Good Weekend to you my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
In recent weeks there has been a great deal of debate regarding the land of Israel and how to divide that region of the world so the various ethnicities, cultures and even religions can live in relative peace despite their vast differences and their historical claims for this being their ‘homeland’. Over those same weeks, you and I have been walking the Biblical, historical journey to seek to understand God’s perspective on this region of the world.
It’s really quite amazing to view the recent events of 2023 in the region of Israel through the lenses of the books of Genesis, Exodus and now Joshua, and the historical events between about 2000bc and about 1400bc.
So come with me friends, and let’s watch as Joshua gathered the leaders of the people of Israel to do, in about the year 1375bc, what is being discussed at the highest level of government today, with several countries who have modern day interest in that region of the world. As Joshua stood before them, he was probably about 105 years old. You’ll remember he had taken over leadership of these people from Moses when Moses died and Joshua had led them, the ‘next generation’, from the desert, across the Jordan river, into this land of God’s Promise.
Why do I call them the ‘next generation’? Because they were either under the age of 20 when their parents fled Egypt on that Passover night, or they were born in the desert. Their parent’s generation had all died in the desert during those 40 years of wandering and now this ‘next generation’ were the Israelites actually settling into this ‘Promised Land’.
Joshua 18 begins with this powerful statement: “The whole assembly of the Israelites gathered at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. The country was brought under their control, but there were still seven Israelite tribes who had not yet received their inheritance.” (Joshua 18:1,2) Prior to this it appears Gilgal, the place where they had camped when they first crossed the Jordan river, had been their first major base camp. (Joshua 4,5) Now do you see Shiloh becomes home for the Tent of Meeting, which you may recall was the centerpiece of their spiritual relationship with God. (Exodus 40) God Himself had designed this traveling Tabernacle (Exodus 25-31) while their parents were camped at Mount Sinai for almost a full year receiving from God the instructions about how to live as a people of God. (Exodus 20-23)
The Tent of Meeting was the place where the priests met with God and where the altar of burnt offering presented sacrifices to God. As the nearly one million Israelites moved around the desert for 40 years the Tent of Meeting moved with them and was always located in the center of their camp. (Numbers 2,10) The cloud of God’s Presence hovered over this Tent of Meeting as an assuring symbol that God Himself was among His people watching over them, protecting them and guiding them.
This day at Shiloh was another very significant change from the 40 years of desert wandering. No longer was the Tent of Meeting going to travel around with the people. On the contrary, as the people settled in this land of God’s Promise, the Tent of Meeting would be permanently set up in Shiloh, and the people would travel here, to Shiloh, for their festivals and times of worship with God. As you can see by this map, Shiloh was very near the exact geographical center of this land of God’s Promise. Also, please note on this map that the entire land had been occupied by many different people groups for centuries, and these people were well established in cities and even ‘city states’ with kings and armed men and high walls around their cities to protect them.
When Joshua 18:2 says, “there were still seven Israelite tribes who had not yet received their inheritance’, it means that when Joshua and the Israelites crossed the Jordan river into this land God did NOT give to Joshua a regional map with all the boundaries defining the region of inheritance for each of the Israelite tribes. Oh no! The process of Joshua and the people receiving from God their rightful inheritance of this land God had promised to Abraham 500 years before, was a process, sometimes a slow process.
Joshua chapters 18 and 19 describe for us the process of Joshua sending a team of several trusted men into the rest of the land to survey. Upon their return to Shiloh Joshua and the leaders sought the guidance of God regarding which tribe was to receive which section of land as their inheritance. The record says: “So the men left and went through the land. They wrote its description on a scroll, town by town, in seven parts, and returned to Joshua in the camp at Shiloh. Then Joshua cast lots in Shiloh, IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, and there Joshua distributed the land to the Israelites according to their tribal divisions.” (Joshua 18:9,10) What a remarkable experience this must have been as the seven remaining tribes received their God given inheritance of land.
Finally, it was time for Joshua and his family to receive their inheritance and the record says: “When they had finished dividing the land into its allotted portions, the Israelites gave Joshua son of Nun an inheritance among them, as the LORD had commanded. They gave him the town he asked for – Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim. And Joshua built up the town and settled there.” (Joshua 19:49,50)
I see several key leadership lessons for us here my friends. I see first that Joshua was the last to receive his inheritance even though he was the leader of the entire nation of Israel. Now that’s servant leadership, would you agree? And I also see that Joshua moved his family to a town that already existed and he helped build up that town into an even better and larger town. Seems he and his family were welcome and made a very positive contribution to the future of that town! Can the same be said of you and me wherever we live in the world?
And then this final statement again helps us see this entire process of land inheritance was undertaken with much prayer, seeking God’s direction: “These are the territories that Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun and the heads of the tribal clans of Israel assigned by lot at Shiloh IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. And so, they finished dividing the land.” (Joshua 19:51) Do you see that phrase repeated a second time: “IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD”?
The land of God’s Promise had been assigned by inheritance to each tribe, under God’s direction! Finally, the Israelites were back in their God given homeland. But millions of other people had lived in that land for centuries and so the great challenge before them… learning to live in peace even though they worshipped Almighty, Holy God not the idols of the surrounding nations; and they had a moral code of ethics, the 10 Commandments and other laws of God, which were intended to guide them to live very differently from all the other peoples in this land.
This is probably very similar to the challenge God gives to you and me in living as God honoring people when surrounded by people who do not know or desire to honor God with their lives. So, this weekend, as you and I have the opportunity to gather with God’s people to worship Him, let’s ponder that and on Monday we’ll look closely at Joshua’s farewell address at the end of his life, and how significant it was for helping these people live well as God honoring people.
Here’s a worship song to help us consider all these great truths…
Today’s Scripture is Joshua 18, 19.
Choose below to read or listen.
Joshua 18
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Joshua 19
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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