Joshua Session 10 - A Comprehensive Commentary by Ron Matsen

[Music] do this evening let's turn to the book of joshua chapter 20. we're in the 10th session of our study through the book of joshua and as we pointed out in our last two studies we're in this section of the book of joshua where we are looking at each of the tribes and families of israel receiving their possession and of course we've pointed out already but deserves a repeat as we um set ourselves uh up for tonight that as we look at this of course this is not only a real record of real history with real people doing real things but the parallels to you and i concerning our inheritance in christ not looking at that which we receive in a heavenly realm but that inheritance that we gain by being obedient to god being led by the spirit and the life that we now live and there are many parallels and we've been pointing that out as we've been going through this study and so let's continue in joshua chapter 20 beginning in verse 1. the lord also spoke to joshua saying speak to the children of israel saying appoint for yourselves cities of refuge of which i spoke to you through moses that the slayer who kills a person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood now to appreciate this you need a little bit of background on the the israel israel's judicial system and there is no police force rather that would be carrying out the law rather than that they are employing a community type of police force and and a law uh that are being judged by the people themselves the idea here is the person that would be the prosecutor in a a crime of manslaughter would be the relative of the killed person that person is referred to as the avenger of blood now this term avenger is an interesting uh term in that it comes from the hebrew word goel and if you're familiar with that term you'll know that it's referencing a person with the legal responsibility to protect the rights of an endangered relative and of course probably the most famous goel in terms of old testament history is that of boaz he was the goel the kinsmen redeemer for naomi and ruth so don't always think of the goel as a bloodthirsty avenger his job is to protect a less fortunate relative and that's the purpose of the goel and that's why when you study the book of ruth jesus is such a wonderful type and shadow of the goel who as our kinsmen redeemer redeems that which is lost from us and redeems it back to us now in particular since they don't have a police force the only judicial system they have uh is the prosecutor is the relative of the injured party uh and the one who uh has committed or is um accused of committing the the crime then has to flee to one of these cities of refuge but as you can imagine this would be an issue that could be disputed so you can't just have a relative of someone who you've accidentally injured or killed show up at your door and want to take vengeance upon you especially when you have situations like that there can be conflicts of facts and and emotionally charged grief and so it's they need to have an independent third party and the way they do that is through these cities of refuge that's the way israel would fairly judge specifically over this issue of manslaughter in exodus chapter 21 beginning in verse 12 we see the commandment of god concerning this we read he who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death however if he did not lie in weight but god delivered him into his hand then i will appoint for you a place where he may flee and so the idea is not for the premeditated murderer he could rush to a city of refuge and the elders at the gate if they determined that his case was not authentic and will come on to what some of that criteria is then he would be prevented from entering but if it truly was manslaughter accidental murder in that sense then he would be allowed into the cities of refuge numbers 35 gives us a little more um insight beginning in verse 10 speak to the children of israel and say to them when you cross the jordan into the land of canaan then you shall appoint cities to be the cities of refuge for you that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there they shall be cities of refuge for you from the avenger that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation in judgment now the whole crux of the matter is on this issue of defining what is accidental death that's manslaughter even by our current judicial system accidental death it's called manslaughter deuteronomy chapter 19 beginning in verse 4 says and this is the case of the manslayer who flees there that they may live whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally not having hated him in time past as when a man goes to the woods with his neighbor to cut timber and his hand swings a stroke with the axe to cut down a tree and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies he shall flee to one of these cities and live and so you get the scenario there that um two two aspects of it there there there has to be opportunity and there has to be motive and so if they see motive it's going to be difficult you hated this guy and you accidentally killed him uh you'll probably be judged and executed for murder so uh guarding the the heart of an individual make sure you don't go into a dangerous work situation with someone you hate i guess would be the the way to mitigate the the likelihood of this this brings up an interesting parallel my own life when we lived in southern california there was a tree out in front of our house it was planted there