Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Joshua 21
**Reformation Covenant Church | Pastor Dennis Tuuri**

The sermon scripture is Joshua, chapter 21. We will read through verse 42: verses 1-42. Please stand.

**Joshua 21:1-42**

Then came near the heads of the fathers of the Levites, unto Eleazar the priest, and unto Joshua the son of Nun, and unto the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel. And they spake unto them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, The Lord commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to dwell in with the suburbs thereof for our cattle.

And the children of Israel gave unto the Levites out of their inheritance at the commandment of the Lord these cities and their suburbs. And the lot came out for the families of the Kohathites, and the children of Aaron the priest, which were of the Levites. They had by lot out of the tribe of Judah, and out of the tribe of Simeon, and out of the tribe of Benjamin, 13 cities. And the rest of the children of Kohath had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Ephraim, and out of the tribe of Dan, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, 10 cities.

The children of Gershon had by lot of the families of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan 13 cities. The children of Merari by their families had out of the tribe of Reuben, and out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of Zebulun 12 cities. The children of Israel gave by lot unto the Levites these cities with their suburbs, as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses.

And they gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, these cities, which are here mentioned by name, which the children of Aaron, being of the family of the Kohathites, who are of the children of Levi, had for theirs was the first lot. And they gave them the city of Arba, the father of Anak, which city is Hebron, and the hill country of Judah, but the fields thereof round about it.

But the fields of the city, and the villages thereof gave they to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for his possession. Thus they gave to the children of Aaron the priest Hebron with her suburbs to be a city of refuge for the slayer and Libnah with her suburbs and Jattir with her suburbs and Eshtemoa with her suburbs and Holon with her suburbs and Debir with her suburbs and Ain with her suburbs and Juttah with her suburbs and Beth Shemesh with her suburbs.

Nine cities out of those two tribes. And out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with her suburbs, Geba with her suburbs, Anathoth with her suburbs, and Almon with her suburbs, four cities. All the cities of the children of Aaron the priests were 13 cities with their suburbs. And the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites, which remained of the children of Kohath, even they had the cities of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim.

For they gave them Shechem with her suburbs in Mount Ephraim to be a city of refuge for the slayer. And Gezer with her suburbs and Kibzaim with her suburbs and Beth Horon with her suburbs, four cities. And out of the tribe of Dan, Eltekeh with her suburbs, Gibbethon with her suburbs, Aijalon with her suburbs, Gath Rimmon with her suburbs, four cities. And out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Taanach with her suburbs, and Gath Rimmon with her suburbs, two cities.

All the cities were ten with their suburbs for the families of the children of Kohath that remained. And under the children of Gershon of the families of the Levites, out of the other half of Manasseh, they gave Golan in Bashan with her suburbs to be a city of refuge for the slayer. And Be Eshterah with her suburbs two cities. And out of the tribe of Issachar, Kishon with her suburbs, Daberath with her suburbs, Jarmuth with her suburbs, and En Gannim with her suburbs four cities.

And out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with her suburbs, Abdon with her suburbs, Helkath with her suburbs, and Rehob with her suburbs, four cities. And out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with her suburbs to be a city of refuge for the slayer, and Hammoth Dor with her suburbs, and Kartan with her suburbs, three cities. All the cities of the Gershonites, according to their families, were 13 cities with their suburbs.

And under the family of the children of Merari, the rest of the Levites are the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with her suburbs, and Kartah with her suburbs, Dimna with her suburbs, Nahalal with her suburbs, four cities. And out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with her suburbs, and Jahzah with her suburbs, Kedemoth with her suburbs, and Mephaath with her suburbs, four cities. And out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with her suburbs to be a city of refuge for the slayer, and Mahanaim with her suburbs, Heshbon with her suburbs, Jazer with her suburbs, four cities in all.

So all the cities for the children of Merari by their families which were remaining of the families of the Levites were by their lot 12 cities. All the cities of the Levites within the possession of the children of Israel were 48 cities with their suburbs. These suburbs were everyone with their suburbs round about them. Thus were all these cities.

We thank God for his word and pray that he would illuminate us as we comprehend it and think through it.

—

This is a series of studies through the book of Joshua. We spoke for the last two weeks of the cities of refuge, and Joshua 21 ties off the entire inheritance portion of the book. Next week we’ll deal with the final concluding verses of Joshua 21 where the summary statement is given that all came to pass that God had promised. A very significant portion of reassurance from the scriptures in terms of his own providence for our lives as well.

We’ll talk about that next week. And then after that, the book kind of ties off with first a statement of some problems between the east and west, the division, and then some concluding covenant renewal chapters, two chapters at the end, which we’ll deal with in time.

