On Wednesday Oct 1st, at 9:03pm, Levi came into our world kicking and screaming! (Actually, at first he was very quiet and blue, as the umbilical cord was around his neck. But after a few seconds and the doctor's quick moves and God's grace, he began to breathe). As I write this, it's been almost a week since he was born... A week full of joy, spit up and little sleep. Anyhow, I thought it would be worth while to share a bit with you how Levi's name came to be. I hope that despite getting less than 5 hours of sleep a night for the last week, this makes sense!
The name Levi comes from the 12th tribe of Israel, the Levites. The Levites were the tribe that was set apart to serve God and the people as priests. In short, they would offer the sacrifices to God on behalf of the people, sort of representing the people before God, and vice versa (this is why a word sometimes used to describe them was "mediators"). They also would teach and lead the people. In many ways, they were the pastors of Israel.
When God's people entered the Promised Land, each of the tribes were given a portion of the land, except the Levites. God said to them, "You shall have no inheritance in the land nor own any portion of it; I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel (Numbers 18:20)."
As the priests, instead of the blessing of land (and the wealth that came with it in those days), their blessing was God Himself. In other words, God did not want them to be tied to the land, but to be free to serve Him in this special way. So to be a Levite was a sacrifice on the one hand (because you got no land), but on the other hand an incredible blessing because you "inherited" God in a special way.
When Heather and I first entered pastoral ministry, God lead us through a season showing us that a central part of His calling on our lives was to be "Levites". Specifically, that we were not going to make much money in ministry and that we would probably have less then others around us. But that was part of His plan for us. God did not want us to be tied to stuff, nor spend our energy making money, but to be solely tied to Him and expend our energy in service to Him alone. And as we did, He would provide.
Learning to be his Levites has been an on-going journey for us, but it has been full of incredible blessings. We have story after story of how God Himself has been our "inheritance". And we also have story after story of God providing for our physical needs in crazy ways. (Ask me some time.)
When we were serving at Warm Beach Free Methodist, our close friends Josh and Amanda Brooks taught us a whole lot about what it looks like to live as Levites. They are two of the smartest, most capable people I know. They could both make tons of money if they wanted. They could have lots of stuff and live a very "successful" life in the world's terms. But they have sacrificed all of that to serve God as His modern day Levites. Their inheritance truly has been God Himself.
So our new little boy, Levi Joshua, is named as a testament of God's calling for our family to live as Levites. It is a testament of God's provision for us. And it is a thank you to Joshua Brooks (and Amanda and their children) in showing us what living like Levites today actually looks like.
Welcome Levi Joshua.