by the previous owners and it wasn't planted properly and so as it grew over time the roots began to come out in the grass and they began to unearth the concrete and whatever and so i took it to myself that i was going to not only have it professionally cut down but then i was going to split it into firewood and so a professional logger came out and cut the tree down laid it down made it into large slabs and i was going to get a a splitting maul and begin to have a go at splitting all this wood into firewood and as i was um banging away really on this very very hard wood um um i came down with the the head of the axe and all of a sudden the handle just flew out of my hand and went through the neighbor of the i went through the window of my neighbor's house now what was really spooky about that was five minutes before that he was there laying on a couch looking out the window watching me cut the uh the logs fortunately he had gone up to get a cup of tea and uh and so when we both rushed into his little side room there the axe was laying on the guy's bed so i i i feel a special sense of connection with the potential of that accident happening because it certainly happened to me but fortunately no one died so i was i was okay there but that gives you this that gives you the sense of what would be defined uh from deuteronomy as to what accidental death uh how it would be defined verse four and when he flees to one of those cities and stands at the entrance of the gate of the city and declares his case in the hearing of the elders of that city they shall take him into the city as one of them and give him a place that he may dwell among them then if the avenger of blood pursues him they shall not deliver the slayer into his hand because he struck his neighbor unintentionally but did not hate him beforehand and so now we have this definition of what takes place so the man has unintentionally killed someone he runs to the city of refuge gets there before the um avenger of blood the near relative that it's going to avenge the the killed man and he comes to the city of refuge so shelter is sought and protection is given and witnesses are heard and so they judge them at the gates that's why when you see examples of men of renown they're known by the fact that they would spend time at the gates that's where the judgment would take place because that controlled the entrance and exit from the city and so it carried with it that sort of stigma but there's some other things i want us to look at here with regards to the city of refuge and that is that there are seven facts about these cities that are foreshadows of jesus christ and we love to find things in the old testament that foreshadowed jesus christ and so we'll quickly go through those at this juncture first of all the cities are owned by the levites they are the advocates so now we have the accused the one who is running to the city we have the prosecutor that is the avenger of blood or the go l and then we have the accused and then we have the advocates those are the ones who are going to weigh the evidence and the levites that is their responsibility in these cities of refuge is to adjudicate to judge between the accuser and the one who is being accused 1 john chapter 2 tells us my little children i write these things to you so that you may not sin and if anyone sins we have an advocate with the father jesus christ the righteous and so like the levites in the city of refuge the the levites were acting as the advocate they were there and their their um premise is to consider him innocent notice they're instructed when he comes you examine them then you take him in and you provide a place for him you're to protect him as if he is one of your own so when the avenger of blood the goel comes he does not have access to the city he's barred access to the city and so these cities are like christ as our advocate number two the cities these cities are always located on top of a mountain 2 corinthians 4 3 tells us but if our gospel is veiled it is veils to those who are perishing so you don't want a city of refuge to be someplace that's hard to find and so all six of these cities of refuge that we'll point out are cities that were on top of a hill or a mountain so they could be seen from a great distance they're all located close to all of israel so there'll be six of these cities and they're spread in an interesting pattern so that everyone can get there within an easy day's walk or better better than that on easy days run romans chapter 10 verse 8 tells us but what does it say the word is near you in your mouth and in your heart that is the word of faith which we preach it has to be near it has to be something that people can get to they don't need to go through a long process to find these cities of refuge number four they're open to everyone not only the children of israel but also to the gentiles and of course in romans chapter 10 verse 12 we read for there is no distinction between jew and greek for the same lord over all is rich to all who call upon him and isn't that a wonderful understanding to recognize that god is not going to favor the jews over the gentiles with regards to his acting on our behalf as our advocate number five it's open at all times they were to have people manning the gates day and night to be able to be open all the time and revelation 3 8 tells us i know your work see i have set before you an open door and no one can shut it for you have little strength and have kept my word and i'm not denied my name and of course you know that's jesus saying i've