Joshua 12–19

Open your Bibles to Joshua chapter 12. And I'm going to tell you here that Joshua chapter 12 through like chapter 19 are the kind of verses that you put on like when you go for a walk, you put on your headphones. Or when you're exercising or when you're doing housework. And if you're listening to the Bible, these are the ones you put on while you get busy doing other things because these chapters contain, basically all of the information of the allotments. The land allotments that the people of Israel, the various tribes received when Joshua brought them into the land, and it's very detailed. In fact, it gives all of the border information, which by the way, we're going to be skipping over tonight. And that's why we're going to be able to, I think, get through so many chapters. We're going to hit the good parts though I promise you. But there's just a lot of, from the border of, to the border of, to the border of. And they probably don't mean anything to you without having a plot map on hand. It probably wouldn't mean a thing. But it begins here in chapter 12. And chapter 12 begins with a summary of past victories, beginning with the kings who were defeated on the east side of the Jordan under the leadership of Moses. All right. So the author is summarizing here. It says,

(ESV) And you'll remember that this is, this land on the other side of the Jordan, was not part of God's original gift to the Israelites. It wasn't part of the promised land. It became land that God gave them when they, once they got there, and ousted these two kings, but it wasn't originally part of the promised land on the east side of the Jordan. All right. It tells us here that, “…from the Valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon, with all the Arabah eastward: (and then it tells us who the kings were) 2 Sihon king of the Amorites…” And then it goes into detail about his location.

Skip down to verse 4. “and Og king of Bashan, one of the remnant of the Rephaim,…” And the Rephaim were early, very early inhabitants of the land of Canaan, and they were an unusually tall people like the Anakim. That just tells you a little something about them. But then the areas where they live are listed there at the end of verse 4 and verse 5. So we're going to skip down to verse 6. It says,

And you'll remember that Manasseh was a grandson of Jacob. He was the son of Joseph. Manasseh and Ephraim were the sons of Joseph. And so basically Joseph, in the land of Israel, got a double portion, because God gave him a double portion. That's basically it. Verse 7.

And what it's going to do here in the next verse 8, really, through the end of the chapter, is it just names all the kings. And we've already read them because we went through and dealt with all of these kings being beaten, defeated by Joshua and the army. In fact, if you look at the very end of the chapter, the very end of verse 24, it says, “…in all, thirty-one kings.” And so basically those verses ahead of that are just the names of the 31 kings. Chapter 13, “Now Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the LORD said to him, (I love this) “You are old and advanced in years,…” That's a really nice thing to say to someone, by the way. Just do that. Come up to somebody old and just say, you're old and advanced in years. See what they say. Anyway, “and there remains yet very much land to possess. (and) 2 This is the land that yet remains:” And in the verses following, the Lord defines those areas of the promised land. And He basically goes from south to north. And in the middle of verse 6, if you'll skip down with me. Here's what, this is an important thing that the Lord says,

tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh.” Those are the ones that came over to the west side of the Jordan. Anyway, it goes on to say, and we're going to have a repetition here of various things throughout these chapters. But it says here now, concerning the land given on the east side of the Jordan. “With the other half of the tribe of Manasseh the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, as Moses the servant of the LORD gave them:” And then we get yet another description of the land on the east side. We're going back and forth if you're getting dizzy. We're getting another description in verses 9, 10, 11, and 12. Skip down to verse 13. “Yet the people of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maacathites, but Geshur and Maacath dwell in the (land or in the) midst of Israel to this (very) day.” And again, these are on the east side and they were located east and a little northeast of the sea of Galilee and we're not told why. In other cases we are given some information why as to some of these people groups not being ousted from the land, but we're not told here in this case why they were not ousted from the land. It says in verse 14, “To the tribe of Levi alone Moses gave no inheritance. The offerings by fire to the LORD God of Israel (in other words, the sacrifices) are their inheritance, as he said to him.” And by the way, this is going to be repeated over and over in these chapters. The fact that Levi didn't receive any inheritance except the inheritance of the Lord. “15 And Moses gave an inheritance to the tribe of the people of Reuben according to their clans.” Now we begin going through these tribal allotments and verses 16 through verse 21 is the territory given to Reuben. And if you'll skip down to verse 22, this is the one interesting point that jumps out in the midst of this statement about Reuben's allotment. It says, “Balaam also, the son of Beor, the one who practiced divination, was killed with the sword by the people of Israel among the rest of their slain.” And let me just give you a little background there because you may recall that Balaam was a diviner or a seer who had been hired by the king of Moab to curse the Israelites. The Israelites were, this is back a while. They were coming into the land and the king of Moab feared them greatly. And so he called upon Balaam and he said, I'll pay you money if you will come and curse them. And Balaam through a series of situations eventually went with the king and once he got to where he could see the Israelites sprawled across the land, what came out of his mouth are some of the most incredible blessings that you will ever hear about the nation of Israel. I mean, they are literally some of the most beautiful statements that you could possibly read about how God sees His people, without spot or blemish. Interestingly enough, it came out of the mouth of Balaam, who was a creepy guy. And eventually he paid with his life because he realized at one point that he wasn't going to be able to curse these people. He couldn't put a curse on them because every time he opened his mouth, God gave him words of blessing. What Balaam did eventually with the king was he said, listen, you're not going to get their God to be against them unless you can draw them into sin. And so he gave him his advice on how to bring the nation of Israel under judgment. And he basically told them that if you send your pretty young ladies down to the camp of Israel, and you draw the men into sexual immorality, and the worship of your pagan gods, God's judgment will be upon the people. And because of his actions, as we read here in verse 22, Balaam ultimately paid with his life. He was killed. Anyway, by the way, if you want to read that, it's a great passage. It's in the Book of Numbers, chapters 22, I believe, through 25, so, there you go. Skip down now to verse 24.