This ties off a major section of the inheritance. The last inheritance is given to the Levites. My belief that chronologically, in other words, in terms of the order of time, the Levitical cities were distributed first and then the cities of refuge were designated as cities of refuge after the Levites received their inheritance.

And I said last week that I think the refuge cities being coming first in terms of the order of the book and its presentation stresses the theological significance of the base of our salvation being atonement instead of the instruction of the law which the Levitical city is primarily provided for. So we get instruction after we’re saved by God and as we’re continuing our maturation in faith. It’s a very important theme really this passage if you think of the Levites and the significance of them as we’ll talk about today a little bit.

It’s a tremendous story of moving from curse to blessing. Remember why they’re scattered about in these tribes this way originally? We’ll talk about it later, but it’s because of the curse put upon them because of their sin involving the Shechemites. And yet, it becomes a tremendous blessing to the Levites. And that’s a tremendous model for us that the scriptures are always causing us to come to repentance to be cut by the sword of God’s word that we might be healed and made whole in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I’m going to quote from a fellow named Leonard Cohen who is not a believer. He is a pagan and yet God, you know, speaks out of the mouths of dumb asses in the scriptures and certainly he speaks out of the mouths of people of our day and age who can understand what’s going on in our world and really their words ring back upon themselves. But one of the things he talks about in this song I listened to this last week and I thought about it in terms of the inauguration events.

One of the things I forgot to mention last week, the religious stuff going on, President Clinton had a bell ringing ceremony a couple of days before the inauguration. And of course the scripture, the Liberty Bell of our country has inscribed upon it the reference to the verse referring to the year of Jubilee, the declaration of liberty that the captives are set free in the 50th year. And Jesus Christ applied those passages directly to himself.

So when President Clinton on one day of the week rings supposed bells of liberty in our land, a liturgical act, you know, signifying the proclamation of liberty, and yet within a couple of days signs an order confining those who are in the sanctuary of the womb to death. This is a hypocritical act and one that calls forth God’s judgment.

However, I thought about a reason I mentioned that is in this poem by Leonard Cohen that is the basis for a song he then has put on his latest album. He talks about ringing the bells and he says, “Forget your perfect offering. It’s through the crack that the light comes in.” And you know the crack of the Liberty Bell is of course there. We know that it cracked early after first casting and it’s a of course a mark. You ever see a big bell in a picture that has a crack in it. You think of the Liberty Bell.

Well, I thought of that in reference to this whole movement of Levi from curse to blessing and our movement to the sanctuary of God to come to hear the word of God to be instructed in it and to be smitten and brought to repentance by it for our sins. It is our cracks, our sins, our failure to have perfect offerings as we come before the Lord Jesus Christ today and offer him worship. That’s how the light of God’s grace and love is ministered to us.

Now, it’s not, you know, you can take that as saying, “Let’s sin the more that grace might abound.” That’s not what I’m saying. But recognize that if you do sin and you have sinned, and if you don’t realize that, you don’t know what the word of God is all about. That it’s through an understanding of that sin, being brought to a realization that your offering is not perfect before God, that your life has all kinds of cracks in it, that the grace and love of God pours through those cracks and shines in your soul. That’s what, you know, this day is all about.

We come forward by God in obedience to God’s call to be a vanguard according to God’s word for him to reveal the cracks in our lives that we might make amends for them be brought to repentance which includes acts to solder up those cracks recognizing however our offering is never perfect the only perfect offering was not the high priest it was the greater high priest the Lord Jesus Christ.

So those things what we’re going to talk about today then this movement from curse to blessing rather that’s pictured for us in the Levites and here they’re the final concluding sections of the inheritance portion of this book and one of these is I’m going to get around to talking about the names of the cities of refuge. I keep bringing this every week for the last three weeks. I don’t have time today, but it’s a good way to remember much of what we’ve spoken of.

Okay. First, what we’re going to do as we normally do, at least we have in the past, and not always, but frequently what I’ve chosen to look at these texts in these chapter overviews that we’re doing is to look at an overview of the chapter first. You’ll see on your outline a listing of the various the way I’ve divided this particular chapter of the book up where first we have an overview of Joshua 21.

There’s a summary account given in the first three verses. The Levites come to the rulers again who are distributing inheritance. And just in passing I’ll note that the designation of Eleazar the priest Joshua the son of Nun the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel. This is a common designation—this is the fourth time now these particular people have been lumped together in terms of the distribution of inheritance.