set before you a door that no one can close and that door that's open is is that of his advocacy on our behalf number six each of these cities were to be stocked with food and provisions for those who would flee there in other words they wouldn't have to come bring in their own provisions the city was stocked up in fact it was filled with the offerings of the the children of israel in anticipation that there would be those who would run there for their survival john 6 35 tells us jesus said to them i am the bread of life he who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst we have such a wonderful advocate but he's more than just an advocate he is one who will take care of us in our time of need and number seven there is no other place for help there wasn't some other system that you could go to these six cities will represent the only alternative if you are guilty of manslaughter in acts chapter 4 verse 12 peter says nor is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved and so these are seven types and shadows of christ in the cities of refuge and jesus is the only refuge no amount of work no amount of discussion would uh dissuade the um the the duty of the manslayer that would be coming after you you've committed a crime your only option is to flee to the city of refuge and to stay there and allow the levites to act as your advocate that's your only alternative and he shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment and until the death of the one who is high priest in those days then the slayer shall return and come to his own city in his own house to the city from which he fled and so here we have an interesting uh sentence that's given assuming they believe that he is guilty of manslaughter in other words the man was in fact killed he's not innocent in that sense he is accused and guilty of manslaughter unintentional murder then he will stay inside of that place until the death of the high priest a bit peculiar when you think about it except of the foreshadowing of course of this wonderful type and shadow of jesus christ that's mentioned in hebrews chapter 9 verses 11 and 12 but christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is not of this creation not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all having obtained eternal redemption and so the ultimate type and shadow here is not only do we find our refuge in the city of refuge our refuge in jesus christ but we are released and fully redeemed once the high priest is dies and christ through his death on the cross is the payment for our sin so we are released from a city of refuge we run to him that completed work of jesus christ is all that is necessary for us now to stand as uh no longer charged and no longer guilty of any uh judgment and uh so these cities of refuge uh very unique judicial system it depended on the people uh being fair in the way in which they were going to pass out these judgments but this is the purpose of these cities so they appointed kadesh in galilee in the mountains of nati shechem in the mountains of ephraim and kirjath arba which is hebron in the mountains of judah and on the other side of the jordan by jericho eastward they assigned betzer in the wilderness on the plane from the tribe of reuben ramoth in gilead from the tribe of gad and golon in basham from the tribe of manasseh these were the cities appointed for all the children of israel and for the slayer who dwelt among them that whoever killed a person accidentally might flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stood before the congregation and so as we look at the location of these cities of refuge you can see that they're sort of evenly spaced three on the west side of the jordan river three on the east side of the jordan river and these are all cities that are on a hill shechem of course was the place that joshua brought the children of israel where they had established the amount of blessing in the mount of cursing where the word of the lord is written upon the white-washed stones that are there katish in the north hebron in the south on the western side of the jordan river and golan ramoth and betzer on the east side now also as we look at these the names of these cities we have some interesting meetings there we find that the name golan means exile and that's really where we all start in our journey to jesus christ we start as exiles we are sinners when we look at colossians chapter 1 beginning in verse 21 paul writes and you were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight so the city golan means exile second ramoff means heights humble yourself in the sight of the lord and he will lift you up so we begin his exiles and to um enjoy the the benefit of the city of refuge for us in christ we have to humble ourselves and then he will lift us up we don't need to to justify ourself we need to go there recognizing that our our sins have separated us from god betzer means fortress so we began his exiles we've been lifted up because we've humbled ourself and now of course we can understand what psalm 61 3 means you have been a shelter for me a strong tower from the enemy once you're in christ once you through repentance you've entered into a personal relationship with jesus christ you recognize that he is your advocate and he is your defender he's also your judge so he plays a dual role there in terms of of that perspective but in terms of those who would now bring a charge against you who will bring a charge against god's elect no one not successfully we then move to hebron which means fellowship now