The Richest Tribe Text: Joshua 13:32-33
Introduction: The Folly of Earthly Economics
We live in an age that is drowning in materialism. Men measure their worth by the acreage they own, the number of zeros in their bank account, and the square footage of their houses. We are taught from the cradle to pursue an inheritance of dirt. The world screams at us that to be landless is to be lost, to be without a portfolio is to be a pauper. The entire machinery of our culture is geared toward convincing you that your security, your identity, and your happiness are tied up in what you can hold, what you can possess, and what you can fence off from your neighbor.
And so, when we come to a passage like this in the book of Joshua, we are tempted to read it with our mammon-addled minds. The book of Joshua is a glorious account of God giving His people a tangible, earthy, dirt-under-the-fingernails inheritance. It is a book of boundaries, allotments, and real estate. God is not a Gnostic; He cares about the material world. He promised Abraham a land, and here, through Joshua, He is delivering on that promise. The tribes of Israel are receiving their portions, their lots, their tangible stake in the promised land. This is all good and right.
But then we come to the tribe of Levi, and the record scratches. In the middle of this great distribution of earthly wealth, one tribe is deliberately, specifically, and divinely excluded. They get no lot. They get no inheritance. They get no piece of the pie. By the world's standards, they were ripped off. By modern standards, they were victims of a gross inequity. By any earthly economic calculation, the Levites were the poorest tribe in Israel.
But by the calculus of Heaven, they were the richest. What we see here is a foundational lesson in divine economics. God is setting apart a people to teach all His people that the ultimate inheritance is not a place, but a Person. The ultimate treasure is not something you can possess, but Someone who possesses you. This is not just an odd footnote in the distribution of Canaan. This is a signpost pointing to a greater reality, a greater priesthood, and a greater inheritance that would be purchased for all of God's people by a greater Joshua.
The Text
These are the territories which Moses apportioned for an inheritance in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan at Jericho to the east.
But to the tribe of Levi, Moses did not give an inheritance; Yahweh, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, as He had promised to them.
(Joshua 13:32-33 LSB)
The Earthly Accounting (v. 32)
We begin with the summary statement in verse 32:
"These are the territories which Moses apportioned for an inheritance in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan at Jericho to the east." (Joshua 13:32)
This verse serves as a bookend. It is a concluding summary of the allotments given to Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh on the east side of the Jordan. Moses, the great lawgiver and leader, faithfully executed this part of God's command before he died. The land was conquered, and now it is being distributed. This is God's real estate transaction. It is orderly, it is historical, and it is tangible.
God's promises are not ethereal platitudes. He promised Abraham this land, and now, centuries later, the deed is being transferred. This is a critical point. Our God is a God who acts in history, in space and time. The inheritance He gives is real. The ground was real ground. The cities were real cities. The grass was real grass. This inheritance was a type, a shadow of a greater inheritance to come, but a shadow must be cast by a real object. We must not dematerialize God's blessings. The land grant to Israel was a down payment, a foretaste of the promise that the meek will inherit the earth. Not heaven, the earth.
So Moses does the work of a surveyor and an executor of the will. He apportions the territories. This is the foundation of property rights, of stewardship, of place. God wants His people to have homes, to have fields, to put down roots. He is establishing a landed theocracy. But even as He does this, He embeds a crucial exception into the system, a living, breathing reminder that the land is not the ultimate point.
The Divine Exception (v. 33a)
Now we come to the great pivot, the great "but" that reorients our entire understanding of wealth and worth.
"But to the tribe of Levi, Moses did not give an inheritance..." (Joshua 13:33a LSB)
This was not an oversight. This was a direct command from God (Numbers 18:20). While the other tribes were drawing their boundaries and setting up their landmarks, the Levites were told to stand aside. Imagine the scene. The leaders of Reuben are looking at their pastures. The chiefs of Gad are surveying their cities. And the Levites are watching, holding nothing. From a human perspective, this looks like a penalty. And in one sense, it was the transformation of a curse into a blessing.
