The Levites Legacy

If you would open your Bible to Deuteronomy chapter 18, we're going to be reading the first eight verses of the chapter, and uh the title I've given to this text is The Levite's Legacy.

Deuteronomy 18 · chapter mention

So Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 1, the priests, the Levites, and all the tribe of Levites shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel.

Deuteronomy 18:1

They shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire as his inheritance.

Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren.

The Lord is their inheritance, as he has said unto them.

And this shall be the priest's due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.

The first fruit also of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep shalt thou give him.

For the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for ever.

And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the Lord shall choose.

Then he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before the Lord, they shall have like portions to eat, beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.

Dear Lord, thank you so much for your word.

Thank you that it is inexhaustible, and that if we are diligent enough, we can dig down and discover wonderful principles that instruct us spiritually.

Father, let's pray and ask that you would help us in that endeavor tonight as we seek through this instruction given to the Levites.

May it dawn on us how it applies to us today.

We thank you, Lord, for your word and for the work that it does in our lives.

May we be ready recipients, I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

In this text of Scripture, Moses is instructing Israel on the role and the support of the Levites.

Now, mind you, the text does not go into detail about the functions of the priesthood, because that's what the book of Leviticus is all about.

It's about the Levites, it's about those functions, how to make those sacrifices, when to make those sacrifices.

What this text actually focuses more on is the support of the Levites.

In essence, this is a command to the other tribes to give a portion of their offerings to support the Levites.

And that included meat, vegetables, juice, oil, fleece, and money.

And as I was thinking about that, it dawned on me that it could prompt a common question when it comes to giving to the workers of the Lord, which is why should everybody else give to them?

And even though I'm a minister and I am supported by the giving of God's people, I'll tell you that is a valid question.

Why should I give?

That's a valid question.

In other words, it's not wrong to ask that question.

What is wrong is to refuse the answer that God gives us in Scripture.

And that's true with every question that we might have.

It is not wrong to have questions for God.

It is not wrong to say, why this?

Why is Jesus the only way of salvation?

Or why do we observe baptism by immersion?

There's nothing wrong with asking those questions if you are willing to accept the answer from Scripture.

If we're not willing to accept God's answer, that's when we have a problem.

And I'll just tell you up front, full disclosure, sometimes God's answer is, because I am the Lord.

How many times did he tell that to Israel?

Do this, because I am the Lord your God.

Good enough.

Good enough.

If that's the answer that God gives us, then that satisfies the question.

And so that being said, I would like to just come to this text of Scripture and give you the answer from this text as to why should all the other tribes give to the tribe of Levi.

Number one, this is God's idea, not man's.

This is God's idea, not man's.

We find this in verse 2, we find it in verse 5, that God chose them, and God is the one who set them to minister.

You know, the problem with religions is that they are full of man-made ideas, which is why we say that biblical Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship.

When we talk about biblical Christianity, what truly is at the heart of it, it is not just a ritualistic religion, it is a restored relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

I can take or leave man-made traditions, mostly leave, right?

I'm not big on man-made traditions.

But what I cannot do is ignore God's word.

If God's word has prescribed it, if God's word has commanded it, if God's word has instructed it, then I can't take that or leave it.

I'm obligated by that as a child of God to obey God's word.

Notice that the role and the support of the Levitical ministry is by God's design, not by man's design.

Verse 2 ends with this phrase, as he hath said unto them.

And so that's speaking about God telling the Levites.

Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren, the Lord is their inheritance, as he has said to them.

And so God is the one who has called them, God is the one who has instructed them.

This is from God's side.

And we agree that if God has said it, then that settles it, whether or not we like it.

Sometimes it's been said, well, God said it, I believe it, that settles it.

And it has been pointed out that we don't even need to believe it.

If God said it, that settles it, whether we believe it or not.

And the same is true.

We may not like what God says, but if God said it, that settles it.

Just think about all the things that that's true of.

That's true of salvation.

There are some people who don't like the idea that Christianity is exclusive.

In other words, it is excluding any way to God outside of Jesus Christ.

It says, it is a narrow way, it is the way of the cross, and a person may not like that.

They might say, well, my religion is just as valid, or this is the religion of my parents and my ancestors, and it was handed down to me.

And I'm very sincere in it.

Well, it doesn't matter whether you like what it says or not.

The question is, did God say it?

And God said that there is only one way of salvation.

The same is the true for sanctity of life.

God is the one who said that life is sacred, and that life in the womb is just as sacred as life outside of the womb.

And we as Christians need to stop being handicapped by things that have crept into the political realm.

If it's biblical, it doesn't matter if it's also political.