that we are in that place of safety we now enjoy fellowship with god no longer just concerned about the forgiveness of sins which we were real focused on as exile we've humbled ourselves god has lifted us up we're in the fortress of jesus christ our savior and lord and now we enjoy fellowship paul puts it this way in 1 corinthians chapter 1 verse 9 god is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son jesus christ our lord we should never underestimate the power and wonder of what god has called us into fellowship with god fellowship with god i mean you know in an interpersonal way what it is to not just simply know of someone but to know someone and then to go beyond knowing someone and to have fellowship with someone it's a deeper type of relationship where there's a given exchange there's the sense of caring the sense of trusting and it's really the type of of relationship we cherish one with another but oh that we would understand that we are designed and we are enabled by the holy spirit to enter into fellowship with god himself through jesus christ our lord fellowship not just knowing of god or knowing about god being able to understand the concept of god but having fellowship with god where we commune with god and he communes with us and so as we go through that process of of growing in our relationship with god having run to the city of refuge who in this sense as a metaphor is jesus christ we were in exile we humbled ourself and he lifted us up we now reside in the fortress we enjoy fellowship and the word shekha means shoulder now this is an interesting word that is used here in the hebrew it doesn't just simply mean a portion of your body it means to carry your weight on someone else's shoulder it means to carry a burden and of course you immediately spring to mind that which jesus says of himself as the good shepherd but luke 15 tells us that what man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one of them does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it and when he has found it he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing you see we don't have to stand on our own before a holy god our savior carries us as a wounded lamb on his shoulder if we could understand that he wants fellowship with us he wants to carry us you know as a parent those of you that have had small children know that there are those precious few times in the life of your children when they you they really want you to carry them and and it's a precious thing and they come up into your arms and you recognize that you are the one that's now going to transport them but that caring means more than just transport it's the whole package of caring for that individual and how secure the child will be as they're in your arms and you just love that sense when they just sort of relax and sort of melt into your arms and you know they're trusting in you and and and because you're the one that's gonna gonna make it all happen you're gonna carry them forward that sense of being carried is the sense of what the word shechem means to shoulder us as a shepherd would to a lost lamb and finally qadesh righteousness the end result of that is righteousness paul tells the philippians this in chapter 3 verse 8 yet indeed i also caught all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of christ jesus my lord for whom i have suffered the loss of all things and count them rubbish that i might gain christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is from the law but that which is through faith in christ the righteousness which is from god by faith wow not only can we enjoy fellowship with god not only can we feel secure in the fortress of god having humbled ourselves previously in exile being drawn into fellowship with god carried upon his shoulders but now he imputes to us the righteousness that is from god it is not something that we earn through our own deeds and that's the crux of all religion this is why religion will always be an insult to god because it's an attempt by man to gain the favor of god the righteousness that god sees is the righteousness of christ in whom we are hidden and so when the father looks down at the son he sees the righteousness of a son so that we are members of his body we gate we are the benefactors of his righteousness in terms of that relationship with the father if we stand alone we stand in our own righteousness we'll be consumed but as we stand in christ we enjoy the relationship with the father as the son but then we have through the inner working of the holy spirit in our life that righteousness that is worked by christ through the spirit in our life which is the work of the spirit in our life to produce the fruits of the spirit which are right acts which come as a result of us being a branch connected to the vine jesus says i am the vine you are the branches if you abide in me and my word abides in you you will produce fruit the responsibility of the fruit is in the vine not the branch the branch's responsibility is to get connected to the vine so that there's a clear connection there so that fruit can be produced and so as we look at these cities of refuge they're more than just a wonderful judicial idea that allow for the in the one incident of all the different types of law breaking that can take place there's only one that these cities of refuge are for therefore those who commit manslaughter because at the end of the day you and i are all guilty of manslaughter our sin put jesus christ upon the cross we're all guilty of manslaughter but what did jesus say concerning