Joshua Session 8 - A Comprehensive Commentary by Ron Matsen

[Music] do father we thank you for your word and grateful lord that you lay before us examples whereby we can learn and see our lives brought into obedience toward you lord so that we might fully comprehend and apprehend and accomplish in our life lord that which you'd have us do so father we pray that you give us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to be obedient unto you tonight we pray amen we are in the book of joshua this is our eighth session we'll be going through two chapters tonight chapters 13 and 14. in our last session we looked really at the completion of the sequential history of the conquering of israel and as we will see tonight that whole process took about seven years in chapter 13 onward now through chapter 21 we're going to be dealing with the individuals and the tribes taking their inheritance possession of their inheritance and so you remember when we began our study that as we began we looked at chapter one and in verse six god was encouraging joshua as the leader of the children of israel he said be strong and of good courage for to this people you shall divide an inheritance the land which i swore to their fathers to give them and of course we saw that joshua was in fact obedient to that in joshua chapter 11. so joshua took the whole land according to all that the lord had said to moses and joshua gave it as an inheritance to israel according to their divisions by their tribes then the land rested from war and so we have what he was commanded to do at the beginning and then we of course have that which he fulfills after this seven year period it's also interesting to note that from this point forward chapter from chapters 13 through the end we'll see the term uh inheritance uh mentioned more than 50 times it really is going to be an example of what it is for those who are called by god equipped by god brought into the promised land but that's the work's not done yet there's an inheritance that we are to acquire notice also that israel did not win this victory nor did they earn it nor did they purchase the land but the lord leased to them as tenants in leviticus chapter 25 verse 23 god tells the nation of israel that the land is his but they will he will grant it to them based on their obedience in other words their rent for occupancy was their obedience and so often we need to understand there is an obligation that you and i have concerning uh not only following the lord into a a life of abundance uh in the spirit but also recognizing that we have a responsibility to be obedient there if we expect to flourish in that inheritance which is promised for us and so we begin chapter 13. now joshua was old advanced in years and the lord said to him you are old advanced in years and there remains very much land yet to be possessed now at this point joshua's come to the end of the seven year military campaign and the writer does this sort of double statement by saying joshua was old and advanced in years and god tells him joshua a year old and advanced in years now we're going to find out that he's not any different in age than to caleb and we'll come on to that in chapter 14. he's in his mid 80s at this point but what he has accomplished is sufficient is what's really being said there now moses had led the children of israel to the eastern side of the jordan river and joshua had led israel west of the jordan river so we have two commanders in that sense moses taking the children of israel and settling them on the eastern side of the jordan joshua taking them fully into the promised land on the west side of the jordan this work this first work was done for israel god did it all the way along as we went through the the two major military campaigns we saw that god was fighting on their behalf uh they conquered all of the cities they they destroyed uh all of the leadership within uh the land which was promised to them and god was the one that led them into the promised land now this work was totally done by god and it's important for us to see this type in shadow when we are dealing with the issue of the spirit-filled spirit-led life we need to understand that's not something that we acquire on our own by our own fleshly efforts it's a work of the spirit in our life but it requires obedience on our part and so the work is done by god he begins by dividing the jordan river and allowing them to once again cross a a watery barrier on dry ground he then knocks down the walls of jericho he then fights on their behalf killing more with hailstones than israel did with the sword you remember that as joshua went out in the first military campaign which started as a rescue effort for the gibeonites uh turned out to be a route of these kings that were being led by the king from the city of salem later would be referred to as jerusalem the spiritual type here of course is justification the work that is being done in the establishment of the nation was gods and gods alone notice there is no record of israeli casualties during this time other than the one time when they came into the land the ill-fated attempt against ai because that was not the timing of the lord to do that but all the rest of the campaigns there's no record of there being casualties i'm not saying necessarily there weren't but in terms of type and shadow as joshua begins the the the campaign against the southern kings and then later on against the northern kings uh there's no record of any loss of life on the part of israel and the the battles are being fought by god god will say i will deliver them into your hand and he certainly did that he is doing this for israel whose name means ruled by god which they could not do for themselves and it's important for us to recognize justification is something that we cannot accomplish by ourselves all the