Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends on this day after the anniversary of October 7th.
Over the past several weeks have you found the tragedies, the terrorist acts, the senseless bloodshed in our world has driven you to your knees, maybe often? Have you found your attention drawn to the Middle East and especially Israel and the ongoing tinderbox of volatility there? We are so fortunate to be living at our time in History when there is again a nation called Israel, and they occupy much of the Biblical land where the “Grand Narrative” story is told in both Old and New Testaments. Prior to 1948 there was no place called “Israel” for many centuries!
In the past few days, we’ve been reading through the chapters in Joshua which describe Joshua’s allotment of the Land of God’s Promise to the 12 different tribes of Israel. Please pause for a few seconds to consider the remarkable historic significance of these chapters which were the fulfillment of God’s Covenant promise first made to Abraham about 500 years before in Genesis 15:18-21!! Pause… 500 years! No matter where you live in the world, what was happening 500 years ago in the place where you now live? 500 years ago, where were your ancestors living and who were they? And one more question, how much do you know about the story of the place where you now live… 20 years ago, or 50 or even 100 years ago?
Now, can you wrap your minds around this: Abraham moved from the city of Ur, in modern day Iraq, following God’s lead, all the way to modern day Israel in about 2100 BC, that’s about 4100 years ago!! (Gen. 11:31) One of the remarkable things about the people of Israel, anywhere in the world, is their identity as descendants of Abraham, who received this remarkable Land and People Covenant PROMISE from God, shortly after his arrival in God’s Promised land! (Genesis 12)
Now watch this my friends: one generation later, God repeated this Land Covenant to Abraham’s son Isaac in Genesis 26:2,3. And then another generation later God, for a third time, repeated this specific Land Covenant to Abraham’s grandson, Isaac’s son, Jacob in Genesis 35:12! And then another generation later, after Jacob had moved his whole family to Egypt and they put down deep roots, Joseph spoke God’s promise to his huge family, the Israelites, while Joseph neared his death in Egypt: “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land of Egypt to the land He promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” (Gen. 50:24)
But by that time Abraham’s descendants, through Isaac, Jacob and his 12 sons, were so deeply in love with the bounty of Egypt life, they had no intention or desire to return to the Land of God’s Promise, remember?
As we’ve seen in our journey through “The Grand Narrative” it was hundreds of years later that Moses finally led the people out of Egypt by the power of God unleashing His plagues. And following the cloud of God’s Presence, Moses led them to Mt Sinai where they spent nearly a full year with God. But they did not trust God enough to enter the Land of God’s Promise and that entire generation died in their 40 years of wandering in the desert. So finally, it was Joshua who led the next generation across the God dried up Jordan river, into this long-anticipated Land of God’s Promise.
Today look with me at Joshua 18 as Joshua is allocating the Land of God’s Promise in fulfillment of God’s prediction. Joshua 18:1 says: “Then the whole assembly of the Israelites gathered at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there.”
This is that remarkable portable worship Tabernacle God had designed, and Spirit anointed, gifted people had assembled first at Mt Sinai and then carted around with them for 40 years in the desert; brought across the Jordan into the new land; first set up at Gilgal, and now finally are setting up at Shiloh. This “Tent of Meeting” would remain here at Shiloh about until the time of King Saul!
It was here in Shiloh where Joshua received direction from God regarding the allotment of land to the tribes of Israel! (Joshua 18:10) It was here to Shiloh, 300 years later, in the days of Eli the High Priest, that the praying woman Hannah brought her young son Samuel to be raised under the watchful eye of the priests, remember that story? (1 Samuel 1)
Perhaps you’ve wondered about Joshua and his family and what land inheritance he received? That story is found at the end of Joshua 19. “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 Joshua the town he asked for, Timnath Serah, in the hill country of Ephraim. And he built up the town and settled there…and so they finished dividing the land.” (Joshua 19:49-51)
Oh friends, we must understand the process of dividing up the land and actually conquering and taking possession of the land was two very different things! The conquering and possessing process took yet many more years, but as Joshua 19 concludes, the process of discerning from God and mapping out the boundaries of the land areas for all 12 tribes was accomplished! That was a very significant, historic achievement and a ‘defining moment’ of history that is a front and center debate even today, even in the United Nations during its current 80th session!
Amazing isn’t it, how relevant the “Grand Narrative” story of God’s work in our world really is, would you agree? Oh, millions of Arab people want the Israelites removed from their land and that land divided up among the surrounding nations or declared to be a new homeland for the Palestinians.
But Israel is the only land in the world divinely gifted by God to one people group, the Israelites, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his 12 sons. While other peoples have claimed this land in the past, these chapters in Joshua, occurring about 3350 years ago, describing the assignment by Joshua of this land to the Israelite tribes, was a PERMANENT work of the Almighty God who created this land! Do we understand the significance of these often ignored chapters in Joshua?
As always further notes for reflection are in the “Grand Narrative” link just below and here’s a wonderful Israeli song of thanksgiving to God, filmed and recorded in Jerusalem, and I’ll meet you here again tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: Joshua 18 & 19.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Joshua 19
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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