In coming to Joshua and company, the Levites come to claim what God has promised. In Numbers 35:1–8 Moses told the people that they are to establish Levitical cities in the land: six cities of refuge and forty-two other cities. With the cities of refuge having been allotted (Joshua 20:1–9), the Levites now come to make sure that the rest of God’s commandments are also adhered to. In this they are an example of believers coming to claim what God has promised, the ordinary pattern for prayer.1
1 Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites came to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel.