Joshua 21: LeeLee Gets Some Love

Moses has left the stage and Joshua has been asked to step forward. Joshua was born a slave. Now, he takes charge of an invading army. He has been tasked by no less than the King of the Universe with the job of taking back his people’s rightful land from pagan inhabitants. It sounds like an upcoming summer blockbuster, only this story really happened.

Joshua was almost 80 years old when he took charge of Israel’s army. The book of Joshua chronicles his 30 year campaign to fulfill the promises God made to his people over 400 years ago. In the first chapter, God tells Joshua to “be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (1:9). At the end of his journey, Joshua says, “Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.” (21:45). In between are many great adventures and lessons for Christians today to learn and grow from.

Let’s take this journey together.

Detailed Outline of Joshua:

• Preparation of the Conquest (Joshua 1-5)
• Conquest of the Promised Land (Joshua 6-12)
• Division of the Promised Land (Joshua 13-21)
• Assignment of land to the tribes (Joshua 13-19)
• Assignment of specific cities (Joshua 20-21)
• Settlement of the Promised Land (Joshua 22-24)
• Eastern tribe settlement (Joshua 22)
• Western tribe settlement (Joshua 23)
• Covenant and farewell (Joshua 24)

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Mission of the Podcast
• 0:39 Housekeeping and Listener Shoutouts
• 1:31 Setting Up Joshua 21
• 2:07 Reading: Levite Towns Allocated
• 6:59 Key Verse: Promises Fulfilled
• 7:26 Why Levites Lived Among Tribes
• 9:19 Application: Why We’re Still Here
• 11:02 Living Public Faith & Blessing
• 12:10 Prayer and Final Encouragement

