Joshua 21

This chapter appears to wrap up the division of the promised land by covering the cities assigned to the Levites. They were not given any large tracts of land, as they were to do the Lord's work, but they were given places to live and some minimal grazing land for their flocks. In total they had forty-eight cities, including five of the six cities of refuge. I'm rather surprised that they didn't have all six refuge cities, since that seems like it would be fitting for the priestly tribe, but oh well :)

Deuteronomy 26

This book is now starting to trend away from laws and back toward rules concerning offerings and tithes. We have a reiteration here of the command to bring the firstfruits of all the produce and livestock raised in the promised land to the Lord, as well as a reminder that the third year (of each seven year sequence, if I remember correctly) was to be donated to the poor and the Levites.

The chapter ends with a call to remember the Lord, and what He has commanded the Israelites. I suspect this marks a transition back to historical narrative, but we'll have to see tomorrow.

Numbers 35

Today's chapter covers two subjects: the cities of the Levites, where they were to live (since they had no other land in the inheritance), and a subset of those where people who accidentally killed someone could flee to avoid vengeance. The passage makes very clear, though, that killing someone intentionally or with malice did not count - those people were murderers, and not just could be killed but had to be. No ransom was to be allowed.

It is interesting to note that a prevision also was put in place stating that two or more witnesses were required in order to convict someone of murder; that helps avoid a he-said-she-said sort of situation. Also, a person who had fled to a city of refuge had to stay there until the death of the current high priest; after that he would be free to return to where he had come from, without fear of vengeance. I'm not entirely sure why that provision is in there, but it makes me wonder what the turnover rate of high priests was.

Numbers 18

This chapter covered the use of all kinds of offerings made to the Lord as the sustenance of the Levites, the priests of Israel. It is very similar to how tithing works in churches today - we give a portion of what we make so that the pastor and other church staff can be paid, and so that the facilities can be maintained. It is quite a logical setup, and when done correctly it scales quite well: with more people, more ministers are needed and larger buildings... but more money is also provided. I imagine the same was true in Israel: as the community as a whole grew, so would the Levite population and the amount of offerings that they were given as their portion.

One other interesting thing to note here is that the Levites were not to have any other part of the inheritance with their brothers. I wonder if that meant they could not own land at all, or if it just meant that when the time of the Year of Jubilee rolled around they had no "native" lands of their own.

Numbers 8

The concept in this chapter, which was referred to in earlier sections of this book, is rather interesting. When God destroyed the firstborn of the Egyptians - at the Exodus - He basically took the firstborn of the Israelites as His own (instead of killing them). Then, in trade for those He took just the Levites to serve in the Tabernacle. It almost seems like it mirrors the way that God has set apart us - as Christians - to be His followers.

The cleansing ritual He ordained for them was also pretty straightforward, at least compared to many of the ceremonies outlined in previous chapters.