Sharing The Life Series

Fight for Life

A study through the book of Joshua

SHARING THE LIFE

Joshua 15

Sermon given on June 12, 2005

Core Christian Fellowship

Sunday Morning Service

Pastor Rick Lancaster

SHARING THE LIFE

She answered, “Give me a blessing…”

Joshua 15:19a NKJV

Introduction

Turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 15. The title of this study through the book of Joshua is: Fight for Life. In the first half of the book Joshua and the nation of Israel had to fight for the Promised Land. Even though God had promised it to the descendants of Abraham and promised to drive out their enemies from before them they still had to fight.

As we study through this book we are looking at it from the perspective of the life that Jesus promised us.

Read John 10:10b page 567

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Last week we looked at Caleb and said that he was living the life that God had promised us. And in chapter fourteen, last week we saw that there were several character traits that Caleb had that we need to work on in our lives so that we could walk in the life as well. It was said of Caleb that he “wholly followed the Lord”. And if we are to wholly follow the Lord we need to work the traits of integrity, faith, obedience, perseverance, and courage.

The title of our study for today is: Sharing the Life.

This life that has been promised to us is not just that we can have a great life but so that we can share it with others. Everything that God gives us is intended to be shared with others. God’s blessings, mercy, grace, power, wisdom, hope, peace, and everything else that is God’s is given to us for us to enjoy and to share.

Even though this life has been promised to us, we must fight for it. And through the first 12 chapters we got some tips on just how to do that. The first half of the book of Joshua ends with a statement that Joshua had been successful at conquering the land, followed by a listing of the kings that he and Moses had destroyed.

In the process of conquering the land they had taken possession of some of it but not all of it. Chapter 13 begins with a description of the land that the Israelites had not taken possession of. Joshua was told to divide all the land of Canaan as an inheritance for each of the tribes of Israel.

Chapter 14 began with an introduction into the process of dividing the land of Canaan. Joshua and Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the tribes of Israel came together at Gilgal to determine who would get which lots.

Chapters 15 through 19 describe the division of the land. These five chapters go into great detail to describe the land allocated to each tribe. The process that was used to determine who would get which territories was by sacred lots.

Eleazar the priest was one of Aaron’s sons. He wore an ephod which was kind of like a vest. There were twelve precious stones on this ephod, each representing one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The priest would wear this ephod over his heart and it was to remind him to bear the burden of the people before God.

This ephod had a pocket on the inside that held two objects. The objects were called the Urim and Thummim. These objects were symbolic of the promises that God had made to the children of Israel. He promised them that He would not leave them or forsake them and that He would drive out their enemies from before them.

Whenever the Israelites needed to hear from God they would go to the priest and have him inquire of the Lord using the Urim and Thummim. God had given them these objects for that very purpose. There is no concrete evidence as to what these objects looked like or how they were deployed. All we know for sure is that when deployed they would reveal the will of God to the people.

And so to prevent the people from complaining about the fairness of the division of the land, God has them use the Urim and Thummim.

Today we are going to begin to look at this division of the land. The next five chapters go into great detail describing these divisions and the land that each tribe inherited. We are not going to spend a lot of time looking at the actual boundaries or cities that are included in these descriptions. It is beyond the scope of this study to do that. If I was Chuck Missler it would be different, but I am not.