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I’ve told you some stories about the mountain cabin my parents bought when I was about 11 years old. I remember distinctly the very first time we entered that cabin as its owners. I didn’t really expect this but as soon as my two sisters and I got in the front door some alternate personality took us over and we went racing through the rooms and up the stairs to claim our territory.
My older sister was a little sharper than me at that time and got up the stairs earlier to claim the room under the gables of the house with a view of the road. Not to be outdone I quickly ran into the other bedroom upstairs and claimed it as my own, despite its rather boxy appearance and bunk beds. My younger sister was left with the the room downstairs right across the hall from my parents bedroom! And that’s the way it is to this day, some 37 years later. If I’d only have been a little faster back when I was 11!
The reason I tell this story is that Israel is faced with a similar dilemma: fighting over where each tribe’s bedroom was to be. I’m sure that everyone wanted the neat coastal lands, or the plush plains east of the Sea of Galilee or the defensible highlands near Jerusalem. I’m sure each tribal leader salivated over what land might be theirs.
But as we see beginning in this section of Joshua, it is God who decides just who gets what. And for us as Christians, as we really begin to move into the victorious life in Christ, we begin to stake out just what it is that we want to do. Some of us want a huge ministry with a giant campus and thousands of followers. Others want to go to the deepest part of the African jungle to minister to the natives, while others might want to have tremendous influence over the church without having to really get their hands dirty with the tedious work of, say, teaching Sunday School or cleaning the church.
But just as Israel depended on God to decide what inheritance they got, we need to ask God, and then rely on Him to point us where He wants us to go and do what He wants us to do.
Chapter 12
The conquest summarized: The kings conquered by Moses 12:1-6 (summarize)
East of the Jordan there were only two kings: Sihon and Og. The boundaries mentioned here do not begin to reach the boundaries stated here, which would have included much of Syria.
Verse 3: The Arabah refers to the Jordan Valley.
Most of the territory is either mountainous of high plateau.
Verses 4 - 5: Og was one of the last of a race of giants called "Rephaites".
The Joshua conquest summarized: 12:7-24
Just a couple of things to note: Some kings were destroyed but not their cities: like Jerusalem (10), Jarmuth (11), and Gezer (12). Some cities were also conquered more than once (like Bethel [16] - conquered with Ai, then later in Judges 1:22-26)
I think spiritually the same can be said for us. There will be areas of our lives where we topple the king but don’t yet take the city. For instance, if there is an enemy stronghold in your life that makes you predisposed for some particular sin. You do battle with that stronghold and defeat it, yet some remnant remains to harass you-not with the same ferocity as before, but it is still there in a weakened form.
And so too: sometimes we conquer something only to have it rear its ugly head again years later. Does it mean we have failed? No. Sometimes we must repeat a campaign against a stubborn sin or dark area of our lives. What we need to do is proclaim the victory of Jesus Christ over sin and temptation.
1 Corinthians 15:56-57 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ESV
Chapter 13
Verse 1
We read in Joshua 11:23 "So Joshua took the whole land" but then here in 13:1 "There remains yet very much land to possess"
The decisive blow had been laid down-God had destroyed the major cities, but there were pockets of resistance. So too with us. God through Jesus has struck down sin and Satan, but there remain pockets of resistance to the gospel that we must engage.
We need to apply the victory. We need to press the battle forward. The enemy has been defeated but is still on the battle field. He cannot win the victory but he can harass the troops and try to win small skirmishes.
Verses 2 - 5
The major areas Israel had not taken belonged to the Philistines. These people were not Canaanite but were lumped together with the Canaanites. Their cities were near the coast and the Philistines harassed Israel until David finally conquered them.
So why did the Philistines remain unconquered? Let’s read on:
Verses 6 - 7
God promises that He will drive out the people remaining. But now it is up to individual tribes and is conditional. If the people are disobedient their enemies will not be driven out.
Judah was disobedient later on in the time of the Judges and so the Philistines were there to remind them they had not taken all of what God had intended.
The Philistines are actually a great object lesson on a number of fronts. But I think here the Israelites tolerated them and ended up regretting it. They were a powerful people and it would have taken some pretty strong leaders and strong methods and lots of prayer to see them ousted from their cities near the Mediterranean Sea.
