Levites

Levites

In that early Kingdom of God called Israel, God set aside a certain group of people who were called Levites. They were the first born of the nations and mostly came from the tribe of Levi.

This took place when the people were called out of the walled-in camp of the Golden calf by Moses, and most of those who came out were Levites. These people were separated from the main body of the nation in several ways, and for particular purposes.

By Jewish tradition, a Levite was a member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi which became a unique political structure with corporate elements to the formation of its society.

When Joshua led the Israelites into the land of Canaan (Joshua 13:33), the Sons of Levi were the only Israelite tribe that received cities but were not allowed to be landowners in the same way that the rest of Israel was to own land "because the Lord the God of Israel Himself is their inheritance" (Deuteronomy 18:2).

Most of Israel owned land with a true and actual title to the land itself. They enjoyed the milk and honey of the ownership of land which had to do with the Beneficial interest or use of the land itself. They were not taxed upon the land by the government. Israel at first was a republic which formed a government of the people, for the people by the people. The Levite title to land was more like a legal title today but without an authoritarian central government.

They had a central government formed by a network of congregations. The congregations were formed by the election of the families in congregations of tens or what became known as a Tithing.

Servants of a Nation

The Tribe of Levi served the whole of Israelite society in several ways. They were responsible for the national religious service or duties which included service to the individual families in congregation. Religion meant how you performed your duty to God and your fellow man. A national religion was about a national welfare system and the sacrifices upon the Altars of the priests of society were to provide for that social service through the Perfect law of liberty.

They also had political and judicial responsibilities to the people of the nations of Israel as well. They were the titular leaders of the nation. This was a way to base a system of government not upon force but upon love just like Christ.

Because they had no personal estate in land the landed members of the tribes (I.E. the ones owning land with a true title) were expected to give tithe to the Kohanim, particularly the tithe known as the Maaser Rishon (מעשר ראשון) or First Tithe (Numbers 18:21-26).

To be counted a priest of society and receive this tithe they had to be elected first by the people as a minister to a congregation of ten or Tithing.

The body of priests to the nation grew as those primary priests elected their own priests in congregations or orders of ten priests. This gathering in tens formed a living Network through which a flow of charity, information and ideas flowed

As priests, they performed the duties to the tabernacles in war and peace which include service to the Tabernacle and the tabernacles or tents of the people in congregation. Because the congregations of ten through a system of voir dire could form natural juries for the adjudication of legal matters there was a need for higher courts to prevent injustice This network also formed a series of appeals courts.

Under standing the 48 "cities" of the Levites and their purpose may help us understand the expanded role of the Levites in their mission to keep Israel free.

Not all Priests

The Levites were not all priests in service to the national network or camp of the tents of the people. They played roles as heralds or singers in service to the nation to harmonize the people in a single national unite in time of distress or attack. They even served as guards for the whole of society.

They were not only health, education, and welfare, but also the FEMA of society as well as the actual homeland security and central intelligence service of a free society. Because of the sacrifice of the Red Heifer they were also the International Red Cross, Salvation Army and Peace Core all rolled into one.

Because they formed a national network of charity but also the national information service and library of congress. Like a public news service they shared information and knowledge about solutions to local problems that appear in manufacture, agricultural production and health control. This lead them to becoming research and development and product safety information service.

This is laid out in Moses extensive work in describing the legal responsibility associated with building codes and occupational health and safety concepts within what we often call the statures of Moses. Clearly his dietary and horticultural ban on swine and water foul was to improve the health of society by eliminating a source of parasite infestation that had decimated the former population of Canaan.

When there were problems that arose in health of the people or their farm produce or livestock they played an essential role as extension agents. Societies often rose and fell because someone discovered something as simple as the stirrup for riding horses. As keepers of the national knowledge database the survival of Israel was often dependent upon the service oriented nature of the Levites.