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us. Let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Joshua chapter 21. And if I could give this one title, it would be Lily Get Some Love. All right. The Levites finally get some love. We're going to talk about that in just a moment. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel. We're on the road to 1,000. Make sure you help us get there. Also on the podcast, make sure you are leaving us a five-star review. Like, share, subscribe. All the things you can do there. Hey, shout out to all my Spotify listeners. Man, the Spotify people have been taking it to another level. You guys are sharing. It's awesome. I was noticing the other day so many people who are now sharing those things. Thank you so much for that. And I'm also thankful for everybody who's listening to this on Amazon Music. That is starting to pick up as well. Thank you so much for that. Man, the more we dig, the more we find, the more we share. Just a community of people who are just rallying around God's word. It is just a dream come true that we're able to read God's word together. Also, you can go to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. They're just doing an amazing job over there, doing some great devotions. And it's just an honor to be able to do life together. And so if you open up your Bibles to Joshua chapter 21, we're going to jump into this idea of old Lily, the Levites. We've gone through the idea of the Israelites have gone and taken over all this land. They've allotted it out to everybody. But there's this one tribe, the Levites, that God told them, listen, you get to serve in my presence. You get to be around me. So you're not going to get an allocation of land, but I'm still not going to leave you behind. And I love this idea. We're going to read through this, but I love this idea that their land is given among the other tribes. So we're going to look at that. I want to grapple with this question of you ever wondered if the goal of life is to find God, then the moment that we give our lives to Christ, why don't we immediately go to heaven? You ever thought about that? Like immediately, like we're done. Why aren't we still here? Well, let's look at this and see if maybe we can find some wisdom in this whole thing. So if you got your Bibles with me, Joshua chapter 21, reading out of the New Living Translation, there's going to be some more words here we got to say, but we're going to get through it together. Here we go. Verse 1. Then the leaders of the tribe of Levi came to consult with Eliezer the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the leaders of the other tribes of Israel. They came to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan and said, The Lord commanded Moses to give us towns to live in in pasture lands for our livestock. He's like, Don't forget us. So by the command of the Lord, the people of Israel gave the Levites the following towns and pasture lands out of their own grants of land. The descendants of Aaron, who were the members of the Kohathite clan within the tribe of Levi, were allotted thirteen towns that were originally assigned to the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin. The other families of the Kohathite clan were allotted ten towns of the tribes of Ephraim, Dan, and the half tribe of Manasseh. The clan of Gershon was allotted thirteen towns from the tribes of Issachar, Asher, and Neptali, and the half tribe of Manasseh and Bishon. The clan of Moreri was allocated twelve towns from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulon. So the Israelites obeyed the Lord's command to Moses and assigned these towns and pasture lands to the Levites by casting sacred lots. The Israelites gave the following towns to the tribe of Judah and Simeon, the descendants of Aaron, who were members of the Kohathite clan within the tribe of Levi, since the sacred lot fell on them first, carrieth Arba, that is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, along with the surrounding pasture lands. Arba was an ancestor of Anak. But the open fields beyond the towns of surrounding villages were given to Caleb, the son of Jephuna, as his possession. The following towns with their pasture lands were given to the descendants of Aaron, the priest, Hebron, the city of refuge for those who accidentally killed someone, Libna, Jatir, Eshtoam, Holon, Dabir, Ain, Jutah, and Besh Shemesh, nine towns were their two tribes. The tribe of Benjamin were the priests given to the following towns the pasture lands of Gibeon, Gabia, Ennoth, Alam, and four towns, and so in all thirteen towns with their pasture lands were given to the priests, the descendants of Aaron. The rest of the Koathite clan and the tribe of Levi was allotted the following towns of the pasture land of the tribe of Ephraim. Shechem and the hill country of Ephraim, the city of refuge for those who accidentally killed someone, Gazer, Kebzim, and Beth Horon, which was four towns. The following towns of pasture lands were allotted to the priests from the tribe of Dan. Etheth, Gebiathon, Jelion, and Gath Remon, which were four towns. The half tribe of Manasseh allotted the following towns with their pasture lands to the priests. Tanach and Gath Remon, which were two towns. So in all, ten towns and their pasture lands were given to the rest of the Koathite clan. The descendants of Gershon, another clan with the tribe of Levi, received the following towns with their pasture lands from the half tribe of Manasseh, Golon and Bishon, a city of refuge to those who accidentally killed someone, and Beth, Sharath, which were two towns. From the tribe of Isakar, they received the following towns with their pasture lands. Kishrion, Debriath, Jarmoth, and Inganin, which were four towns. From the tribe of Asher, they received the following towns with their pasture lands. Meshal, Abdan, Hakath, and Rahab, which were four towns. The tribe of Natali, which received the following towns and their pasture lands, Kadesh in Galilee, a city of refuge for those who accidentally killed someone, Hemoth, Dor, Katan, which were three towns. So in all, thirteen towns and their pasture lands were allotted to the clan of Gershon. The rest of the Levites, the Mereri clan, were given the following towns and their pasture lands, from the tribe of Zebulon, Jochonan, Karta, Dimnah, and Mahalal, which were four towns. From the tribe of Reuben, they received the following towns with their pasture lands, Bazer, Jeha, Kadishmah, Mephoth, which were four towns. The tribe of Gad, they received the following towns with their pasture lands, Ramoth and Gilead, a city of refuge for those who'd accidentally killed someone. Maham, Heshban, and Jazir, four towns. So in all, twelve towns were allotted to the clan of Mereri. The total number of towns and pasture lands within the Israelite territory who had given to the Levites were forty-eight towns. Every one of these towns had pasture lands surrounding it. So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sweared to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had solemnly promised their ancestors. None of their enemies could stand against them, for the Lord helped to conquer their enemies. Not a single one of all the good promises the Lord had given Israel was left unfulfilled. Everything he has spoken had come true. Which, by the way, was our our key verse for this whole thing. Now I love this idea, and I want to leave us with this today, and that is this. When God saves us, why doesn't he just immediately take us out of this world? Why don't we just go? Here's the next question. Why did God not give Levi their own space away from all the other people? There's a lot of reasons for this, but let me give you one reason that I think will help us understand as well. The Levites represented those who worshipped God. They represented those who were close to God. Therefore, they were a representation of God to the rest of the nation of Israel. I can imagine, since there's this big old land and there was one tabernacle, it'd be really easy to forget about God. There's a lot going on. Imagine the only church you could go visit was three days' journey, whatever that would be. And you don't get to go but like once or twice a year. It would be easy as you go on through things to feel separated from God, to feel there there's a distance from God. And as you start to do that, you start to wonder, maybe I shouldn't even go there. Maybe, maybe I shouldn't care. God sure seems like a long way away. Because this is before Jesus. This is before the Holy Spirit dwelling within each one of us. And this is this is a different time they lived in. So it would be easy to feel separated from the goodness of God, especially if you lived on the far end of Canaan and Shiloh, where the tabernacle was on the other end. It'd be really easy to feel separated. And so one of the things that God did is he was careful to make sure that those who represented God to the nation lived among the nation, so they never felt very far from God. And they constantly had the reminder that God was with them because those who represented God was among them. And I think that's one of the reasons why when we give our lives to Christ, we're not immediately raptured and go to heaven, is because now our job is to be a representation of God to the world around us. That's why I think it is so very dangerous to think of the idea of our relationship with God as something that is personal or something that is private. There is a personal part of it, there is a private part of it, but our relationship with God should be public and should be open for the world to see because we're still in this good earth so that we can show the world that God is not a far-off idea, but he's present and active because they can see him moving in us. Now, that doesn't mean we're any better than them. We're just a whole lot better than we would be without Jesus, and we're growing closer to him every day. Did you know I was looking at something just yesterday, and it was saying that an old idea in the Jewish community was that they didn't feel like that they should have to missionalize their world. It didn't mean that they didn't, it just meant they didn't think that they should have to because they thought that if they could follow God's law perfectly, God would bless them so abundantly that it would cause the entire world to look and say, what is going on with these Jewish people? God must be with them. So they said if we can f if we follow God the way we should, God's blessings will overflow and people will come to us. Now, as Christians, we don't live like that. We live so we go into all the world. But I still love the idea that I want to follow God's word so closely and live for God so well that his blessings overflow in my life, and people say there must be something different about that person. So, why are you not raptured as soon as you're saved? Because now you represent God to the nations around you, just like the Levites did. And the Levites were put around the nation of Israel to remind them that God is always close. And here's my question for you Do people around you, do they, are they reminded when you're there that God must be close? Not because you're God, but because you remind them of God's goodness. Something to think about as we pray together today. Father, thank you so much that you're with us and you are for us. You truly are close at every given time. I pray we will feel your closeness today. And that God, we will live our lives in such a way that when we are around, people say, God is close because I see him moving in their life. Give us the courage to take that next step today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. My prayer for you is at the end of your life, you'll be able to say, as Joshua said as he was writing these words, and he said in Joshua 21, 45, not a single one of all the good promises that the Lord had given was left unfulfilled. Everything he had spoken came true. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Joshua chapter 22.