When Zelophehad’s daughters came—first of all when Caleb comes forward to receive his inheritance way back in the middle chapters of this book he comes to these guys when Zelophehad’s daughters come they come to these guys here and then in chapter 19 when the distribution is given at Shiloh for the tribes that had not received their inheritance yet these are the guys that are doing it. So you’ve got the Eleazar the priest Joshua the son of Nun and then the princes or the heads of the tribes of the fathers the children of Israel. So we have these various—there’s significance for that in terms of the governmental structure of the old covenant. Just mention it in passing here.

Again here the names are kind of interesting to us. The name Levi itself comes from the name meaning attached or joined to. And we’ll talk about the significance of that a little bit later. Eleazar means God surrounds and protects. El is from shortening of Elohim. Azar surround or protect. So Eleazar the priest is a picture of God surrounding him and protecting him and the priests surrounding and protecting the people. Very significant to the discussion of the cities of the Levites here that we’ll talk about.

Joshua, we talked about that before, means saved by Jehovah. Yah at the end, Joshua, Yeshua, Yah at the end is Yahweh or Jehovah. So it means saved by Jehovah or Jehovah is salvation. Joshua is the son of Nun. Nun means to propagate by means of a sprout. There’s biblical references of course here that the great propagation of sprout, the offspring of the tribe of David was the Lord Jesus Christ. We have pictures of that here.

Israel mentioned in the first verse. Remember that means those who rule for God. Israel basically meaning to exercise rule. El shortened form of God again, Elohim. So we have references to God in many of these names explicit in Israel Eleazar and Joshua Yeshua.

Now it’s interesting too that they come to the place of Shiloh. That name means tranquility. Essentially they said what most commentators believe it means and the tranquility that results in the inheritance is what’s stressed here.

Okay. Now, so what happens is we have a summary account these first three verses. The Levites come forward to these representatives of the community and they say God commanded you guys give us cities. They don’t ask really on the basis of their own need. They don’t ask on the basis of what they might like to have happen. They don’t ask at all really. They simply remind the leaders of their responsibility to distribute the inheritance in the land of Canaan according to Moses’ instructions, God’s instructions through the hand of Moses.

Obedience to God is one of the central themes that result in blessings of the book of Joshua. And here it is again. They just remind them, hey, God says you’re supposed to give us land, cities. And then, of course, they distribute the cities. Verse three really is an introduction to the next few verses, but you can look at it as a summary statement that indeed the statement of the laws the Levites had done was the result of that was immediate response of obedience from the leaders representing all the people. Because in verse three, it says, “The children of Israel gave unto the Levites out of their inheritance at the commandment of the Lord these cities and their suburbs.” They gave them.

So we have a summary statement. Then we have in verses 4 and following let’s see verses 4-7, we have the extended account of what happens. And first the response of the tribes is summarized by the number of cities given in verses 4-7. And those cities on your outline, you’ll see it there are designated out in terms of the Kohathite priests and then the non-priestly Kohathites, the Gershonites, and the Merarites. What’s going on here? What are these “ite” people? Who are these people?

Well, the scriptures tell us that these are the three sons of Levi, the family of the three sons. Levi had three sons. This is recorded for us. Let’s see. In your outline, I give you Genesis 46:11 and Exodus 6:16 and 20.

Let me find those verses here. Okay. In Genesis 46:11 tells that the sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. And then in Exodus 6 and following, it says these are the names of the sons of Levi, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Now, you know the listing there is in their order of birth. So the oldest was Gershon. The middle was Kohath and the next was Merari.

Exodus 6 goes on to say that the sons of Gershon were Libni and Shimei according to their families. And the sons of Kohath, Amram, and Izehar. You know who Amram is? Amram later marries Jochebed and they give birth to Moses and Aaron. So you’ve got Gershon, Kohath, Merari, the three sons of Levi. Kohath is the middle son. Kohath has a son named Amram later marries Jochebed. And so then we have Moses coming out of the line of Kohath and Moses’ brother Aaron and of course his sister Miriam.

Very important people—you wonder what Amram and Jochebed were like to bring forth children such as Moses and Aaron and Miriam. But in any event what’s going on here then is now the Levites get their division not as the whole tribe but instead according to these three families. And actually there’s a fourth way to look at it and that’s they first deal with the Kohathite priests. Kohath had other sons and other lineage other than Moses and Aaron. And so you have two groups within the Kohathite tribe or the portion of the Kohathite—the Kohathite portion of the Levites tribe. There were priestly Levites and non-priestly Levites.

Okay, in terms of being Kohathites so first of all the Kohathites who were priests, the priestly line came from Aaron. Those priests get their provision of the numbers of cities first in the summary account that are given for us in verses 4 through seven and then later then after that the Kohathites who are not of the priestly line of Aaron’s lineage now the other Kohathites get a number of cities also and then then after the Kohathites receive their division in verses 4 and 5 then the Gershonites and the Merarites get their division.

