D14-16: The Lord Looks To His People To Step In And Help The Disadvantaged

“But don’t neglect the Levi staying with you, because he has no share or inheritance like yours.”-Deuteronomy 14:27

In verse 27, the Lord warns Israel to make sure to not forget the Levites living among them.

Let’s review a couple of points about the Levites.

FIRST, remember that the Levites are NOT one of the 12 Tribes of Israel.

The Lord separated them from the other tribes to be of special service unto Him.

They may have been living among Israel but from the Lord’s perspective, they had a unique status.

SECOND, recall that although all Priests are Levites, the opposite is NOT true.

Not all Levites are priests.

One could correctly say that there are “Priestly Levites” and “Non-Priestly Levites” (as weird as that sounds).

Here’s the thing.

The Levites being spoken of here in this section of Deuteronomy are the non-priestly Levites.

In other words, they were essentially the blue-collar workers around the Tabernacle who worked for the priests.

Our Bibles usually make this distinction by just referring to the priests as “priests” and to the blue-collar non-priestly Levites as just “the Levites”.

Now do you recall that the Non-Priestly Levites were provided 48 cities scattered throughout the 12 tribal territories to live in AND…

…that it was duty of the tribes to support these Levities and their cities?

Well, that’s what the Lord is talking about here.

Unlike the priests, the Levites did NOT receive a portion of the ritual sacrifices to live off of, so they had to depend on the tithes and offerings for their support.

Let’s next take a look at verse 28.

“At the end of every three years you are to take all the tenths of your produce from that year and store it in your towns.”-Deuteronomy 14:28

Wow, this is an interesting departure from the usual instructions concerning the tithes and offerings.

Every three years instead of being taken to the central sanctuary, the tithes and offerings were to be taken to the various storehouses located in the towns and villages.

These communal food warehouses (which also contained money by the way) were used to help the poor folks such as the widows, orphans or in some cases the foreigners.

In addition, the Levites (the blue-collar non-priestly workers) could also draw from this warehouse for their food.

This was the foundation of ancient Israel’s welfare system.

So what’s the takeaway here?

The takeaway is that the Lord looks to His People to step in and help the disadvantaged.

One could say that the principle of giving active charity is being established in this part of Scripture.

CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

“If one of you says to them,
‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ 
but does nothing about their physical needs,
what good is it?”
-James 2:16

“Then the King will say to those on his right,
‘Come, you whom my Father has blessed,
take your inheritance,
the Kingdom prepared for you
from the founding of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you made me your guest,
I needed clothes and you provided them,
I was sick and you took care of me,
I was in prison and you visited me.’
-Matthew 25:34-35

NEXT TIME WE BEGIN DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER FIFTEEN