi following the cities of refuge. A similar order is usually to be found in the experience of God’s people, who most frequently learn their need of Christ before learning what Christ is for them. Our sins, the discovery of self, learning divine righteousness by His Spirit, enhance Christ to us as our Saviour, Acceptance, Life; but let us seek to go on to acquaintance with Him in His own intrinsic excellence. May it not be that some having full assurance that they are in the city where the Levites dwell, use little diligence to acquire the joy of their Levite inheritance?
The fugitive from vengeance, who entered the City of Refuge, would be at the first necessarily occupied with his own deliverance and safety, and would bless God fervently for having Himself provided and set apart the city for men in his case, and thus – though in a right way – self would be before him; but the Levite who dwelt in the city, and was at home there, was there that he might be free for God’s service; he was called into association with God, and it was for him to consider the depths of the Word, and to ponder the service of the sanctuary. Do we know more than salvation by Christ? Are we, while rejoicing as with the fugitive saved, yet also learning of God as with the Levite? And if while blessing God for salvation we are also rejoicing in Christ, in what degree have we attained to the fullness of the believer’s portion? We find some among the Levites fulfilling a more hallowed service; some handling more sacred instruments of the sanctuary than others; and there are degrees even among those who know Christ, as their portion.
There can be no other way of learning Christ than by communion with Him through the Word. We discover the heart – the character – of an earthly friend by intimacy; and in proportion as his moral excellence is beyond us, we must grow up into his stature before we can appreciate him. His gifts we may comprehend, perhaps, for the gift may be appreciated in itself or by its adaptability to our wants, but the motive and grace of the giver is not so easily discovered.
All Israel stood before God by virtue of the sacrifices, but the tribe of Levi alone had “the sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel made by fire” as “their inheritance.” We may see God’s love in giving His Son to die for us, yet miss spiritual fellowship with Him.
The Levite could only dimly read God’s thoughts about Christ through the shadows of the law; in us God’s Spirit dwells, and teaches us all things. The Levite was set apart for the service of the sanctuary and the contemplation of God’s Word, and this should be our work, for thereto we are separated by God to Himself. The whole of that economy with which the Levite was busied set forth Christ in His intrinsic excellence, and as He is esteemed by God in His work for His people. We may well desire the service which attaches itself to the Lord Himself, and that separatedness which finds occupation in Him only.
When the Lord is seen, by faith, in His excellence, the glory of His light dims everything else. Saul of Tarsus saw His face eclipsing the brightness of the noonday sun, and thenceforth was no longer for the earth. The Lord in the heavens instructed him not only concerning the glory, but opened to him the wonder of His own heart there. Saul thereupon counted all things loss for Christ, and many years afterward, as Paul, he wrote, “Yea doubtless, and I count”; his mind had not changed; rather, we should say, his energy had increased.
One who is now present with the Lord, “absent from the body,” remarked, “Next to the simple, happy, earnest assurance of His personal love to ourselves (the Lord increase it in our hearts!), nothing more helps us to desire to be with Him than the discovery of Himself. If one might speak for others, it is this we want, and it is this we covet. We know our need, but we can say, the Lord knows our desire.”
When the inheritance of the tribe of Levi is marked out, and they fill their cities and dwell there, nothing more remains to be done for the Israel God loved, for the people He had brought up from the land of bondage into the land of promise; and there follows rest.