Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
So we're probably going to do a lot of applicational, a lot of questions and a
lot of applicational and not much historical factual things.
We are in the piano, if we don't see this.
Yeah.
Give me an offer of a hand.
I'm not sick.
So we did cities of refuge.
Now it's the cities of Levites.
Yeah.
Yo, Evan.
How are you?
Does everyone know Evan?
Evan Schwoyer.
All right.
Well, let's pray.
Father God, we thank you for being here, Lord.
And we thank you that you've given us your word and your Holy Spirit to discern your
word.
And Lord, we asked you to guide us and and Lord, nothing happens by chance.
We pray that, you know, John is okay.
Lord, we don't know the situation.
So we pray, Lord, that he's okay.
Joni's okay, Lord.
And maybe there was a miscommunication somewhere along the line.
But Lord, you have the saints here, Lord, and we have your wisdom.
And Lord, we thank you for what you're about to do.
This is exciting because you're going to show up here and and and just be in our
midst and guide our conversation.
And we thank you for it.
So thank you for this opportunity, Lord, to sharpen one another as we explore
this chapter, as the land is being divvied up.
We thank you in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So let's dive right in at chapter 21, Cities of the Levites.
And you know, it always struck me about the city of the Levites.
The cities is that, you know, they didn't get land, but they still got
something, you know, they still got the surrounding area of cities.
They got a city.
But then they also had like a perimeter of the cities to farm and to
raise their own crops.
So they weren't without anything.
And also, it always struck me is that they're always given 10 percent of
all the tithes of Israel went to the Levites.
So they were treated, you know, really well.
But it is interesting how they didn't they weren't permitted to own a
territory.
And that was probably I would think because, you know, priests are
to intercede between God and man and intercede between man and God.
And the Levites were considered, you know, that special group of
people who were those intercessors.
And so they needed to be sprinkled out throughout the whole land,
you know, so that they could participate in that act of interceding.
And so if they had their own land, then they would be brought aside
and out to kind of they'd be isolated, you know, which would not be
healthy, you know, for them.
You know, for some reason, it just reminded me of how they say,
you know, in ministry, how the bigger a church gets,
the people at the top become further and further removed from
the congregation.
Ever hear of that?
Like how they because they become like isolated and and they're
sort of in their own bubble and and that's just not healthy,
you know, to be separate, not experiencing the same things that
that the congregation is and not in the weeds, if you will,
with what all the people are going through.
You know, does that make sense?
Yeah.
But okay.
So in fact, do we want to take some turns reading?
I would kind of be fun as well.
Someone want to take chapter 21 verse one, two, three.
Hey, Joe.
Joe was walking on the do that.
Yeah.
You want to do that?
All right, Mr. Vozo.
Or Vozo, as some might say.
All right.
Then the heads of the father's houses of the Levites came
near to Elazar, the priest, to Joshua, the son of Nun,
and to the heads of the father's houses of the tribes
with the children of Israel.
And they spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of King,
saying, the Lord commanded through Moses to give us cities
to dwell in with their common lands for our livestock.
So the children of Israel gave to the Levites
from their inheritance at the commandment of the Lord,
these cities and their common lands.
All right.
I think we can move on from there unless someone has something
that jumps right out at them that they want to mention.
If not, why don't we go from verses four to five?
Because I just don't want to miss something if we go through too
much in one segment.
Who wants to read verses four and five?
Thank you.
All right.
Ken.
The descendants of Aaron, who were members of the prophet,
a member of some clan, the tribe of Levi,
were allotted 13 towns that were originally assigned
to the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin.
The other family did that same clan
where a lot of 10 towns from the tribes of Ephraim, Dan,
and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
Okay.
Now, why don't you read on, Ken?
The clan of Gershon was allotted 13 towns
from the tribes of Issachar, Asher, Methopali,
and the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.
The clan of Morania was allotted to 12 towns
from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebu.
Go on.
Yeah.
So the Israelites obeyed the Lord's command to Moses
and assigned these towns and patrions the Levites
by casting sacred laws.
