In January of 1999 my friend, William Marshall, and I decided we would tour parts of Europe over twenty days. And in the last week of that trip we found ourselves overlooking the ruins of ancient Rome wishing we’d paid more attention in our history or arts and western civilization classes. We were looking at ancient ruins with no factual comments to add except to affirm the obvious. Therefore, we were reduced to saying, “Those buildings are really old. They have big columns. They’re below where we’re standing elevation-wise.” and the like. I’m sure our ignorance was actually expanding the more we spoke.
However, then something beautiful happened. A large group of people walked up alongside of us as they were led by a tour guide. Therefore, William and I inched close enough to them to overhear what was going on and were able to hear everything she was saying as she told anecdotes about ancient Rome, what the buildings were, and the role of Christians during this time among other things. And as this was happening, William and I looked at each other as if to say, “We’re going to happen to be going wherever this group is going.” We very much wanted to be eavesdroppers on a very interesting conversation.
There are other conversations probably universally people wish they were able to hear. No doubt all believers wish they could have been present to hear what Jesus was saying to those two men on their way to Emmaus as he shared with him about how the entire Old Testament spoke of him.
Then, there are conversations that even those involved in them wish they could avoid. Just this past week I had two conversations that would fit this latter category. I had two conversations with the guys renting our house this next year that went something like this: “Okay, now my yard runs all the way from the road over to that cable box (or utility box, or whatever it is). Then you come up along this fence row (just beyond the trees) until you see that it meets another fence. Then, you go along that fence row which lines up pretty evenly with a utility pole right across the street. And that’s my yard.”
Now, I can assure you that no one was trying to eavesdrop on our conversation. In fact, if you’d been standing nearby, you would have probably wanted to go do something more enjoyable until my property accounting was done. Even with the guys renting the house and me (those for whom this conversation was necessary), we didn’t go home and journal about it in hope that someday our great-grandchildren might find that journal entry and read it. Some conversations or monologues are deserving of being published, others are painful even for those having them. Typically describing property lines falls into this latter category.
The odd thing is that if you read through Joshua 13-21 this week you realized that these are nine chapters that are basically little more than describing property lines. In fact, if you looked at our upcoming sermons card this week, you might have found yourself asking, “Why?” But that “why” may have shifted a bit. At first, you might have asked yourself, “Why are we covering nine chapters of Joshua in one sermon?” However, the answer to that question may have become apparent as you began reading the chapters and asked a “Why?” of a different sort, namely, “Why did the author of this book spend nine chapters writing about this?” Why spend all that space saying something like, “The allotment for the tribe of the people of Judah, according to their clans reached southward to the boundary of Edom, to the wilderness of Zin at the farthest south. And their south boundary ran from the end of the Salt Sea, from the bay that faces southward. It goes out southward of the ascent of Akrabbim, passes along to Zin, and goes up south of Kadesh-barnea, along by Hezron, up to Addar, turns about to Karka, passes along to Azmon, goes out by the Brook of Egypt, and comes to its end at the sea” (15:1-4)?
This is not the kind of conversation that you’d want to eavesdrop on, nor is it the kind of chapters in the Bible that inspire someone to write a devotional book. Could you imagine one of those devotional books that starts with a quote from a few Bible verses starting with Joshua 15:1-4? Perhaps you could find it in “Life’s Little Instruction Books for Farmers” or something, but why would the Spirit inspire someone to pen these words taking up this much space in the Bible? I want to try to answer that question this morning. Specifically, I want to give three answers to that question, and those three answers will form the outline of the sermon this morning. The first reason why these chapters are given to us is so that we might know for certain that God kept his promise to Abraham.
This seems to be the main message, the main point, of these entire nine chapters. Chapter 13 begins with the Lord instructing Joshua clearly to possess the land, noting that Joshua is old and “there remains yet very much land to possess” (13:1). Then note how the Lord stresses the need to divide the land, declaring in verses 6-7, “I myself will drive them out from before the people of Israel. Only allot the land to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh.”
Joshua had led Israel to conquer their enemies, but there were still some areas to drive everyone out. Also, the tribes hadn’t been given their land as an inheritance yet. And, when you read verses 6-7, you almost feel the intensity with which the Lord is directing Joshua. It’s as if Joshua needs to understand how crucial this is. And if we have any doubt as to how important it is that the land is divided and given to the tribe as an inheritance, the fact that it takes nine chapters to describe it reminds us again how important it is. So why? Why is it important that Israel gets the land?
