Joshua chapter 21. Father bless us as we look at
this portion of your book and may we find in it some things
profitable for us and may it conform us more perfectly to our Lord Jesus
Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. Beginning at verse one, now the
family heads of the Levites approached Eliezer the priest, Joshua, son
of Nun, and the heads of the other tribal families of Israel
at Shiloh in Canaan, and said to them, the Lord commanded through
Moses that you give us towns to live in with pasture lands
for livestock. So as the Lord had commanded,
the Israelites gave the Levites the following towns and pasture
lands out of their own inheritance. Now, the following verses just
describe in detail what cities were given to which particular
clans among the descendants of the Levites. So we'll skip that
portion of it and pick up in verse 43. It says, so the Lord
gave Israel all the land, excuse me, verse 41, The towns of the Levites in the
territory held by the Israelites were 48 in all, together with
their pasture lands. Each of these towns had pasture
lands surrounding it. This was true for all these towns. So the Lord gave Israel all the
land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession
of it and settled there. The 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. Not one of all the Lord's good
promises to the house of Israel failed. Everyone was fulfilled."
Now, I believe that we find the primary significance of this
distribution of cities and pasture lands to the Levites, we find
its most important significance in that last verse that we read. Not one of all the Lord's good
promises to the house of Israel failed. every one was fulfilled. Now, of course, that is an honor
to God, particularly when you consider how poorly the Israelites
believed God and actually laid hold of the things that he had
promised them. Now, I take a certain amount
of comfort in that. It's good to know that if God
promises a person something, they will obtain it. even if
their efforts or whatever in trying
to obtain it are rather haphazard and half-hearted. We have noticed several times
as we've gone through the book of Joshua how poorly the people
followed God. But that did not affect the fact
that not one of God's promises failed, which is to say God did
not fail. And as a side note here, in our
day of evangelicalism, as it's loosely called in the United
States, when they are so wrapped up with paying attention to Israel,
modern day Israel, and what's going on over there, And this
all arises from a particular form of biblical interpretation
referred to as dispensationalism. It's what I was raised in, and
though I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to it since
my early 20s, I still recall its basic tenets. But it's based
on the idea that the national or natural descendants of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob have always been the special people of God
and will be restored to that position within the human economy
and that they will re-inhabit and re-conquer and
repossess the whole of the land of Israel as was originally promised. And there are many who hold to
the fact that really, that the Israelites never have possessed
everything God promised to them, and so God's going to finish
what didn't get finished with the coming of Christ. And that's why they tend to say
things like that the church age, as they refer to it, is kind
of a parenthesis in the middle of God's prophetic timeline. In other words, it was supposed
to be that God made the Jews his national people, and then
he would send Messiah to them, and they would acknowledge him
as Messiah and bow to him as king, and he would sit on the
throne of his father David forever, right over there in Israel, and
rule the world from there. But the Jews messed things up
because they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently,
God had to kind of fall back to plan B, You know, they say things like
God's prophetic clock stopped when they rejected Christ. And
then here's this parenthesis in the middle of God's prophetic
timeline called the Church Age. Well, that's not true. There were promises made to the
nation of Israel Promises made to the fathers and later to the
nation, but everything, everything promised to the nation was given
to them and they already possess it. God did not fail in any of
his promises, even to that rebellious nation. They occupied or conquered,
occupied and possessed all the land that he promised them. There's
not another square inch that they have to possess in order
for that to be fulfilled. So we don't look for, that is
not according to what the scripture says, we don't look for a resurgence
of the nation of Israel. Now God's, he certainly can,
and obviously there is a nation of Israel over there now, but
they don't even begin to possess what they used to possess. But
God's done with that nation because the nation arose out of the old
covenant. The old covenant's done. So we find in this chapter an
example of the reliability of the promises of God. Going back to the very first
part of it, verse one of chapter 21, the family heads of the Levites
approached Eliezer the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads
of the other tribal families of Israel at Shiloh, and they
made the request that they be given the cities that Moses had
commanded be given to them. Now one thing that is repeated
on several occasions throughout the record of Joshua is this,
that the Levites, the tribe of Levi had no part with his brethren,
for the Lord is Levi's portion. There is a tribe of Levi, but
there's no tribal allotment called Levi. You know, there were 12 sons
of Jacob, and Levi was one of them. And all those 12 sons got
a tribal allotment within the promised land, except the tribe
of Levi. There never was a tribe of Levi,
or, you know, tribal allotment. Now there were still 12 tribal
allotments because that was, or that came about because the
tribe of Joseph was split into two, and each of Joseph's sons,
Manasseh and Ephraim, each of them got a tribal allotment.
