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Okay, you can turn in your Bibles
to Joshua 17. Joshua 17. We're actually going
to be looking at more Bibles than I think I've ever done before. 15, 16, and 17. But because much
of 15 is just a list of cities, and much of 16 is a list of cities,
And most of 17 is a list of cities. It's going to be a bit more of
a sort of a flyby rather than dealing with every particular
jot and tittle here. So beginning in Joshua chapter
17, I'll pick up reading in verse 1. There was also a lot for the
tribe of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph. namely
for Makir, the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because
he was a man of war. Therefore, he was given Gilead
and Bashan. And there was a lot for the rest
of the children of Manasseh, according to their families.
For the children of Abiezer, the children of Helek, the children
of Azriel, the children of Shechem, the children of Hefer, and the
children of Shemitah. These were the male children
of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, according to their families.
But Zelophehad, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of
Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters. And these are the
names of his daughters, Mela, Noah, Hagla, Milcah, and Terzah. And they came near before Eleazar
the priest, before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the rulers,
saying, the Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among
our brothers. Therefore, according to the commandment
of the Lord, he gave them an inheritance among their father's
brothers. Ten shares fell to Manasseh,
besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which were on the other
side of the Jordan, because the daughters of Manasseh received
the inheritance among his sons. And the rest of Manasseh's sons
had the land of Gilead. And the territory of Manasseh
was from Asher to Mikmithah, that lies east of Shechem. And
the border went along south to the inhabitants of En-Tapua. Manasseh had the land of Tapua,
but Tapua on the border of Manasseh belonged to the children of Ephraim.
And the border descended to the brook Kena, southward to the
brook. These cities of Ephraim are among
the cities of Manasseh. The border of Manasseh was on
the north side of the brook, and it ended at the sea. Southward
it was Ephraim's, northward it was Manasseh's, and the sea was
its border. Manasseh's territory was adjoining
Asher on the north and Issachar on the east. And in Issachar
and in Asher, Manasseh had Beth She'an and its towns, Iblim and
its towns, the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, the inhabitants
of Endor and its towns, the inhabitants of Tanakh and its towns, and
the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns, three hilly regions. Yet the children of Manasseh
could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities, But the Canaanites
were determined to dwell in that land. And it happened, when the
children of Israel grew strong, that they put the Canaanites
to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out. Then
the children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, why have you
given us only one lot and one share to inherit, since we are
a great people, inasmuch as the Lord has blessed us until now?
So Joshua answered them, if you are a great people, then go up
to the forest country and clear a place for yourself there in
the land of the Perizzites and the Giants, since the mountains
of Ephraim are too confined for you. But the children of Joseph
said, the mountain country is not enough for us, and all the
Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of
iron, both those who are of Bathshian and its towns, and those who
are of the valley of Jezreel. And Joshua spoke to the house
of Joseph, to Ephraim, and Manasseh, saying, you are a great people
and have great power. You shall not only have one lot,
but the mountain country shall be yours. Although it is wooded,
you shall cut it down, and its farthest extent shall be yours.