Now if you’ve been paying attention here I mentioned the genealogy for a very good reason remember I’ve said that we frequently have in the Old Testament the supplanting of the firstborn by the second born as a picture of Jesus Christ of the planting Adam, the new Adam. And that’s what you have here. The Kohathites are the second born. But how many portions do they get? Two. Who should get two portions? The oldest son. The oldest son gets a double portion. He can take care of his parents in his old age. But the Kohathites get a double portion. One for the priestly line and one for the non-priestly line. The second born. They supplant the Gershonites here. Okay? And that’s a repeated model.

You want to pay attention to these things. It helps us understand the significance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Okay. Now the these three groups of Levites, okay, they were they had very specific tasks given to them by their different families in the providence of God. When the tabernacle instructions for the tabernacle are given in the wilderness, these three families have different responsibilities in terms of the tabernacle itself.

Okay. The Kohathites carry what you could think of as the inner of the tabernacle. They carry the items of furniture, the lampstand, etc. The stuff that’s inside that the priests actually work with in terms of the tabernacle. The Gershonites carry what you could think of as the skin of the tabernacle, the things that hang. I got these designations, these ways of looking at it from James B. Jordan, by the way.

You know, throughout the scriptures, the houses of God are also related to a person or a body. The Lord Jesus Christ, of course, is the preeminent example. He’s the temple of God and the temple of the Old Testament prefigured by the tabernacle of the Old Testament and by originally the altar that goes way back before that all finds its fulfillment in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, that’s the true temple, the true tabernacle, the true altar, the body of Christ.

And then the body of Christ that comes constituted together in the church also is seen as a temple. And Paul tells us that in Corinthians and other places. Don’t you know that you’re a temple? A dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Your body is individually and this church is a body corporately. Both terms are used in the New Testament.

So, it’s legitimate, I think, when James B. Jordan and others talk about these groups as having different component elements of the body. It’s a good way to remember. It’s a good learning device for your children. The Gershonites carried the hangings and stuff that form the walls essentially in the dividing places that would be in the tabernacle. The tribe of Merari carried what you might think of as the bones, the pillars, these big things here.

For instance, the tabernacle, you know, is like a big tent and you know, you’ve put up tents and you have the framework. Some tents have like sticks and stuff you got to put up first and then you lay the stuff over there. Well, that’s kind of the way the tabernacle was and the bones that would support the whole thing. The Gershonites carried the rather the Merarites carried the bones.

Okay. Now, the Kohathites however also were divided as I said into priestly Kohathites and non-priestly Kohathites. Okay. The priestly Kohathites were the ones who would actually work in terms of the inner sanctum of the tabernacle and perform their functions there.

Now, I got a map up here, which you can’t see. I kind of didn’t know which map to give you. I end up giving you the map with the listing of Levitical cities and cities of refuge designated on it, but it, you know, you can’t really—you look at it, it doesn’t really mean a whole lot, but I gave it to you anyway. I probably should have given you this map. This map is similar to the maps you’ve had before.

If you look at the where the 12 tribes are, and then you look at these lists from Joshua 21, and you see who gets which cities from which tribe, it’s very interesting.

Down here in the southern portion of the land right here in Benjamin, Judah, and Simeon. This is where the Kohathite priests, they get their cities in that portion of the land. Okay? And that’s what these verses in 4-7 are all about. And then later, the cities are detailed for us as well later on in the chapter up here in Benjamin, Dan, and Manasseh. Up here, right above these guys are down here, the Kohathite priest. Here are the non-priestly Kohathites get their inheritance.

Okay. Now the Gershonites get their inheritance up here in the north. These four groups up here, Asher, Naphtali, Issachar, and Manasseh on the other side of the Jordan. So they’re like up here way to the north. Okay? And in between them and the Kohathites, you have the Merarites who have these two groups over here on this side of the Jordan. And then they also have cities out of the tribe of Zebulun.

Okay. Now, what I’m showing you here is I know you can’t see it. This would have been good to provide this for you as an outline, but basically you can think of it as this is the heart here in a way. And the non-priestly Kohathites are like more vital organs. You can think of it that way. It’s a way to help you remember where they get their land in this physical proximity of Canaan here. And then you’ve got the Merarites who are here and that’s kind of like the bones protecting these guys and over that you have an external protection also of the skin to protect the Kohathites.

And indeed if you look at this land as being sought being pursued by people from the north that’s what you have you’ve got a protected port here centering of course eventually around the city of Jerusalem while not a Levitical city it becomes the center of the worship of the nation and that’s like the heart of the country and then you’ve got other groups here and then you’ve got a covering of bone so to speak and skin over that protecting these people down here.

Okay.

