[0:00] This is one of those great times when we get into scripture that have to deviate just a little bit from the norm. So we're in the book of Judges. We're ready for the 13th chapter of the book of Judges.
[0:12] If you are familiar at all with the book of, we're not in the book of Judges. Some of you say, no, you're not in the book of Judges. We're in the book of Joshua, right? I have my daily reading in the book of Judges. So we're in the book of Joshua.
[0:22] The other one with the J right before it. We're in the 13th chapter of the book of Joshua. And if you're familiar at all with the book of Joshua, you will know that after the listing of the cities in the 12th chapter, things change just a little bit. It gets very, very difficult to stay the course and just to read through it until we get to the later chapter, about 10 chapters after that. So our text, and I will go ahead and tell you, and the last time we were together, I said, I need you to sit back. We're going to read the text in its entirety.
[0:52] And we looked at a large portion of Joshua, Joshua chapter 11 and chapters 12. And we read it. Actually, we started about halfway through chapter 10. So we read 10, part of 10, all through 11 and 12.
[1:04] I'm not going to do that to you this evening, okay? This is where you're just going to have to stay with me. Because we're looking at Joshua chapters 13 through 21. And I'm not going to read all that to you. Because, for one, it would be very cumbersome for you to listen to my enunciation of the name of these cities.
[1:20] And I think that we would get lost in that. But we are going to look at them, hopefully gain our application from them. And we will see verses throughout them, okay?
[1:31] So that's your text, is Joshua 13 through 21. I will be moving along through those texts, okay? I will start at the very first there in Joshua 13, starting in verse 1.
[1:43] But we will be moving through those. So just kind of get ready for that. And that's where we'll be. So let's open up with a word of prayer. Well, we thank you so much just for allowing us to gather together.
[1:56] We thank you for the opportunity that we have. We thank you for the great privilege it is of opening up your word. And we pray that you would speak to our hearts and minds.
[2:06] Lord, may we grow as a result of our study in it. May we mature in our walk and our understanding of who you are by looking at it.
[2:18] And may the word of God look at us. And may it cause us to draw closer to you and to one another. And we ask it all in Christ's name. Amen. One of the things I love about Sunday nights and Wednesday nights are they are more teaching.
[2:36] As a pastor, there are two offices you hold that are combined in the listing of Ephesians 4. They are pastors and teachers.
[2:48] So they're shepherds and teachers. Teaching is always connected with the pastoral responsibility. Part of preaching is doing the work of evangelists and is more evangelistic zeal.
[3:01] Some of it is teaching or discipleship. As we slow down, especially we have to in Old Testament passages, I believe we get into a little bit more of the teaching.
[3:12] So sometimes we have to see things a little bit differently. And we, I don't want to say we fly over them. They say there's a book, the Bible at 30,000 feet is a title of it where it just kind of gives an overview of scripture.
[3:24] We hope to give more of an overview. Maybe we're going to kind of crop dust it, right? We're not going to actually walk through the corn, but we're going to get down there and we'll be able to see the ears of corn. And we'll see what's going on in our text.
[3:35] So let's just open up reading the first seven verses of Joshua 13. Joshua 13 verses 1 through 7 by way of introduction. And then we'll just get right into the message.
[3:47] Now Joshua was old and advanced in years when the Lord said to him, by the way, probably about 110 years old.
[3:58] So 100 to 110. Actually, some think probably close to 100 here. By the time he finishes up, he dies at 110. And it probably takes 10 years to do what has transpired from here in the 13th chapter to the end of the book of Joshua, the 24th chapter.
[4:19] So they've had seven years of warfare leading up to this if you want to do your math. Now Joshua was old and advanced in years. And the Lord said to him, you're old and advanced in years and very much of the land remains to be possessed.
[4:33] This is the land that remains all the regions of the Philistines and all those of the Gersherites from the Shahor, which is east of Egypt, even as far as the border of Ekron to the north.
[4:44] It is counted as Canaanite, the five lords of the Philistines, the Gazite, the Ashdodite, the Ashkenalite, the Gedite, the Ekronite, and the Evite to the south. And all the land of the Canaanites and Marar that belongs to the Sidonians as far as Aphek to the border of the Amorite.
[4:59] And the land of the Gebelites and all of Lebanon toward the east from Belgab below Mount Hermon as far as Lebo Hamath. All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon as far as Misfrafoth, Mame, all the Sidonians.
