(If you have a Bible at hand, read through chapter 12 as well)
Now Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the Lord said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess. 2 This is the land that yet remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all those of the Geshurites3 (from the Shihor, which is east of Egypt, northward to the boundary of Ekron, it is counted as Canaanite; there are five rulers of the Philistines, those of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron), and those of the Avvim, 4 in the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the boundary of the Amorites, 5 and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal-gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo-hamath, 6 all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim, even all the Sidonians. I myself will drive them out from before the people of Israel. Only allot the land to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. 7 Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh.”
We all have that friend, who we love, but who simply cannot tell a story. They begin and seem excited, but there is no punch line…at the end, we are left looking at them, nodding our heads as if to say…yea…yea, and… .But it’s over. Nothing.
Up to this point Joshua has given us exciting events to study and to contemplate. We have read of wars where the people of God are greatly outnumbered and yet are victorious as they trust the word of their covenant God. We have read of kings gathering together to seek to thwart the promises of God, the nations of the earth, raging and plotting vain things against the Lord and His anointed One. We have seen the sun and moon stand still, hailstones falling and killing the enemies of God and mighty men of valor!
And now we are treated to thrilling, inexplicable, heart rending verses that speak to us…of land boundaries and in chapter 12 a list of defeated kings. Like our friend telling his story, we are left wondering where is the punch line…what is the point? Does it seem a bit anticlimactic? If the truth were told, was it even hard for you to stay focused as you read these chapters? Dr. Ralph Davis humorously writes: “Watching war movies always tends to be more exciting than participating in land surveys.”
There are many portions of the Bible that might at first cause us to fight our flesh in this way. Genealogies, descriptions of land and lists of men, elaborate attention paid to tabernacle furniture and different kinds of sacrifices, which upon first glance do not seem to strike us as very important.
However, these chapters are of great consequence and of the greatest interest, and I guarantee, to those who would have first received it, this was anything but mundane and boring. Chapter 12 lists those who tried to destroy them and chapter 13 described to the church their inheritance in the land of promise! This was the description of what they had waited for, for years, and what they had suffered for, for 4 decades in the wilderness.
We are far too detached and we must see the distribution of the land through the lenses of the OT saint, and what it meant to the faithful in Israel…everyone sitting around waiting for the will to be read, waiting to hear their name and what the kind Father had gifted to them. But more importantly, we have to see the division of the land as a type and picture of OUR inheritance in Christ Jesus.
The land preaches a greater message. This chapter is the dividing up of the inheritance among the children, it impresses upon us the need for understanding, holiness, purity and a firm grasp of the unseen so that the blessings of God do not become a snare, or worse yet, an idol. However, before I get to that, there are a couple of points in this text, parts of the tapestry of life lived before our God that warrant comment and consideration.
There are a couple of verses that stand out to us as warnings in the midst of seeking inheritance. Because in this life, the inheritance or the blessings, cannot be viewed as final, because we are not yet in the consummation. Don’t get me wrong, the physical blessings are wonderful and they are to be enjoyed with thanksgiving. But they come to us from God’s gracious hand…with a warning and it is this: The good things God gives are never to be seen as the goal, as the end, as the ultimate; The Giver not the gifts are what is important.
How many times have we seen this? How many times have we done this! How many times have we taken what God gives, good, wonderful gifts and made them idols? Jobs, possessions, a spouse, even children are bowed down to and given an exalted place over the Lord. I would argue that this is the point and the reminder when we read that the Levites did not receive a land allotment like the other tribes. Levi’s inheritance consisted of the offerings by fire which belonged to the Lord. In other words, the Levites are told that their inheritance was God.