Remember Jacob's prophecy over his sons in Genesis 49. Regarding Simeon and Levi, for their violent fury at Shechem, he said, "I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel" (Gen. 49:7). For Simeon, this scattering was a curse that led to their tribe being absorbed and effectively disappearing. But for Levi, God in His glorious alchemy turned this very same curse of being scattered into the high calling of being the priestly tribe. They were scattered throughout Israel, not as vagabonds, but as ministers, as teachers, as representatives of God's presence in every corner of the nation.
Their lack of a contiguous land inheritance was central to their calling. They were not to be farmers or ranchers in the primary sense. They were not to be distracted by the cares of managing a massive tribal territory. Their hands were to be free for another kind of work: the work of the sanctuary, the work of teaching the law, the work of worship. By taking away their earthly inheritance, God was freeing them to focus entirely on their spiritual inheritance. He was making them dependent, not on the soil, but on Himself and the faithfulness of His people who were commanded to support them through the tithe.
The True Inheritance (v. 33b)
The verse does not end with what the Levites did not get. It climaxes with what they did get, which was infinitely better.
"...Yahweh, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, as He had promised to them." (Joshua 13:33b LSB)
This is one of the most profound statements in the Old Testament. The other tribes got land; Levi got the Landlord. The other tribes got a portion of the creation; Levi got the Creator. The other tribes got streams of water; Levi got the Fountain of Living Water. Yahweh Himself, in His covenant faithfulness, in His holiness, in His glory, was their portion. Their inheritance was not a thing, but the living God.
What does this mean practically? It meant their provision came from the sacrifices and tithes brought to God. They ate "the offerings of the LORD made by fire" (Joshua 13:14). They lived on God's portion. Their daily bread was a constant reminder that God was their provider. It also meant their identity was wrapped up in Him. A man from Reuben might identify himself by his plot of land. A Levite identified himself by his service to the God of that land. His purpose was not cultivation of soil, but cultivation of souls.
This principle is a thunderous rebuke to the prosperity gospel and to every form of materialism that infects the church. It teaches us that to have God is to have everything. To be near to Him is the ultimate good (Psalm 73:28). The Levites were called to live out this reality as a visible sermon to the rest of the nation. Every time an Israelite saw a landless Levite, he was to be reminded that his own land was a gift from God, and that the Giver was infinitely greater than the gift.
The New Covenant Levites
As with all things in the Old Testament, this arrangement was a shadow pointing to a greater substance in Christ. The Levitical priesthood was temporary and imperfect. It served its purpose, but it has now been fulfilled and replaced by the perfect priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not from the tribe of Levi, but from Judah.
But the principle established here does not vanish. It is universalized. In the New Covenant, all believers are made a "royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9). We are all called to be Levites in this crucial respect: our true inheritance is not in this world. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are strangers and pilgrims on the earth (Hebrews 11:13). Our ultimate treasure is not what we possess down here, but the God who possesses us.
The Apostle Paul understood this Levitical principle perfectly. He said, "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content" (Philippians 4:11). And why? Because his inheritance was not his circumstances, but Christ Himself. He could say that to live is Christ, and to die is gain. He considered all his earthly status and accomplishments to be "rubbish" in comparison with the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord (Philippians 3:8).
This has a particular application for ministers of the gospel. Like the Levites, they are to be uniquely set apart from worldly entanglements in order to devote themselves to the ministry of the Word and prayer. The church, in turn, has a duty to provide for them, just as Israel provided for the Levites. But the minister's ultimate trust must never be in the generosity of the congregation, but in the God who called him. His inheritance is the Lord. His reward is the work itself and the God he serves.
But the application is for all of us. You may have a deed to a house. You may have a healthy retirement account. You may have a piece of land that has been in your family for generations. Thank God for it. Steward it faithfully. But never, ever mistake it for your true inheritance. Those things are temporary gifts. They can be lost, they can be stolen, they will decay. Your true, imperishable, unfading inheritance is God Himself, secured for you by the blood of Christ. He is your portion. He is your exceeding great reward.
The Levites were denied a lesser treasure so that they, and all of Israel, might learn what the greatest treasure truly is. Let us learn that lesson. Let us hold loosely to the things of this world and cling tightly to the God of all grace. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and to lose his own soul? But the one who has God as his inheritance has gained everything, and can never lose.