The Israelites gave the following towns
to the tribes of Judah and Simeon
to the descendants of Aaron, who were members
of that same tribe with the tribe of Levi
since the sacred lot fell to them first.
Kiryaf, Arba, that is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah,
along with surrounding pastures.
Arba was ancestor of Hamil.
But the open fields beyond the town
and the surrounding villages were given to Caleb,
son of Jeff Kuna, as his possession.
Why don't we stop there for a second?
So does everyone remember the story about Caleb
that we learned not too many months ago
or weeks ago, but Caleb?
And do you recall that he received that land?
And what was that land?
Describe that land and its inhabitants.
If anyone wants to share.
Giant.
Yeah.
And what were you saying?
Mountainous.
Hey, remember he was 85 at the time.
And so, you know, that's always a fun
subject, especially for those of us who are, you know,
starting to get past middle age, you know,
thinking that, you know, our time is still now,
you know, that we can still conquer the amazing mountains
and the amazing giants, you know,
and it's never over until the Lord takes us.
So I love that idea.
But let me ask you something.
So Aaron or Evan or Frank, you know,
you're in your younger years than some of us.
What does that make you think about?
When you think of Caleb,
if you remember the story Caleb at the age of 85,
when he entered the land,
he ended up taking this mountainous land with giants in it
and he conquered it.
And I'm sure he had some young bucks with him.
Okay.
He didn't do it solo.
But how does that make you feel in terms of, you know,
being younger, looking forward?
What do you think?
Any thoughts?
I would say that it's like,
it's getting me both to know that there's no time
without a thousand people.
That as long as you move our, I guess,
young in spirit, the world is still using it.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's good.
And young in spirit, what's that mean?
And we could ask anybody in the room,
what does young in spirit mean?
What'd you say?
What is someone, regardless of their age,
being young in spirit based on how he said it, you know?
Yeah, okay.
What was that?
Optimistic.
Gayle?
Being willing to trust an eye on the man of life
and in that trust,
he aims to be obedient to God and the man of life.
Now what he asks you to do,
just trust him that he's spending,
he needs to do whatever he asks you to do
so that it doesn't go matter how little more,
asking him who's you,
how he wants to speak and engage to where he asks you.
Yeah.
So what do you think of an older guy saying,
give me the most difficult challenge to take?
I think Ron and Roger do the same thing.
Yeah, I do too.
That's how God works.
That's good.
You hear what Ben says?
I think God, that's how God works.
He doesn't choose the obvious.
Like David with a child when he sleeps a lot,
he chooses an older man to do something.
So it's not them and it's him working through them.
Right, right.
You know what I'm reading?
Yeah.
He takes some, like, Hercules.
Oh yeah, he came in with that.
There's no connection.
Right, right.
He doesn't like when he shaved down
the thousands to 300 men with Gideon.
That's just what he wants to do.
He wants to defy logic.
It's like, well, of course you would be able to win.
So I'm not going to let you have that many people.
Of course you would win being at your prime.
So you're not going to have that land.
Someone else is going to have that land that defies logic.
Yeah, that's good.
You know, and also just, you know, maybe,
you know, maybe maturity, like realizing that no one else might want that land.
You ever think about that?
Like, in other words,
Yeah, can you think of time in your life that you realize,
you know what, no one else is going to want to do this.
I know that you don't want to be singing your own praises if you,
but like, but it's okay this time.
Like, did you ever say, you know what, no one else wants to do this.
So I'll do it because it's not going to be easy.
For me, he came with mindset blows.
I don't want to see God move.
Right.
So whatever is impossible, that's what I want to do.
Yeah, I like that.
That's what I want to do.
You know, I mean, the first fight up, and I just seen Josh,
the only one, like, yeah, God's got this.
Don't worry about it.
Yeah.
And if you've got the little guy coming up against, you know,
Goliath, he's like, God's got this.
You know, he said, Goliath, you know.
So to me, that's, you know, that's just,
there are a lot of things that I do that are like,
you know, because I love seeing God.
