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Jos_21:1 Then came near the heads of the fathers of the Levites unto Eleazar the priest, and unto Joshua the son of Nun, and unto the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel;
Ver. 1. Then came near the heads of the fathers.] Some are of opinion that the chief of the priests and Levites did here demand their due when they were not thought of, but by great oversight were passed over in the division. But others, for better reason, hold that they came near now in the proper season, because they were to have their cities and inheritances out of the several tribes and portions allotted unto them, which also they had with very good will, and to a very fair proportion. Once amongst us, the statute of Mortmain provided that men should give no more to the church; so liberal were our forefathers to their clergy. But tempora mutantur; these later times have seen the springs of bounty, like Jordan, turned back, which heretofore did run fresh and fast in to the church. How apt are men to dispute God out of his own, and to begrudge his ministers a competent subsistence; to allow the ox nothing but the straw for treading out the grain, and so much straw as themselves please! This is a sure sign of gasping devotion, and of cursed covetousness, as that great apostle coneludeth. {2Co_9:5} The Levites, under the law, had a liberal and honourable maintenance by God’s own appointment. Besides all the rest of their incomes by sacrifices, freewill offerings, &c., here they have their cities to dwell in, with the suburbs thereof for their cattle, and those of due belonging to them by virtue of God’s command, whom only, and not the people, they were to acknowledge for their benefactor. Neither hath he made worse provision for the ministers of the gospel than he did for the priests of the law. See 1Co_9:13-14. But many have learned of Julian the apostate, to take away ministers’ maintenance, pretending conscience, for that too much living was a burden to them, and a hindrance to their ministry.