For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots
and are strong. Amen. Well, as I said, this section
of the book deals with the division of the land, the allotments given
to each of the tribes in Israel. Last time we saw in chapter 13,
there was the land that remained in verses 1 to 7. There was a
rehearsal of the land east of the Jordan. And then in chapter
14, it gets into the land west of the River Jordan. And that's
where we find ourselves tonight. The bulk of chapter 14 dealt
with Caleb making the request specifically for the land of
the Anakim or the land called Hebron. Here in chapter 15, that
particular conquest is indicated. So he asks or makes requests
in chapter 14. Chapter 15 indicates just how
he went about getting that particular land. So we go back to chapter
15 to sort of overview what's going on in 15, 16, and 17. The
first part, you have the boundaries of Judah, chapter 15, verses
1 to 12, then the conquest of Caleb in verses 13 to 19, the
cities of Judah, verses 20 to 62. That's the bulk of this particular
section. All of the cities of Judah are
mentioned. Verse 63 sort of functions as
a foreshadowing, sort of an omen, a bit of a warning concerning
the reality that there are Canaanites remaining in the land. There's
actually three of them in this section, so we'll deal with those
together toward the end of the message this evening. But then
in chapter 16, we have the allotment given to the Josephite tribes. Remember, Joseph is made up of
his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. So that's what 16 and 17 are
primarily concerned with, the allotment given to the Josephite
tribes. And then that last section is
the request for more land by the Josephite tribe. So that's
sort of an overview of what's going on in this particular section. As I said, we're going to just
kind of skim through some of this and make a few observations
along the way. Dr. Dale Ralph Davis will be
helping us. He's probably my favorite living
author. And he's got commentaries on
each of the books known as the former prophets. So that would
be Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and First and Second Kings. And
they're very helpful, they're very readable, they're very biblically
sound, and yet they're written in such a way as to keep one's
interest and to help you spot or see the big lessons in the
chapters along the way. Of course, if I continue to cite
him, you won't need to buy his books. And he probably wouldn't
like that, so buy his books, and I'll cite them anyway. So
we're in the divvying up the land. Notice the boundaries of
Judah in chapter 15, verses 1 to 12. So this was the lot of the
tribe of the children of Judah according to their families.
Woodstraw, another commentator, says, the purpose of this chapter,
along with the other chapters dealing with the distribution
of the land to the tribes, is to give concrete shape to the
leading idea of the book of Joshua, the fulfillment of the promise
to the forefathers. That's how we need to understand
these lists of cities. This is how we need to understand
the naming of all of these borders, how we are to approach this particular
section of scripture. It is the fulfillment of promise. If you remember back in Genesis
chapter 12, Genesis 13, Genesis 15, Genesis 17, Genesis 21 and
22, God made a promise to Abraham that from Abraham there would
be a seed, there would be a land, and there would be blessing.
And so when we get to the book of Joshua in this conquest and
in this divvying up the land, we see the application or the
fulfillment of that particular promise. So God speaks to Abraham,
the father of the nation. He tells him that there will
be this land grant or this gift of the land. And so then the
children of Israel go into Egypt. They're in bondage for 400 plus
years. And then God, using Moses, leads the people out of Egypt.
They wander in the wilderness for 40 years. They come to the
plains of Moab. Moses there instructs them and
encourages them on how they are to go about this conquest. So
the book of Joshua brings us to that place. So between the
promise, all of those things that had occurred, we've now
come to fulfillment. And so the fulfillment of the
promise to the forefathers is uppermost in these lists of city
names, in these lists of kings that were conquered, in these
lists of boundaries, and all that sort of thing. So when we
get to Judah, what is described is first the southern border
in verses 1 to 5, the eastern border, verse 5, the northern
border, and then the western border. So it just shows you
on the map, or you can look in the back of your Bible, you have
a map, and it will show you the picture of how these tribal allotments
broke down. Which is another thing that we
need to understand. God's word deals in concrete
reality. He's not just giving us sort
of this pie-in-the-sky wish idea. Now there is heaven to be sure. There is that eschatological
reality that we'll be with Jesus forever and ever. Canaan, the
land, was a down payment for that. And the people of Israel
got to build houses. They got to farm land. They got
to live in a very bountiful and wonderful place. And so when
we see this, we need to think fulfillment of the promise. Now, I'll quote Davis. This is
a bit of a longer quote on the particular details involved. I mean, you can just read that
for yourself if you're really intrigued. It just basically
gives you city names, gives you boundaries, gives you places,
gives you all those particular details. Here's what Davis says,
the reader must remember. that both this chapter and following
ones describe in detail God's gift of the land, and that means
that every town name and border point pulsates with excitement. No close-up description of God's
gifts could ever be boring. That's what it is. It's a rehearsal
of God's gift. If somebody were to say to you,
let me tell you what my wife gave me for my birthday, or let
me tell you what my husband gave me for my birthday, and started
to detail or list all these things, hopefully you wouldn't roll your
eyes at them. You wouldn't say, boy, what a
tedious thing. I don't want to hear about how
nice your spouse is. No, you'd be interested. This
is a good thing. This is a testimony to the kindness
and the faithfulness of this particular spouse. He says perhaps
the contemporary Christian needs some analogy to get a handle
on this. Now he gives a bit of his own
personal autobiography just to get us thinking about what's
going on in this passage and how sometimes we do tend to take
things for granted. He says, it is Tuesday morning
as I write this. Nothing outstanding has happened.