Ultimately that is to be the case for all of God’s people, but the Levites were a visible and everyday reminder to the faithful that although they enjoy the type, and God wants them to enjoy the land and His good gifts in the land, the Levites speak of the reality. Even the Psalmist reminds the people in 142:5 that “the Lord” is for the child of God, the Lord is his portion in the land of the living. Or in Psalm 73, it is the Lord himself who is our portion forever! And this remains so even if the Land is taken away, which is the point of Lamentations 3:24 in its context. (Davis, 113)
But a couple other reminders from the text, warnings if you would, in light of our seeking the inheritance of God. The first of these is found in the very first verse. We are told twice that Joshua is old, and yet there is a lot of work left to be done. Joshua, even in old age, was not slowing down or backing off from doing what the Lord had set before Him.
From the beginning, Joshua did not shrink from his responsibility nor from his resolve to do all things commanded him by Moses. Joshua worked diligently, but worked diligently, by faith, by believing the Lord. Not just doing, but believing God, IN his doing. Joshua was old, but not inactive. He did not allow his age to be a deterrent from his duty to serve His God and to live by the promises that his faith could see.
Some years ago, my son Caleb had to go to the emergency room to get stitches in his head. The ER doctor was extremely gifted and spoke with Caleb, keeping him calm while he sewed up the gashing hole in my son’s head. The doctor, working magically, asked Caleb, “Why did your parents name you Caleb?” My son told him that in the Bible Caleb had a different spirit because he loved the Lord with His whole heart. The doctor responded: You know what I like best about Caleb is that the Bible says that he was 85 and his strength was not abated. And if Caleb can do that, then so can I. That, from an ER doctor!
Joshua and Caleb were contemporaries. They were the only two spies of the 12 who believed the promises of God over daunting circumstances. They never denied what the other 10 said, in fact they concurred with their report about giants in the land etc. But, they trusted the Lord with all of their hearts. They believed in God and they believed God, they took His word and promises to be sure and certain and acted upon them. And now, in their old age, their faith had not weakened, and their resolve was no less sure, and they pressed on in service to their king, late in life, just as they had done in those early days.
The psalmist says in psalm 92: “The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age. They shall be fresh and flourishing. To declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”
Here we find older saints, tested saints, those who have been through the battles, who have stood the test of time and in their older years, they press on to continued fruitfulness, usefulness and to be a blessing to the Lord and to the Lord’s people. Joshua was not done…He was older, but he would continue doing, what he had always done, what, by now, was ingrained in him, he lived trusting the Lord.
Obedience to the word of God…had formed him, faithfulness had made him. We often talk about how it is that sin begets sin, that is, sin leads to more sin, deeper sin. But it is also true in the positive. Faithfulness, practiced, obedience, even when excuses are readily at hand, celebration of God’s mercy and love, these beget more faithfulness, obedience and celebration.
It is no wonder to find Joshua, advanced in years, doing what he had always done, what he wanted to do. In fact, we could say that he was simply being who he was, an obedient servant to the King.
I think this is worth us slowing down and thinking about. When our formations and information dance together, we become something…so it is not about what we do, but who we are.
This is a bit tangential but read Ephesians 5:5-8. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light…
The point of the text is not that you once were IN darkness but that you were darkness, it was your identity. But now, you are not simply IN the light, which you are, but you ARE the light…the light is your identity…sin and darkness used to be, who you are, but now light and life is who you are!
This is what we see in Joshua. This is who He is. There is an important point coming at us in the very first verse of our text. We must never think that we can wait and trust our God later. The reason that Joshua was faithful in later life, is that he had spent his entire life living by faith.
This was who he was and to suggest any other way of approaching life, would have been completely foreign to this man.
Prayer: Father, I too often shrink back from the sacrifices that would mark my life as belonging to none but Jesus. I am often fearful; fearful of what others might think of me, fearful of not being successful, fearful of what tomorrow might bring! I have taken so many of Your good gifts and made them more valued that is my pursuit of the Savior. I know the claims of Jesus are absolute and immediate, give me strength of mind and heart to embrace the life that Jesus so beautifully lived that I too might know the joy of surrender and the hope of the kingdom of heaven, through Jesus my Savior, Amen.
Hymn: The Lord Bless You and Keep You