And those allotments are listed in the following verses. Let's read verse 28.

Skip down to verse 32.

Chapter 14.

he gave no inheritance among them. (see the repetition?) 4 For the people of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. And no portion was given to the Levites in the land, but only cities to dwell in, with their pasturelands for their livestock and their substance. 5 The people of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses; they allotted the land.” But in the midst of all these allotments given to the tribes, we're told that there was a special allotment that was given to a particular man who was faithful to the Lord. And that's what we pause to talk about now. Verse 6,

You remember that? This is when Moses sent spies into the land and among those spies Was Joshua and Caleb. They were the only two who came back and said, we can do this. The rest of the spies said, there's absolutely no way we can clear the land. The people are too big. They're too powerful. And they caused the rest of the nation of Israel to fall into unbelief. And that caused the nation to go back into the wilderness for another 38 years. And basically God said, fine, you don't want to go in, you can go back out and wander in the wilderness. And I'm going to give you enough time for every single adult among you to drop dead in the wilderness. Because you know what they said to the Lord? They said, they'll kill our children. And here's what God said, fine, then your children will go in and take the land. And that's what He allowed them to do. It was the next generation that came out of Egypt that actually went into the promised land because the first generation was filled with unbelief, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. Now Caleb is reminding Joshua about these events. Verse 9.

as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming.” Can you imagine being 85 and saying I'm just as strong now as I was when I was 40? I'm, that's, I'm jealous. Anyway, verse 12.

So he's taking on one of the toughest areas.

Now we get into chapter 15, which begins, as it says in verse 1.

And interestingly enough, Judah's tribal allotment is described in greater detail than any of the other tribal allotments. Probably because they were the biggest, and covered the most land. But that goes all the way down through verse 12, so, skip down to verse 13 with me.

And then those are listed in the following verses down through verse 44.

Join me in verse 45 and I bring these verses up for a specific reason. Notice it says,

And the reason I shared that with you is for two reasons. First of all, I wanted you to see— because there's a lot of controversy going on about the war with Israel and Hamas that recently came to a place of a ceasefire. And there's been tremendous criticism obviously for Israel, even though this battle was not against Israel and the Palestinians, it was against Israel and Hamas. The point is, I want you to see, first of all, from the Scripture, God gave them the land. God gave Israel the land, okay? It's important for you to see that. Tat land is theirs. They haven't basically claimed that land over the years, but it was given by right from the Lord, to Israel. And the second thing I want you to take note of is the fact that those cities that are mentioned there in and around Gaza. Cities like Ekron, and Ashdod, and so forth, you'll recognize those as Philistine cities. And as we get into 1 Samuel and later, when the battles against the Philistines are really heating up under Saul and David, these cities are under Philistine control. They were given to the land of Israel by right from the Lord, but they didn't possess them very much. The enemies of Israel were fairly strong and they struggled to maintain those lands. And some of these cities that we're reading here, will go back and forth between Israel and the Philistines. Over and over and over. Anyway, I just wanted to bring that out. Now, verses 48 through 62 are just the borders so join me in verse 63. And it says,

And so here's this major city right there, really in the heart of Judah that the Israelites couldn't, they couldn't drive them out. And it's not going to be until David takes the throne that he actually drives the Jebusites out of the city of Jerusalem, and he names it for himself. He calls it, the City of David which of course is also the name of Bethlehem, 5 miles away. They're both called the City of David.

Either way, David then sets up his throne in Jerusalem. Ultimately his palace and his son, of course, builds the temple there as well. All right. Chapter 16.

And verses 2 and 3 are the borders. Verse 4 says,

And that goes to the end of the chapter, all right? Chapter 17.

The ah girls, I guess. Maybe people looked at them and they went, ah! Maybe they were really cuties, I don't know.