kings that is the authorities in the land they have all been defeated the structure of authority has been defeated by the completed work of joshua in the land but god did not completely wipe out all their enemies and we discussed this a little bit in our last study that that is a mystery to me and yet it seems perfectly consistent with the remainder of scripture that when we come into a relationship with god we are the benefactors of his love and grace toward us he has done what is necessary to forgive us of our sins and to pay for that those sins upon christ's cross at calvary now the scripture make that's clear and yet throughout the new testament especially we see these admonitions these these uh encouragements for us to go beyond that of justification and follow by the spirit into the abundant life that is brought about through the processional work of sanctification you see the first work was for israel the next work was to be in israel and that's the difference when you deal with justification it's what god does for us and we comprehend and apprehend that by faith and faith alone it's not by works of righteousness that we have done but by his mercy he saved us but this next work is in us it's a sense like jesus speaking to his disciples saying i am the vine you are the branches if you abide in me and my word abides in you you will produce fruit and that fruit shall remain notice there's a few if clauses there if you abide there's a sense of obedience that's necessary for you to be fruitful and so that's what we're dealing with here when we deal with this subject of being in a place where we begin to ben be benefactors of our inheritance they had been given ownership of the land and with ownership comes authority over the land but also responsibility now those of you that have owned a car or a piece of property you know especially when you get your very first car for example you're so happy it's yours you don't have to ask anybody to use it you have the authority over it and then of course the thing after a while it gets dirty it needs petrol it needs oil it needs to be fixed and you begin to wonder and then the bank still wants their monthly payments and you're wondering who owns who here you feel sometimes like you are the slave sometimes you can leave it in the garage but nonetheless you still have to maintain this thing and so with ownership is authority and responsibility and so they have ownership but now they must take occupancy of the land they need to occupy the land not just simply own it they can't be an absentee owner of the spirit-filled spirit-led life it's something that they need to enter into and occupy in the land and that's what we're going to see for most of the rest of our study in the book of joshua is the command to them that is going to encourage them to go in and fully occupy the land the spiritual type here of course is that of sanctification justification is what god does for us sanctification is what god does in us philippians chapter 2 beginning in verse 5 we read let this mind be in you which was also in christ jesus who being in the form of god did not consider robbery to be equal with god but made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross therefore god also therefore god also has highly exalted him and given him the name with given him the name which is above every name that at the name of jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth and every tongue should confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is god who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure notice how he prefaces that statement of work at your own salvation he reminds us yet again that it's the work of christ that's brought us into fellowship with god but that purpose of bringing us into fellowship with god is not so that we can live our own life according to our own desires god is not simply providing for us some sort of uh hell escape card or fire insurance he did not bring us into everlasting fellowship with himself to be a trophy but rather a tool something that will bring glory unto himself and therefore we need to see the work of sanctification in our life is not to earn his favor that's been accomplished through the work of christ what we need to understand is the work of sanctification in our life is our way of expressing our appreciation for all that he's done for us therefore our submission to that work of a spirit in our life is because of what christ has done for us we can't earn a deeper love from god by virtue of what we do but we certainly have an opportunity to live the life that we now have in christ in a way that brings honor and glory to the one who's raised us from the dead and that really is a is a summary of why we should be excited to submit ourselves to that processional work of sanctification in our life through the holy spirit what work can we do one might say okay we're going to work out our own salvation not work for our salvation but work out it should be something that now springs forth from our innermost beings how can we do that well paul writing in his in his final epistle to timothy says in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also wood and clay some for honor some for dishonor therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter he will be a vessel of honor sanctified and useful for the master prepared for every good work notice what takes place there he is speaking of a house in which resides two vessels the vessels already reside in the house but one is a vessel of honor and he tells us how does it become a vessel of honor he will be a vessel of honor sanctified useful for the master's use if anyone cleanses themself this is not cleansing yourself with respect to justification this is the process to which we submit ourselves the holy spirit drawing us to those places so as