We have a responsibility to be true to the Word of God.

I can't help that that's a political issue that is, is or is not on a platform of your political association.

What I can tell you is God has said that life is sacred.

Life is sacred in the womb.

And we may not, uh there may be people who don't agree with that, but God said it.

And so we don't have room for opinions on it.

And we can go down the list.

The same is true for gender.

You can't make up any number of genders.

God said he created them, male and female.

It's binary, meaning there's only two.

It's biological.

That means it's programmed into your genetics, into your DNA.

You cannot change those things.

You can change your appearance, but you cannot change your gender.

There is no difference between gender and sex as they are wanting to draw the line today.

Well, biological sex is different than gender.

No, it's not.

That happened in the last five minutes.

Historically, those two have been inseparable.

Same is true for marriage.

God has established that marriage was between one man and one woman.

For life, that's what he said.

People may disagree, may people may challenge it, uh, they may fight for a right to do it differently.

But if God said this is what it is, then we have to accept that.

Uh we could go down the list, the requirements for ministry.

People don't always like that, uh, that according to Scripture, that it's only men who are to fill the role of the pastor.

There may be people who disagree with that, don't like that idea.

I can't help it.

That's what the Bible says.

And so we have to be willing to accept what God says in his word, whether we like it or not.

To give this protocol even more strength, look at verse 5.

It says, The Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons forever.

And so again, we're establishing the fact.

Say, well, I don't like the idea, or they didn't like the idea that all the other tribes had to give to this one tribe.

Who came up with that idea?

Well, it's God's idea, not man's idea.

And so it says that God chose the Levites for this role.

They did not choose it for themselves.

It was not the Levites who got together and said, Hey, listen, Moses, we offer to be the ministers, we offer to be the intercessors, we offer to be the tabernacle servants.

They didn't do that.

God chose them, the sons of Levi, to fill this role.

In a similar way, God had calls people into ministry, and their choice is to answer the call or to reject it.

That's really what it comes down to.

I've heard it said many times that if you can do anything other than preach, then do that.

But if you can't do anything other than that, it's a good indication that God has called you.

It is something that you cannot shake off.

When I resigned from my church in Colorado and moved back east to help take care of my mom, I was out of the full-time pastor for 10 months.

And during those 10 months, I was working a couple of different jobs.

And during those 10 months, I had two business owners offer to sell me their businesses.

They had owned their businesses for a number of years.

They were getting older, they were wanting to get out of it, and they saw that I was a responsible human being.

And so they offered to sell their businesses to me and offered to owner finance them because I certainly didn't have the capital to buy them out.

And so I it was it was actually doable.

I mean, they said, hey, if you want it, we'll work out a plan where we take a percentage until you get it paid off.

And I thought about that, I prayed about that, and I came to the conclusion that if I had bought either one of those businesses and a church later came and called me to be their pastor, that I would walk away from that business no matter what it cost me.

I knew that that is what I would do because I was called to preach.

I wasn't called to be an entrepreneur, I was called to preach the word of God.

And so this is a calling that God has placed on the Levites' lives, and they cannot or should not disobey it.

The Apostle Paul expressed it this way in 1 Corinthians 9 16.

He said, For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me.

Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.

So the ministry is God's idea.

Paul says, Listen, I'm called, I can't do anything else.

So necessity is laid upon me.

And it's hard to describe that if somebody has an experience, but it is a burden that you cannot shake, you can't get rid of.

And so I would say to you that the ministry is God's idea, and the support of the ministers of God is his idea.

Next, notice that the people are to give to God, and it is God who gives the Levites a portion of his.

So, number two, the people are giving to God, and God is giving the Levites a portion.

Verse 1, if you will look there, the priests, the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel.

So that's they're not going to get a land designation like all the other tribes.

They shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire and his inheritance.

Notice that it is the offerings of the Lord.

It's not the offerings to the Levites, it's the offerings to the Lord.

Let me ask you something.

If we give something away, do we retain the right to dictate what is done with it?

Not if we truly give it away.

I was always told that that was giving with strings attached.

When you give something but you're using it as a leverage or you're threatening to take it back if they don't use it the way that you want it to be used.

And so if we are giving an offering to the Lord, do we have the right to tell God what He can and cannot do with our offering?

Do we have that right?

Of course not.

So if I'm giving it to the Lord, I'm actually giving it away.

I am releasing it from my control, my ownership, my jurisdiction.

I am giving it to the Lord.

If I give it to the Lord, I don't have any right to tell God what he can and cannot do with what I have given to him.

And that's what's happening in this text.

