(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Joshua 21:1–8, “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, had by lot out of the tribe of Judah, and out of the tribe of Simeon, and out of the tribe of Benjamin, thirteen 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, ten cities. And the children of Gershon had by lot out 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, thirteen 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, twelve cities. And the children of Israel gave by lot unto the Levites these cities with their suburbs, as the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses.”
The tribe of Levi had a special responsibility in Israel. The priests came from that tribe and they were to represent Israel to the Lord and the Lord to Israel. This is a very important task, not just for the people of those times but for the people who live today and worship the Lord. They were not able to dedicate themselves to taking up their own possession and, later, to establish and maintain the settled responsibilities of doing the same job. However, they were to be treated with respect and honour as they were doing the most important job in Israel. The rest of the Levites were called to assist the priests in their essential task so they were relieved of the day to day responsibilities of establishing the material aspects of the nation. In later times, the priests, and their tribe, used their exalted position to make themselves extremely rich. A good indication of the spiritual status of the nation was the position of the priests; if they were poor then the nation didn’t show proper respect for the Lord and gratitude for all the good things that He had done for them. If they were using their position to become extremely rich then the priest were not properly representing the Lord to the people; they were more interested in representing themselves to the people. No one was actually representing the people.
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