we're familiar the christian bar of soap if you confess your sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness that's a work that we can do we can confess our sins we can allow the spirit to yet again uh cleanse us and so there is a work we can do in that sense let's carry on with verse two and in joshua chapter 13. this is the land that yet remains all the territory of the philistines and all of the gershorites from sihor which is east of egypt as far as the border of ekron north which is counted as canaanite the five lords of the philistines the gazites the ashtarites the ashkelonites the gettites the echronites and also the avites from the south and all the land of the canaanites and mira that belongs to the sidonians as far as affect to the border of the amorites the land of the gabellites and all lebanon toward the sunrise from belgaud below mount hermon as far as the entrance to hamath all the inhabitants of the mountains from lebanon as far as the brook of miss ref off and the sedona and all the sidonians them i will drive out from before the children of israel only it by lot to the israel to israel as an inheritance as i have commanded you now as we pause for a moment here we recognize that we're being told here that joshua has rested he has completed the battle and yet we're told that there is still much more to do there's more land to conquer you remember in in our study of genesis chapter 15 in verse 18 god reminds abraham of just how large the promised land is he says in the second portion of verse 18 to your descendants i have given this land from the river of egypt to the great river the river euphrates now when we look at this area you recognize that when it refers to the river of egypt not necessarily referring to the nile it would have been the great river of egypt but rather the most believe that it's referring to wada wadi el-arish which is also referred elsewhere to as the uh river of egypt but then to the euphrates river which of course uh begins and uh what we know as uh kuwait runs through um iraq all the way up and through syria and then into turkey so those are effectively the the southern and northern boundaries of what god tells abraham will be his the land that is conquered by israel really during the time of of joshua is only a small portion of that land now during the reign of king david he will extend the kingdom all the way up and include the city of damascus he'll put an israeli military detachment there so he will extend it a little bit further north and east but for the most part the nation of israel never accomplishes the inheritance that was available to them even though as we just read god told them wherever you go i will be with you i you can go as far as you'd like to go i'll tell you where your boundaries are but keep going while the children of israel were in the wilderness they were told whatever ground you put your feet on i will give it to you and as he's already promised he has defeated the enemies of israel now therefore divide this land as an inheritance to the nine tribes and half the tribe of manasseh and so we're going to begin to now see this division that takes place of the lands the inheritance the land west of the jordan was now to be given to the other nine and a half tribes now let's pause at this point you know often times when people refer to the nation of israel they'll speak of especially after the civil war when solomon died rehoboam took the southern portion of the kingdom jeroboam became king of the northern kingdom and oftentimes will refer to the southern kingdom as the two tribes benjamin and and uh judah and then the others will say the ten lost tribes you'll see people use that term a lot well as we go through this you're going to see that that's really not historically accurate in terms of the distribution of the land and what would have been there at the time of the rebellion uh of the or the civil war that took place between the north and the south but let's carry on the inheritance of israel they didn't win it or purchase the land but it was theirs for the taking it could be as large as they were willing to apply effort within its boundaries they weren't told to go conquer the whole world there was a southern boundary the river of egypt and a northern boundary the euphrates but within that that band of land if they would have just kept marching north god would have gone before them and vanquished their enemies and given them that land our inheritance of course is purchased by jesus christ in chapter 1 of ephesians beginning in verse 11 we read in him also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will that we who first trusted in christ should be to the praise of his glory in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also having believed you were sealed with the holy spirit of promise who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory the apostle paul there speaks in similar terms as joshua is before the nation of israel saying you are victorious because of the work god has done for you and as you go forward you can continue to be prosperous in the realm of the spirit subduing the aspects in your life which are the remnants of the old man the occupants of the land in that sense the authority they have been decapitated it's now our responsibility to move into those areas of our life which we know still are displeasing they are still residing there not make treaties with them but seek through the power of spirit ways to see those things which are dishonoring to our king the one that has raised us from the dead to whom we live our life now we should look at those things and see what what would god have us do concerning those things and not simply make a peace treaty as it were continuing verse 8 with the other half tribe the reubenites and the ganites received their inheritance which