those who nailed him to the cross father forgive them for they do not know what they have done so we are guilty of manslaughter with regards to the person of jesus christ so we all need to run to the city of refuge which is a type of christ to find christ as our advocate christ is our fortress christ is the one who carries us upon his shoulder so that we might be robed eternally in his righteousness it's a wonderful parallel and picture of the work god is and loves to do in the life of those who are willing to allow the spirit to bring them to repentance through jesus christ let's move on to chapter 21. then the heads of the fathers of the house of the levites came near to eliezer the priest to joshua the son of nun and the heads of the fathers fathers houses of the tribes of the children of israel and they spoke to them at shiloh in the land of canaan saying the lord commanded through moses to give us cities to dwell in with their common lands for our livestock so the children of israel gave to the levites from their inheritance at the commandment of the lord these cities and their common lands and so what's being set up here now is the last the 13th tribe in that sense is now going to get their inheritance and it's going to be divided up into aaron and the three families of levi aaron was not to receive land as the other tribes did numbers chapter 18 verse 20 tells us then the lord said to aaron you shall have no inheritance in their land nor shall you have any portion among them i am your portion and your inheritance among the children of israel again in verse 23 but the levite shall perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting and they shall bear their iniquity it shall be a statute forever throughout their generation that among the children of israel they shall have no inheritance now pay attention to that because i want you to take notice what god is doing here with regards to these who serve the lord he is giving them no physical inheritance in the land read that levi will not profit from the ministry and oh how it grieves my heart today how often there are people who are profiteering fleecing the flock of god they're the benefactors making for themselves great uh amounts of wealth and palaces and jetting around the globe in their own private jets under the title of ministry uh funds and ministry this and ministry that it's shocking when you especially when you consider that for aaron and the tribe of levi serving the lord was enough he said that should be enough for you because as a people devoted holy and solely to serving the lord it's god's responsibility to take care of you and what a wonderful thing it is to see god provide the apostle paul writing to the philippian church says i've learned to be content in whatever state that i am in he was really espousing an idea of ministry which if you're going to make ministry your vocation you need to pay attention is that as you minister to the lord it's god's problem to figure out where you're going to live if you really are serving the lord but sadly so often the acquisition of things begins to eclipse the sense of the pursuit of ministry let's get this thing and let's get that thing let's acquire this thing and let's purchase that thing and there are many sadly too many examples of individuals who the prima donna of the church is the pastor or the leader or the leadership within the church they're the ones who seem to be doing quite well why the sheep are all worried about supporting their pastor making sure that he's being cared for in the manner to which he would love to become accustomed that's not the way it was supposed to be the levites were set apart by god to serve god and that was to be sufficient yes they were given the basics they had they had cities and we'll go through that in this chapter 21 they were given cities they were given the immediate lands around to take care of their own gardens and some of their own cattle but a majority of their sustenance came by virtue of the byproduct of the worship of the people and they were to take that which was necessary for their daily bread they were literally going to carry on as though they were in the wilderness living in that day-to-day basis uh as god provided manna now when we look at levi what we are talking about is of the 12 tribes or 12 sons of israel you remember joseph's two sons manasseh and ephraim they were each given a portion so in that sense joseph gets a double portion well now levi has no portion in terms of the inheritance of large portions of land and so what's going to take place now is we're going to look at what takes place with the three sons of levi gershon by the way his name means foreigner his family was responsible for dealing with all of the cloths curtains and linen fence so all of the uh tapestries and and all those sorts of things they were responsible for kohath was responsible whose name means assembly was responsible for the holy objects so the ark of the covenant and the table of showbread and so forth they were responsible for that the care of that marari he his name means bitter and probably because uh he was responsible for all of the timber work and so um they had the heavy lifting uh marari did and they were the ones who had to set everything up and then uh the the outer court after they'd set up the framework then the linen fence would be placed up once the uh the uh framework was put up for the tabernacle then then gershon would come in and put in the curtains and the claws and they were the dress you know that would dress the place up so at