[5:15] See, if we were to read all these chapters, that's essentially what you would hear. Let's keep reading. I will, again, this is still the Lord talking, I will drive them out before the sons of Israel, only allotted to Israel for an inheritance as I have commanded you.
[5:30] Now, therefore, apportion this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Okay, this is what introduces for us this section of Scripture.
[5:42] I want you to see this evening from Joshua 13 to Joshua 21, receiving the inheritance. Actually, the distribution of the land to the nine and a half tribes takes place from Joshua 13 to 19.
[6:00] Chapter 20 would be the establishment of the cities of refuge and where the manslayer may run to. If you remember from the book of Deuteronomy, if someone was to kill an individual accidentally, not lying in wait and have premeditated murder, they could run to the city of refuge.
[6:20] Chapter 20 lists for us the cities of refuge. Chapter 21 is the listing of the Levitical cities, the cities of the Levites. If we were to take our time and we were to read through this, we would see the repetition of the reality that the Levites had no inheritance in the land for the Lord their God was their inheritance.
[6:38] When we get to the 21st chapter, the tribe of Levi comes and says, Hey, we're supposed to possess cities to live in and pasture lands for our cattle. And this is where we get those cities listed for us in Joshua chapter 21.
[6:50] So Joshua 13 to 19 speaks of the distribution of the land. As a matter of fact, the 13th chapter, it seems like we're fixing to go into it here. But following this, we have the description of the land which Moses allotted to the two and a half tribes on the other side of the Jordan.
[7:05] So we actually see the distribution of the land or the inheritance of the land for all of the 12 tribes. The sons of Joseph being counted as two and the tribe of Levi being counted, not counted in that distribution.
[7:19] It is here that if we were to take our maps in the back of our Bibles and we were to lay them all out, we would see how the land was divided. It should not surprise us. We'll see it in just a moment.
[7:30] The first to take their inheritance is the tribe of Judah. Judah is always prominent. Judah is always first. Judah always goes before them.
[7:40] If you're reading in the book of Judges, you just finished up the book of Judges today in your daily reading. And they fought this battle with the tribe of Benjamin. And they were praying and saying, which tribe should go first to fight against Benjamin?
[7:53] And it's that very disturbing portion of the book of Judges that's so hard to comprehend unless we understand it in reality. In those days, there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes. And they're praying.
[8:04] They said, who should go up to fight first? And the Lord says, Judah. Every time they ask who should go first, who should go first, the answer is always Judah. Judah is not only the largest, but it's always the prominent one.
[8:14] It's always the first, not the firstborn. Remember, they attained the position of firstborn because of the sins of Reuben and Simeon. But yet, here we see that they take the place here of being prominent.
[8:30] Should not surprise us because our Lord and Savior himself is a lion from the tribe of Judah. So we understand these things. Judah has the largest piece of inheritance and takes it first.
[8:42] We're not really going to take our time to look at the borders of the inheritance. Many of the cities are hard to locate. Many of them are hard to find, and we don't find them on present-day maps. We could put up a map of the distribution of the land, and there are things which we would see.
[8:56] I will say you can see a lot of things today about the lost tribe of Israel, the lost tribe of Israel. There's a people group in Africa, I think, that claims to be the lost tribe of Israel.
[9:08] The Mormon church claims to be part of the lost tribe of Israel. There's a lot of claiming of being the lost tribe of Israel. The lost tribe of Israel, does anyone know who that's referring to as the tribe of Simeon, right?
[9:20] Because we don't find them later on in history. Well, the reason we don't find them later on in history, Simeon and Levi both are cursed. I said Reuben and Mendigo, and I was wrong. Simeon and Levi are both not cursed, but they sin.
[9:35] They're the ones who came up with the great idea of having the people, their foreskins removed so they could intermarry because they had taken their sister and mistreated her, and then they go and fight them in battle.
[9:50] We see this in the book of Genesis. So Levi is dispersed among the tribes. God redeems them and uses them as priests. Simeon is kind of put within the tribe.
[10:00] The inheritance of Simeon is within the inheritance of Judah. You need to understand that. If you look at your map, in the back you will see that Judah has this large portion of land, and there's kind of a donut hole right in the middle of it, and a donut hole is the tribe of Simeon.
[10:17] The reason I say this is because these are just things we encounter in the world. Simeon is not a lost tribe. It is an absorbed tribe. Over time, Judah takes it over, right?