Two of our boys have had their breakfast. Not significant, except
that it is another fulfillment of Matthew 6.26. Do not worry,
therefore, about what you will eat. Today is garbage pick-up
day. We have three bags. More than
usual, but not a big deal. Simply having garbage is a sign
of provision. And even though my wife pulled
an irritating April Fool's prank on me already, she herself is
living fulfillment of God's covenant promise. Not one of these details
staggers the imagination, but like the boundaries and towns
of Judah, they are little incarnations of God's fidelity and are therefore
hardly boring." So that's how the Israelites would have approached
this particular listing of the cities. Again, I think that if
we knew and we were more in tune with the geography, certainly
if we could trace our ancestry back to these tribal allotments,
it probably would be a little more exciting. If the towns that
we are familiar with were indicated in these particular chapters
as towns or cities that we had ourselves been involved in conquering,
our ears would perk up. It wouldn't be some boring list. of otherwise unimportant details,
but rather, as Davis says, each one of these towns' names, each
one of these borders described, are evidences of God's faithfulness
and of his kindness to his people in delivering what he promised
to Father Abraham. So that's the boundaries of Judah. Notice secondly the conquest
of Caleb. Verses 13 and following. Now
to Caleb the son of Jephunneh, he gave a share among the children
of Judah according to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua. just like
we saw last time in chapter 14, namely Kirjath Arba, which is
Hebron. Arba was the father of Anak.
Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak from there, Sheshai,
Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak. Then he went up from
there to the inhabitants of Debir. Formerly the name of Debir was
Kirjath Sefer. And then what he does is he employs
specific means, verses 16 and following. Caleb said, he who
attacks, he who attacks, Keir Jethsephir, and takes it, to
him I will give Exah, my daughter, as wife. This is similar to what
David will do when he goes to conquer Jerusalem. It was not uncommon a thing.
When there was a challenge, there would be this particular sort
of a deal made. So Othniel, the son of Canaaz,
the brother of Caleb, took it, and he gave him Exod, his daughter,
as wife. So Othniel later will be a judge
when we get to the book of Judges. He is one of the judges that
does judge the tribe of Israel. Now it was so, verse 18, when
she came to him that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field.
So she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, What do
you wish? She answered, Give me a blessing, since you have
given me land in the south, give me also springs of water. So
he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. So this
was a blessing. For her, she received a portion
in this particular conquest as well. And then the cities of
Judah. The cities of Judah. This was
the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according
to their families. And then it goes on and indicates
the various city names there. Now again, Davis says, and I
think he's right, God's word is seldom about some bare, purely
spiritual inner abstraction. The God of the Bible tends to
be concrete. His gifts are tangible and visible. The inheritance he bequeaths
is not an idea but boundaries, not thoughts but towns. In a
word, real estate. So God gives specific blessings
to his specific people. And there is something analogous
here for the Christian in the New Covenant situation. Yes,
we have an inheritance laid up for us in the future state. We have heaven waiting for us. But you remember, when we die,
if we die prior to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, That's
called the intermediate state. The apostle talks of it this
way. He says to depart or to be absent from the body is to
be present from the Lord. Well that is an intermediate
state. What the Christian is looking
forward to ultimately is the resurrection from the dead. Christianity
is not Gnostic. Gnostics believe that physical
was bad. Gnostics believe that only spiritual
was good and that things that were done in the body, things
that, you know, eating and drinking and interrelationships and all
that sort of thing, really didn't matter. Well, the Bible isn't
a Gnostic document. What the scripture envisions