The reason is because God had promised Abraham that his offspring would have this land. In Genesis 12, as God called Abraham to himself, he took him through Canaan, so that he passed through the land and say what was there, and the Lord declared to him, “To your offspring I will give this land” (Gen 12:7). Now, over 400 years later God is telling Joshua to get this land divided for an inheritance for this reason – so that it might be clear that God is trustworthy, that he does not lie, that he keeps his promises.
In Sunday school last week Jeremy used a great illustration stressing the importance of knowing someone’s character in relation to their word. He noted that if a sign were posted on our door one morning that someone wanted to purchase a new sanctuary for us that much would depend on who wrote it. If it were a teenager known to play practical jokes, then that promise is nothing to get too excited about. However, if it were written by a wealthy individual who is trustworthy and values the very things we value as a church, then we should indeed get more than a little excited. Someone’s character tells us whether or not to stake something on their word.
So, when we consider that the Bible is a book that reveals to us who God is, we should note that these chapters confirm that our God is one who does everything he says he will do and fulfills every promise. And this is big for us because if we believe that God’s promises are true, then it should affect how we live. And God has made a number of promises to us in his Word. He’s promised to be with us wherever we go. He’s promised to work all things together for our good. We should consider such promises in thinking through how we live.
Now, many of the promises that God has made to us stand far off. I don’t want to ignore that. It’s one thing to say as you go to stand up to preach, “I trust that God’s Word will be what he promises, like a two-edged sword that will convict us, reveal us, and manifest the thoughts and intentions of our heart.” That’s something that you can at times watch. I’ve seen that on occasion as I’ve stood to preach. It’s another thing, however, to act, knowing that you’re trusting in something that you’ll never see in this life.
Tom Fox shared last week about a missionary family that was flying home with the dad, mom, and child on the plane together. However, the mom was not on the plane sitting beside them, she was with the cargo, in a coffin. They were flying her body back so that they might have a funeral for her and bury here near her family. And as Tom asked us to pray for them, he said, “That’s the life of one of God’s servants,” and he’s right. We could compile story after story after story like this. From William Carey to John Paton to Jim Elliot, God’s servants are not guaranteed an exit where they ride off gloriously into the sunset with the praise off of hundreds of people raining down on them. Sometimes they suffer and die specifically because they’ve done something to serve God.
So why would anyone, then, pick up his family and go across the ocean to a difficult place to carry out the Great Commission? Why would someone live in a dangerous area to minister the gospel there? Why would anyone risk their lives in obedience to Christ? The answer is that our God has promised to raise his people from the dead to live forever with him. So, who cares if you die serving the Lord, he’ll raise you from the dead. That’s why the Lord tells us not to fear one who can only kill us.
But that promise isn’t tangible, is it? It’s not as if you get to die, be raised from the dead so that you can feel the reality of that promise, and then get to come back and live a life of radical obedience before God. No. You must simply trust that the God who has said that he’ll raise us from the dead on that final day, that the Lord who said he would not leave us as orphans but would come again to get us so that we might be with him is not a liar and does what he promises. But that’s exactly what Joshua 13-21 is written to tell us – God does keep his promises! He is so bent on making sure they get their land because he promised it to them, and that’s why we can know that he’ll do everything necessary to make sure that the very things he’s promised to us will indeed take place. God himself will see to it.
Trusting in God’s promises (that oftentimes we will never see in this lifetime) is what strengthens us to live a self-sacrificing obedient life now. Do you really trust that God raises the dead? Then don’t cling so tightly to this life. Do you really believe that he’ll reward us with riches in heaven where moths will not destroy them? Then don’t cling so tightly to your treasures in this life. Do you really think he’ll bless with greatness those who serve in this life? Then stop pursuing prestige and fame being great in this life and simply dedicate yourself to be a lowly servant of God, seeking merely to please him. God keeps his promises, so show your trust in that by living a life of radical obedience to his in this life.
We also see in this text that we are called to persevere in obedient faith before God.