God has commanded them to give offerings to him, and God says, I'm going to give a portion of those offerings to the Levites to support them for their service.

That's how this is to be viewed.

The offering is given to God, and he shares it with the Levites.

And can I tell you this in the reality of eternity?

I don't really think it matters what happens to my offering after I give it to the Lord.

In the reality of eternity, so listen to what I'm saying.

And don't get me wrong.

As a giver, I want my money to go to the right place, to the right people.

I want it to be used rightly.

And I believe as a giver, we have responsibility to do our due diligence.

We shouldn't be giving to ministries that we haven't checked out, that we don't trust, right?

So we need to validate, make sure that they're legitimate.

Uh and when I give, I want to make sure that it's going to places that uh that are biblical and trustworthy.

However, what if what if I do what I'm supposed to do, and I give my tithes and offerings to the church, and then somewhere down the road I find out that the treasurer has been embezzling money and spending it on himself.

Does that negate my act of obedience?

No.

I did what I was supposed to do.

I gave it in good faith.

I gave that offering to the Lord, and even if it is misused afterwards, it doesn't erase my act of obedience.

By the way, it doesn't erase God's reward and blessing for my obedience.

And so I I would just uh uh encourage you in that.

That that has happened to me sometimes in life when I've had people come to the church and ask me for money, and I give them money personally sometimes, and I'm just not sure.

You've been there, it's an awkward thing when people ask you for money and they're staring right at you and pitching you a story and telling you all this stuff, and you kind of feel sorry for them, but then you're not sure, and you know, in your weakness, you you hand it to them, and in those moments, I just say, Okay, Lord, I'm I'm trusting you.

I I did what I thought you wanted me to do with this.

I can't control what they're gonna go do with it.

They might go out and buy themselves a bottle of liquor.

I don't know.

But even if they go do that, I believe that it doesn't negate my act of obedience.

And so God has commanded his people to give to him, and then he has the right to be able to give a portion of that to the Levites.

Um I would also say this in terms of well, what if people don't do right with the money I gave to the Lord's work?

God doesn't let that stuff slide.

God doesn't let that stuff go by very easily.

Just think about Eli's sons, Hophani and Phineas.

I don't know if you remember, but they were taking a bigger portion than they were supposed to take.

Apparently, there were supposed to be like a single-prong hook that they were to stab into the pan and pull out a piece of meat, and these guys had modified it to like a three-prong hook, and they were stabbing in and getting more meat, and then they started selecting the best cuts when people brought them and made them give it to them before uh they offered it and all of that stuff.

And I don't know if you've ever kind of connected this dot, but the first word from God, right, that came to Samuel.

We always focus on Samuel getting a word from God, right?

He gets up and asks Eli what he said, and Eli's like, Boy, I'm not calling for you.

And it happens three times, and he says, That's the Lord.

And we talk about that aspect of it.

But do you remember?

I maybe you don't remember, what was the message, the very first revelation that God gave to young Samuel?

My judgment is coming on the house of Eli because Hophni and Phinehas are abusing my people, and their father is not holding them accountable.

And by chapter four, they're all dead.

So I can tell you when you do what God tells you to do with your money, even if the people receiving it don't do right, it doesn't change your act of obedience, and God will deal with those people.

Lastly, let us acknowledge that the Levitical ministers were providing a valuable service.

Number three, the Levites were providing a valuable service for the people in return.

Verse 5 and verse 7 says that they were to stand to minister, and that they were to stand before the Lord.

Think about the role of the Levites.

They are the only ones authorized by God to make offerings, enter the tabernacle, and enter the Holy of Holies.

Nobody else is authorized to do that.

So the other tribes may have been saying, Well, I don't know why we give a portion of ours to Levi.

And I mean, nobody gives it to us.

I don't know why they're doing that, because nobody else can do what Levi is doing.

You try it.

You try it.

King Saul tried it.

Do you remember?

King Saul got tired of waiting around on Samuel and he said, I forced myself to make an offering.

And you know what God said?

Strike number one, you're in danger of losing the kingdom.

And then we think about Uzzah, who I believe was well-intentioned, but they put that ark on the covenant on the car.

Usah was not a Levite, and when the ark rocked and it almost fell off, and he put his hand up to stop it, God struck him down dead.

Why?

Because he wasn't authorized to touch that thing.

And so God has authorized the Levites to fulfill this role, and nobody else in the other tribes can do that.

Let anybody else try to walk into that Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement and see what happens to him.

It had to be a Levite.

Beyond the service of the temple, The Levites were the teachers of the Word of God.

If you remember when Jeroboam led the northern tribes to secede from Judea and Jerusalem, and he set up an altar up there to keep the people from going back south and reuniting with their brethren.

