Joshua 21:1-45 – God Provides for His Priests
Paul Harvey told about a 3-year-old boy who went to the grocery store with his mom. Before they entered the store, she said to him, "Now you’re not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, so don’t even ask."
She put him up in the cart and he sat in the little child’s seat while she wheeled down the aisles. He was doing just fine until they came to the cookie section. He saw the chocolate chip cookies & he stood up in the seat & said, “Mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?” She said, “I told you not even to ask. You’re not going to get any at all.” So he sat back down.
They continued down the aisles, but in their search for certain items they ended up back in the cookie aisle. “Mom, can I please have some chocolate chip cookies?” She said, “I told you that you can’t have any. Now sit down & be quiet.”
Finally, they were approaching the checkout lane. The little boy sensed that this may be his last chance. So just before they got to the line, he stood up on the seat of the cart & shouted in his loudest voice, “In the name of Jesus, may I have some chocolate chip cookies?” And everybody round about just laughed. Some even applauded. And, according to Paul Harvey, due to the generosity of the other shoppers, the little boy & his mother left with 23 boxes of chocolate chip cookies.
Today I want to look at how God provides for His people, His servants. Turn with me to Joshua 21. It’s a long chapter, but we’ll follow along together.
Now, we’re getting to the end of the book. The land has been divided among the tribes. The Promised Land is becoming just that: not just a land far off, waiting to be seen, but the promises are being fulfilled. The tribes have their land, the old hero Caleb has his land, even the leader Joshua has his land. But one thing remains. One tribe needs what was promised to them. The tribe is the Levites, descendants of Israel’s son Levi, who were set aside to be the priests. They were not promised great parcels of land, but instead, they were promised cities: 21:1-3.
Now, I’ll admit, this doesn’t sound very exciting to us. I mean, so what? What does it matter? Well, it matters for 2 reasons: 1) It shows that God takes care of those who serve Him, and 2) We need to serve Him. In a sense, we are no different from that early bunch of priests.
Let me give you some history. To most people October 31 is Halloween, but there is another holiday attached to the date. It’s called Reformation Day. On October 31, 1517, a young Catholic priest named Martin Luther decided to oppose the church’s teachings on many issues. This incident became part of a movement known as the Reformation, the birth of the Protestant church.
Now, one of the things that the Protestant church embraced was a belief called the priesthood of all believers. This doctrine simply said, you don’t need to go to a priest to have your sins forgiven. You don’t need to go through anybody. You can talk to God yourself, and ask Him yourself to forgive you, and He will.
But also, the doctrine says that you really aren’t your own priest. Yes, you can go to God yourself, but the doctrine also says that each Christian is to act as priest for others. 1 Peter 2:5 says, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.” The Reformers believed that confession no longer had to be made to priests but to any believer. John Calvin, another Reformer and early thinker in the Baptist church, said that even though requiring confession wasn’t necessary, he valued confessing our sins to one another, as the Bible says.
The point is, every believer is a priest, in a sense. Every believer is to serve others. 1 Peter 4:10 says, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others.” Each and every believer is meant to help others draw closer to God. No matter what they have been through, every believer is meant to help others reach out to God. Through words, through actions, through service, you were made to serve others. Just like the 48 Levitical cities, scattered throughout the whole land, serving in many different places, we too were made not to come and hear and feel good about ourselves and never leave our holy huddle – we were made to scatter and to serve in many ways and many places.
Now, what we can see from Joshua 21 is that God takes care of those who serve Him. God looked after the people whose job it was to point others to Him. Well, the NT shows us that’s our job, too. And I believe that God will take care of His own.
What’s important to know, having said that, is that not everybody gets the same thing. The Levites’ cousins got huge pieces of land; the Levites’ got cities. There’s a difference. You need to know that the reward for serving God will not be the same for everyone. Nor, does God always pour out his rewards in this life, either. Your earthly inheritance may not be what others have. In terms of money, land, family, opportunities, popularity, talents… all these things that the world considers important, God doesn’t always value so highly.