moses had given them beyond the jordan eastward as moses the servant of the lord had given them from ar which is the bank of the river arnon and the town that is in the midst of the ravine and all the plane of madiba as far as diben all the cities of sihon king of the amorites who reigned in heshbon as far as the border of the children of of ammon gilead and and the border of the gershonites the macathytes all of mount hermon and all basham as far as selka all the kingdom of og in basham who reigned in asteroth and edry who remained the remnant of the giants for moses had defeated and cast these out and so as we take a quick snapshot of the inheritance in the land we'll come back to this map many time over many times over the next few chapters what we're seeing is the reference to um the um two and a half tribes three three and a half tribes that are on the uh eastern shore of the uh jordan river that of reuben gad and half the tribe of manasseh and then we have the others with their rightful place the nine and a half tribes having uh their rightful inheritance within the promised land which was intended for them you remember it was reuben gad and half the tribe of manasseh that as they were there with moses they said the lands this land is good enough for us our cattle like the land this is as far as we're going to go and boy have i met christians like that you know this is good enough i know that my sin is forgiven and but you know i've just got things in my life that are just too important to me i i really don't want to go any further in my walk with the lord and of course historically you'll see that these three two and a half tribes uh that are on the eastern side of the jordan river they will be the first uh to be taken away captive they'll be the first to be defeated they'll be the first to be effectively eliminated from from a meaningful presence within the inheritance there in israel nevertheless the children of israel did not drive out the gershwrights or the macathites but the gesherites and the mocaphites dwell among the israelis until this day and so you get a sense of whenever this history is written that there is a group that's still there it's interesting this word macha in hebrew means dumb and it really encompasses the whole northern uh golan area but these dumb things were still allowed to live within the land and oh boy does that strike home with with me and perhaps you the sense of the things that we allow we just don't want to conquer them we just don't see the point uh this fellow was a son of nehor abraham's brother so he's a in that sense a distant relative and the mother of absalom the son of david that causes so much trouble for david he is a mockified and so and he causes a lot of he turns against his father and causes a lot of problems and so this group remains there and they plague israel even through the period of the kings because israel doesn't wipe out their enemies they don't completely enjoy the possession that's rightfully theirs because they don't completely obey you know it's when we somehow think that we know better those of you that have raised children no doubt have had those instances where um certainly within your superior understanding you can know what's best for your young children but it takes some convincing and oftentimes they're just so dug into whatever position that they wish to hold they're not willing to accept the fact that you might in fact have a better insight than them and so they're they'll look for a counsel from everywhere in the world you notice that their young friends other parents television programs lyrics and songs any place in the world they'll look for for insight on how to live through life and yet the people that are the most committed to them obvious oftentimes are the uh least sought after in terms of um input helpful input into their life and so for the nation of israel they they just had these areas that they did nothing about and they become a snare and a stumbling stone for the nation and from this point forward israel will never totally inhabit their entire inheritance the nation of israel never does it and the book of hebrews tells us why the book of hebrews tells us there is yet a rest that we can enter into israel did not enter in because of a lack of faith you know oftentimes faith within the christian church is being presented as some sort of muscle that you need to flex to acquire for yourself physical benefits oh do you have enough faith for that big flash car or that better job or more money or health wealth or prosperity but when the scriptures speak of health or speak of faith the scriptures are are speaking of that which is being in obedience to god it takes faith to believe that god is always right and that his worth is his word is worth being obedient to that's the faith that god honors is when we are obedient to his word that's why when we get to the book of the hall of faith in the book of hebrews were given this list of individuals most of whom did not accomplish that which they were promised abraham being the first but they are called faithful because they trusted in god in spite of the fact that they never received necessarily that which they were waiting for but it was their trust in god that god counted as faithful and so too in our life we can accomplish a lot when we stop making our petitions before god be holy and solely on what we consider to be the best for us lord please let this happen because i could see this would be really cool this would be really great instead lord what would you have me do today and give me the faith to follow you wherever that takes me that's the faith that god rewards and concerning the enemies that are within that's how we will see a victory there because we'll see god seeing our hearts and the desire to honor god that god will then utilize us as vessels of