Read Joshua
14-15 & Luke
4:33-44
To discover:
As you read consider why this detail is included.
To ponder:
Finally the land west of the Jordan
is received as it is allotted to the nine and a half tribes. This is done by
“lot” stressing God is apportioning it. Having it witnessed by the High Priest,
Joshua and the “heads of the tribal clans” also affirmed it was being done
fairly. Because the Levites’ inheritance is their work and its provision, all
they receive are their towns and the surrounding land for their livestock (Num
35v1-5).
Caleb is
described as a “Kenizzite” which would make him a Canaanite (Gen 15v19).
However 14v1 suggests he is from Judah
so the word may mean he was just a descendent of someone called Kenaz. He
recounts God’s promise that he receive the “hill country” he spied out forty years
previously (13v17). It is repeatedly stressed that this is because he (and
Joshua) followed God “wholeheartedly.” Indeed, Caleb affirms he is as “strong”
and “vigorous” for battle at eighty five as he was then, expressing the very
faith Israel previously
lacked with respect to driving out the Anakites (Num 13v28)! No doubt this
portrays Caleb as displaying the very attitude Israel
should. Caleb therefore looks to Christ, who readily and courageously gave his
life in wholehearted service of God, that we might possess our future
inheritance. Moreover, it challenges us as those in Christ to readily expend
our energies for God’s kingdom in the same way.
Once more
affirming Caleb, Joshua blesses him and gives him Hebron.
And we read a second time “the land had rest from war” completing Joshua’s
endeavours. The allotment of the land to the rest of the tribe of Judah
is then outlined first, assuming their supremacy according to Jacob’s
blessings, after Reuben, Simeon and Levi’s disqualification due to their sin
(Gen 49v3-9). The detail is necessary to protect against future disputes. It also
brings home how God fulfilled his promise by giving the land.
Particular space is given for how
Caleb overcame the Anakites, leading to land being given to his courageous
brother and his wife (Caleb’s daughter). Strikingly the chapter ends noting by
contrast that “Judah
could not dislodge” those “living in Jerusalem.”
Once more this looks to Israel’s
failure to completely take the land, with the ensuring danger of being led
astray. By doing so, it would have urged future generations to emulate Caleb
and Othniel as we’ve already mentioned.
Praying it home:
Thank God that because of Christ’s courageous sacrifice, he
will certainly raise us from death to inhabit the new creation. Pray that we
would serve him wholeheartedly and courageously now like Caleb and Othniel,
ready to sacrifice ourselves for the building of his kingdom.
Thinking further:
To see a map of the allotment of the land, click
here.
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