any rate uh they were responsible for that so verse four now the lot came out for the family of the coethites the children of aaron the priest who were of the levites had 13 cities by lot from the tribe of judah from the tribe of simeon and the tribe of benjamin so now what we're going to do is we're going to see that aaron's allotment of cities is going to be in what later will be referred to as the southern kingdom of israel now you remember when we were here in our last study we pointed out the fact that judah by and large has the largest in terms of of square meters the largest inheritance of all the tribes and some might think that that's unfair but that's just god in his foreordained understanding knowing that they will be the tribe that will be the last standing and so he gives them a largest portion it's also interesting that by lot aaron's portion is going to be within judah so the high priest is not going to be in the area of shiloh where the tabernacle is his portion will actually be in judah which gives you a little bit of foreshadowing that god already knows how the nation of israel is going to get paired down to what we see there in the south of uh benjamin judah and simeon the rest of it children of kohath had 10 cities by lot from their the families of the tribe of ephraim from a tribe of dan and from half the tribe of manasseh so the rest of the the the family of kohath aaron coming from the family of kohat they have this middle portion from these two and a half tribes and the children of gershon had 13 cities by lot from the families of the tribe of issachar from the tribe of asher from the tribe of naftili and from half the tribe of manasseh in basham and so when we look now we see that um these uh the northern part of israel now is given to gershon who has the responsibility remember to take care of all the fabric kohath has all the responsibility of the furnishings and gershon has the responsibility of all the claws curtains and the linen fences and so forth the children of marari according to their families had 12 cities from a tribe of reuben from the tribe of gad and from the tribe of zebulum and so they kind of have a a mixed up little batch here two of their three parts of their inheritance their cities are going to be on the eastern side of the jordan and uh but they do have two cities of refuge that they will be responsible for and the children of israel gave these cities with their common lands by lot to the levites as the lord had commanded by the hand of moses so they gave the tribe of the children of judah and from the tribe of the children of simeon these cities which are designated by name now we'll pause for a moment and remember now this is an opportunity for the people who have an inheritance to express their thanksgiving to god by giving the levites some of their inheritance you know one of the the things that always amuses me is of having pastored churches for many years is when you have that individual that comes to you and says is this a church that preaches that we should tithe and i say well define what you mean by tithe you know giving 10 percent of our income and i said no no no no we don't teach that oh i'm really glad for that no i teach that you should give a hundred percent it all belongs to god it's sort of like again in my own family uh as my kids were growing up we'd come to you know christmas time or a time for giving gifts and uh you know my children were always short of cash and so they'd always come to me and dad you know can i borrow some money borrow means can i have and never pay back and uh you know they would they would uh take money and go off and and this one christmas everybody thought they were funny because they borrowed quite a large sum for me and bought presents for each other and they bought me about 30 combs now you can appreciate that i didn't really need 30 combs but uh they all thought they were being really clever but i thought to myself now you've taken the money i've given you which i would have expected at least something nice and you bought me a bunch of combs you know it was a good joke but sometimes that's the way we are with god isn't it you know we we actually act as though what we have possession of is something that we own in the sense that god we look at god as uh as is trying to reach into our pockets so to speak and so what the children of israel are told to do is they now have an opportunity to give other than the six cities uh of the cities of refuge which have already been defined by god each of the tribes have an opportunity to give cities to the levites for them to live in okay which were the children of aaron one of the families of the coathites who were of the children of levi for for their lot was first and they gave them kirjath arba arba was the father of anak which is hebron in the mountains of judah with the common land surrounding it but the fields of the city and its villages they gave to caleb the son of uh jayfunna as his possession thus to the children of aaron the priest they gave hebron with its common land a city of refuge for the slayer pavement with its common land plenty with its common land i shall cause my own ruin that's an interesting name of a town with its common land sandy with its common land sanctuary with its common land spring with its common land stretched out with its common land house of the sun with its common land nine cities from those two tribes and from benjamin uh gibeon the hill city with its common land gibba which means hill with its common land answers to prayer with its common