honor now verse 14 only the tribe of levi had he had given no inheritance the sacrifices of the lord god made by fire are their inheritance as he said to them and so that of course is dealing with this 13th tribe the tribe of levi they were not to try to take any land they would be given some cities their total responsibility was that of the service of the lord and then god was committed to them to provide for them and the method of their provision was through the nation of israel so as people would bring sacrifices the levites would not take every sacrifice and consume it all upon the the altar of sacrifice they would in some instances depending on what type of sacrifice it was they would take the remainder of the meat or the grain and they would take it for themselves and they would eat from that which was offered to god and so they were literally eating off god's table and that's how god wanted as the people were worshiping god the levites were benefactors of of their desire to worship before god and so that's how god was going to take care of them and we'll see later on the the cities of refuge and the cities that have been given to levi and how they were to be managed but these are individuals that were not to go to war they were simply to serve god verse 15 and moses had given to the tribe of the children of ruben an inheritance according to their families their territory was from aor which is on the bank of the river arnon and the city which is in the midst of the ravine and all the plane by madiba heshban and all its cities that are in the plane diban baymoth bal beth balmion zejaza on the mountain of the valley beth poor in the slopes of uh pisgah and beth jamath all the cities in the plain and all the kingdoms of sion the king of the amorites who reigned in heshbon from moses who moses struck with the princes of midian evie reckham zur her and riba who were princes of saiyan dwelling in the country the children of israel also killed with the sword balaam the son of beor the soo sayer among those who were killed by them and the border of the children of reuben was the back of the jordan this was the inheritance of the children of reuben according to their families their cities and their villages and so we have interestingly enough the first inheritance uh that is mentioned here uh by definition is that of reuben rubin was the eldest son of jacob through his mother leah the one that was given to jacob by trickery when he was really wanting to marry rachel and it's interesting to me that this is a a man who who tried by trickery to gain superiority within the family and as a result of it he dishonored himself and when he comes into the promised land he settles in in probably the worst position if you travel to israel today and you look across the dead sea to that portion of the jordan it is a parched area it is so unbelievably un uh fertile in terms of its its region and uh and of course the the eldest son here chooses this and his inheritance is given to him by moses moses also had given an inheritance to the tribe of gad to the children of ghat according to their families their tory territory was jazzer and all the cities of gilead and half the land of the amorites as far as ar which is before rabbah and from heshbon to remote mizpah and betoem from mahanam to the border of dibir and in the valley of beth harmon beth nimra sukoth and zephon the rest of the kingdom of sion king of heshbon with the jordan as its borders as far as the edge of the sea of cinereth on the other side of the jordan eastward this is the inheritance of the children of ghad according to their families the cities and their villages and so again we have gad who is again another son of leah after there had been the sons born to the two concubines of um of jacob gad comes along uh his room his name means a troop and um and really was considered by his mother as someone who was going to bring some strength and again they with half the tribe of manasseh really are occupying an area that runs up to the golan heights and was apparently at this time fairly good for grazing cattle but it's certainly not as fertile as the promised land itself and verse 29 continuing moses also given inheritance to half the tribe of manasseh it was for half the tribe of the children manasseh according to their families their territory was mahanonem all basham all the kingdom of all the king of basham and all the towns of jr which are in bashan 60 cities half of gilead and asteroth and ederie cities of the kingdom of og and basham were for the children of mekhir the son of manasseh for half the children of mahir according to their families these are the areas which moses had distributed as an inheritance in the plains of moab on the other side of the jordan by jericho eastward but to the tribe of levi moses had given no inheritance the lord god of israel was their inheritance as he had said to them and so as we finish chapter 13 we see that this area is quite large and if you travel to the golan heights today it sits very proudly above the as an overlook to israel it no doubt in its time was a beautiful area and again we are told that it was good for um for grazing cattle a bit short-sighted on their part because the first of many invasions will come from the north and they will be the buffer state uh manasseh will get hit first as the syrians come and then later as the um the babylonians come it's at the tip and the top of this that you have an area in israel called the valley of tears and the reason why they have called it that is that israel has fought so many battles in this area uh and uh and um and so uh it's it's a it's a long furrow uh in which um especially in modern times many tank battles took place in there uh with syria and when you visit it today you look out over this this expanse and it's desolate it is full of minds no