[10:28] They get absorbed into, and that goes all the way back to the reality that they sinned in their interactions with Shechem and their declaration of war with the men of Shechem, okay?
[10:41] So those things we find here in this portion. This portion, while it seems very unimportant to us and really without application, it's very important to the nation of Israel in particular because it is, as some describe it, their title deed to the land.
[10:58] When God sets their borders and their boundaries, he is showing them this is what you own. These are your property stakes. On my phone, which is in my office, I have one of the photos that is saved to my photo library is a copy of our land survey, which means that I can pull that up, and I know it seems kind of odd, but I can pull that up, and I can show you where the boundaries of the property which we own are, where they reside.
[11:31] Now, the reason that's important is the very first piece of property that Carrie and I ever bought, well, the second piece. We bought a small house in Shelbyville was our first house, and listen, we owned right there in the middle of Shelbyville about a quarter acre of limestone.
[11:47] Nobody else wanted that, okay? So we were literally, you couldn't dig a hole more than an inch deep, and that's, I think, we were right next to the rock quarry. I guarantee you, it was limestone all around us. And there was no doubt where our property line was.
[12:00] We had a road on one side, a road in the front, and everything else was pretty clear. We moved from there, and we bought a little bit under five acres, and that was where I first encountered this reality, and we had great neighbors.
[12:17] As a matter of fact, I almost said Lauren Taylor Nash, but Lauren Taylor Arnold, who plays for us on Sunday morning, she was our neighbor, her and her dad, Larry Nash. That's how we know her so well.
[12:29] And we moved in great neighbors. Larry was a great neighbor, and he was mowing, and man, this man loved to mow. He mowed all the time. Our yard looked like a jungle. It was okay, but he mowed all the time.
[12:40] And I got to looking, and I said, something doesn't look right. I saw a survey once, and something doesn't look right. And I went and talked with Larry, and I said, Larry, where's your property boundaries?
[12:50] He said, well, that big tree back there is where they told me when I bought it was. And I said, I don't think so. Turns out he was mowing about half of our property, which, I mean, it was okay until I got ready to put a garden in.
[13:02] And he was really gracious about it. We worked it out. But it was then and there that I figured out you might want to know where your boundaries are. So I keep a copy of that on my phone so I know where I'm at, primarily because if I paid for it, I want to be sure I can use it.
[13:17] That's just what it is. What we have described for us, I know that's a long way to say it, this is God showing them this is your boundaries. These are your title deeds. And God gave very clear description of cities and places and hills and valleys and waterways, which shows us that God literally gave them a place.
[13:38] He gave them a place. And it's really important to understand that. As Warren Wearsby says, in the chapters from 13 to 19, the word inheritance, and I'm taking his word, this, is repeated over 50 times.
[13:59] 50 times the land is referred to as the inheritance of the people. Now when God says something, he means it. And this shows us, and this is why I said receiving the inheritance would be our title.
[14:14] An inheritance is neither earned nor gained. It is given. The nation of Israel did not possess the land because they earned it. They did not possess the land because they won the victories.
[14:28] They did not possess the land because they bought it. They were given the land. Gracious act of God's sovereignty. This is the inheritance which God gave them as a result of his promise and his covenant to Abraham.
[14:46] They did not have a right to it in their own abilities. They did not have a right to it by their conquest. But their heavenly father bestowed it upon them.
[14:58] Now, this is important for our understanding of how we're going to work this out. See the applications. Because an inheritance received does not necessarily imply a possession enjoyed.
[15:15] Just because they had something given to them did not mean they were fully utilizing it.
[15:32] And we see this really being played out in these chapters. But as we understand it, the first thing I want us to see is the favor of God towards his people.
[15:46] The favor of God towards his people. His favor is seen in the reality that the land is described as an inheritance, not described as a reward. So, over and over and over and over again, God is showing them, I am giving you this, not because of who you are, but because of who I am.
[16:03] Even the division of the land where God sends, well, God through Joshua, especially when we get to the 16th and 17th, well, the 17th chapter.
[16:16] There are a number of tribes, seven tribes, who have yet to receive their inheritance. And they meet at Shechem because this division takes place over a number of locations. First, it's at Gilgal where the tribe of Judah takes theirs.