Thank you.
Yeah.
It's almost, it's fun stepping out of your comfort zone,
isn't it?
And saying, I have no business being in this place at this time,
but watch what happens, you know.
Yeah.
I thought it was interesting that, you know,
the tribes were supposed to give the rights of worship.
When you read down through here,
a lot of the tribes paid the city's refuge of their worship,
which was probably a credit portion of their, of what they had.
So, like, the cities of refuge were one of the people
who were wrong to be accused of murder.
And they had to live there until the priests died,
whether they had really, you know,
were really guilty or not, they had to go there.
Probably was not a wealthy city.
Probably was not the shiniest portion.
Right.
And they gave that to the priests.
But to me what this shows is that God was faithful.
God provided for them.
But the biggest thing that the tribe of we rights is that
it just continues to show that almost God's plan
will probably be in hurt.
Right.
Yeah.
And not to mention the people, like you just said,
that were coming in, you know, were they, did they have any guilt in the situation?
If people are the way they are today,
we all probably did something a little bit to get us into whatever situation we're in.
So, yeah, that's a great observation.
And yet, in a sense, they both worked hand-in-hand
because there needed to be a high priest there
for it to be a refuge, city of refuge.
It was kind of worked hand-in-hand, you know.
They were given that and it was because there needed to be a priest there.
But, you know, yeah, they probably weren't, you know, the creme a la creme, you know.
Probably wasn't the wealthiest town.
That's true.
But, yeah, that's good.
So, how about, who wants to grab 13 to 19?
Hello.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, those common lands, again, so at least they had some area
that they could do some of their own farming and so forth, you know,
that they didn't have to rely.
So, yeah, which is important.
You know, you see that, you know, throughout scripture, you know,
that people who served also always worked, you know.
I mean, and probably that's always how the Lord designed it,
that, you know, everyone also has to, you know,
they can't rely strictly on the people for support, you know.
It's probably a healthy situation.
How about verse 20 to 26?
Sure.
The rest of the co-head fight clans of the Levites
were allotted towns from the drive of Ephraim.
In the hill country of Ephraim,
they were given Shekha, a city of refuge for one accused of murder,
and Gazer, Kizzaim, and Beth-Haron,
together with their pasture lands, four towns.
Also, from the tribe of Dan, they received Eltehed to Ked,
Gibithon, Aijalon, and Gath-Vermon,
together with their pasture lands, four towns.
From half the tribe of Manasseh, they received Tanakh and Gath-Vermon,
together with their pasture lands, two towns.
And all these 10 towns and their pasture lands
were given to the rest of the co-head fight clans.
All right.
You want to read on, Deb?
Sure.
Why don't you read all the way down to 42?
Okay.
The Levite clans of the Gershonites
were given from the half-tribe of Manasseh,
Galen, and Bashan, a city of refuge for one accused of murder,
and then the Eshtarah,
together with their pasture lands, two towns.
From the tribe of Issachar, Kishion, Dabirath, Jarmoth, and Nganim,
together with their pasture lands, four towns.
From the tribe of Asher, Mish, Mishow, Abdah, Calcat, and Rahol,
together with their pasture lands, four towns.
From the tribe of Naftali, Kadesh, and Galilee,
a city of refuge for one accused of murder,
Kamath-Dor, and Kartan, together with their pasture lands, three towns.
The total number of towns of the Gershonite clans
came to 13, together with their pasture lands.
The Mararite clans, the rest of the Levites,
were given from the tribe of Zebulun, Jokob, Kartat,
Dinna, and Nahalal,
together with their pasture lands, four towns.
From the tribe of Rumen, Bazer, Jahad, Kitmok, Mepheth,
together with their pasture lands, four towns.
From the tribe of Gad, Rahmoth, and Gilead,
a city of refuge for one accused of murder,
Mahan-9, Keshvan, and Jazer,
together with their pasture lands, four towns, and all.
The total number of towns allowed to the Mararite clans
were when the rest of the Levites came to 12.
Did you want me to go down with where?
46, down on the bottom.
