Homilies on Joshua, Homily 25

All the sons of Israel received their lots in the land, but for the Levites God alone is enough as their inheritance. But since the Levites receive tithes and firstfruits of the produce from the sons of Israel by the Lord’s command, they ought also to receive tithes, so to speak, of the land and of the dwellings; for this is to have received tithes from everything. And so the chief men among the sons of Levi came to Eleazar the priest and to Jesus son of Nun and to the leaders of the tribes of the sons of Israel at Shiloh in the land of Canaan and said: “The Lord commanded through Moses that cities be given us to dwell in, and their pasture lands for our animals.” A lot had to be cast for the pasture lands and the cities too, so that the division among the Levites would not seem arbitrary or accidental. As, then, the distribution by lot made among the sons of Israel had a reason by which one was held worthy of the first lot and another of the second (of which we have already treated as well as we could), and likewise for those who received land through Moses beyond the Jordan and from Jesus in the land of promise, where the first lot fell to Benjamin and afterwards to the others, of whom Dan was last; so there must be some reason also in the order of the priestly and Levitical lot, so that the first lot is drawn for some, the second for others, the third for others, by which this or that place is assigned to each. The sons of Levi are said to be Gershon, Kohath, and Merari; and Kohath is shown to have held the first place in honor, because Kohath’s descendants included Amram, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. From Kohath, then, one part of the people was made priestly, namely Aaron and his sons. Moses is to be counted either in the priestly order or, if anything can be higher than the priestly, in that. But his sons are another matter. The rest of the sons of Kohath held the second rank in the tribe of Levi, those from Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Then after these, after Kohath, Gershon among the sons of Levi receives a portion in the third place, and Merari last of all. This is the difference between the first, second, third, and fourth rank that we first observed in Numbers. For after the twelve tribes had been ordered to keep watch around the ark of the covenant of the Lord on the four sides of the world, and three tribes were stationed on the east, three on the southwest or south, three toward the sea, which is to the west, and three toward the north wind, which is the north, these too are assigned there, on the four sides of the world, in the same order. On the east, where the tribe of Judah was, which was first among the others, Aaron and his sons are placed; and the remaining sons of Kohath are appointed to lift the ark of the covenant of the Lord on their shoulders and to sound the trumpets, so that when the first trumpet sounded those on the east would break camp; when the second sounded those on the south would rise; at the third, those on the west; at the fourth, those on the north. You see how great an order and how great a consistency of things is kept in the holy Scriptures: how nothing is done except with measure, reason, and order. Look more carefully, and you will find everything ordered in this way throughout Scripture. But if it is hard for you to follow all the books with your heart’s watchful eye, at least in this place pay closer attention to what is related.

“The first lot,” it says, “came out for Kohath, and it fell to the sons of Aaron the priest, who was among the Levites.” For whom was it fitting that the first lot should come out? To whom should the first place be given, if not to Aaron, the first high priest, first in the merits of his life, first in honor and virtue? Now at least you can be certain that this lot is not by chance, but that a heavenly power is present, governing it according to the judgment of divine providence. Where, then, does the just lot assign the first dwellings to the sons of Aaron? “In the tribe of Judah,” it says, “in the tribe of Simeon, and in the tribe of Benjamin, thirteen cities by lot.” You see how dwellings are distributed to chosen men in chosen tribes. And who ought to receive the second lot? “The sons of Kohath,” it says, “who remained after the sons of Aaron.” And what tribes do they receive? “In the tribe of Ephraim,” it says, “and in the tribe of Dan and in the half-tribe of Manasseh, ten cities by lot.” And who are the third? “The sons of Gershon.” And in what tribes do they receive their lot? “In Issachar,” it says, “and Asher and Naphtali, and in the half-tribe of Manasseh which is in Bashan,” likewise twelve cities. And who are the last among the Levites? “The sons of Merari,” it says. Let us see in what tribes these last receive their portion. “From the tribe of Reuben beyond the Jordan and Gad, which was with it beyond the Jordan, and from the tribe of Zebulun,” which is itself the last among the sons of Leah, “they receive twelve cities by lot.”

But we have not yet touched on the things in these passages that most deserve attention; and even if we cannot lay open their deeper meaning, it will not be tiresome at least to touch on the main points, so that from them each listener may be prompted to seek a higher and mystical understanding. Since there are four parts of the world, Kohath received the first lot among the sons of Levi on the eastern side, with those tribes that themselves hold the first place of all. See, then, how everything agrees. Of the four parts of the world, it is certain that the eastern region is held to be the nobler, and in it was also the tribe of Judah, nobler than all the rest; and the sons of Kohath the priest draw the first lot in the first tribes and the first part of the world, with Gershon and Merari, who were first among the sons of Levi. So, then, the first three sons of Levi receive the east. But the west, where Reuben, Simeon, and Gad were, Kohath obtains by the second lot from the tribe of Simeon. Merari, however, first obtains Reuben, and again Merari, third in Numbers, received Zebulun from the east, so that justice may be kept, and so that by the lot that is drawn according to the Lord it may also direct the minds of believers to contemplate the mysteries of the age to come. After this, of those who were toward the sea, that is, Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, when Kohath had received Benjamin by the second lot, the rest of his family obtained Ephraim. After this Gershon obtains those of the half-tribe of Manasseh that was in the holy land, and again Gershon himself obtains the other half-tribe of Manasseh as well. But since those who were in the north had to receive something of priestly grace, so that they would not seem entirely stripped of heavenly gifts, among those whose rank was last in the north, that is, Dan, Naphtali, and Asher, Kohath again — not among the priests, but among the rest — received the first lot in Dan, Gershon the second in Asher, and the same Gershon the third in Naphtali.

Who can follow and comprehend all these things? Who is able even to remember and observe the very order of the ministries? But if even according to the letter alone the text of the narrative itself can hardly be explained, and the intermingling of places and persons contained in the account unraveled, what should we say of the mysteries that are described through these things, in which the distributions of the future inheritance are foreshadowed, and through which the division of the holy land that the meek will receive as their inheritance will be carried out? Who could explain the different positions of the camps — how in the resurrection the distribution is to be made for each of the saints in priestly or Levitical order, so that, as the Apostle says, in the resurrection all things may not be done in confusion, but “each one comes in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then those who are Christ’s, who believed at his coming, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has subjected to him every ruler and power”? There, without doubt, there will be certain arrangements of the camps of this kind, and priestly distributions and orders, and the signals of the trumpets. For perhaps, just as God has ordered the stars of heaven and placed them according to certain wonderful reasons that cannot be expressed in words, setting some of them at the axis of the north, others in the parts of the east, others in the southern vault, and others in the west, so I believe that those too who will rise from the dead as such — like the stars in multitude and brightness, coming, that is, from the seed of Abraham — God will order in the kingdom of heaven according to the order of the stars and the parts of heaven: and he will give to some a lot toward the east, to others toward the west, to others toward the south, and those whom he knows he will set toward the north; since “many will come from the east and the west,” from the four parts of the world, “and recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,” through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.