[16:30] We'll see that in just a moment. And then there are the daughters who come and claim their possession. And then there's the sons of Joseph who come and take their possession. And then they go to Shechem. And they're all gathered together at Shechem or Shiloh.
[16:43] They're all together at Shiloh where the presence of the Lord is. And he calls them and he sends men, 21 men, three from each of the seven tribes who no longer or who haven't moved forward yet.
[16:54] And those 21 men go and they survey the remainder of the land. And they come back and they cast lots. They draw straws. The casting of the lots really doesn't, it leaves it up to the Lord to decide, not man to pick and choose.
[17:09] Right? Now we look at casting lots as if that was kind of leaving things up to chance. They cast lots to see who would fill Judas Iscariot's place. The reality in scripture is when the Jewish people did this, they said the casting of the lots was leaving the decision up to the Lord.
[17:23] Not up to man. So even in the distribution of the land, we know what the land all looks like. We see the divisions of it. We see the natural boundaries because men have surveyed it.
[17:33] And now we're going to trust the Lord to give the right piece of land to the right tribe. So over and over and over again, we understand the favor of God towards his people and the reality that he's giving them what they need.
[17:46] Keep that in mind. Particularly if you've just finished reading the book of Judges. This is why this is important. Because in the book of Judges, everything goes south when a particular tribe decides that what God gave them wasn't good enough.
[18:04] Remember that? The tribe of Dan wanted a better piece of land. So they sent out a delegation. A delegation stopped at a man's house who had his own priest. And then that delegation went and saw a city that didn't have anybody protecting it and said, That land looks better than what we've been given.
[18:20] So the tribe of Dan then goes, stops at that man's house, takes his own priest, goes and then takes possession of that land. And it all comes down to the reality that the tribe of Dan decided that what God gave them wasn't good enough.
[18:31] And it is from there, everything starts going south. Also, you need to understand that the tribe of Dan is also the one that introduces idolatry into the nation of Israel.
[18:43] Because when we become discontent with the small things, we eventually become discontent with the big things. So we see all of this being played out here.
[18:54] God's favor is displayed in the reality that he's giving an inheritance to people to possess. And he's giving the right land to the right people of his own choosing.
[19:06] But we see it in particular in the verses where it says, Now Joshua was old. And God said to him, Now I know you have to be old when God says to you, You're old.
[19:17] Right? So the Lord said to him, You're old and you're advanced in years. Now this is something totally different. We never find God telling Moses he's getting too old. As a matter of fact, at the end of Moses' life, Moses is 120.
[19:31] But what does it say? His eye had not dimmed and his strength had not failed. He was still moving forward. Right? But now God speaks to Joshua and says, Joshua, your time's running out. You can't do what you've been doing all along.
[19:44] Now Joshua was called to be a military leader. He is not a religious leader. He is a political leader. He was given two responsibilities. To lead the nation into military battle and to win the victories and to divide the land.
[19:57] His two responsibilities that were given to Joshua was to lead them in battle array, to secure possession of the land. And once the possession of the land was secured, to then be the leader in distributing the land.
[20:10] We understand this. This is his two responsibilities. God now tells him, Joshua, your time is nearing. You're getting too old. You can't keep going out into battle. At 100 years old, he's still leading the nation in battle.
[20:21] And God says, Okay, it's time to pump the brakes just a little bit. Here in just a moment, we'll meet Caleb. Caleb is 85, and he's still going into battle. Right? He still wants to move forward. And his strength hasn't failed.
[20:31] So what God's plan was for Joshua was not God's plan for Caleb. But Joshua is nearing the end of his life, and God tells him so. So he says, Okay, so now I need you to do. The land is at least at rest.
[20:43] Now we have to reconcile the reality of what we find at the end of chapter 12, that they possessed all of the land, and then the reality of what we find at the very beginning of the pages of chapter 13, where it says, And very much of the land remains to be possessed.
[21:00] Now what we have seen is, they have won the battle to secure their place in the land, but they had not displaced all of the enemies which still resided in the land.
[21:13] Now that's important. They had earned the right to be there, but they were not fully there. And we know they were not going to be fully there until Joshua disperses them throughout the land.
[21:27] As long as they are one group together, there are going to always be people. Some of the listing of the cities in which God says they do not possess are cities which they said they had already won the victory in.
[21:40] So evidently, after winning the battle over here and moving on over there, some of the people came back. And when we understand this, this happens. Because if you win a spiritual battle in one aspect of your life, if you neglect that and move on from it, Satan's going to come back there, right?