There is always work to be done for the Christian-always land to be taken, things to be done, battles to be waged, faith to be tested, lessons learned. We will "arrive" only when we stand face to face with Jesus. Until then you can always count on something in your past, your environment, your family, your job, your health, or unexpected trials to come your way.
It may not be the face to face battles anymore. Instead it may be raiding parties that come in and steal from what God is doing in or through you (like the Philistines).
The lesson: don’t let the Philistines in your life alone-attack them mercilessly.
Despite the fact that much of the land was not taken, God told Joshua to divide it up, and that division takes up much of the rest of this book. Just because you don’t feel like you have "made it" as a Christian doesn’t mean you cannot see the inheritance God has given you, and the victory He has already won.
There is a great section in 2 Peter that illustrates what I’m talking about.
2 Peter 1:3-9 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We should not be satisfied with just occupying a little of the land and leaving the rest for the world and the enemy. Either the enemy harassing us will keep us from being effective by distracting us to tempting us, or we will supplement our faith with the qualities of the character of Jesus to stand against the enemy and the world.
Verses 8 - 32
From verse 8 through the end of the chapter, verse 32, Joshua allots the lands east of the Jordan. This land was for Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh. The area stretched from the Jordan to the mountainous plateaus to the east.
How did this happen? It was by lot. They used that in those days to determine God’s will. We don’t know exactly how it worked but we know it did work. God used lots to ferret out Aiken from the families of Israel after the initial defeat at Ai. It left the decision to God, not to man. This is where the scramble for the best bedroom could have happened.
If the assigning of the land had been up to Joshua there would have been a revolt. If it had been up to the tribes there would have been civil war. But it was up to God. That is the way it should be for all of us.
Paul the Apostle makes this kind of point in 1 Corinthians 12:18-20:
God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
And it is important that each one determine his part in the body, then work with the others - in harmony instead of competition:
Ephesians 4:15-16 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
A couple of waypoints among the inherited land:
We’ll talk about verse 14 in a minute
Verses 17-22
Some of the territory now inherited by Israel was the scene of a great spiritual battle and terrible defeat for the nation as they approached the land some years before. It’s the story of Balaam and Balak found in Numbers 22-24.
Verse 17 "Bamoth Baal", near Medeba was where Balaam tried to curse Israel (Numbers 22:41).
Verse 20 "Beth Peor" was another place where Balaam tried to curse Israel (Numbers 23:28). It was here that the Israelites were tempted into sin by the Moabite women (Numbers 25:1-3). This was also where Moses delivered his farewell address to Israel (Deuteronomy 3:29).
Verse 22 The king of Moab, Balak, hired Balaam to use divination to curse Israel. But every time he tried to curse he blessed Israel instead. Balaam was in it for the money and was used of God even though he didn’t want to. This is also where we find the talking donkey. Peter points out to us that it was greed that motivated Balaam (2 Peter 2:15). Jesus, in the book of the Revelation (2:4) points out that, the church at Pergamum held to a form of teaching practiced by Balaam-namely that of putting stumbling blocks in front of God’s people to cause them to sin. Jesus promised to make war personally against those who did this.
Verses 14 & 33 should be mentioned especially, and we’ll talk about this more in later chapters. Levi was set apart to serve the Lord at the Tabernacle and they got no land. This was a command of Moses from Numbers 18:21-24. They were to live off of a tithe from the people and lived in special cities that will be set aside for them later in the book.
Did they get ripped off? Absolutely not. But I suppose it depends on your perspective. Some people might have thought having land made you more powerful. Not having literal possessions but instead having God as your inheritance is an investment strategy with few short term paybacks but long term, the prospects are incredible!
Lessons
Watch out for the remnants
Don’t make the mistake of thinking there is no longer any temptation or area of darkness left in your life. Be on the lookout for cities or kings that you have not fully conquered.
1 Corinthians 10:12-13 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. NKJV
Let God decide
Are you looking around at what others have accomplished and saying "I want that room!"? Don’t. Instead, leave the decision to God and walk into the land He has given to you.
What is your real inheritance?
In the end, we are all like the Levites. Instead of looking to what we get or do here in this earth, we need to look to eternity, where having a personal one-on-one relationship with God the Father will be the most important thing and the most beautiful gift ever. Be satisfied with Him as your inheritance and your work and life here will be so much sweeter and easier.