Though the text is about the different tribes getting the land, the author does pause to focus specifically on a couple individuals getting the land. First, in chapter 14 we read of Caleb getting his inheritance. In 14:6-15, we read of Caleb coming to Joshua and recounting to him how forty-five years earlier he had brought a good report back as he spied out the land, saying that they should take it. He reminds Joshua that Moses promised to him that he would have an inheritance in the land. Then he declares that he’s as strong as he was then, and he’s ready to drive out anyone in the hill country so that he might take it as an inheritance, and did just that. We find the same thing in regard to Joshua as he receives his inheritance in 19:49-50.
But there’s something I want to highlight here. It’s especially clear concerning Caleb. It is this: these men did not simply rest on past faith and past obedience. They persevered in obedient faith right up to the end. That is, Caleb did not come and say, “Look, I displayed great faith forty-five years ago, and so I’m going to sit and let God heap the blessings upon me.” Rather, he said, “My faith was displayed then as I obeyed God, and my faith will be displayed today even as I’m eighty-five years old as I obey God, drive out the inhabitants of the land, and take it as my inheritance.” He persevered in obedient faith.
In stark contrast to this is the constant refrain that the Israelites failed to drive everyone out of the land. You get your first taste of this in 13:13 as we read, “Yet the people of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites of the Maacatheites, but Geshur and Maacath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day.” But you find the same thing in 15:63, 16:10, and 17:12-13. They had been there to fight the big battles, but they simply weren’t willing to persevere and finish the work. Ephraim and Manasseh express the same reluctance as they simply want Joshua to give them more land instead of driving out those who are on their land and clearing the forests in 17:14-18.
The call for Christians is to persevere in obedient faith. The call to us is not simply to place our faith in Christ to begin the Christian life or simply to stand strong in really dramatic times. The call is to persevere in obedience and faith throughout our lives, through the dramatic and the mundane. In fact, most of the Christian is made up of the mundane. Most of the Christian life would look insignificant and unimportant to any onlooker. And it’s hard to press on in daily obedience, but that’s what is demanded of us. The life of a faithful believer is one in which he seeks to obey the Lord day-in and day-out. He just keeps plodding along in obedience.
I remember thinking that it would be so easy to have family devotions to lead my family spiritually when I pondered on these things as a single person. I thought, “Wow, how could you not be moved when you look at your children and know that so much of their dependence is on you?” But what I found out is that these things do not just dramatically happen. Family devotions happen because tired parents who have a number of other things they could be doing decide that what is most important is for them to stop, read the Scriptures, teach the Scriptures, and pray with their children. Drawing on Scripture in times of intense temptation happen because you’ve taken the time to think about, meditate on, and memorize Scripture when your flesh was crying out to do a number of other things. And great intimacy with the Lord happens in part because normal Christians who like to eat food like everyone else periodically pause and say, “Lord, today I want to fast and pray so that I might declare how much I long to know you more.” The Christian life is about making daily difficult decisions, and it is necessary because the call to each of us is to live a life of persevering obedient faith before God.
We also are reminded in this text that God takes care of the details necessary for us to serve him.
Let me first point out why I say this from these chapters, and the explain what I mean (and don’t mean). Chapters 20-21 seem kind of odd along the way. After the predictable description of land boundaries over seven chapters, we find that chapter 20 is a description of these cities of refuge. By that, we mean that this chapter is an account of God establishing cities where someone could flee for protection if they accidentally killed someone. So, for example, if two guys were cutting down a tree together and the ax head flew off as one of them swung it and killed the other, then that individual would be responsible for the other’s death, but it would have been a complete accident. Therefore, these cities were set up for men to go to so that they might be protected from revenge.
Chapter 21 then is an account of the Levites being given cities to dwell in throughout the land. The Levites did not receive an inheritance because God had taken them to serve themselves. However, in chapter 21 we are reminded that the Lord makes sure they have what they need, giving them a place to live throughout the land. In fact, in 21:41 we read, “The cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the people of Israel were in all forty-eight cities with their pasturelands.”
Now, we might read this and say, “So what?” But I think what we need to see is this: God is providing for the necessary details to live in the land. He did not miss the fact that they would need something like cities of refuge. He did not forget that even though the Levites were called to be servants of God that they would need a place to live just like everyone else. God was taking care of the details necessary for the people to serve him faithfully in the land. In fact, by placing Levites in every city, God was putting someone in each city who had the responsibility of teaching the people the law. O the wisdom of God!