[21:54] He's going to attack you again. So we see that God tells him, your time is coming to an end. And here we again see the favor of God towards his people.
[22:05] Because he tells them, very much of the land remains to be possessed, which can be a very scary thing. Look at the two things he's telling Joshua. Joshua, you're too old to do this.
[22:17] And yet much still remains to be done. And he lists where it needs to be done at. And then he gives this great declaration at the end of verse 6.
[22:29] Here's the condition.
[22:40] Essentially, God says this, Joshua, you're too old to continue leading the nation in battle of Rae.
[23:00] Divide the land among the people and trust me to be the one who drives them out. What he is saying, and this is a very freeing thing, this is the favor of God.
[23:15] Joshua, the enemies aren't your responsibility. They're mine. Give them possession and trust me to lead them.
[23:29] Joshua, your responsibility is to divide the land. Tell them to go live in the land in the midst of their enemies and trust that my favor will go with them even when you're not there.
[23:44] And that by the favor of the Lord, I will drive their enemies out from before them. That is gracious. My friend, listen to me. I reference even in just, not even in beginning this message, just speaking of pastors, the Ephesian 4 principle.
[24:00] The Ephesian 4 principle is freeing to pastors because it says the pastor and teacher is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. Ephesians 4.12.
[24:11] It is this freeing reality that Joshua doesn't have to do it. He has to put the people in the place of the enemy and trust that the Lord is going to do it through his people. You take that to Ephesians.
[24:22] What Paul is telling the pastors is, Pastor, it's not your responsibility to do it. You equip the people and put them in the place of the enemy and trust the Lord to do it through his people. Because the favor of God is what leads to the expelling of the enemy, not the presence of Joshua.
[24:40] It's not Joshua who wins the battle. It's God who wins the battle. And we see the favor of God towards his people. He says there's a lot to be done.
[24:51] The enemies are still present. Put them there. Let them live in the midst of the enemies and trust that I will move for them.
[25:02] Trust that I will push them out because God makes this declaration. Don't lose this, by the way, because this is the very beginning of this large set of scriptures. And if we had time, we would read all of it.
[25:12] But look at what he says. He says, I will drive them out before the sun. I will do it. This is what God's favor says. Nobody will stand before them.
[25:24] Trust me, I will do this. So we see the favor of God towards his people. The second thing that we notice in this large section of scripture, and we have to turn over to the 14th and 15th chapters, and I won't read them in their entirety, but I'll ask you to turn over there with me, is not only do we see the favor of God towards his people, we see the faith of man that secures the blessing.
[25:45] The faith of man that secures the blessing. Having an inheritance does not necessarily mean you are blessed because of that inheritance. Only when you fully possess that inheritance does the blessing come.
[25:58] Being the heir of an inheritance means very little until you actually possess the inheritance and therefore secure the blessing as a result of that inheritance.
[26:08] Throughout the book of Joshua, we have seen that faith wins the battle. And when the inheritance is distributed and given, we see the reality that it is faith that secures the blessing.
[26:18] The blessing that comes from a full possession of that which is rightfully theirs. Now we bring this to the Christian life and we understand. The Bible tells us that far above all that we could ever think or imagine are the plans and purposes that God has for us.
[26:34] Right? Above all that we could think or imagine is how he wants to use us and the depth of his love and the way that he cares for us and the things that he wants to provide for us and use and all these things that we see that we cannot even begin to imagine.
[26:49] And this is our inheritance. But we do not really secure the blessing of that inheritance until we have the faith to move forward and take possession of it. Read Christian biographies.
[27:00] Read, and I'm not talking about even the, what we would call the fanatics. I'm just talking about even your conservative church history. And see how God uses his people.
[27:12] And you think, man, that's amazing that they had to, that they were able to do this and they were able to move forward in this. And you understand that it was the faith of God's people based upon the inheritance of Christ that they were given that secured the blessing of God upon them.
[27:27] And we see this being played out here. We see it primarily being played out in the man of Caleb. In Joshua 14, starting at verse 6, it says, Then the sons of Judah drew nearer to Joshua and Gilgal.
[27:39] This is the first distribution of the land because the remainder of 13 tells us what happens on the other side of the Jordan River. We go into 14. They begin to introduce again how they're going to divide up this land even in light of what happened on the other side of the Jordan River.