So there were still tribal allotments, but no tribal allotment for Levi. The Lord was his proportion,
or was his portion. We know that whatever the children
of God have, they have received of the Lord so that they might
not boast as if they had not received it. That is, whatever
they get, it's given to them as a gift. The whole of the land
of Canaan was given to the Jews, not by virtue of their goodness,
certainly not, not by virtue of their faithfulness, certainly
not, not by virtue of their military prowess, The Lord handed it over
to them. Yes, the military advanced on
these towns. There was some fighting, but
the Jews would not have won those fights had not the Lord intervened. So the land they possessed had
been given to them as a gift, as the fulfillment of a promise
that God had made. And the same is true with these allotments or the inheritance
given to the Levites. They were spread throughout the
land. They had cities, but each of
these cities were within another tribal allotment. And what they
had was a gift from the Lord. It was a fulfillment of something
God said would come to pass. Now, when you think of the nation
of Israel, that is, I'm talking about the land of Israel, and
then the nation lives in it, divided into its 12 tribal allotments,
and then you have this other tribe, the tribe of Levi, lives
spread out among all of those tribal allotments. The book of
Numbers is where you find that the Lord commanded the Israelites
that they were to provide for 48 cities and the pasture lands
around them for the Levites to live in. And so the Levites didn't
all gather in one spot, one tribal allotment, they were spread throughout
it. Now, there are a couple of things
that can be pictured. Probably the most obvious one
and maybe this is really what was being pictured, it shows
or illustrates how the ministers within the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ, how they relate to the rest of the church. But
we can also see a picture here of how the church, remember The
tribe of Levi was the tribe of the priests, the tribe of all
those who worked in service to the temple. And the church of
the Lord Jesus is called the temple of God. They are called
priests under God. And in this world, God has spread
his people all through it. And we, who are his people, must
see that we serve the world, we serve the Lord in behalf of
the world as his priests in the sense that we are the ones who
have the truth, tell the truth, and do all that we can, all that
the Lord enables us to do, to bring everyone in this world
into subjection to the gospel of Christ. But now, Let's look
first at the relationship that ministers bear within the Church
of God. Here in this situation where the Levites come
to Eleazar, the high priest, and Joshua, the commander, and
then the other elders, and they say, give to us the cities that
God commanded that you give to us. Now here's a picture of the
flock's care for those who minister to them. Now, I don't speak much
about this, and I would be wary of any ministry which was always
taken up with how churches are supposed to take care of those
that minister to them. It's actually rather simple information.
It doesn't require a whole lot of instruction. Everything in the scriptures
requires some instruction, but I think those that have been
called of God to preach are likely reluctant to talk about this
aspect of it. Well, the first thing is issues
of money, which, generally speaking, it comes down to that. Money
is a private issue. That's probably been true throughout
history. What a man owns, what a person
owns is a private matter, and it's not appropriate to go digging
around and in someone's financial matters and try to tell them
what they're supposed to do with things. Secondly, those who've
been called of God to preach do not get in to the business
of preaching the gospel, pastoring churches, being evangelists,
whatever. They don't get into it for the money. Any man who has an eye to the
ministry because he thinks there's a good or at least a stable living
to be found in it, such a one should never enter the ministry.