The towns of the Levites and the territory
held by the Israelites were 48 and all,
together with their pasture lands.
Each of the towns had pasture lands surrounding it.
This was true for all the towns.
So the Lord gave Israel all the land
he had sworn to give their ancestors,
and they took possession of it and settled there.
The Lord gave them rest on every side
just as he had sworn to their ancestors.
Not one of their enemies withstood them.
The Lord gave all their enemies into their hands.
Not one of all the Lord's good promises to Israel failed.
Every one was fulfilled.
That's great.
Happily ever...
Who knows if I got them right?
You just have to be confident in however you pronounce it.
And you got us all on board.
Once you hesitate, we're questioning.
So that's great, you know.
It's interesting, you know, God loves numbers.
And in this case, there's 48 cities.
And, you know, it's a multiple of 12.
It's one less than 49, which the year of Jubilee,
49 at the end of the 49th year.
So there could be a lot of things,
and we can put a lot of conjecture on that.
But in the end, you know, God provided for everyone,
set everyone up in the Promised Land,
and even set the Levites up with being spread out
throughout the land intermixed among the tribes,
which is, you know, the way it should be.
Because, you know, every tribe needed that intermediary,
you know, between them and God.
And so why don't we talk a little bit about the priests,
how we are called, you know, a royal priesthood.
Revelation says that we are kings and priests, you know,
which, you know, obviously we aren't the king,
but I think of us as kind of like tetrarchs.
You know, like little kingettes for the king.
He puts us in charge of things on earth on behalf of him,
you know, it's like we represent him.
So just like, you know,
King Herod represented Caesar or the emperor
in a certain region, you know,
we represent our king on earth
in certain regions of relationships,
certain regions of geography,
certain regions of responsibilities, you know.
So whether it be like relationships where we represent
the king in our families,
we represent the king in our workplace,
we represent the king in perhaps any other,
in fact, can you think of some other venues
or situations that we represent the king as a king
on behalf of him? Does that make sense?
And then we'll go to priests, but
like, do you think of yourself as a king or a queen?
In this case, you're a king.
You're saying no, Evan.
How come? Or why should you?
Why put me on the spot?
I don't know.
Well, obviously, my first thought when I think of the king
is his royalty.
I think of somebody who is very high up, very important.
Not a commoner, per se.
Someone that stinks out is someone people look to.
So I don't know if I would necessarily think of myself
as a king, not saying that I am absent of characteristics
of a king, but I don't know.
I think it just initially my thought process,
no, I don't feel like a king.
I just feel like an average, ordinary person
with only three ordinary people, I don't know.
And that's probably the way most of us normally go.
I know I do.
In fact, sometimes I feel like the least in the room,
in situations and so forth.
But what do we mean by king?
Do we really mean by we rule over people
or we have stewardship?
So real quick, before we part, we talked a lot about priests.
We might as well just touch on it for just five minutes
about the priesthood because we are called...
That's what you said.
But priests, it's interesting.
See you, Justin.
See you, bro. Thank you.
But it's interesting how the priests were sprinkled amongst
throughout the tribes and they weren't given their own territory.
And I think that really is relevant to us in a sense.
How would you say that relates to us?
The fact that the sprinkling of the Levites
throughout the land, how can we relate our lives to that?
I think you said it well with the priests.
And so they are in amongst all the tribes
to deal with any issues they had.
And we're priests.
And so as we walk and wherever we go, whatever we're doing,
where to be priests, act like that.
And can we...
And I know I can at times start to get kind of insulated
or not willing to be spread out
and not willing to be outside of my little territory
and interacting with the people that God wants to minister to.
Like, what do you anyone want to comment on that idea?
What does that mean to us as priests?
Gail?
The thing that I've been thinking about lately a lot
is the fact that we're supposed to act
as though this life is just a temporary thing.
We're supposed to remember that our real home is in heaven
and that everything that we're doing here on earth
is supposed to be for the glory of God
that will enhance the kingdom even here on earth
as we prepare to go to heaven.
