In today’s section, we read about:
The allocation of the land to the remaining tribes
The designation of the cities of refuge and the towns for the Levites
Caleb and Joshua are given their portions of land
The eastern tribes go back across the Jordan, nearly provoking civil war
Joshua’s farewell address and instructions to obey the Lord
The covenant renewed
Into the book of Judges, where after a good beginning, the people turn away from God
God raises up Othniel and Ehud to be judges
Some things that struck me today:
Judah and Joseph have assumed complete precedence among the people – they are the ones who get their allotment first, and only then is a complete survey of the land carried out.
What exactly was the situation with Jerusalem – was it captured or not? (15:63; Jdg 1:8, 21)?
Was the tablernacle to be based in one place or itinerant (Josh 18:1: 24:26).
Joshua and Caleb are both rewarded for their faithfulness, with whole cities as part of their allocations.
I was struck by the fact that among the allocation was land that the Israelites had not yet conquered (Josh 23:4). It reminded me that although God has blessed us with so much here and now, our full inheritance still awaits us in the future.
You can almost sense the excitement as the scribe gets carried away with everything that God has done “the LORD gave to Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors… And the LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had solemnly promised their ancestors. None of their enemies could stand against them, for the LORD helped them conquer all their enemies. Not a single one of the good promises the LORD had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true.”
Josh 22 shows how our initial instinct is to be distrustful, but establishing the facts and direct communication can bring clarity to the situation – so with us, so with our prayer life, where often we do not understand what God is doing, but when we pray about it, God shows us how things really are.
Josh 22:22 – the eastern tribes call God as their witness.
Josh 23:6 is exactly the same words that God used to Joshua himself in 1:6. 23:6-8 repeats the same point in five different ways – follow God completely and have no others.
Josh 23:12-13 is a reminder that there will be many temptations to follow other gods, and we can slide into rebellion without really thinking about it. But as 23:14 says, deep in our hearts, we know that every promise of the LORD our God has come true.
In his valediction, Joshua not only reminds the people of their recent history where God has led them out of slavery into freedom, but he also reminds them of their propensity to rebel. He makes them openly state their choice to follow God or some other gods, and reminds them that they are sinful and rebellious by nature (24:15, 19).
Joshua’s statement rings down through the ages – “as for me and my family, we will server the LORD” (24:15; Dan 3:18; 6:10)
Judges 1:1 is a good start to the book of Judges – however, it was all downhill from there.
I’m slightly confused about the chronology in Jdg 1, since I had thought the conquest had already been described in Joshua.
Jdg 2:2 must have seemed a real slap in the face to the Israelites, who obviously thought they had done all they should have (Josh 24:16-18).
The tribes were left in the land as a test, even though Josh 22:43-45 says that God have given them everything he had promised. It is a reminder that we will have problems and difficulties even if we are closely following God. We are not promised that there will be no troubles. God wants us to use the times of testing to rely wholly on Him.
Jdg 3 shows that God is merciful and faithful in spite of the people’s sins. In spite of them following these other gods, God raises up a leader who is able to rescue them for a little while.
The Moabites were the descendants of Lot (Deut 23:3)
No comments:
Post a Comment