one can live there and you can just see the still today the remnants of their previous wars in the valley of tears so that's in the uh northern part of this portion given to manasseh so moving on to chapter 14 verse 1 these are the areas which the children of israel inherited in the land of canaan which eliezer the priest joshua the son of nun and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of israel had distributed as an inheritance to them their inheritance was by lot as the lord had commanded by the hand of moses for the nine and a half nine tribes and a half tribe we come to this thing that says inheritance by lot now this is not to make it seem as though there is some chance here um they were only following direction you know the pro in numbers chapter 33 they were told you shall divide the land by lot as an inheritance among your families to the larger you shall give a larger inheritance to the smaller you shall give a smaller inheritance and one might worry when you consider the the casting of a lot except that it wasn't really gambling that they were involved in the sense that oh anybody could end up with whatever proverbs chapter 16 verse 33 tells us the lot is cast into the lap but its very decision is from the lord and god had pre-decided what was going to be given to each of the nine and a half tribes uh as they were coming into the promised land that was already there the purpose of the public throwing of the lot was so that there could be the appearance of justice you see it was already predetermined in god's mind what who would go where but the concern might be if moses just stood and began to declare some sort of uh distribution of the inheritance there might be those that said hey hang on a minute that doesn't seem fair to us you know it's amazing how people try to second guess what god is doing wondering if there's a better way to do it you know there was a time earlier recorded in the book of numbers where there were a group of people that came to moses and they said to moses why do you take so much upon yourself i see you've made the hype your your older brother the high priest you know is this sort of a family thing you're doing here is this nepotism happening here you know are we not all levites should we not all have an equal opportunity to serve before the lord and moses and aaron were quite distraught by it they were they were quite upset they went before the lord and the lord says look tell all the leaders to bring from all the families have them all bring in a rod and lay it in the tabernacle of meeting until morning and so they all did and aaron laid his as being the head of his household laid his air his rod in the tabernacle of course they come back the next day and aaron's rod not only budded but it put forth a branch and had the fruit of an almond on it so god just want to make it absolutely clear that god will choose whom he will choose but you see he needed to go through a process of of divine intervention so the people would stand back and say okay so god's the one that's doing the choosing here and unfortunately for that group that was during what's referred to as the rebellion of korah kora who was one of the leaders of that rebellion of course he and his whole family and those who are with him suffered because god caused the earth to open up and swallow them their families their tents and all of their goods told moses and and aaron stand back for i'm going to deal with these people so yet again when god is ready to establish something it's amazing how often people will come along and say there's unfairness behind that you know there's some kind of nepotism going on or there's something else going on and so to alleviate that problem they cast this lot but it's not by chance the tribes will get land according to their number and those that have a greater number will get a greater portion of land those that have a lesser number will get a lesser portion of land verse 3 for moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and a half a tribe on the other side of the jordan but to the levites he had given no inheritance among them for the children of joseph were two tribes manasseh and ephraim and they gave no part to the levites in the land except cities to dwell in with their common lands for their livestock and property as the lord had commanded moses so the children of israel did and they divided the land and so as i said we're going to come back to this map many many times when you begin to see how each tribe was ideally suited for the place they were given you'll notice that the tribe of dan and the tribe of judah are down where the philistines are they will be a a troublesome bunch for the nation of israel they're in what we know as the gaza strip today they'll be a troublesome bunch but god put two tribes there who should have had the capability to deal with them i mean when you get to the book of judges of course you'll read of one of the judges named samson who comes from a tribe of dan and his whole purpose is to be a judge against the philistines single-handedly going out and defeating the philistines ultimately the judgment of the philistines will come from the hand of one who comes from a tribe of judah that is king david king david will go and utterly wipe them out and secure that land eventually but it'll take many years for that to take place and so the people are placed by god where they are ideally suited so too within the body of christ there are many members that have different functions the hand cannot say to the eye what value are you neither can the mouth say to the foot or whatever we all have different functions when the body works best is when everyone stays where they're where god has placed them because that's the area of their talent and god will utilize that it's when they begin to desire something else there