[27:52] And then in verse 6, we finally get to it. Then the sons of Judah drew nearer to Joshua and Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephun of the Kinsanite said to him, You know the word which the Lord spoke to Moses, the man of God, concerning you and me and Kadesh Barnea.
[28:05] Right? He says, I was 40 years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear, but I followed the Lord my God fully.
[28:20] So Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever because you have followed the Lord my God fully. Now behold, the Lord has let me live just as he spoke these 45 years from the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses when Israel walked in the wilderness.
[28:39] And now behold, I am 85 years old today. I am still as strong today as I was in the day when Moses sent me. As my strength was then, so my strength is now for war and for going out and coming in.
[28:50] Now then, give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day. For you heard on that day that the Anakim were there with great fortified cities. Perhaps the Lord will be with me and I will drive them out as the Lord has spoken.
[29:04] It's amazing. This is how we know there's seven years of battle. Let's do the math real quick. 45 years have transpired. He's now 85. He was 40 when he was sent out to spy the land from Kadesh Barnea, right? How many years did they sojourn in the wilderness after he came back?
[29:16] Don't say 40 because 40 is wrong. They spent 18 months at Mount Sinai. They had been in the wilderness for two years before they sent the spies out to Kadesh Barnea. The reason I say this is because some people would tell you that they fought five years in the land and that's doing your math a little bit wrong.
[29:31] You say, no, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, right, 38 years after the spies came back from Kadesh Barnea because they had already been in the wilderness two years prior to that receiving instructions at Mount Sinai and then constructing the tabernacle.
[29:44] This is why we read it so that we get our math right. Not that it matters, but we're on a teaching night so it's good to do our teaching, right? So after he comes back, he's 48 years, they wander in the wilderness 38 more years.
[29:56] In the 40th year after they come out of Egypt, which is 38 years after they had spied out the land from Kadesh Barnea, they finally enter into the land. So at that point, now we're 40 plus 38, right?
[30:09] So that gets you to 78, right? We do our math and now Joshua says, now I'm 85, which means they fought for seven years. Okay? So seven years have transpired since they crossed the Jordan River.
[30:23] So now he's 85. At 85 years old, he doesn't say, I'm ready to slow down. At 85 years old, he says, give me the hard places. Give me the place that terrified the other spies.
[30:35] Give me the hill country. Give me the giants. The Anakim are the giants. Give me where the giants reside and the fortresses are. At 85 years old, I want a mountain to climb and a giant to slay.
[30:47] Now how does he say that? He said, because that's what God told me I would have. God promised me, I'll have that land and I'm here to claim that promise.
[30:58] I want the land. It says, so Joshua blessed him and gave him Hebron to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, for an inheritance. Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kinsanite, until this day.
[31:10] Look at this. Because he followed the Lord God of Israel fully. Caleb did not let the number of years nor the age of his life stop the reality that what God had promised would come about.
[31:25] Here is the faith of man that secures the blessing of God. When it slowed down, he said, now Joshua, I've got one more thing.
[31:36] He was young in the presence of Joshua, right? Joshua was older. Joshua was 100, Caleb was 85. He looked at him and said, there's one more thing. God made a promise to me and I've come to secure that promise.
[31:48] I know it's going to be difficult. I know it's going to be hard. I know there are going to be giants. I know there are going to be mountains. I know there are going to be fortified cities. I know there are things there that's terrified the other spies.
[31:59] I know there are things that most people thought would consume their children. But as for me and my family, we're going to go take it. Now we know his family took it because when you turn the page and you go into the 15th chapter, you have a little bit more description of what happens with Caleb.
[32:13] And Caleb goes and he begins to take this and then he gets to this city and says, whoever will defeat that city, I'll give them my daughter as a bride. Now some say, well, was he trying to use his daughter as robbery?
[32:26] Was he paying them? And I like how one Bible scholar put it on, I can't remember who it was. He said, he just wanted to ensure that the man who married his daughter had the faith he had. If you're strong enough to go take that city, then you're man enough to marry my daughter.
[32:40] And the man who went and took that city was actually from his own family and it's Othnil. Othnil went and he took the city and he gave his daughter to him. When you turn over the book of Judges, you will find that Othnil becomes one of the redeeming judges of the nation of Israel.
