S5: Day 66: Joshua 13–15

0:00Hey, this is Shelby and Scott. We're taking you through the book of Joshua. Today we're in chapters 13 through 15. And you kind of broke down the sections of Joshua for us earlier, Scott, and we're entering a section now that's a bit more challenging just to slog through as a reader. Can you guide us a bit as we enter this section? Yeah, it's probably the most engaging chapters of Joshua, but they might be the most important chapters of Joshua, because in the overall story of Scripture, it is really hard to exaggerate the importance of what happens in the next several chapters, because we're watching now the actual fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham to give his descendants this land. Yeah, this is a really, really big deal. And chapters like this would have been very important to the original audience and to kind of give a flyover of today's chapters. With chapter 13, you start with a list of areas in the promised land that still need

1:02to be conquered. The conquest isn't fully done, followed by a recap of the two-and-a-half tribes who inherited land east of the Jordan River. Chapter 14 begins to see how the land was divided up among the remaining nine-and-a-half tribes. And we start with Caleb, specifically in 14, who, if you'll remember back in numbers along with Joshua, was one of the spies who scouted off the land and said, it's actually a great land. We need to go take it. It'll be the end of the Lord. But he's one of the few over a certain age who survived the wilderness as now going into the lands. And then in 15, we get to the land, a lot to the tribe of Judah. And chapters 15 through 17 are really all about the tribes of Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh. Okay. So you said this is really important. We can't even like over-exaggerate its importance. Why exactly is it important? Like, why should we really engage and not let our eyes just glaze over and skim through these chapters? Yeah.

2:03You know, like so there's a huge emphasis here on Judah, and Ephraim and Manasseh. And it's interesting how much space is given to these tribes. You know, if you remember way, way back in Genesis 14 to the time, it just feels like a while ago now, when Jacob was blessing his sons, we saw that Judah and Joseph were very prominent in his blessings. And so the fact that Joshua starts with the Judah's land allotments and then Joseph. Remember, Manasseh and Ephraim, they're Joseph's tribes. It reflects the importance that we saw back in Genesis 49 in the fact that the land allotment starts with these tribes. And Jacob, if you remember, had spoken of a future ruler from Judah. So that's, you know, really big in the biblical story. And to some extent, that promise of a ruler from Judah is fulfilled in David, the greatest king of Israel and the Old Testament, ultimately though, it's in David's greater descendant Jesus. And so Judah is a very significant tribe for the biblical story, and hence the emphasis

3:05here on Judah. Incidentally, I love this way back again in Genesis 49. Jacob had also said that his son Levi would be scattered throughout the people of Israel. And we see that here in Joshua, but while Jacob had been viewing this scattering as an act of judgment for some of his son Levi's actions, here we see that the Levi's scattering being redeemed by God, they are scattered. Like they don't inherit land like the rest of the tribes do, but because of their faithfulness to God, which we saw back in the golden calf chapters, God chose them to serve at the tabernacle, to serve to be the priests of Israel. And so they're dispersal throughout the tribes is actually a blessing, and I love, really love Joshua 1333, which says that Moses did not give a portion to the tribe of Levi. The Lord, the God of Israel, was their inheritance just as he promised them. Typically, there's nothing wrong with the tribes, the other tribes inheriting land, nothing

4:06wrong with that at all. But this verse has always just challenged me like, would I be content if my only inheritance was the opportunity to serve the Lord and his people? Yeah, that is a very challenging question. I'm feeling the need to sit and ponder it here for a moment, but I'm first going to share my takeaway from these chapters. I think what's really standing out to me, we've called back to Genesis several times, in this episode, and there's centuries in between here. And so I think what I'm noticing in this moment is God's patience. And even the way that maybe I view time as something that I want to move quickly, I want things to happen now, yeah, I see God's plans unfolding slowly, you know, and I see people like Abraham who, while he believed in faith that he would see this promise of God fulfilled, he never saw it while walking on the earth with his own eyes. And so if this is encouraging me, both God's patience for the outfolding of his plan is

5:10I am a slow mover at times, and it is encouraging me to be patient with the Lord and maybe to ease up on some of the expectations I have about how quickly things should move because clearly God works sovereignly in his own time, and that is the perfect time. So, and we're seeing that here. Awesome. Well, enjoyed talking through these chapters in Joshua, and we have a few more tomorrow.