land and concealed with its common land for cities all the cities of the children of aaron the high priest were 13 cities with their common lands and so aaron has 13 cities of which one of them is hebron and it is interesting just to note how they're spread out it is an interesting study to go and see where they think some of these cities are and they were darted around and they were dealt with pretty fairly in terms of how the cities were distributed unto them and the families of the children of kohath the levites the rest of the children of coauth even had the cities of their lot from the tribe of ephraim for they gave them shechem which with its common land in the mountains of ephraim a city of refuge for the slayer a portion with its land two gatherings with its common land house of of hollowness with its common land four cities and the tribe of dan let god spew the out with its common land a hilly place with its common land field of deer with its common land gath rimen which means wine press of the pomegranate with its common land four cities and from half the tribe of manasseh sandy with its common land and wine press of the pomegranate with its common land two cities all ten cities with their common lands were for the rest of the families of the children of kohath and so we deal with now with this the remainder of aaron's family who are responsible for the keeping of the tabernacle furnishings they're the closest to shiloh and we have their cities and to the children of gershon of the families of the levites from the other half of the tribe of manasseh they gave golan which means exile and basum with its common land a city of refuge for the slayer and with increase with its common land two cities and from the tribe of issachar hard with its common land and word with its common land heights with its common land and fountain of the garden with its common land for cities and from the tribe of asher and treaty with its common land servitude with its common land smooth with its common land broad place with its common land for cities and from the tribe of naftili righteousness in galilee with its common land a city of refuge for the slayer hot springs of door with its common land two cities with its common land three cities all the cities of the gershonites according to their families were 13 cities with their common lands and so now we have at the very north we have these uh the the gershonites have two of the responsibility to man two of the cities of refuge kadesh and golan and to the families of the children of marari the rest of the levites from the tribe of zebulum the people lament with its common lands city with its common lands dunghill with its common lands and pasture with its common lands four cities and from the tribe of reuben fortress with its common land trodden down with its common land beginnings with its common land splendor with its common land four cities and from the tribe of gad heights in gilead with its common land a city of refuge for the slayer two camps with its common land stronghold with its common land and helped with its common land for cities in all so all the cities of the children of marawi according to their families the rest of the families of the levites were by their lots 12 cities and so we round out really the um the sense of this inheritance for those who would be serving god it is interesting as you go back through that list that you see that that many of those cities don't sound like very nice places to live dunghill and hard and sandy and and so on and so forth they when you go back through those names and and look you recognize that many of the cities given to the levites really were not the choice ground they were giving as so often as the case they were giving that which really was not something that they wanted for themselves i know let's give it to the church i know as a pastor one of the things especially when you have a building into which you can have in which you can have meetings but another thing that happens is all of a sudden people begin to donate things to you and it's amazing what junk people donate to the local church it really is shocking you know you get that call hey well we have this settee um i can't seem to find anybody else that wants it but i bet the youth club would love this thing and so do you mind if we bring it by and give it to the church you know or hey we've got this thing it's a little beat up but probably if you made it as a as a project for the sunday school you know they could paint the thing maybe it would be of some use to you and it's shocking to see how often that's the case when people uh begin to think about what they are going to devote to the work of the lord how often the case is let's see how cheap let's see if i've got something that's a bit junky and no i can't get rid of it i tried to sell it and i can't get rid of it so i'll give it to the church and maybe they'll give me a tax deduction and so it is not um something that's unique to israel in terms of that mentality that sense of of not really pouring into the sense of people who their entire existence is going to be for the service of the lord and yet as these tribes are um are setting out for themselves here's what we're going to be giving it is shocking some of the some of the areas that were given to the tribe of levi and and by the time interestingly enough you get to the book of judges there are two stories about levites who don't have any place to live and they're wandering around which is which is a sad indictment of the nation itself that the people who should