If money is the motivation, then, well, they don't have a good
motivation. So those who have been called of God to preach
are very reluctant to talk about money and things like that because
they don't want to come off as though they came to be taken
care of. In fact, they follow the pattern
of the Lord Jesus, who said the Son of Man did not come to be
ministered to, but to minister. And anyone who wants to take
on the work of being a leader of any kind within the Church
of God must realize that he approaches that voluntarily. If he's not willing to do it
as a volunteer, then he certainly shouldn't be paid to do it. Now, in this pattern here, it
was the tribes who gave this land to the Levites for their
use as God had commanded them. It is an order, that is, when
I say an order, I don't mean by order, command, it's an arrangement
that God commanded. You see, as much as possible,
anyone who is a minister of the gospel should be left free to
pursue those labors. And to whatever degree the people
are able to relieve him of any need to supplement what they're
able to give him. As much as they're able, they
should try to pay the pastor or pastors, depending on the
church, a living wage so that they can lay aside the other
labors, or the labors required to make a living. The job of the preacher, the
primary job, is preaching the gospel, feeding the flock. He is perhaps the only independent
man on earth. That is, he is not beholding to anyone except God. Now, I realize in the practical
aspects of it, if a fellow's a pastor of a church, And he
doesn't do what the church believes is required of a preacher. Well, the congregation may say,
you can't be the pastor here anymore. But the point is, a
preacher is to approach the ministry like this. I'll do it for free
if I have to. And if they pay me, as the Lord
has directed churches to do, according to whatever level they're
able to do. If they pay me, I take that as
from the Lord, the one to whom I'm truly employed. And am under no obligation to
any human other than this, to faithfully declare the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God. That's the job. Paul says, I am indebted. I'm under an obligation. But it's not with regard to things
of this world. He said, my indebtedness is to
preach the gospel. That's my responsibility. These
priests, what were they to do? Were they to engage themselves
in the, charitable works necessary for the welfare of the poor.
Well, not any more than anybody else in the nation would have
been required. Their job was to do the work
of the temple, the work of leading God's people in worship. And
they were independent, independent of the demands of the nation
of Israel. They were simply to follow what
God had told them to do. Now, pastor, he loves the flock
for whom God has given him oversight, but his calling is from or is
to be a servant of the Most High God. Now, of course, I couldn't
be the pastor of this particular congregation unless this congregation
had called me. And I continue as the pastor
of this congregation only as long as the congregation is willing
to have it that way. I serve, humanly speaking, I
serve at the pleasure of the congregation. But while I serve at the pleasure
of the congregation, and this is true of every pastor, and
I'm just saying I because it's us here. This is the example
I'm in. While I serve at the pleasure
of the congregation, I am not called to do the pleasure of
the congregation in everything. I'm called to do what God sends
all of his preachers to do. And the church can decide whether
they want me to do that or not. Now, I'm saying this, it's not
like that's been a problem. I am thankful for the way I've
been treated by this congregation. I'm thankful for the sacrifices
this congregation made to take care of me and my family and
continue to do so. and the willingness to week by
week come and listen and be happy with the message that's preached.
And I say I am thankful because I am aware of many other churches
where that is not the case. And certainly if you include
all those religious groups that call themselves churches of the
Lord Jesus Christ, it's a constant state of warfare and it's like
the leadership is pitted as adversaries of the congregation. I'm glad
that, to my knowledge, that's not the way it is here. But the preacher is a willing
bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of his judgments
and decisions are to be dictated by his office. That is, they
are determined by the work that he's given to do. Now, because
of the background that those who formed this church came out
of, which was a very authoritarian background, I have tended to
diminish that aspect of the ministry, that is, talking about it all
the time. For one thing, it wasn't necessary. The people pretty
well understood. In fact, they, because of their
past, they had too high a sense of the authority that's given
to those who lead. Rather, I have emphasized the
fact that I am no different than anyone here so far as being a
human being. In my natural self, I'm no different
than anyone else. I was not chosen by God to be
a preacher of his gospel because he said, okay, he would make
a good pastor. Nobody would make a good pastor. Now, God makes some good pastors
out of people who otherwise had no business being in the pulpit.