Now, another significant portion of what the way these tribes get their inheritance is that in terms of both the bone and the skin, okay, the groups, the Merarites and the Gershonites, those two groups of city of tribes, they get cities out of tribes on both east and west of the river Jordan. Remember, you got these two and a half tribes over here on this side, and you got the other tribes over here. And there’s a potential division of these two. And we’ll see this in real clear terms when we get to the next chapter. Chapter 22 is all about this division and they almost come to war between these two groups on the east and the west divided by a river.

Now you can relate to that, right? Because we got a church here with a river in the middle of it and we got people over in the west, we got people over on the east. And you think, well, so what? You know, what difference does a river make? Well, it’s interesting the way, you know, one of the things you can look at these Levitical cities is about is the geography makes a difference. These are not heavenly cities they’re being given. I mean, they are in that they’re supposed to see there. You know, it’s the model of heaven is to be fulfilled in a primarily focused way in these cities, but these are real earth. You know, they have borders.

Numbers 35, which is a parallel account to Joshua 21, tells us that these cities were laid out on a square. You have the city here. You’ve got a square of these outlying areas. That’s 2,000 cubits on each side. A square. Okay? These are real boundaries, real geography we’re talking about. And the reality of a river and a potential division between groups of people is something you don’t want to ignore.

Okay, we think symbolically, we act symbolically in many ways. And this river divides us, has the potential to. Well, it’s interesting. The providence of God, he had he could have lumped them, of course, had just one group over here of Levites, one family. But he didn’t do it that way. Both Gershon and Merari have cities that are given them in both sides of the Jordan. They become a link is what I’m saying, a unifier to joined the country together.

And remember what Levi means? It means attached or joined. So the Levites become in a very geographically symbolic way the glue to cement the whole nation together. Okay? Cuz their bloodlines, they got fellow Merarites over there, clan members on both sides of the river. Okay? So that joins them together.

Now, it’s interesting. I was thinking of this. You know, in the providence of God, we didn’t plan it this way, but here as we’re building our little group of our new our when we’re inheriting our Canaan here in the greater Portland area. We’ve got Levites on both sides of the river. Now, it’s interesting that God does these things.

So this listing then of cities gives us this picture essentially. And one way to remember it is in terms of the protection, the guarding of then the functions of the Kohathites and particularly the priests as they go about their nurturing work. Remember, we’ve talked a lot about that big model running through scripture that essentially what we have here is another garden, another dwelling place of God in the promised land.

And what is Adam’s job in the garden? It’s to protect it. It’s to build a fence around it. To drive out intruders. That’s what he failed to do in terms of guarding his wife. And then to nurture the garden, to bring it from glory to glory, to mature it, to make it grow more beautiful things in it, to propagate it. God gives him a great starting bed of flowers. He’s supposed to weed it, but he’s also supposed to nurture it and have it grow into a more glorious garden.

And so in the land of Canaan, they have the same thing to do. And in a way, you can see this pictured geographically with these tribes to the north providing a guarding influence while the Kohathites do their work of maturation and bringing the nation from glory to glory in terms of their liturgical worship centered around Jerusalem essentially. Okay.

So cities, Levitical cities, this is what’s going on in this chapter. This the way it’s laid out for us. And then those cities are actually delineated by names in the latter portion of the chapter as well. And it’s the same way you have the Kohathite priests first, then the non-priestly Kohathites in verses 20-26, the Gershonite cities in 27-33 and the Merarite cities in 34-40.

Now, they were given this land and there’s some dissension among commentators, but it seems like they had this land outright in their possession. Matthew Henry says the following about their interest or their ownership of this land. He says that there, that is the Levites interest in them, these Levitical cities was not dependent and precarious, but to be owned and possessed by them as lords and proprietors, and as having the same title to them that the rest of the tribes had to their cities or lands, as appeared by the law, which preserved the houses in the Levite cities from being alienated any longer than to the year of Jubilee. And that’s a reference to Leviticus 25:32 and 33.

Matthew Henry believed, I think it’s correct, that these Levites had ownership of this land, the same with any other tribe would have ownership. Now, it was a little different, of course, because they didn’t have a portion of land really. They had cities with suburbs around them. Okay. And other people could live in those cities with your essential the Levites could transact business with them. But essentially they were given these cities to dwell in and to own outright. Okay.

Now let’s see. So that’s an overview of the chapter. And now what are the implications of this text for us? What are the lessons from the text that we want to focus on? And the first point I make it could be somewhat controversial but I believe it’s accurate.

Oh, by the way, well, I’ll get to this later, I guess. What are the implications of this from the text for us? Well, the first point I make is that God has ordained a provision for Levitical ministers above and beyond the tithe. You know, I this is potentially controversial, but let’s let’s just go through it a little bit here. We have in these accounts a ministration given to Levites which is different than the reception of tithes and offerings.