[32:53] Why? Because he had the faith of his father-in-law. And then if you keep reading there in the 15th chapter of the book of Joshua, you will find that that very daughter that he gave to be the bride of Othnil comes and has the faith of her father as well because she comes and says, now give me an inheritance of the land.
[33:08] I want to take the land. And he says, okay. And she comes off of her mount there. She's riding a donkey and she comes off out of respect. And she says, now I want some land. Go ahead and give me a spring as well.
[33:18] And she asked her father for that blessing. And he goes, okay, I'll let you have it. And he gives it to her. And as some have rightly said, the faith of Caleb passed through his daughter and to his son-in-law. Because the faith of the saints who go before should not only secure the blessing for them, but also be passed down to the generations which follow.
[33:39] Here is the faith that moves forward based on the promise of God and secures the blessing by possessing all that God said they would. We see this.
[33:51] This is why we read Christian biographies. This is why we read church history. I want to know what the saints who went before me secured by faith. I want to know the steps they took.
[34:04] I want to know how they trusted God and were obedient to the reality of what he did. And I want to know how they surrendered themselves, even if it was a mountain to be climbed or a giant to be slain.
[34:15] I want to know what they did and how they lived to secure the blessing of God upon them. And we see that here. He was not seeking to end his life in peace and just end and just, okay, we'll go and give me my land.
[34:31] He was seeking rather to continue to push forward and by continuing to push forward to the very end of his life, he passed that down to those who were connected to his life. We see this faith of man that secures the blessing.
[34:47] Caleb did not just have an inheritance, he had a possession. The inheritance was God had promised to give him something. That was spoke 38 years prior to this or actually 45 years prior to this.
[35:03] That was the inheritance promised. The possession attained is when he actually went and fought the battle. When he actually said, I'm going to go take it. See, there are things that Christ promises his people that they never really possess.
[35:19] There are things that we have as an inheritance that we never possess because we're too afraid to go fight the battle by faith. But here we see the faith of man that secures that blessing.
[35:31] Now, I wish that we could stay there because that's the favor of God towards his people and the faith of man that secures the blessing. But unfortunately, the third thing we see is the failures that allow room or causes for stumbling.
[35:43] The failures that the nation of Israel exhibits that allow causes later on for stumbling. The very chapter which speaks of the conquest of Caleb, his son-in-law and his daughter and how they take possession of the land ends in chapter 15 with verse 63.
[36:04] Now, as for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the sons of Judah could not drive them out. So, the Jebusites live with the sons of Judah at Jerusalem until this day.
[36:20] It sounds kind of like sadaisical in our reading, but we need to understand what did God promise? God said, I will drive them out. And now, all of a sudden, for the first time we encounter the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that the sons of Judah could not drive them out.
[36:38] Why could they not drive them out? Is it because the Jebusites were too strong? No, because God said he would do it. So, the only reason that we can ascertain that they were not able to do it is because of their lack of faith to go take possession.
[36:51] As a matter of fact, the Jebusites are never removed until David shows up. Now, David is from the tribe of Judah. He finally takes possession. Not until David shows up and then David says, I'm going to claim Jerusalem and he makes Jerusalem his hometown and then Jerusalem is very instrumental from that point forward.
[37:06] Not until David of the tribe of Judah shows up does Jerusalem finally become the possession even though the whole time it was a part of the inheritance. Because sometimes it takes a long time to fully possess all that God promised.
[37:19] And that's a failure. We understand when you can't do something even though God says you should or he would do it through you, we begin to fail. And then all of a sudden we begin to see the repetition of this because the 16th chapter ends with verse 10 but they did not drive out the Canaanite who lived in Gezer so the Canaanites lived in the midst of Ephraim to this day and they became forced laborers.
[37:44] Now all of a sudden we have a portion of the enemy which cannot be driven out. Now what gets them in trouble later on? Read the history of the nation of Israel. Why are they removed from the land?
[37:56] Because of their idolatry and their worship of the false gods of the Canaanites. Well how were they introduced to the false god of the Canaanites? Because they did not drive out all of the inhabitants of the land.
[38:07] And because they could not by faith drive them out they allowed them to live and to remain as a foothold within the borders of their land. And since the enemy was allowed to have place within the inheritance of the nation of Israel all of a sudden they have created space for stumbling.
[38:25] Because when we cannot walk by faith and drive out the enemy we allow room for stumbling. Paul says it in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 that we do not battle with arms of force but we battle a spiritual battle.
