Joshua 13: Well Begun, But Not All Done Series

Introduction: Israel, under Joshua’s leadership, had conquered a great deal of Canaan, the Promised Land. Several years had gone by, and Joshua was nearing the end of his earthly journey. Israel, though, was not nearly done with reclaiming the land so the LORD commanded Joshua to divide the land among the tribes and encourage them to finish what they had started.

1 The Directive

Text: Joshua 13:1-6, KJV: 1 Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. 2 This is the land that yet remaineth: all the borders of the Philistines, and all Geshuri, 3 From Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite: five lords of the Philistines; the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avites: 4 From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that is beside the Sidonians, unto Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites: 5 And the land of the Giblites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrising, from Baalgad under mount Hermon unto the entering into Hamath. 6 All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon unto Misrephothmaim, and all the Sidonians, them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee.

There are times when the LORD can be very direct and, one might say, blunt. This was one of these times: the LORD made it plain to Joshua he was “old and stricken in years”. And, truly, that made sense—no one could doubt it—Joshua and Caleb were two of the few who had actually experienced the slavery days of Egypt. These two were the only two of those aged 20 and up (see Numbers 32:10-14) to survive the wilderness journeys (well, wanderings might be a better word).

Then after all those years in the wilderness, Israel had come face to face with a whole catalog of enemies: Hittite, Amorite, all kinds of “ites”, all of them determined to keep Israel out of the land, and Israel determined to reclaim the land of promise. Even with the promise of “follow Me and I will give you victory”, I have a hunch that the average Israelite had to feel at least a twinge of uneasiness every time Israel went out against an enemy. Fear causes many to lose battles, it’s been said, but overconfidence or cockiness can lose just as many. The promise of the LORD to trust Him and do as He said to obtain victory was and is the balance between these extremes.

Joshua, to his credit, never argued with the LORD and seems to have accepted these facts as facts. He was old, and the years of slavery, wandering, and the recent constant warfare had to have taken a serious toll on him. Joshua knew what Israel had done, but he may not have really understood just how large, if not enormous, the directive from the LORD actually meant.

To illustrate this, the LORD gave broad descriptions of large areas which Israel had not yet reclaimed. The list started with land to the south and west, or the land of the Philistines. Oddly, the Philistines and Abraham (Isaac, too, later) seemed to live in relative peace. But sometime between the days of Abraham and Isaac, the Philistines seemed to become some of Israel’s worst enemies. The Books of Judges and I-II Samuel give details of many wars that took place between Israel and the Philistines.

There is some disagreement among several commentators as to the location of “Geshuri” and the “Sihor”. Geshur, according to an on-line Bible atlas, is located in about the middle of Israel (see https://bibleatlas.org/full/geshur.htm) but others believe Geshur is near the southern border, others, like the Cambridge Bible For Schools and Colleges believer Geshur was located between Arabia and the land of the Philistines (1 Samuel 27;. Also, refer to the on-line commentary at https://biblehub.com/commentaries/cambridge/joshua/13.htm).

It’s possible that “from the south” in verse 4 leads to more unclaimed territory in the north, such as Mearah (bibleatlas.org locates it north of Sidon, https://bibleatlas.org/mearah.htm). Where Aphek was located is not known for certain but bibleatlas.org locates it far to the north of Canaan, about 10 miles or so east of Gebal (https://bibleatlas.org/full/aphek.htm). The other places were known to the Israelites and all they had to do was move in, finish the objectives the LORD had given to them, and then follow Him.

I mean, they had the LORD’s own guarantee of victory if they followed Him!

What part of “I will drive them out” did they not understand?