It’s like the guy who was given a special favor: when he died, he could take a suitcase full of things that were important to him, with him into heaven. Well, he figured that he’d pack the most valuable thing he could find. He stuffed his suitcase full of pure gold bricks.
Well, the time came, and he died, and he went to heaven, carrying his suitcase full of gold. St. Peter stopped him at the gate, and like all good border crossing guards, asked him to declare what he was bringing with him. He opened the suitcase, and St. Peter just started laughing. He asked the man, “Of all the things you could bring, why would you stuff your suitcase full of ordinary pavement?”
The point is, what matters on earth, what’s valuable here on earth, may not matter in heaven. God wants the absolute best for you, but that might not be money or popularity. He wants to bless you with a clear conscience, with valuable relationships, with peace of mind, with forgiveness, with hope, with answered prayers. God will take care of those who serve Him.
But, all this takes patience. You need to know: It takes patience to see God’s promises come to pass. It took awhile for the Promised Land to become a reality, but it eventually happened. After years of slavery, after years of wandering, after years of fighting, it finally happened, though. 21:43-45. God’s promises were fulfilled.
Now, our temptation is to hurry things along. We want things done now. We don’t like to wait. It frustrates us. It disappoints us. It baffles us. But just as God’s values are not ours, neither is His timetable. Psalm 27:14 says this: “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” We wouldn’t have to wait for Him if He always did things our way. But He doesn’t, so we must wait. But, the encouraging thing is, what God makes us wait for is always worth it. What God makes us wait for is always worth the wait. Psalm 5:3 says: “In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.”
So even if you don’t have all that you ask for, keep waiting. Even if your life is upside-down right now, keep waiting. God rewards those who serve Him, who are faithful to Him. Keep doing the right thing. Keep serving Him and putting Him first. Yes, it’s maddening to be patient, but if you want God’s best for you, you must wait for Him.
Now, one thing I’d like to add to this. In v11, you’ll notice the city of Hebron, and in v15 you’ll notice the city of Debir. It’s possible that you heard these recently. Well, they are 2 of the cities that Caleb, the 85-year-old warrior, claimed when he took possession of the land promised to him. It appears that what God gave him, he gave back to God.
To me, this shows signs of a thankful heart. What God had blessed him with, he wanted to bless others with. And it shows signs of a servant’s heart. Not only was he thankful for what God had given him, but he was also willing to use it for God’s purposes. That’s like saying, “I’m thankful that God gave me a van, so I’m going to use it to give rides to people that need it.”
That’s being willing to be used to do what God wants you to do. That’s serving. That’s the role of a priest, a role which every believer has. And God blesses us when we obey Him. He blesses us when we serve others. Not to say that we never go through hard times for it. I’m not saying that serving God is easy, or it’s never frustrating, or it’s always fun. Every pastor at some point envisions of their dream: to work in a factory at an assembly line, wrench in hand, tightening Bolt #572 on every piece of half-built machinery that passes by in front of them. Every pastor daydreams about not working with people.
But pastors also know that people are the only things in the world that will improve with time. Well, hopefully. Everything else gets more run down, but the spirit is meant to get better, even if the body runs out. Listen: Serve others. And keep doing it. Don’t grow weary in well-doing. Keep plugging away. Be patient. Hebrews 12:11 speaks about this when it says, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” There’s a harvest, there’s a blessing, there’s a reward when you endure hard things in life with patience, when you keep doing the right thing with the right attitude, even if nobody else does.
And God will provide what you need when you need it. He’ll give you strength when you need it. He’ll give you forgiveness when you ask. Philip Brooks, a pastor and the author of O Little Town of Bethlehem, wrote these words: “Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you yourself shall be the miracle.”
And finally, John Baillie wrote a great prayer for us today, as believers and servants of God. He said, “Give me a stout heart to bear my own burdens. Give me a willing heart to bear the burdens of others. Give me a believing heart to cast all burdens upon Thee, O Lord.”