Now Deuteronomy 18 and Numbers 18 tells us explicitly about the receipt of the tithes by the people of Levi. Numbers 18:21 says, “Behold, I have given the children of Levi, the tenth in Israel, for an inheritance for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle in the congregation.”

Okay, again in Numbers 18:24, the tithes of the children of Israel which they offer as an heave offering the Lord I have given to the Levites to inherit. So God says that the Levites method of sustenance in terms of the work they do in the land, the way they make their living, if you want to look at it that way, is by receiving a tithe. Tithe means tenth. Could have been translated tenth here. Probably would have been a lot better deal. A tenth of whatever God blessed the children of Israel with as a result of their productive labor was to go to Levitical ministers. Okay, that’s real clear for us in the scriptures.

In the New Testament, Paul repeats this in terms of 1 Corinthians 9. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul is talking about the right of the apostles to have a living provided for them by those they minister to. He’s talking about reception of the tithe. Here he says in verse four of 1 Corinthians 9, don’t we have power to eat and to drink? He doesn’t mean can they chew. He means shouldn’t we have the authority, the right to expect from you sustenance for what we provide to you? You’re supposed to give us tithes is what he’s saying.

In verse 7, he says, “Who goes a warring at any time at his own charge?” Because you look at an army. If you hire somebody, if you somebody’s going to go out in an army, he’s paid for by the people that put the army out. Okay? So, if you’re going to go out in terms of arms warfare, you’re going to not do it at your own charge, your own expense. Who plants a vineyard and doesn’t eat the fruit thereof? Or who feeds a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock?

Paul says here that clearly according to the laws of nature so to speak, according to the laws of military sense and then common sense of sowing what one reaps. He says we should be able to reap from you for the work that we perform in the context of this war that God has called us to do.

The words of A.W. Pink—Paul says that the temporal maintenance of Christ’s servants was not only required by the law of nations in terms of the army thing and the dictates of nature in terms of the model that he uses in this verse about fields being planted and then reaping from the fields but also Paul makes a greater appeal than this and that is to the law of God itself. In verse 9 say I these things as a man? Do I just make an appeal to the laws of nations in terms of armies or to the laws of nature and drawing fields in terms of the field illustrations I use?

He says, “No, saith I not also the law the same thing also.” And he goes on to say, “Indeed it does.” For verse 9, he says, “For it is written by the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadth out the corn.” In other words, he says, “This law is not given for the sake of your oxes. This is given for the sake of the Levitical oxes who do the work that God has called them to do.”

So Paul makes an appeal and it’s real interesting. You look at this as a model for how we could appeal to people in terms of evangelism or in terms of discipleship as well. Paul does make an appeal to the law of nations. He does make an appeal to the law of nature, so to speak. But then he buttresses the whole thing and says, “If this is all I’ve got, not good enough.” It’s a good strong argument, but let me give you the kicker now. He says, “The law of God requires that you support Levitical ministers.”

He says in verse 11, “If we have sown to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? Do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so that the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.”

I think in a direct correlation back to these Levitical ministers at the temple. In addition to the tithe, the Levitical ministers who were priests also got a portion of the offerings themselves that were given apart from their tithe. They would tithe every ten sheep, they’d give it to the Levites, but they’d also be required to give one of those sheep as an offering, for instance, and a portion of that offering was also taken by the priests legitimately required by God for the sustenance of their family in terms of food.

Now, this was abused, of course, by Eli’s sons. They would go along and take out the best stuff, the stuff that was really for God, they would take. But in any event, that’s what Paul’s talking about here. Don’t you know those who minister at the altar, they receive gifts from that altar for their sustenance? They get the tithe and they also get these various offerings as well and a portion of them.

And what I guess what I’m saying is that what Joshua 21 tells us is that before even that is all set up, the Levitical ministers are also given a capital base so to speak, an inheritance of land, specific land to live in the context of. So we have here, I believe that in addition to these requirements of the tithe that God clearly points out to us, we have here the necessity of the children of Israel in the land of Canaan to provide for a base of operations to sort of set the Levites up to then later be supported by the tithe. Okay.

Now, by the way, the tithe is a real important thing. You know, in the providence of God, you know, I preached a sermon a week after we’ve given receipts out for last year’s tithe reports for people at RCC. And it’s very important. We’ve talked about this before. We don’t talk a lot about it, but when the text requires it, I talk about it. And the text seems to require it today.