will be when we go through the book of judges we'll see that as dan begins to recognize they're really up against a they're between a rock and a hard place they've got a small inheritance and to their southern border are the philistines who are pretty tough characters many of the people from dan are going to up stakes and go all the way up and take away land from naphtili they're going to establish a a second base in the north and in fact when you see distributions of the tribes you'll often see dan also having a location up in the inheritance of naftali but god has established this distribution because it would work best for his purposes now sadly the nation of israel will not remain in their lands of inheritance they'll begin to intermingle and they'll begin to move around and they lose the sense of their their family identity and thus they begin to lose their land carry on verse six then the children of judah came to joshua and gilgal and caleb the son of jeptuna the cannonzanite said to him you know the word which the lord said to moses the man of god concerning you and me in cadish barnea i was 40 years old when moses the servant of the lord sent me from kadish barnia to spy out the land and i brought back word to him as it was in my heart nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt but i holy follow the lord my god so moses swore on that day surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children's forever because you have wholly followed the lord my god and now behold the lord has kept me alive and he said these 45 years since the lord spoke this word to moses while israel wandering in the wilderness and now here i am this day 85 years old as yet i am as strong as the day on the day that moses sent me just as my strength was then so now is my strength for war both for going out and for coming in and so we have this little anecdotal comment and story we're going to look at now in terms of this character called caleb his name means forcible be careful if you name your kid caleb you've got you're going to have somebody who's going to if he takes the attributes of his name he's going to be a force to be reckoned with is what that means at this point he is reminding joshua that he was 40 years old when when joshua told him that uh he uh was going to be able to make us his inheritance the land in which he walked in judah caleb is from the tribe of judah and notice his attitude about possessing his inheritance he wants it he wants all that god has promised him i have wholly followed the lord in the past he says there is no reserve there and god has sustained my strength i will wholly follow the lord now he's been faithful to me in the past he'll be faithful to me in the future i have no reason to doubt his capacity to do in me that which he has promised notice his strength remains in the lord he is not saying it's because i take lots of vitamins or i have an exercise routine he is claiming his his capacity to wage war is holy and solely on the ability of god by this time by the end of this military campaign where they collectively moved around the nation of israel of israel and and we're conquering the kings and the cities as a group now they're individually going to go back and take possession of the land caleb would have been there he would have seen all of the events that unfolded before him you know he might have been one of those guys that was lifting the sword against the fleeing armies of the south and every time he tried to strike someone there would come a hailstone out of heaven and knock him down and uh and so he would have seen the lord do that it's also interesting to do a little date math here this is where you understand how long this military campaign is caleb is now 85 years old it's been 45 years since moses had made his promise so that's the period of time that we're dealing with here from kadish barnia they wandered the wilderness for 38 years thus you get seven years they wander for 38 years and then they come under the command of moses we're not given any date markers we're just simply told that that by by caleb's admission we now know how long the military campaign is which is again a very interesting parallel to the seven years that take place in the 70th week of daniel that time of jacob's troubles will be a time when there is a cleansing of the land of israel and and a different joshua will come at the end of that seven year period to establish his kingdom now therefore give me this mountain of which the lord spoke in that day for you heard that in that day how the anakim were there and that the cities were great and fortified it may be that the lord will be with us and i shall be able to drive them out as the lord said notice this guy's faith it is all about you never know what god might do he's not speaking in a sense of confidence in himself he is declaring the lord is with me and i shall be able if the lord's in it the lord will do it and if the lord doesn't want it to to to happen nothing can make it happen and both answers are an answer of faith oh you you weren't able to accomplish that which you believe god was to you must not have had enough faith that's not what caleb was saying caleb is saying well if the lord is in this we'll we'll beat these uh fortified cities and if not then it's not the will of the lord and so that's how he goes out why because he said the lord said it's the word of god that's the issue here caleb's faith is in god's capability to keep his word faith is not about what we think with enough positive energy faith is when we put our trust in god's word what does god have to say that's the issue here people sometimes put faith in faith their capacity to express well i'm just not going to have a negative confession because that would be me not having enough faith well let me tell you something if god is determined to