God does that. But I've emphasized, I've often
said, in this church, I'm simply the one that's up here most often.
And that's true. But at the same time, we must
realize Paul said that God has given gifts to everybody in the
church. Among the gifts that were given,
to some he gave to be teachers and pastors. That word pastor
actually means a shepherd. Instructors, leaders, caretakers. Now inasmuch as he gave them
the gift to do that, It's obvious he didn't give that
gift to everybody. We being Americans, and I mean,
you know, it's almost in our DNA, the individualism of our
political system and our society. We emphasize that. Each man is
within certain boundaries, and supposedly they're supposed to
be very broad boundaries. but each individual may live
his life as he pleases. Well, you have to be careful
when you try to bring that into the church. Not because we who
are leaders in the church are lords over the church, but if
we've been given a gift to lead, certainly the benefit of the
doubt should be cast in our direction. If a man is faithful in preaching
the truth, it's likely he's going to be faithful in the way he
administers the other aspects of the life of the church. The pastor must give an account
of the souls to whom he ministers. In the book of Hebrews, it says,
obey them that have the rule over you as those who must give
an account. Now, the work that I do, I must give
an account for it. And I don't think that this means
at the end of all things, me and all the other pastors in
the world are gonna stand before God and have to give an account.
This is something that's always going on. And the account we
must give is simply this. Are you doing the work you were
sent to do? You were sent to care for the
sheep. Are you doing that? Are you telling
them the truth? Are you refusing to show or to
be what the Bible calls a respecter of persons? That is, okay, I
know this is in the Bible, but if I say this, this is gonna
offend so-and-so, and they're a big giver in the church, so
I better just kinda let that go. No, a preacher can't do that. He's got to be willing to say
whatever God has said, regardless of how it affects any particular
individual within the church. he must faithfully discharge
his duty as one who must give an account to the person who
sent him, and the person is God. And for the preacher, for the
pastor, God is his portion, and if it is required, he must be
willing to leave all for the glory of God. He cannot gear his message to
particular issues, except as they arise in the body of believers
under his watch. I know preachers, and these are
faithful men. Really, there's not much reason
to mention those who are not even faithful to preach the gospel.
But even among those, they do preach the gospel, but they do
like to, they find out about stuff going on in other churches,
and then they come, preach about that to their congregation, and
yet their congregation, you know, those issues haven't even come
up, haven't become a problem. And so they're solving problems
that don't even exist where they are. The problem is sometimes
if you address a problem, it incites that problem right with
the group. No, preaching is not about addressing
the passing religious fancies of the day or the issues that
other churches may have. As a pastor of this congregation,
my job is to deal with the things going on here, to preach from the Scriptures,
to preach Christ from the Scriptures. to do as Paul said, rebuke, exhort,
correct, encourage. And if a person is faithful in
preaching the scriptures and doing so in a way that he's revealing
Christ, all of those things will be done where it needs to be
done. You know, I have found this in
my experience. It's not like I have to say,
okay, today I need to preach a message that rebukes. Today,
I need to preach a message that corrects. Today, I need to preach
a message that encourages. All those things Paul told Timothy
he needed to be willing to do. What I've discovered is, if I'll
just open up the book, find Christ in it, and declare him, it will
rebuke those that need to be rebuked, it will correct those
that need to be corrected, it will encourage those that need
to be encouraged, and in all reality, all of us need all of
it, don't we? The Word has that power. The declaration of Christ does
all those things. The fact of the matter is, I
do not have the wisdom, except in some very obvious examples,
I do not have the wisdom to know what each individual needs at
any given moment. But I do know what all the sheep
need, and in Christ. Well, we've gone past the time
already by five minutes, and there's plenty more to go. So
I'm just gonna stop there, and we'll pick this up next.