There are many threats to the life of the nation and the need for foreign intelligence can be vital to any nations to protect them from outside threats. But unlike

They wanted Israel strong and secure. They had a mission and a purpose and a good grasp of the idea and need for people being in a communion of love and service.

Their job was the entire welfare of the people. They were to retire from physical labor at 55.

Joint Heirs

They needed to be a wealthy tribe to make that work. But the Levites only had legal title to their land and flocks as long as they remained Levites. They could not make treaties nor could they sell their land outside the body of the Levites. Any Levite could redeem the land they sold at anytime because a Levite did not own the beneficial interest. That was held in common.

This meant they could never loose all the land of Israel to debt. There were several safeguards built into the system to keep excessive wealth from corrupting people. Dressing and keeping, real property, it should be used to produce the substance to fulfill the needs of life for the protection of the life of the people. The use of the property may be sold for the benefit of the people but traditionally this is not done for more than 49 years. The use of property may be redeemed at any time.

Leviticus 25:32 "Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, [and] the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time."

They were joint heirs.

It takes some imagination to see how all this fits together but it is easy to say that is not perfect. Perfect systems require perfect people. The system requires virtuous people to make it work and working at it leads people to virtue

Joshua 14:4 "For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim: therefore they gave no part unto the Levites in the land, save cities to dwell [in], with their suburbs for their cattle and for their substance."

We know the Levites had land for their flocks and cattle from the Bible. If they were in the sheep business they were in competition with others. Certainly their first concern was their family and their brother ministers but the nature of the call brought men of service. It is clear in the Bible that all Levites were not unselfish. The generosity of the people kept the diligent Levite in the forefront of government. Foolish people do not choose wise leaders.

We know that at least some of the Levites were rich and wealthy in possession according to the Bible.

What they did not have was an inheritance in the land ... As I said they were joint heirs owning things in common.

Numbers 18:23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: [it shall be] a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.

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Land is one of the major depositories of wealth. They did not have that because they never owned land. This is one of the things that the Hasmonians tried to allow and because they did many people rented land from the land rich Levites of that time. That rent had become a form of property tax. Men like Joses repented of the sinful exceptions of the Levites in Cyprus.

Acts 4:36 And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, [and] of the country of Cyprus,

The Levites did have inheritance just not in the land. The land they lived on belonged to all Levites in common. In the governments of the world the leaders are not titular. They make laws and force contributions of the people and often accumulate vast wealth. Every leader from Nixon to Yasser Arafat from the queen of England to Hosni Mubarak got rich in office.

Levites had a limit. still they could be corrupted without other governing factors built into the system.

The hard times of their wandering had tested the metal of their virtue.

We also know from historians of the time that Levite ministers did have money and did produce commodities that they sold amongst themselves. They could also sell their surplus to the people or give it away. You cannot make it a rule that they could not sell what they owned like sheep or wheres out of the community of the people or even to strangers. That would be hewing the stones.

But again there was a natural governor that was built into the system. Election of ministers was based on service and generosity. Was he industrious, did his work bear fruit, did he raise a family well, remain faithful to his wife.... Forgiveness and giving were virtues to be honored. Sloth, selfishness and greed were shunned.

They were a nation in a nation. They could eat of the show bread but if they used it to enhance their own wealth and self indulgence the offerings would soon dry up.

If they were entirely dependent upon the people the people if not the rich could quickly influence the ministry or spend all their energy begging like the mendicant monks of the world.

There purpose was to serve the nation if they were slothful the nation would become weak and soon the whole nation would fall. They needed to serve the people in a way that strengthened and enriched the people and they too would be rich and secure.

You give to them according to their service.

Numbers 7:5 "Take [it] of them, that they may be to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; and thou shalt give them unto the Levites, to every man according to his service."

That is the difference. But for that system to work all members of society needed to attend to the Weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith which include caring for the needs of our neighbors and the widows and orphans of our society through Pure Religion in matters of health, education, and welfare. We are NOT to provide for the needy of society through the Covetous Practices and the men who call themselves benefactors but who exercise authority one over the other like the socialists do.