And then in verse 7 it says, “The territory of Manasseh…” And then it gives you all of the boundaries down through verse 11. Join me in verse 12.

We'll talk about that in a while.

--- “14 Then the people of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, “Why have you given me but one lot and one portion as an inheritance, although I am a numerous people, since all along the LORD has blessed me?” 15 And Joshua said to them, “If you are a numerous people, go up by yourselves to the forest, and there clear ground for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.” 16 The people of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us. Yet all the Canaanites who dwell in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth-shean and its villages and those in the Valley of Jezreel.” 17 Then Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, “You are a numerous people and have great power. You shall not have one allotment only, 18 but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders. For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.”” We've talked a lot, haven't we over this study of Joshua, how this is a picture of our own lives in Christ. This is a picture of us taking on the promises of God, coming into the land that includes the promises of God, and the battles that it takes. And we're all going through battles. Every one of us. Well, I shouldn't say that. There are some people who are living in the wilderness and this is where they're at. They get saved. But they just hang out in the wilderness. They just don't really want to take on the challenges of walking out the promises of God and so forth. And they don't like conflict or whatever and so. But, if you're going to receive the promises of God, you're going to deal with conflict. You're going to deal with challenges and opposition from the enemy. And the enemy doesn't like to give up land. And that's what we're seeing here among some of the sons of Joseph. They're complaining to Joshua, saying, we're a numerous people. We need more land. He says, well, go take it. Well, we can't. The people there are too strong. They have iron chariots. They're big. They're strong and we can't… It's the same attitude that the people had 40 some years ago when they said, we can't go into the land. The people are too strong. And all the while, God said to them, I will drive them out if you just have faith. And that's the issue. Did you notice the difference between the sons of Joseph here and like Caleb who's 85? 85 years old and who says, yeah, give me the land. And Moses said, I can have the land that my feet trot on, so I'm here to get it. And by the way, it's the land of the Anakim. They're big guys, big dudes. ---

And they got big walls but give it to me, we'll take it anyway. You got to love Caleb. I need Calebs in my life who talk that way. And who encourage me and say, we can do this. We can do this. But you know, there are other people, and their personality just doesn't tend toward being strong and fighting and dealing with opposition, like the sons of Joseph here. We need some more land that isn't inhabited so we can just go in there and not have to have a battle. We want more land, but we don't want to fight for it. Well, there are areas in your life, in your Christian life, that you're going to have to fight for. And you have to do battle. And it's spiritual battle. And Paul tells us in the New Testament, our battle is not against flesh and blood. It's against spiritual powers and principalities and rulers of this present darkness. (Ephesians 6:12) And so we know what we're fighting against, and we also know how we are to go about fighting. Our warfare is a spiritual warfare. We fight with the sword of the Word of God. We fight with prayer, and we fight with faith. But it has to begin with faith. The faith of Caleb. Lord God, give us the faith of Caleb. Amen? Isn't that just what you want? Don't you want, I don't care how old I am, 85 years old, doesn't matter. We're going to take the land. We're going to go in and we're going to take the land. I want that kind of faith. I don't want to be weenies like the sons of Joseph here are acting like, we can't do it. Joshua doesn't, notice he doesn't cut him any slack. He says, get up there. You can do it. You're a numerous people. You're strong. The Lord is with you. Go do it. Did you think this was going to be easy? Sometimes I want to say that to Christians when they come licking their wounds. I want to say to them, did you think this was going to be easy? This is warfare. This is battle. You got marriage problems? Fight. You got other issues with your family members? Fight. Not your relatives. Fight against the things that are coming against you. And it's not flesh and blood. But when we come up against issues and problems and limitations, we have to remember that the Lord is not so limited. Our limitations are not the Lord's limitations. We project them onto Him though, just like the sons of Joseph are doing. We can't take the land. We're not strong enough. In other words, our limitations are keeping us from doing what the Lord told us to do. It's not our fault. God didn't give us the strength.

Do you think we ever had the strength to do this? I mean, that's what Joshua could have easily said. Do you think we ever? Do you think as an army we had enough strength and enough people to come against all these groups? We never possessed the strength to do this. It was always the Lord. The Lord goes before you. The battle belongs to the Lord. And that is something that we just, we cannot forget. And yet we do. Busted, myself included. I forget from time to time that the battle belongs to the Lord. I forget and I know you do too. But the study of Joshua is to remind us that he is the strength with which we win the battles. Chapter 18.

