I wonder what it was like for the Levites in all this hooplah in entering Canaan and conquering the land. They were told before hand and now it was a reality that they had no inheritance in the land. The Lord God of Israel was their inheritance. I wonder how they experienced this. Ex. 32:26 tells us that they were set apart for service to the priesthood because of their zeal for the Lord. They were so energetic in their trust of Jehovah that he set them apart from all the other tribes to serve in the temple. The symbolism of their “landlessness” was that they belonged wholy to the Lord and that he would provide for them all that they needed. However, they were not left without an inheritance. Their inheritance was much great than a piece of land. They were given 48 cities and a tenth of the produce of all the tribes, so they were provided for amply.
There is another logical reason why they did not receive a land inheritance. In God’s wisdom they were scattered throughout all of the promised land in order that they might be reminders to the nation of their dependence on God and their need to obey his instructions. Their primary role in serving Israel was to remind them to follow the Lord God in all that they did.
The faithfulness of God’s promises is demonstrated in these chapters in the life of Caleb. Caleb brought an honest report and recommended taking the land when the other spies did not trust God’s word. Moses promised him an inheritance in the land for his faithfulness. What a wonderful legacy Caleb had. Before all of Israel he is described and rewarded as a man who “wholeheartedly followed the Lord God.” His family for generations would reap the benefits of his faithfulness as assuredly as the family of Achan reaped the consequences of Achan’s disobedience. The lesson is pretty clear. Our children and our children’s children are affected by how well we follow the Lord God.