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Context No. 3249 of 4322 · Joshua

Context · Reflection

Joshua 14:1-5: in context

1These are the inheritances which the children of Israel took in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed to them, 2by the lot of their inheritance, as the LORD commanded by Moses, for the nine tribes, and for the half-tribe. 3For Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe beyond the Jordan; but to the Levites he gave no inheritance among them. 4For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. They gave no portion to the Levites in the land, except cities to dwell in, with their pasture lands for their livestock and for their property. 5The children of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses, and they divided the land.

The land of Canaan is divided among the tribes by lot, as the LORD commanded through Moses, each tribe receiving its inheritance. But one tribe receives no territory at all: the Levites are given no portion of land, only cities to dwell in scattered among the others, with pasturelands for their livestock.

This is not a deprivation but a distinction. The Levites had no land because the LORD himself was their inheritance; their portion was God rather than property. There is a quiet lesson here: to have God as one's portion is to possess something the land-owning tribes did not. The Levites were landless but not poor; their treasure was the LORD. It reframes what it means to be rich, not in what we own but in having God himself as our inheritance. The tribe with the least on paper had, in truth, the greatest gift, God as their portion.

Do I count God himself as my inheritance and portion, richer than any possession, or do I measure my wealth only by what I own?

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