He did something else too.

He kicked all the Levites out.

He kicked all the priests out of the northern tribes.

And he expelled them from there.

It tells us in 2 Chronicles 11, 14 and 15.

And then it tells us one of the consequences of him expelling all of those Levites.

2 Chronicles 15, 3 says, now for a long season, Israel, that's the northern kingdom, has been without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law.

A teaching priest?

That's a Lev.

That was a function that the Levites performed.

And I would say, no doubt, this contributed to the downfall of the northern kingdom, which fell a hundred years, over a hundred years before the southern kingdom.

Could it be because they weren't receiving the ministry of the Levites?

They didn't have a teaching priest in their borders, and because of that, their decline spiritually went much faster and ended in their conquering coming much sooner.

Furthermore, the Levites were part of God's plan to prevent the nation from going into idolatry.

They were part of God's plan to prevent the nation from going into idolatry.

I don't think it's any accident that a warning about idolatry follows immediately in the verses after our text in Deuteronomy 18.

Verses 9 through 13 go right into talking about the warning of idolatry when they come into the promised land.

And I'll tell you why, it's because the Levites were to be on the front lines of the spiritual battle against idolatry.

They were to be those clarion voices for God's word, warning people about the dangers of compromise.

It is, it cannot be underestimated the power of the voice of truth in a society.

I think in some ways we can see it in our own public school system.

Right?

When they want to take prayer out, when they want to take the Bible out as an elective, when they want to take the Ten Commandments out, when we want to expel the voice of truth from that classroom, it's going to have an impact.

And the same thing in our public square.

Did you know that Thomas Jefferson, in 1802, he was elected in 1801, and in 1802, he invited a Baptist preacher named John Leland to preach to a joint session of Congress in the Capitol building.

Now that's something they don't teach in the history books.

But you can find the documentation of it.

I think it happened on January 3rd or 4th in 1801.

I'd have to double check that.

But he invited a Baptist preacher to preach to them.

Do you think that happens nowadays?

Do you think it might would help our politicians if they heard a Bible preacher every once in a while?

I mean, there is something about silencing the voice of truth that allows a society to follow its own indulgences.

As a matter of fact, in Jeremiah chapter 2, God is calling Israel out for their departure.

Jeremiah 2 · chapter mention

Remember that's that text where he says, My people have created, uh have uh have done two evils.

One, they have forsaken me the fountain of living water.

The other is that they have hewn them out a cistern, a cracked cistern that can hold no water.

But did you know that in that text God chastised the priests?

He said that he chastised them for not speaking out against the idolatry.

The priests, he says in Jeremiah 2.8, the priests, those Levitical priests, said not, Where is the Lord?

And they that handle the law?

Again, the Levites knew me not.

The pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after things that do not profit.

We could say that as the Levites go, so goes Israel.

When they stop doing what God called them to do, the last defense against idolatry falls, and the country is overrun.

And so I would say that it is justified that God requires the people of Israel to support the Levites as they provide a valuable service for them.

So to answer that question in the beginning, why should all the other tribes give to this tribe?

Well, one, it's God's idea, not their idea.

Number two, you're giving it to God, God's sharing it with them.

Number three, they do provide a valuable service for those tribes.

As far as the application of this text goes, I would simply say that all of these same principles apply to the New Testament church.

Giving tithes and offerings is God's idea, not man's.

Tithes and offerings are given to God.

God shares a portion with his ministers.

The ministers do provide a valuable service for the church in return.

Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5 17, and he said, Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.

For the Scripture says, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward.

And so, I'm not making my case for the raise this year.

I'm just making an application of this text that I do believe that giving is something that God's people do because it's God's prescribed program for supporting his work on this earth.

And so that's the Levites' legacy that they leave with us.

Let's pray.

Dear Lord, thank you so much for your word.

Thank you for instructing us on these matters that do cause us to question, Lord.

None of us like to give our money away, and uh we work hard for it, and we oftentimes want to use it for other things that we deem important or necessary.

And so we are thankful, Lord, that in a passage like this there is instruction to be found if we are willing to look for it, and that there is a reason why you give this command, there is a reason why you establish this pattern in Scripture.

It is not to place hardship on your people, it is actually an opportunity to exercise faith, it's an opportunity to worship, it's an opportunity to promote and spread the gospel, and Lord, there is a benefit that comes in return.

And so, Lord, I just pray and ask that we would be willing to accept your answers from Scripture, even if they don't align with our uh presuppositions.

So, Lord, I just pray and ask that you would help us to be cheerful givers, as you say, in your word in Jesus' name.

Amen.