[38:48] Now I'm paraphrasing there at the very beginning of chapter 10 2 Corinthians that our weapons of warfare are spiritual. He says for the destruction of fortresses within our mind.
[39:01] For the tearing down of strongholds within our minds. And he's making this declaration what he says is the enemy has strongholds in the mind of the believer and until we by faith fight a spiritual battle which destroys the strongholds of the enemy within our mind then we are allowing room for stumbling to remain.
[39:23] It is the failures which allow cause for stumbling. How did they ever get to where we find them later on in the books of the Old Testament?
[39:36] How do we get from being such a victorious people to such a condemned people? It is right here where they could not drive them out. And it's not God's fault because God said he would but what we find is they cannot.
[39:51] And fault always lies with man. Later on we find as we continue to make our way through the 17th chapter in verse 14 it says then the sons of Joseph spoke to Joshua.
[40:07] Now the sons of Joseph are Ephraim and Manasseh. So they come and they say why have you given me only one lot and one portion for an inheritance since I am a numerous people whom the Lord has thus far blessed.
[40:23] So they come boasting right? We're big. We're growing. We're a massive people. And so Joshua gives them his answer. If you are a numerous people go up to the forest and clear a place for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the Rephiam since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.
[40:42] So here we have the descendants of Ephraim saying hey we're too big. We're so blessed. You need to give us more land. So Joshua says okay go take it. Now look at the failure of the sons of Ephraim. Then the sons of Joseph said the hill country is not enough for us and all the Canaanites who live in the valley and the land have chariots of iron both those who are in Beth Sheen and its towns and those who are in the valley of Jezreel they said well the people are too strong.
[41:08] Joshua we'd rather you just give us somewhere else. See they failed to go take what was offered to them because of their weakness. I think again it was Warren who said God is not so much concerned about your boasting as he is about your doing.
[41:26] Your boasting only matters as much as you believe. You can say well I'm bigger and bigger and bigger and until you believe him enough to go do it it doesn't really matter. Erwin Lutzer once said Satan is not bothered by your good intentions.
[41:42] We need to understand that it's not what we say but what we actually by faith do. This is the failures that allowed cause for stumbling.
[41:54] And I'm closing. Turn with me to the end of that section of scripture all the way to the end of the book of Joshua chapter 21. 21. The last few verses of Joshua chapter 21.
[42:05] One final thing I want you to see. We see the favor of God towards his people as they receive the inheritance. We see the faith of man that secures the blessing within that inheritance.
[42:15] We see the failures of man that allow room for stumbling though they should be possessing the inheritance. Fourth and finally we see a foundation of hope to move forward.
[42:25] a foundation of hope. And we need to see this in light of what's about to come in the book of Judges. In light of what's about to transpire in the history of the nation of Israel.
[42:36] There needs to be this foundation of hope to move forward. The very thing which Joshua declares to the people and the very thing which we understand moving forward throughout the rest of scripture.
[42:49] And it is found for us there in Joshua 21 starting in verse 43 and reading down to verse 45. So the Lord gave Israel all the land which he had sworn to give to their fathers and they possessed it and lived in it.
[43:03] And the Lord gave them rest on every side according to all that he had sworn to their fathers. And no one of all their enemies stood before them. The Lord gave all their enemies into their hands.
[43:14] Look at verse 45. I have this one underlined in just about every Bible that I own except for my newer ones. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed.
[43:30] All came to pass. Here's the foundation of hope. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed.
[43:46] The failures which we see among the nation of Israel is not a result of God not fulfilling his promises. It is a result of man not taking claim of what God had promised them.
[43:59] Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed. All came to pass. This is a foundation of hope because all that God promises to his people, friend listen to me, will come to pass.
[44:19] Not one will fail. It will all come to pass. The reality is not if God's promises will come about but how we will live in response to God fulfilling his promises to us.
[44:35] And the faith that we have to move forward when those promises are fulfilled, as they come to pass, what will we do with our lives moving forward with that?
[44:46] Will we be content to know that we have an inheritance or will we be those who continue to pass forward wanting to possess that inheritance? Wanting to have it in our hand and to enjoy the full blessing of it.
[44:59] Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for this evening. Thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you for all that you lead us to in understanding. Lord, may our understanding of scripture be that which completely transform our lives for your glory.
[45:12] We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[46:18] Amen. Amen.