And this is a good reminder to us that God is aware of the details in our lives. It’s not as if God has this grand scheme for our lives but somehow is forgetting to address important details. That’s not the kind of God he is. For those of you who are single and want to be married, you might feel like you know what obedience looks like, but at the end of the day you’re concerned that if you obey God and do what you’re supposed to do that somehow you’ll miss the detail necessary for getting a spouse. You may be anxiously thinking, “Maybe I need to be doing this or that to make sure our paths cross.” The reality is that you simply need to do what you know to do right now in obeying God and trust that God will account for the details. He is the kind of God who takes care of details.
Perhaps you’re thinking about giving, but then you stop and think, “But perhaps I could do something to upgrade my house so that the resale value will be high.” My exhortation to you is to give if you believe God is burdening you to that and let him deal with the details of the resale value of your house.
I don’t mean for us to be irresponsible. Be responsible, but sometimes we can reason ourselves right out of obeying the Lord not because we’re being responsible but because we simply do not trust the Lord to take care of the necessary details in our lives. God already knows what you and I have need of, and he will care of the details necessary as we set our hearts and minds to walk in obedience to him.
But there is one other reason I want to highlight for which Joshua 13-21 is very helpful. It reminds us that we have an inheritance coming
I started the sermon saying the Joshua 13-21 is a fulfillment of a promise that God had made to Abraham all the way back in Genesis 12 as God promised to give to give to Abraham’s offspring the land. That’s beautiful. But I don’t want you to miss the place this event and the fulfillment of this promise has within the whole of Scripture. And I think the best way to set this in our mind is to remind ourselves that the storyline of the Bible does not begin with Genesis 12. It does not begin with Abraham as God promises to bless him, to give him offspring, and to bring them into a land where they will know rest. Rather, the Bible starts in Genesis 1, and it is there that the grand story of God’s intention for creation begins.
When God created the world and man himself in six days, he rested on the seventh day. The seventh day is clearly different from all others in Genesis 1-2, for there is no mention of it being morning and evening, the day is blessed, and because it is said to be a day on which God rested as he ruled over the man as man dwelt in the garden.
But according to Hebrews 3-4, God’s rest on that seventh day was something different than him letting out a deep breath after a hard week’s work. God’s rest was a state of blessing where God’s people lived under God’s reign in God’s world. It was a state of ultimate blessing as the scene prior to Genesis 3 is one of paradise.
But after Genesis 3, all of this was distorted. Man had sinned, he submitted to the reign of the evil one, enemies were all around, and man was driven from place where God had established him. Rest was lost. And after Genesis 3, we could sum up the storyline of the Bible as the story of how we get back to living in God’s rest.
But by the time we get to Genesis 12 and conclude in Joshua 21, we realize that God is going to give us a picture of what redemption will look like as he blesses a people, takes them to himself, has them drive out their enemies, dwell in a land, have it subdued before them (Joshua 18:1), and live in God’s rest (that which the previous generation were told they would never enter). But you noticed that the Bible doesn’t end with a celebration in Joshua 21. Why? Didn’t God fulfill his promise to them and give them land and rest? Yes. But even years later in Psalm 95 David was still urging people to enter his rest. Why? The author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 4:8-9, “If Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”
That is, Joshua 21 is not our ultimate hope. Yes, Israel comes into the land, but they still struggle with their own sin. They still have enemies present. Joshua 21 is not Genesis 2. But nor is our hope simply Genesis 2; it is more. In fact, as you follow the rest of the Old Testament, you’ll find that soon the whole world is being described as looking at Eden. The hope for the promised land is eclipsed by hope for the whole world becoming a fruitful place. And ultimately Paul tells us in Romans 8 that God is going to redeem not simply Canaan from being enemy-occupied territory but that he is going to redeem the whole earth.
Believers, our inheritance one day will be dwelling with God forever as the heavens and the earth are made new, dwelling under his reign with no enemy present. We will dwell in God’s land, under God’s reign, in God’s rest. This is our hope, and it is sure. Therefore, let me urge you this morning to live your brief life now reflecting that you know for sure that you are bound for a land much greater than Canaan and a rest that is much more perfect than theirs. We are bound for a place where Christ the Son forever reigns, where sickness, sorrow, pain, and death will be felt and feared no more. That is the lot of God’s servants! May we then delight in that which secured our hope – the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord – as we come to the table this morning. Amen.