2 Chronicles 31 tells of the reformation, the reconstruction that took place under Hezekiah. Nehemiah of course tells the reformation and reconstruction that took place under Nehemiah. And we’ve seen these models as one of the big models for what we’re doing as a church. We believe that God is calling a group of people out again to serve him in a fuller sense with a full understanding of his law, his grace, and his eschatology and his sovereignty. And we believe that we’re in a time of reformation and reconstruction. So these models are extremely important for us.

One of the preeminent things that happens—one of the important things that happens both in Hezekiah’s time and Nehemiah’s time and will have to happen if there’s a reformation reconstruction in America today is an emphasis once more on the proper distribution of the tithe.

In 2 Chronicles 31 says Hezekiah—let’s see in verse 4 we’ll read, “Moreover, he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord. As soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the first fruits of corn.”

This is a very important phrase. I’ve talked about this phrase before in relationship to the selection of deacons in the New Testament. Deacons are given in the book of Acts so that the apostles and their elders who would work in conjunction with them might devote themselves to what? To the law of God, to his word and to prayer.

Levi, the whole tribe, that’s what they were supposed to do. They were supposed to teach God’s law to his people. They’re supposed to offer up incense, which the scriptures tell us is akin to prayer essentially a type of prayer and to bless God’s people. And so Hezekiah is saying if we don’t tithe to these guys, they will not be encouraged. They will not be devoted in themselves to the word of God. They’ll have to get sustenance and other means. They have to turn to other forms of getting a living.

Indeed, in the book of Nehemiah, we see this very thing happening. In Nehemiah 10, they enter into the oath, to the curse, and to the covenant. It’s a renewal of the covenant. Nehemiah 10, which we have in this church is a direct model for our covenant statement. That’s why we have in the covenant statement of RCC about how believers should not marry an unbeliever. It’s taken right out of Nehemiah 10. That was a problem in the times of Nehemiah. It’s a problem for the church today. And it’s correct and good in times of covenant renewal to address specific sins of the people that you find in the context of your land.

I suppose in 20 years if a church was to start, and I don’t think this is an exaggeration, you’d have to put something in about abortion and homosexuality. When we wrote our church covenant it was so apparent to the evangelical community that these things were sinful and wrong, we didn’t include them. You know, it’s not supposed to be a laundry list of everything that’s wrong. It’s supposed to be an educational device to teach the people who are entering into covenant the problems they have in terms of obedience to it in the context of the local churches at that time.

And so what I’m saying is I will not be surprised with the ascension of President Clinton, his ability to appoint federal judges, all this stuff if the abortion issue is washed away and forgotten about as an issue in most evangelical churches. Are you understanding me? It will change the entire discussion, folks, because you won’t be able to go pick in an abortion clinic. It’ll be in people’s bedrooms. They’re doing this stuff now in their bathrooms. So, the abortion issue is going to—and look at how fast the waffling is occurring in homosexuality.

I was going to talk about this later, but Republican National Committee, they chose a new leader, Republican party just yesterday, I believe it was the day before, the outgoing chairman says, “Hey, forget this abortion stuff. Do not make this an issue. Okay.” And now, and I can I will, as sure as I stand here, say, you know, a gracious act of God to open people’s eyes, the abortion issue has been washed away from Republican party and the homosexuality issue will be washed away even faster. Even faster.

In fact, we had this last week. One of the strongest conservatives in the Senate, the fellow from New York, D’Amato, is that his name? saying, “Yeah, yeah, let’s get rid of this ban on homosexuals in the military forces. It’s going to go faster than the abortion thing did, folks. The abortion thing went real fast. We’re only 20 years away. 20 a little over 20 years ago, you could still be thrown in jail for doing an abortion. Okay, been 20 years. And yet the issue has been washed away.

In any event, point of that is that here in the context of Nehemiah 10, they had this provision not to marry an unbeliever—people of the land. They also said, however, and then verse—that was verse 30 in Nehemiah 10. Verse 31 was about the Sabbath and we put that in our covenant statement too because the Christian church has completely gone away from and abandoned the Sabbath.

Reformed churches have abandoned the Sabbath. It 90% probably of reformed pastors are not Sabbatarians anymore. That’s a guess by me, but I think it’d probably be held up if you did a study on your own. And yet it’s a central aspect of what we do. It’s one of the ten commandments. You know, it’s the only commandment really that differentiates really a person who abides by the law of God from a dispensationalist.

They’ll tell you all the other nines are repeated in the New Testament. Okay. Well, I think the fourth commandment is as well in the book of Hebrews, but in any event, they address Sabbath in Nehemiah 10:31. And then verse 32 and following the bulk of this renewal covenant in Nehemiah is about providing for Levitical ministers through the offering, through giving out lots as to who would bring the wood, who would be the heroes of wood, etc.