The Way of Christ was like neither the way of the world of Rome nor the governments of the gentiles who depend on those fathers of the earth through force, fear and fealty who deliver the people back in bondage again like they were in Egypt. Christ's ministers and true Christians do not depend upon systems of social welfare that force the contributions of the people like the corban of the Pharisees which made the word of God to none effect. Many people have been deceived to go the way of Balaam and the Nicolaitan and out of The Way of Christ and have become workers of iniquity.

The Christian conflict with Rome in the first century Church appointed by Christ was because they would not apply to the fathers of the earth for their free bread but instead relied upon a voluntary network providing a daily ministration to the needy of society through Faith, Hope, and Charity by way of freewill offerings of the people, for the people, and by the people through the perfect law of liberty in Free Assemblies according to the ancient pattern of Tuns or Tens as He commanded.

The modern Christians are in need of repentance.

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"Follow me!" —Jesus the Christ.

• One of the most important things to do is to become involved in a network of Charitable Practices. Everyone should want to join a Living Network of Love and Charity.

• If you think you have a calling to be a Minister of God or you might want to dedicate your life to Christ as an Ordained Minister of His Holy Church, contact us to start the process of discipleship and become the benefactors who exercise only love, NOT authority.

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Church in the Wilderness

• Acts 7:38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and [with] our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:

Here Acts 7 is drawing parallels between the the institutions of Moses and Even Abraham and what the Church established by Jesus Christ was doing in those early days. The Levites were called the Church in the Wilderness because they were called out of the walled-in camp of the Golden calf by Moses to restore and keep the people as a free nation under God. Jesus called His Church to be one form of government so that His followers would and could be free souls under God.

As we have said among the Levites there was a unique political structure with corporate elements to the formation of its society. Early Israel was classified as a Republic. Were there parallels between the Church in the Wilderness and the Church called out and appointed by Christ to serve the people? Edward Gibbons in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire identified the early Church as a "viable Republic" and early American churches were called by historians "embryonic republics".

Attribute	The early Levites:	The early Church:
Called	Ministers of God have always been called by God to be His "called out".
	The Levites were the people who answered the call to come out and follow the ways of God.	The Apostles were called to come out and serve God by teaching the people the ways of God.
Belonged	The ministers of God have to belong to God as their master.
	The Levites belonged to God, so were limited in their power to make contracts, constitutions and covenants while still a part of the whole body of the Levites.	The apostles belonged to God and though they lived in the world and preached the gospel of the kingdom at hand they themselves were not of the world.
Common	Because they are bond-servants of one master what they have they hold for Him.
	The Levites owned land in common rather than as individuals maintaining a mere legal title with no personal Beneficial interest which was held by God.	The same is true of the Ministers who held all things in common. The did not own land as individuals but the Church was a body that belonged to God through Jesus Christ.
Appointed	The Levites were given the position of the government of the people but no power to exercise authority over the people to force support.	Christ appointed a Kingdom to the apostles to serve after taking the kingdom from the Pharisees because they did not know the ways of God and their Corban was making the word of God to none effect..
Free will offerings	The power to fund the government and the grass roots election of ministers to receive that funding was in the hands of the people.	We were all ways supposed to live by Charity. While that word charity never appears in the Old Testament the idea is seen in the terms Freewill offerings seen over and over again. And the word grace is also from the Greek word charis from which we get the word charity in English. And the word we see Paul saying translated charity is always translated love when Christ says it.
Supported	They could eat or be supported by what was freely given to them for the support of the government and the provision of the national welfare.	The apostles and the other ministers of Christ gave up all to serve according to Christs criteria for his ministers. The often depended on the free will offerings of the people for the funds to do the work of the Church and their own sustenance.
Joint Heirs	Inheritors of what ever was granted them by God through Abraham or Moses or Jesus Christ.	The Church too as a body in one accord was joint heirs
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