for the people of God is a resurrection from the dead, body and soul. Romans chapter 8 talks about
the creation being in bondage. It is looking forward to that
redemption. It's an interesting parallel
that we have in the book of Genesis and that we have in the book
of Philippians. In the book of Genesis, the first
Adam, what happens when he dies? The Lord God says, dust you are
and to dust you shall return. In the second Adam, according
to Philippians, our bodies are raised gloriously. Philippians
3.20, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also
eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will
transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to his glorious
body according to the working by which he is able even to subdue
all things to himself. So as Christians, there's something
analogous here. We don't have the land of Canaan. We have what the land of Canaan
foreshadowed, which is heaven, to be sure. When we ultimately
get to heaven, if we're there prior to the second coming of
the Lord Jesus, there'll be that intermediate state. But what
we look forward to with the sons of God is the redemption of all
things, the bodily resurrection. Where is it that the saints of
Christ end up? They end up in a new heavens
and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells. There will be community. There will be social interaction. There will be all the things
that we love in this world. You know, not in a bad way. I
mean, relationship, all that sort of thing will be in the
new heavens and the new earth. But it will be without sin. And
so we're looking forward to the resurrection from the dead. That
is a blessed reality. The land acquisition in Canaan
was a bit of a foretaste concerning what will happen when Jesus comes
again, or when the resurrection of the dead occurs. As I mentioned,
verse 63 functions as a bit of a warning or a foreshadowing.
We'll collect the three of them in just a moment. But notice
it says, as for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the children of Judah, could not drive them out, but the Jebusites
dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day. Remember,
the mandate was to go in and utterly dispossess the land.
All along the way we're seeing that while for the most part
the report in Joshua is favorable, there are these pockets, there
are these instances, so that when we get to the book of Judges
and we see that it's not such a favorable report, all of the
building blocks have already been left in place because they
didn't deal with their enemies in the land. And that brings
us to the Josephite tribes. I know that's not in the text,
but it's a handy way to refer to these two tribes, Manasseh
and Ephraim. Notice the means employed in
verse 1. The lot fell to the children
of Joseph from the Jordan. Remember, they were told to use
the lot. What does the proverb say? The
lot is cast into the lap, and its every decision is from the
Lord. So when we get to these Josephite
tribes complaining about the lot that they've received, ultimately
their complaint is against God. It's not against Joshua. It's
not, you know, that they were somehow cheated by Joshua. The
implication is that God has dealt us a bad hand. And then notice
this kind of a general description there in verses 1 to 4. The lot
fell to the children of Joseph from the Jordan by Jericho. to
the waters of Jericho on the east, to the wilderness that
goes up from Jericho, through the mountains to Bethel, then
went out from Bethel to Luz, passed along to the border of
the Archites at Adaroth, and went down westward to the boundary
of the Jaffla Tides, as far as the boundary of the lower Beth
Horon to Gedser, and it ended at the sea. So the children of
Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim took their inheritance. So remember,
those are the two tribes, Manasseh and Joseph. That's the chronological
order of the son's birth. Remember, Manasseh was born first,
and then Ephraim. But notice how the land acquisition
is doled out. Ephraim comes first. You remember
back in the birth of Manasseh and Ephraim, when Joseph brought
his sons to Jacob to be blessed, Jacob, though blind, crossed
his hands to put his right hand on Ephraim and his left hand
on Manasseh. Now typically, the firstborn
son got the better blessing. The firstborn son was Manasseh. He should have got, by the typical
ways of doing things, he should have got the better blessing.
