Tues.’s Devo - The Land of the Levites

Read: Joshua 21:1-22:20; Luke 20:1-26; Psalm 89:1-13; Proverbs 13:15-16 Everyone had their land except the Levites. The leaders of the tribes met at Shiloah and the Levites brought their case before the tribes. Moses had commanded that the tribes all give the Levites land in their portion for them to live so they would be dispersed among the people to teach them the law of God. The Kohathite family from the tribe of Levi were allotted 23 towns. Judah, Simeon and Benjamin each gave four towns plus Hebron in Judah for a city of refuge. Ephraim and Dan each gave 4 towns and since Manasseh was divided, they gave two to the family of Kohath and two to the family of Gershon. Gershon got four towns each from Issachar, Asher and Naphtali plus the two from Manasseh. The clan of Merari was given four towns from each Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun. God gave them rest on every side, just as he had promised and none of their enemies could stand against them. Not a single promise that the Lord had made was left unfulfilled. Everything he had spoken had come true. That is a promise we can stand on in our own lives. Nothing God has promised us will be unfulfilled. The tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh were released to go home. They had fulfilled their promise to help the other tribes get their land. On their way home they stopped at the Jordan and built an altar. The other tribes heard about the altar and were furious. They thought they had fallen into idolatry and sent delegates to check it out. We will continue tomorrow and see what they found. In Luke, Jesus was preaching, healing and doing what he was called to do when the Pharisees came to him. They wanted to know who had given him authority to do their job. Jesus turned the question on them. He asked them by whose authority did John the Baptist baptize. Did he get his authority from God or man? They couldn’t answer him because it would cause them to lose favor with the people. They finally said they didn’t know. So Jesus responded that he wouldn’t tell them his answer since they couldn’t answer his question. Then Jesus turned to the people who had heard this conversation and told a parable about a man who planted a vineyard and leased it to tenant farmers. The owner moved away and sent his servant to collect his share of the crop. The farmers beat him and sent him back. This happened three times till the owner said, he would sent his own son. Surely they would respect him. But, they didn’t. They killed him. Then Jesus asked them what should the owner of the vineyard do. He answered that he would come and kill the farmers and lease his land to others. The teachers of the law knew he was referring to them in his story. They were the tenant farmers who had killed the prophets before them and would now kill the son. They wanted to arrest him right then but were afraid of the people so they decided they needed to get the Roman government on their side. They asked him a question about taxes paid to the Romans hoping to trick him. They asked if it was right to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus asked for a Roman coin and asked whose picture was stamped on it. Jesus told them to give to Caesar was belonged to him and to God what belonged to God. This shut them up! Lord, You are above all things you created on the earth, under the earth and in the heavens. Every knee will one day bow to your name.