Day 177: The Dividing Of The Land [1]

Today's Connected Passage: 

Joshua 13:8-19:51 [Numbers 14:24]

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the Canon Connected, where we read the connections, see the connections, and study the connections of the Bible. I am so glad you decided to join us here for day number 177 of the Canon Connected, and we are in the middle of a seven-day study through connected readings in the Bible on the physical geographical land of Israel in the Old Testament, which absolutely is a big deal as we've been discussing, because it's not only promised by God, it's given by God, and then the land is divided among um the twelve tribes of Israel in uh in a manner of speaking. Um there's uh a little bit a little bit more complexity to it than just the straight twelve tribes as the twelve um sons of of Jacob. But the division is what we're talking about now, and we can see again through all of these passages just how much this really mattered to God. It's called the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey for a reason. And God definitely wanted to use it to remind his people of what a paradise should be, you know, what a home should be. And although the land doesn't have the same significance today as it did then, at least not in my opinion, it definitely does make me think of things like heaven, where you're gonna find, you know, prosperity and land of milk and honey in a and in a figurative sense, and and home, you know, and and again, a land that is promised to us, looking for a city, you know, that's what and that's what we're we're going to experience in heaven. So today, as we talk about the dividing of the land, there are several connections I think that matter and that are important. Um, and the one of the ones I wanted you to see, although it's not first chronologically as you read here, but the one of the most significant ones to me is to me that I saw in the readings today, because it's really one long reading, but I I added one extra verse uh kind of late to the end, and that is because in Numbers 14, 24, that's where the promise to Caleb was that he would get an inheritance in this land that is fulfilled here in Joshua 13, 14, 15, and so forth. Forty-five years later, and this is a testimony as we've talked about in other readings, but it's been a while, so I'll reiterate it now. Waiting on God, waiting on the goodness of God, okay, it always pays off. Because Joshua had to endure all of this, well, all of the horrible circumstances they went through, and he had to watch as time and time again his people, you know, would commit evil against God and they would rebel, and he had, and and it was it cost him by by Caleb's testimony, by Caleb's integrity and character, they should have gotten there in 11 days. But he, because it's sometimes again, God does punish the whole, including the innocent people, and yet he still gives them deliverance, he still gives them salvation. In this case, he still gives them inheritance. And what about the testimony of Caleb too? That's been talked about. I've heard people kind of joke about it, but it's a very serious thing. I mean, as the older I get, I'm about to be 48 years old. In fact, by the time this airs, I will be 48 years old. And I, the older I get, the more I think, well, I'm just getting old now, so I've just got to accept it. But you know, Caleb reminds me that, you know, for a lot of us, maybe not everybody, some people really do have physical impairments that prohibit them from being able to be vigorous in their old age. I really think if I have the attitude and the integrity of Caleb, I can still be vigorous, you know, physically. I can still, I can still do not the exact same things he did, by no means, but I can still have his kind of attitude about things. And so I love the Caleb part of this story. And again, the reminder, the connection from Numbers 14. God promised him this, and God fulfilled his promises. And that's something we see in another connection too, in these in all these readings today, was instead as the Lord had promised them their allotment game. That's uh, you know, about the uh about the uh the tribe of Levi, which is a connection too, by the way. It's repeated at least three times. I may have miscounted, there may have been more. I don't always, you know, you know, um uh arrive to the uh the perfect conclusions um through these connections, of course, um, which is why I'm glad you have the text themselves and not just the podcast that you can read every day. But there is several times, at least three, where it's mentioned this that we're reminded that the the tribe of uh of Levi was not given part of the land. And by the way, there were still twelve allotments. I think I may have even misspoke in one of the the previous podcasts on that because Ephraim and and uh and Manessah, both the two halves of Manessa, both got um parts of the land, so it's almost like the two sons of Joseph took the place of in the distribution of the land, the tribe of Levi that didn't get distribution, not in the same way. We'll see what they got tomorrow. But the idea again that God was the inheritance himself for the Levites is a big deal because it means they were special instead of part, as we've talked about. But it's we're reminded of this in this reading, and this connects to previous days, previous readings, that the the Levites didn't get land because God Himself was their inheritance. And one of the other connections, which is very, really sad and tragic, that we do read, you know, quite frequently, this comes up a lot, is that whenever they, you know, conquered the land, they did not wipe out the evil peoples completely. And this is something that comes up over and over and over again. Um and it's not just the Canaanites either, it's all all the people. And there are always several, you anytime you read through you know the the conquering of the land and the and the wars that they fought in Joshua and even beyond, um they uh you don't you always find out that they don't they don't wipe the people out completely, and there were you know several nations that were there. Um but like in the in this case it says in Gilead and the territory of the kingdom of Gesher and Makah, all the Mount Harmon is all of Basha as far as Shechemaih, they did not, you know, um they did not uh wipe them out, and uh they failed to drive out the people of Gesher and Makkah, it says. So they continue to live among the Israelites to this day, whenever this was written. And that's something that does come up as we see, you know, as as Israel's history continues to unfold in the Old Testament. The fact that again there were foreign peoples with foreign gods still living among the land was a huge problem for them, and it absolutely did contribute to their idolatry, you know, later on in their history and even in their immediate history. And so that's a strong connection, I think, here, um, in this one, this one lengthy narrative that we read today. And that is that you see it, they did not drive out all the people like they were supposed to, and so um, that creates problems for them in the present, but definitely in the future, um, because God did not want them to intermingle and intermix. I'm positive that's why he didn't want them to wear mixed fabrics as a physical sign, a physical reminder of a spiritual reality for those of you who've been with us for 177 days now. They weren't supposed to mix and mingle, and so that's why they were supposed to drive them all out, and they failed to do so. And that's remind that's repeated all throughout these readings. And so um, believe it or not, the division of the land um goes beyond the book of Joshua because they didn't drive everybody out. This is gonna extend into the book of Judges that we're gonna see tomorrow. And so uh we got one more day of the division of the land, and then, like I've mentioned several times by now, we're gonna do a two-day addendum, is what I would call it, because it's not truly about the land itself, but it is a theology of how God in the Bible, and many times in many places, through many people, um through many leaders, said, You need to fight these people. I call them God's just wars, because the idea of just war theory is even a modern um part of of waging war. And as controversial as war is, to me it's not controversial at all to see that in the Bible, in ancient history and biblical history, God did command war at times, and he definitely other times allowed it, and he used many people and gave them he not only gave them permission, he instructed them to do so. So that's how we're gonna end this because it does tie into the land, as we'll see. Several passages in Joshua are about this. So God divided the land, he did it fairly. You know, we talked about the two and a half tribes, they even started off today, the half tribe of Vanessa and Gad and Reuben. They wanted the east of the Jordan. Now we see the the other nine and a half on the west side of the Jordan, the actual land of Canaan and how it's divided. And again, this shows order and it shows unity, diversity within unity, all those things we've been talking about. I think they're all strong connections all throughout these all of these stories. And so I hope you'll come back and be with us tomorrow for day number two of dividing the land. Several passages we're gonna look at all throughout the Old Testament. Um, some that continue the story, and some that look back at this story, and we will continue to read the connections, see the connections, and study the connections. Thank you.