So that we're working not for our own stuff,
but for the kingdom.
And so what we're doing here is what is important to God
and not necessarily what is important to our own life.
Dad?
No, it's just the same thing everybody else has said
is that I think it was always God's attention
for Israel to be the city on the hill,
for us all to be the kingdom of priests
that are the intermediaries for everyone.
I think ultimately it would be awesome
if we did that and reflected God the way we're supposed to.
Thankfully he can use broken vests,
but it's the same with our marriages.
They are a prophetic example of Christ and his bride.
Ultimately God wants us to be his reflection on this world
and it's really easy to get enslaved
and through what you're talking about.
It's easy too because we only have 24 hours a day
and if you're working and if you're feeding your family
and gathering groceries, whatever you're doing,
it's easy to become enslaved
and easier for some than others,
especially if you're a little shy
or if you don't like crowds or whatever.
It's easy to become enslaved.
But yeah, like we're supposed to reflect God in all things.
Thank goodness this phrase is...
or is that anyway?
I think it's just, you know,
it's easy to be in a flash drive
and certainly form a transformative spirit.
Be thinking about the Lord and his will.
It's like a sacrifice, right?
So when we get caught up in all our own stuff,
then the Lord does take a back seat.
It's not supposed to be though.
He's supposed to pay our mind
and he's supposed to be on top of everything.
He's supposed to be the first priority of everything.
It's so easy to get caught up,
especially when things start rolling,
one thing after another thing.
We're supposed to be disciples for a moment.
We're supposed to be carrying a cross
and it's just, you know,
it's easy to say, oh well,
all this stuff I got to do that's part of my physical,
or my flesh, is carrying my cross.
But it's not really what it is.
It's about Jesus and putting the Lord first.
It really takes a lot of focus.
It's something we should be concentrating,
meditating on.
I know for me it's, you know,
it's an ongoing battle.
So I do get caught up, you know,
just life, everyday life.
You say you have the opportunity to share Jesus
and you're all wrapped up in what you got to do
when you get home and everything else.
So praying does help, you know.
We should definitely be praying
when we get out of the bar.
You know, it has to be something that is,
it has to be something that's programmed into us
that we do continually.
So I think, at least for me,
it's something I do feel like I need to work on.
It's easy when you're in a car listening to gospel
to be praising the Lord, you know.
But like you say, get out of the bar, you're in work.
I mean, I do try to focus on Him,
but it's easy to get distracted.
So I just wanted to share that,
trying to stay in the Spirit, you know.
Yeah.
What does God want to be happy with right now?
You know.
What's this you want?
You know, at this moment.
Sometimes we get bombarded with a lot of things.
Also, you know, you're like,
which one?
God, you know, smokes the toilet.
But, you know, even, you know,
it's everything that happens for a reason
and just need to come in tonight,
you know, a loose agenda, you know.
And here He is, you know.
And we ministered to Him and led Him to talk.
And He ministered us, too,
reminding us of some things.
And, you know, where the Spirit is,
there's always counseling for all of us.
Anything one day?
It's been a good one.
It's just nice to see how God moves to be honest.
And we came in with some guidance from a teacher.
We ended up, myself, I ended up with teaching.
And to be able to see how God moves in background.
But, yeah, it's good.
You know, the teacher's always here.
Right?
The word is, the teacher's always there.
And we couldn't say what's to explain now.
But, to your point, you know,
did you think that this was a reason?
So when I started coming to church,
you came to this church room tomorrow.
So I didn't know what day my son was.
But after coming to church,
my first week, I enjoyed it so much,
I wanted to come next week.
So I actually came to church on Tuesday.
We came.
It was the 9th of September.
So I was disappointed when I got to church because
I was walking back.
And I met a woman who really special,
just this natural station business church.
And she said to my children,
I said to myself,
that's probably the capital of the church.
So who goes by the kingdom?
Some people, some Chinese, they're just out there.
Yeah.
He said,
why do you close this in prayer?
All right.
Jesus.
Thank you.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His word.
Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings at 10 AM Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day.