do something he will bring it about and if god is determined for something not to take place all of your positive confession won't change the will of god and so real faith is determining what the will of god is and praying accordingly that's what james tells us that we have this confidence that if we pray anything according to his will he gives it to us that's the confidence we have and joshua blessed him and gave hebron to caleb the son of jeff as an inheritance hebron therefore became the inheritance of caleb the son of jefferina the canaanized to this day because he wholly followed the lord god of israel and the name of hedron was formerly kirjath arba arba was the great man among the anakim then the land had rest from war you know what we have in those few words is an amazing story when you consider the fact that caleb acknowledges the fact that that which scared the nation away he wants to run headlong toward the giants in the land somehow we're not part of the southern campaign they're still there in hebron and caleb's saying let me adam here we're told caleb met and fought the giants that had previously frightened the whole of israel and the anakim are of course associated with goliath from gath and goliath just to give you a sense we're told in 1 samuel 17 4 that he was 6 cubits in feet and inches that's nine feet span of and a span so six cubits in a span uh span is this is the width of your hand um and you can see my span would be smaller than others but but that would be about nine feet nine inches or put it in metric it'd be about three and a quarter meters tall big guy big guy we're told of goliath that his spear was like a weaver's beam i mean he was massive nine foot nine feet tall three point three point two five three and a quarter meters tall that's the kind of people this 85 year old man is gonna is gonna run up against he's got guts no he's got faith that's the difference why was caleb successful because he wholly followed the lord he says that i follow i have in the past and i will in the future caleb acted because god's promise was still valid to him he says hey i remember 45 years ago moses made this promise to me and i've remembered that promise every promise that god makes god will fulfill our problem is that we try to claim promises that god hasn't made to us because they're convenient for us but every promise that god truly makes he keeps caleb acted not only because of god's promise but because of god's power god was with him in the past and would be with him now on this military adventure why was israel unsuccessful because they sought peace with their enemies we'll see that as we finish the book of joshua and drift into our study of the book of judges we'll see that they were unsuccessful not because god wasn't with them but because they weren't with god they start making accommodation with the flesh and what of us today are you at rest with your flesh well that you need to understand that's just who i am you know i that's my genetic makeup my father was this way my mother was his way this is the way i was raised i had parents i didn't have parents i was given a pony i wasn't given a pony i mean whatever excuse you want you can create some kind of reason why you're acting and reacting the way so that you can be at rest with your flesh or at war with your flesh you see the true peace that's spoken of here is not rest from conflict but it's knowing that god will win it's rest within conflict hebrews chapter 4 verse 11 tells us this let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest lest anyone fall according to the same example of disbelief notice what he says let us be diligent to enter that rest there's a diligence that's required on our part and we need to be diligent concerning that rest if you expect to see god work in your life against the the the resident evil within that you struggle with the apostle paul put it this way i die daily he said so too you and i but not through the power of our own flesh not by saying i will implement this religious rigor and as a result of it i will conquer that appetite after the world instead it comes as a result of resigning to the work of the spirit in our life and allowing the spirit to produce in us that which we are incapable of doing god was willing to fight on the behalf of the nation of israel to the extent of the entirety of their inheritance but sadly they weren't all like caleb who said god promised it to me i'm going to go take it because god has said he will give it to me so in our next session we'll be looking at chapters 15 through 19 we'll be focusing now on the inheritance that takes place on the western side of the jordan and so with that let's close with a word of prayer lord we're grateful that you are committed to our success lord that if we are seeing ourselves buffeted by the enemy lord we recognize that all we need to do is call in not the reinforcements but the main armor lord which kind the main fighting force which comes from you lord lord be victorious in our life through that work of the holy spirit in our life god we're grateful god that as we submit ourselves to you and humble ourselves before you you'll lift us up so father we're grateful for the example especially tonight in chapter 14 with caleb lord this 85 year old man that that was as fighting fit as he was 45 years earlier lord may we still regardless of the outward frailty of our body lord be renewed daily day renewed daily with strength that comes from you and so we're grateful lord for all that you have done all that you are doing and all that you will do because of jesus christ who is our lord and savior for it's in his name we pray amen

Channel: Koinonia House

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

Id: vFnNh7Ljks0

Length: 62min 29sec (3749 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 28 2020