But Ephraim got the better blessing while Manasseh did not. And so even Joseph tried to unscramble
his dad's hands, but Jacob said, I know what I'm doing. And the
author of Genesis interprets that he gave preeminence to Ephraim. And the same sort of a priority
is indicated here. Manasseh is the chronological
firstborn, but Ephraim is the soteriological firstborn. And so Ephraim comes first, in
terms of the land entitlement that is given to him. This is
important. You might wonder why spend any
time on this. Because Jesus is called the firstborn
from the dead in the book of Colossians. And people sometimes
wonder, well, that must mean that, you know, or when it's
talking about the firstborn over all creation, rather. The Jehovah's
Witnesses teach that that means he was created first and then
he made everything else. But firstborn means preeminent
one. In fact, when you get to the
prophet Jeremiah, God says concerning Ephraim, Ephraim is my firstborn. Chronologically it was not so,
but in terms of preeminence, Ephraim is the one. Ephraim has
more of God's favor upon him than does Manasseh. That's what
firstborn means with reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. It
means he's the preeminent one. David is referred to as the firstborn. Israel is referred to as the
firstborn. And so that order is reflected
here. It's a theological order rather
than a chronological order. So then Ephraim is mentioned
there in verses 5 to 10. Note the description. of the
land, specifically in verses 5 to 9, and then their failure,
verse 10. Here's the other one. There's
three total, as I said, in these chapters. And they did not drive
out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites
dwell among the Ephraimites to this day and have become forced
laborers. So that's not good. They weren't
supposed to just put them into slavery. They were supposed to
eradicate them. And then it deals with Manasseh
in verses 1 to 17. Interestingly, right in the middle,
in verses 3 to 6, we have Zelophehad's daughters. Zelophehad's daughters. You know what they're expressing
here in verses 3 to 6? Faith in the Word of God. So
all along the way, it's not just land divisions and cities. It
is all that. But along the way, we're supposed
to see certain things. When we get to the West Manasseh
in chapter 17, verses 1 to 13, there is this appeal for God's
Word to be fulfilled in verses 3 to 6. But Zelophehad, the son
of Hepha, the son of Gilead, the son of Machair, the son of
Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters. And these are the
names of his daughters. And then they say, the Lord commanded
Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers. Therefore,
according to the commandment of the Lord, he gave them an
inheritance among their father's brothers. This goes back to the
book of Numbers, back in the book of Numbers specifically.
Chapter 26, Zelophehad is mentioned having no sons. Chapter 27, verses
1 to 11, is when they present their case, asking that even
though or because they have no brothers, can they still have
an entitlement to the land? And in chapter 36, 1 to 12, the
same thing is affirmed. Well, here's the fulfillment
of that promise. Zelophehad's daughters aren't
left to fend for themselves in this new land. Zolophahed's daughters
get the benefits and the blessings that the Lord God had promised
to them way back in numbers through the man of God, Moses. It truly is fulfillment. Every step of the way, God is
faithful. He does not renege. He does not
forsake his promises and his kindness to his people. And then we got the case of the
Zelophehed, and then notice in verses 7 to 13, you've got a
summary statement in 7 to 9, and then beginning, I'm sorry,
7 to 11, there's a description of the cities and the boundaries
that they possess, and then in verses 12 and 13, you get another
one of these warnings. or another one of these foreshadowings.
Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants
of those cities, but the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that
land. And it happened when the children of Israel grew strong
that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not
utterly drive them out. So you see, they were commanded
to utterly drive them out. They were commanded to deal with
them because of the threat of idolatry that would indeed fall
upon them. So I just want to read a couple
quotes here with reference to these warnings. Woodstress says,
Israel's inability to take possession of these cities created dangerous
enclaves and set the stage for the developments contained in
the book of Judges. We get to Judges, we will see
problems as a result of this. Judges is a bit of a different
story than what we find here in Joshua. What do we have in
Judges, but we have cycles of sin, of oppression, repentance,
and deliverance. will sin very often because they
didn't deal with the things that they should have dealt with on
the first go-around. He says, forced labor was imposed
on the Canaanite population, but the text makes it clear that
this was not the same as eradication. Thus, the seeds were sown for
later syncretism and apostasy. You see, the problem with the
Canaanites and the land is that the people of Israel would ultimately
end up worshiping their gods. And then Davis says, the reader
will see an intensification of blame in these notes. First,
Judah's inability, then Ephraim's failure in regard to one city,
and evidently settling for the Canaanite subservience rather
than expulsion. Finally, Manasseh's massive inability
or failure to control a number of strategic locations along
with their preference for resident Canaanite slaves than for vanquished
enemies. If you look at that, the end
of verse 13, and it happened when the children of Israel grew
strong that they put the Canaanites to forced labor but did not utterly
drive them out. You see, there was a period of
time there. They liked servants. They liked
slavery better than they liked obedience to God. God said, get
them out of the land, because if they're in the land, you will
be caught up and you will apostatize from me. So there are those warning
signs along the way that the careful reader ought to take
notice of so that, one, we can see how important it is to obey
God when he tells us to do specific things, specifically in this
case get rid of the Canaanites and get rid of the objects of
their worship because you're not that holy and when you are
surrounded by those things you will fall. Sounds like James
in James 1. Pure and undefiled religion in
the sight of God and the father is this, to visit widows and
orphans in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from
the world, not to throw yourself into the world and get as stained
as you can possibly get. And so obedience to the commandment
of God is absolutely crucial so we don't end up with these
problems of the Jebusites or the problems of Jebusites and
Canaanites that dwell in the land alongside of us. And then
that brings us lastly to the request for more land by the
Josephite tribes. Notice in verse 14, they're discontent. Then the children of Joseph spoke
to Joshua saying, why have you given us only one lot and one
share to inherit since we are a great people in as much as
the Lord has blessed us until now? So the lot that was employed
by God, their lot probably means the allotment of land. But the
whole idea of division was by the lot. And so when the lot
fell to these tribes, they were not content with what had been
given to them. Their complaint was ultimately
against God. And as is often the case, when
we complain against God, we try to do it in the most holy sounding
way, don't we? Don't we? Do we usually just
complain, oh God, why in the world do you do this? No, we
kind of go through the back door. We offer up our complaint and
all the while we couch it in religious terms. Look at what
they do. The children of Joseph spoke
to Joshua saying, why have you given us only one lot and one
share to inherit since we are a great people inasmuch as the
Lord has blessed us until now. We are this way because of the
Lord. Certainly the Lord wants us to
have more property. Certainly the Lord wants us to
have more land. Certainly the Lord will not leave
us to dwell as this multitude of people in such a small portion
of land. It's couched in the language
of religion. This is the way most of us generally
complain about God or complain against God. We like to package
it. We want to make sure we don't
sound like we're complaining against God. But that's precisely
what they're doing. They are not like Caleb. They
are not faithful that way. The children of Joseph said,
why have you given us only one lot? We want more land. That's what they're saying. Give
us more land, Joshua. They probably thought they had
a friend in Joshua because Joshua was from the tribe of Ephraim.
Joshua, you're one of us. You know what we're like. We've
been blessed with the Lord. We're a great multitude of people.
Certainly you can see our predicament. This is what we want. Look at
his proposed solution. I love Joshua. He answers, if
you are a great people, then go up to the forest country and
clear a place for yourself there in the land of the parasites
and the giants, since the mountains of Ephraim are too confined for
you. Go deal with that. Don't sit here and whine about
it. Don't tell me about you think you got shorted in this lot and
the other. Go to this particular mountainous region and take care
of the problem. Dispossess the land, get rid
of the parasites, get rid of the giants, and then you'll have
more property that you can call home. Now we see more of their
problem. Verse 16, But the children of
Joseph said, The mountain country is not enough for us. Now be
careful, the New King James renders that, is not enough for us. How does the ESV render it? Okay, how about NIV? Okay, Davis
suggests that it could be translated, the mountain country will or
cannot be acquired by us. And Joshua's response in verse
18 seems to indicate more of that sort of a problem. We can't
do it. And Joshua says, oh, but you
must go do it. It's not that this isn't enough
land for us, it's that we don't think we can do it. We cannot
acquire it. We will not be able to secure
that particular portion of land. So what does this ultimately
manifest? If Caleb says we can go at once
back in Numbers 13 and 14, and when we get to Joshua chapter
14, Caleb says, give me the land of the Anakim, what do we see
in that man's profession? but great faith. For these people
in the Josephite tribes to say, the mountain country cannot be
acquired by us, and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the
valley have chariots of iron, both those who are of Bethshean
and its towns and those who are of the valley of Jezreel, that's
the opposite of Tela. That's fear. That's a lack of
trust. That's a lack of belief in the
power and the majesty of God. You mean you have come all this
way, you have seen these mighty exploits, you have seen what
God has done to Egypt, you've seen what He did to Pharaoh and
his armies, you've seen what He's done to Canaanites galore,
and you have the gall to suggest that you can't do something in
the name and in the strength of the God of heaven and earth?