have been focused on the service of the lord are unemployed and so they have to sell themselves and and we'll get into that when we're in the book of judges but uh you see that really they they lost the sense of what their calling was and the people lost the opportunity to support them the way they should be supported so all the cities of the levites within the possessions of the children of israel were 48 cities with their common lands every one of these had its common lands surrounding it thus were all these cities so the lord gave to israel all the land of which he had sworn to give to their fathers and they took possession of it and dwelt in it the lord gave them rest all around according to all that he had sworn to their fathers and not a man of their enemy stood against them the lord delivered all their enemies into their hand not a word failed of any good thing which the lord had spoken to the house of israel all came to pass now you could almost at this point think well then that should just end the book of joshua and they lived happily ever after god has fulfilled everything he has promised but he has promised more than they were willing to take the promised land should have been easily twice the size they still had cities they hadn't fully conquered the kings had been defeated the soldiers had been vanquished and yet the cities were still posing a threat within the border of israel god is faithful to his word he will fulfill that which he is committed to but he will only work through people who are willing to be obedient to him and so if we are seeing a lack of progress sometimes that lack of progress can be not from god not up holding up his portion of the of the partnership it's for our lack of of faith in following him and taking him seriously god is faithful everyone is sordid at this point everyone has a portion in the land albeit as we pointed out in our last study when god sent out five of the twelve tribes there at the end they went out and they surveyed their own plots and we pointed out that all those plots were much smaller than everyone else's as is so often the case we define well this is good enough for me this is nice and tidy and neat rather than going all the way to the euphrates river like they could have based on the promise given to abraham each has their own inheritance and if they stay obedient to the lord they will as a family never lose that inheritance they might have a lapse where they run into difficulty but adhering to the law associated with the year of jubilee everything would be returned to them but sadly israel never never never enjoyed the sabbath years that god prescribed for them that's why when israel finally is taken away into captivity they're there for 70 years because they did not take that holiday that they should have while they were in the land so god says i'm going to give the land what i promised it i said that we were going to rest and you were going to rest and i was going to provide for you but instead you kept going on with your own ways through your own will and it led to to destruction and eventually dispersion and so they have their own inheritance which they should not necessarily lose but they will the question is now what will they do with what they have and that's the same question to you and i we are given a rich inheritance in jesus christ we have access to the throne room of god how often we take advantage of that how often do we act upon that one-to-one relationship that god is offering us in fellowship or are we so busy with the process of life that we ignore the purpose of life so for the nation of israel they had all that they needed to be successful you and i have all that we need to be successful in jesus christ if we're failing and struggling it's because we need to go back to joshua we need to go back to jesus as our leader we need to reconnect we may have to go through that cycle of reconciliation of god recognizing that our own deeds create us make us like an exile we need to humble ourself run to the fortress of god experience that fellowship with god be carried on his shoulders stop trying to be the big the big the big person the mr and mrs know it all and relaxed in in what god is is not only willing to do but ready to do wanting to do concerning us to fulfill uh his work in our life now in our study next week we'll be looking at chapter 22. we're going to pause and take a real good deep look at chapter 22 encourage you to read that this week and with that let's close with the word of prayer lord we are grateful that through your word we recognize that you have called us to the high calling of being joint heirs with jesus christ lord that's a title that we so easily say but yet lord we we honestly don't really understand what it is because if we really did understand what that meant lord we would probably live our lives completely different lord we're paupers and you know we're made to be kings and queens and you lord kings and priests to almighty god lord we pray that you would teach each and every one of us what we need to know lord to follow heart after you lord that we may accomplish all that you've set before us lord that we would enjoy the inheritance that we have in you through jesus christ our lord and savior for it's in his name we pray and ask all of these things amen

Channel: Koinonia House

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Keywords: jesus, christ, chuck, missler, koinonia, house, khouse, institute

Id: ho8QxJmGnx0

Length: 56min 53sec (3413 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 11 2020