Right? By the way, Shiloh is located about 20 miles north of Jerusalem. Just so you can get a mental picture. “2 There remained among the people of Israel seven tribes whose inheritance had not yet been apportioned. 3 So Joshua said to the people of Israel, “How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?” Again, you need people in your life like Joshua, who give you a jab in the side from time to time, and say, how long are you going to stand back here and wait, and just let the enemy walk all over you? Verse 4. “Provide three men from each tribe, (this is Joshua telling them) and I will send them out that they may set out and go up and down the land. They shall write a description of it with a view to their inheritances, and then come to me.” So he's going to send 3 people from all of these 7 tribes out into the land that is yet to be taken. And they are to literally make a description. It's one of your first references to map making, I suppose, in the Bible. And then he says, we're going to come back here. And he says, verse 5, “They shall divide it into seven portions. Judah shall continue in his territory on the south, and the house of Joseph shall continue in their territory on the north. 6 And you shall describe the land in seven divisions and bring the description here to me. And I will cast lots for you here before the LORD our God.”

This is the way they're going to give the rest of the land out to these 7 tribes that have yet to take their land. They come back with a, literally a map of the land remaining, and then they divide it into seven portions. And then he's going to cast lots for who gets what, which is really smart when you stop and think about it. Because by casting lots, which is really very similar, I suppose, to the throwing of dice, there's no issues with fairness. It's like tossing a coin. Well, the coin came up heads, I didn't make it do that. So, this is the way of keeping things fair, avoiding, envy, and suspicion, that you're giving partiality and so forth. Verse 7.

the portion of the people of Judah was too large for them, the people of Simeon obtained an inheritance in the midst of their inheritance.” And then verse 10, “The third lot came up for the people of Zebulun, according to their clans.” Skip down to verse 16 because the rest of that section is the cities and borders. “16 This is the inheritance of the people of Zebulun, according to their clans—these cities with their villages.” Verse 17. “The fourth lot came out for Issachar, for the people of Issachar, according to their clans.” They are given there in verses 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. And in verse 23 it says, “This is the inheritance of the tribe of the people of Issachar, according to their clans—the cities with their villages.” Then we have the inheritance for Asher. “24 The fifth lot came out for the tribe of the people of Asher according to their clans.” Verses 25 through 30 include all of the information with the cities. “This is the inheritance (verse 31) of the tribe of the people of Asher according to their clans—these cities with their villages.” Verse 32, “The sixth lot came out for the people of Naphtali, for the people of Naphtali, according to their clans.” It's then described there, down through verse 38. And in the middle of verse 38, it says “...—nineteen cities with their villages. 39 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the people of Naphtali according to their clans—the cities with their villages.” And then you've got the inheritance for Dan and it says, “40 The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the people of Dan, according to their clans.” Verses 41 through 46 are the city names. And verse 47 says,

And then, verse 49, finishing out the chapter, says,

Now the Book of Joshua only contains 5 additional chapters and we'll go through those and probably, well, we won't be nearly as fast with them. But we're going to deal with the cities of refuge in chapter 20. We're going to deal with the cities and the pasture lands in chapter 1, excuse me, 21, that's allotted to the people of Levi. We're going to read about a misunderstanding in chapter 22 about what happened when the Eastern tribes returned home and what almost got them into trouble and so forth and so on. And then we'll finish out the chapter, or the book rather in the last study, so anyway, that's where we're going to stop for tonight. As I said, this is really one of those chapter; groups of chapters that you dig into, or read through, or listen to, while you're doing something else. But it's interesting that there's so much detail. Our God is a God of great detail and we see that in the Scriptures. And we also see that the nation of Israel, in many cases, just learned to live with the enemy. In some cases, they couldn't get them out. And they just learned to live with them. We have a word for that today. We call it coping. And it's an important word because, not that it's a good word necessarily, but it's an important one because it is a position that many people take today as it relates to the enemies that stand in their path in the Christian life, which may be a sin in your life, or it might be some fleshly issue, whatever. And we just learn to live with some of these things. We learn to cope rather than being victorious. When God said, I've given you everything you need for godliness. Everything you need, I've given you. Everything you need. Just like He gave Israel everything they needed to clear the land. Did they clear the whole land? No, they didn't. They learned to live with some of the enemies. And that's sad because ultimately, after many hundreds of years actually, the people of Israel were ousted from their own land because they had adopted the pagan ways of their neighbors.

And so, when we leave things in our lives that we know shouldn't be there, it creates a stumbling block down the road. And so we need to keep praying. And if there's an area of your life, and I want to just encourage you, if there's an area of your life that is just stubborn, and it just doesn't want to let go, then just keep praying about it. Keep asking the Lord, give me the faith, give me the strength to be an overcomer. Your Word says that I'm more than an overcomer. I'd be happy just being a plain overcomer. But Your Word says I'm more than that and I want to see that in my life. I want to see, I want to know what it means to be an overcomer in this area of my life. Don't give up. Don't give in and be like the Israelites and say, well, we'll just learn to live with them. We'll learn to live with these problems, these sins, these issues. Too many of us have taken that road. It's an easier road because it may not involve as much battle, but it also involves compromise. And compromise is never good. We all know that firsthand.