So they move from this discontentment to evidence something of their
distrust. They sound like babies here.
All the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have
chariots of iron, both those who are of Bethshean and its
towns and those who are of the valley of Jezreel. We can't stand
up against them. We can't face those men and their
chariots. We can't withstand those tanks
and those armored divisions. There's no way that we can ever
engage these particular people. They have fear. They have distrust. They are marked with all the
opposite of elements than what we find in Caleb. We mentioned
that last time. We looked at Caleb, we looked
briefly at this section. They are starkly contrasted here
and what the author wants us to do is identify with Caleb
and not these guys. Now notice the exhortation given,
verses 17 and 18. Joshua spoke to the house of
Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh saying, you are a great people
and have great power. You shall not have only one lot,
but the mountain country shall be yours. Although it is wooded,
you shall cut it down, and its farthest extent shall be yours.
For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots
and are strong. It's as if Joshua says, don't
stand here and express to me your discontentedness and your
distrust, but rather get about the task of dealing with those
people in their iron chariots. Get them out of the land and
increase your territory. and do what you're supposed to
do. In short, Joshua is telling these people to man up. Quit
being babies. Quit being faithless. Get in
there and do what you're supposed to do. The Lord God knew there
was going to be difficulties in the land. The Lord God spoke
to those issues in the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter
7, verse 17. If you should say in your heart,
these nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them,
but you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh
and to all Egypt. The great trials which your eyes
saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched
arm by which the Lord your God brought you out, so shall the
Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Moreover,
the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those
who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. You
shall not be terrified of them, for the Lord your God, the great
and awesome God, is among you. And the Lord your God will drive
out those nations before you little by little. You will be
unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field
become too numerous for you. But the Lord your God will deliver
them over to you and will inflict defeat upon them until they are
destroyed." So God realizes there's going to be foes. It's not saying,
you know, you just wander through the land and sing Born Free and
run around and eat nuts and berries. and you're just going to possess
the land. You've got to fight, you've got to conquer, you've
got to use the means, but don't be afraid of them. Don't be immobilized,
don't be paralyzed. Deuteronomy chapter 20 verse
1, when you go out to battle against your enemies, and see
horses and chariots and people more numerous than you. Do not
be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought
you up from the land of Egypt." Certainly, we need to understand,
as Davis says, once you see God, Perizzite swords and Canaanite
chariots lose their dread. They are serving the God of heaven
and earth. They ought not to fear. They
ought not to cower. They ought not to express this
distrust and lack of faith. They ought to listen to Joshua.
You are a great people and have great power. You shall not have
only one lot, but the mountain country shall be yours. Although
it is wooded, you shall cut it down, and its farthest extent
shall be yours. For you shall drive out the Canaanites,
though they have iron chariots, and are strong. Certainly a lesson
that all of us need to learn when we walk with the Lord. What
does the apostle say? If God is for us, what can man
do? Who can be against us if we are
in the service of the living and the true God? So some lessons
there from these chapters. in Joshua 15-17. Why don't I
close in prayer and we can have discussion. Father, thank You
for Your Word and thank You for this account. And God, I pray
that You'd help us to learn and to emulate men like Caleb and
Joshua. Help us, Father, not to default
into this position of discontentedness or distrust. Help us to be faithful
to You, Lord God. And we ask through Jesus Christ
our Lord, amen.