The first fruits is addressed in verse 35 and then in verse 37 that we bring the tithes of our ground unto the Levites and that they would in verse 38 take the tithe of the tithes to the house of God. Number of verses here about supportive ministers. Well, that took care of that problem, right? No, you can change covenant documents pretty easily with the people. You can get them to go along, but to change ways people think and their patterns of behavior is much more difficult.

Nehemiah went away for a while and He comes back and in chapter 13 he comes back and he says, “I proceed…” Oh by the way that covenant statement in Nehemiah 10 ends with saying we will not forsake the house of our God. When you refuse to tithe and pay Levitical ministers, God always equates that with forsaking his house and abandoning it. Okay.

Well then in verse 10 of chapter 13, Nehemiah comes back. He says, “I perceived that the portion of the Levites had not been given them. For the Levites and the singers that did the work were fled everyone to his field.”

Nehemiah comes back and he says, “Where are the Levites?” Well, they’re out working in the field. Why are they working in the field? Well, they got to make a living. They got to feed their family. They got to—they have to feed those hungry kids.

You know, it’s interesting. The irony with the priesthood and the Levites uh they were given more—some people would say a disproportionate number of cities, particularly the priestly group, but the scriptures and historical documents tell us that it was those particular families who had the most kids, the most offspring, they had a lot of children. You know, it’s such a contrast in the Roman Catholic Church, which denies the right of childbearing to priests at all. Terrible, terrible act on the part of the Roman Catholic Church. By the way, there are political reasons for that. There were not theological reasons for that. But in any event, the point is that God’s ministers are normally seen in the scriptures as having a whole bunch of kids, and those kids have to be fed.

And Nehemiah comes back, and those guys are out working in fields so they can feed their kids. This is not a very long period of time if they just took this covenant. They entered into an oath and a curse. The scriptures say that’s what a covenant’s all about. Okay. So Nehemiah again, he goes to leaders and he says, “Why is the house of God forsaken?”

Directly correlates the failure to give Levites their tithes, forsaking of the house of God. Verse 12, then they brought of Judah the tithe of the corn and new wine and the oil of the treasures. They got right on the mark again. They repented. That’s the way people are, you know. That’s the way we all are. We all have those cracks in our bells. We don’t have perfect offerings. We’re reminded from the word of God, this is a problem. And we correct, we correct, we correct. And that’s what happens here as well.

And then Nehemiah ends that section in verse 14 of chapter 13. Remember me, oh God, concerning this. Wipe out not my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for the offices thereof. That’s a very interesting statement. We could talk about that a long time, couldn’t we? You should take pride. There’s a biblical sense of pride that’s proper to say to God, remember me for my works. And there are lots of people in this church who I hope pray on occasion not with a puffed up sense recognizing fully as Nehemiah did that God is sovereign and that we apart from his grace are in rebellion against him all of our lives yet in the grace of God he causes us to correct and repair and we can say hey we did pretty good this time remember me God for what I did and Nehemiah says it specifically in terms of the restoration of support for Levitical ministers.

So this text tells us that this support for Levitical ministers that is seen in terms of the tithe but also in vision of what historically in the Christian church for 2,000 years has been the parsonage. Okay, that’s a the model of the Levitical cities in the New Testament is the church with a parsonage attached. That’s the that’s kind of like the ideal.

Now, the pastors don’t like that a lot of times. They don’t want to be that close to the churches. I remember I’ve been in churches where they specifically moved away, you know, to get away, but the idea is having it linked real close to the church. It’s a center for the community.

Kind of getting a little ahead of myself here, but now I want a couple of quotes here on support of ministers. Matthew Henry says, “The maintenance of ministers is not an arbitrary thing left purely to the goodwill of the people who may let them starve if they please.” No. As the God of Israel commanded that the Levites should be well provided for, so has the Lord Jesus, the king of the Christian church, ordained as a perpetual ordinance, a perpetual ordinance. It is that those who preach the gospel should live of the gospel. Quoting from 1 Corinthians 9. That’s Matthew Henry.

A.W. Pink says, “Full provision was made for the temporal sustenance of the Levites.” Here, the Lord has not only appointed that a liberal portion of the heave and wave offerings must be theirs for food, as well as the best of the oil and the wine and the first fruits with the tithes of the children of Israel, but he has also given a commandment that the other tribes should give unto the Levites out of their own inheritance, cities to dwell in, and the suburbs round about them.

In like manner, God has stipulated that those of his people who are indebted to the spiritual administrations of his servants should in turn minister to their temporal sustenance. And then from a book on the boring parts of the Bible, if we fail to tithe to the Levites, we are making God a liar. He has promised his servants, those employed in his work, the tithes of his people as an inheritance from…