Numbers 35:1-8--Cities for the Levites

Cities for the Levites
35 The LORD spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, 2 “Command the people of Israel to give to the Levites some of the inheritance of their possession as cities for them to dwell in. And you shall give to the Levites pasturelands around the cities. 3 The cities shall be theirs to dwell in, and their pasturelands shall be for their cattle and for their livestock and for all their beasts. 4 The pasturelands of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the city outward a thousand cubits all around. 5 And you shall measure, outside the city, on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the middle. This shall belong to them as pastureland for their cities.

6 “The cities that you give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, where you shall permit the manslayer to flee, and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities. 7 All the cities that you give to the Levites shall be forty-eight, with their pasturelands. 8 And as for the cities that you shall give from the possession of the people of Israel, from the larger tribes you shall take many, and from the smaller tribes you shall take few; each, in proportion to the inheritance that it inherits, shall give of its cities to the Levites.”

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There are two closely connected passages here, but we'll first talk about the Cities for the Levites as the Cities of Refuge are a subset of these cities.  When the people would settle in the land it would no longer be reasonable for all of the Levites to live around the Tabernacle in a single place.  They would need to live among the people that they ministered to as their duties extended beyond that of caring for and protecting the sanctuary (though that was one of their main duties).  They were also to be the teachers and health inspectors, and judges, and other government officials.  But how would this work?  It would be a similar problem if the LORD gave them a specific inheritance in the land and they were all gathered together there.  Instead we see the idea of the tithe applied here and those with much land gave several cities to the Levites and those with little land gave few cities to the Levites, but the LORD designated 48 cities total for the Levites to live in with their families among the people.  These would be walled cities that would protect them, and it would be the responsibility of the tribes who lived in those regions to protect the Levites that lived among them.

God also gave land outside the city walls to the Levites--500 yards outside the city walls he specifically gives to them as pasture for their animals but there is another 500 yards of buffer that is also supposed to be measured out and belong to them as additional pastureland so that there would be 1,000 yards on each side of the city.  (A cubit is 18 inches or 1.5 feet, so I've converted into yards for you a 2 cubits=1 yard.)

Of all these cities given to the Levites, six in particular were chosen to be "cities of refuge" (we'll study about them next time) where someone who killed someone without intent could run to for safety so that he could be afforded a fair trial and would not be killed by those who sought their own "justice" in the form of vengeance.

Before we wrap up today, imagine how these cities give to the Levites are a picture of how it is with us.  We've discussed in the past of how we are part of a kingdom not of this world and we live among people of another kingdom.  We are much like the Levites here and we live among the people that we minister to and in some ways depend on them to apportion a place for us and defend us, but there is supposed to be a different culture as you come within the walls of our proverbial cities where we live, work and worship, or even as you get close to them--even from quite some distance away, others should know "there's something special about this place and the people who live here."  We should be about the same business of being "salt and light" in the places God has given to us and helping to cultivate a godly culture.  We should be reliant on the LORD while at the same time working to provide for our own needs as we see the Levites being engaged in farming of crops and livestock so that they were not wholly reliant on the sacrificial system to feed their families (and I'm almost certain that God blessed them with enough to not only care for their families, but to care for the poor and needy people around them).

Next time we'll talk about the Cities of Refuge and how they point to a greater truth about Jesus and the salvation that He provides.