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Joshua 16-19
Skip Heitzig

Joshua 16 (NKJV™)
1 The lot fell to the children of Joseph from the Jordan, by Jericho, to the waters of Jericho on the east, to the wilderness that goes up from Jericho through the mountains to Bethel,
2 then went out from Bethel to Luz, passed along to the border of the Archites at Ataroth,
3 and went down westward to the boundary of the Japhletites, as far as the boundary of Lower Beth Horon to Gezer; and it ended at the sea.
4 So the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance.
5 The border of the children of Ephraim, according to their families, was thus: The border of their inheritance on the east side was Ataroth Addar as far as Upper Beth Horon.
6 And the border went out toward the sea on the north side of Michmethath; then the border went around eastward to Taanath Shiloh, and passed by it on the east of Janohah.
7 Then it went down from Janohah to Ataroth and Naarah, reached to Jericho, and came out at the Jordan.
8 The border went out from Tappuah westward to the Brook Kanah, and it ended at the sea. This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim according to their families.
9 The separate cities for the children of Ephraim were among the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages.
10 And they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day and have become forced laborers.
Joshua 17 (NKJV™)
1 There was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph: namely for Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because he was a man of war; therefore he was given Gilead and Bashan.
2 And there was a lot for the rest of the children of Manasseh according to their families: for the children of Abiezer, the children of Helek, the children of Asriel, the children of Shechem, the children of Hepher, and the children of Shemida; these were the male children of Manasseh the son of Joseph according to their families.
3 But Zelophehad the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters. And these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
4 And they came near before Eleazar the priest, before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the rulers, saying, "The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers." Therefore, according to the commandment of the LORD, he gave them an inheritance among their father's brothers.
5 Ten shares fell to Manasseh, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which were on the other side of the Jordan,
6 because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance among his sons; and the rest of Manasseh's sons had the land of Gilead.
7 And the territory of Manasseh was from Asher to Michmethath, that lies east of Shechem; and the border went along south to the inhabitants of En Tappuah.
8 Manasseh had the land of Tappuah, but Tappuah on the border of Manasseh belonged to the children of Ephraim.
9 And the border descended to the Brook Kanah, southward to the brook. These cities of Ephraim are among the cities of Manasseh. The border of Manasseh was on the north side of the brook; and it ended at the sea.
10 Southward it was Ephraim's, northward it was Manasseh's, and the sea was its border. Manasseh's territory was adjoining Asher on the north and Issachar on the east.
11 And in Issachar and in Asher, Manasseh had Beth Shean and its towns, Ibleam and its towns, the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, the inhabitants of En Dor and its towns, the inhabitants of Taanach and its towns, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns--three hilly regions.
12 Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities, but the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land.
13 And it happened, when the children of Israel grew strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out.
14 Then the children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, "Why have you given us only one lot and one share to inherit, since we are a great people, inasmuch as the LORD has blessed us until now?"
15 So Joshua answered them, "If you are a great people, then go up to the forest country and clear a place for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and the giants, since the mountains of Ephraim are too confined for you."
16 But the children of Joseph said, "The mountain country is not enough for us; and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are of Beth Shean and its towns and those who are of the Valley of Jezreel."
17 And Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph--to Ephraim and Manasseh--saying, "You are a great people and have great power; you shall not have only one lot,
18 "but the mountain country shall be yours. Although it is wooded, you shall cut it down, and its farthest extent shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and are strong."
Joshua 18 (NKJV™)
1 Now the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of meeting there. And the land was subdued before them.
2 But there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance.
3 Then Joshua said to the children of Israel: "How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers has given you?
4 "Pick out from among you three men for each tribe, and I will send them; they shall rise and go through the land, survey it according to their inheritance, and come back to me.
5 "And they shall divide it into seven parts. Judah shall remain in their territory on the south, and the house of Joseph shall remain in their territory on the north.
6 "You shall therefore survey the land in seven parts and bring the survey here to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the LORD our God.
7 "But the Levites have no part among you, for the priesthood of the LORD is their inheritance. And Gad, Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan on the east, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave them."
8 Then the men arose to go away; and Joshua charged those who went to survey the land, saying, "Go, walk through the land, survey it, and come back to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the LORD in Shiloh."
9 So the men went, passed through the land, and wrote the survey in a book in seven parts by cities; and they came to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh.
10 Then Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the LORD, and there Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions.
11 Now the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families, and the territory of their lot came out between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph.
12 Their border on the north side began at the Jordan, and the border went up to the side of Jericho on the north, and went up through the mountains westward; it ended at the Wilderness of Beth Aven.
13 The border went over from there toward Luz, to the side of Luz (which is Bethel) southward; and the border descended to Ataroth Addar, near the hill that lies on the south side of Lower Beth Horon.
14 Then the border extended around the west side to the south, from the hill that lies before Beth Horon southward; and it ended at Kirjath Baal (which is Kirjath Jearim), a city of the children of Judah. This was the west side.
15 The south side began at the end of Kirjath Jearim, and the border extended on the west and went out to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah.
16 Then the border came down to the end of the mountain that lies before the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is in the Valley of the Rephaim on the north, descended to the Valley of Hinnom, to the side of the Jebusite city on the south, and descended to En Rogel.
17 And it went around from the north, went out to En Shemesh, and extended toward Geliloth, which is before the Ascent of Adummim, and descended to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben.
18 Then it passed along toward the north side of Arabah, and went down to Arabah.
19 And the border passed along to the north side of Beth Hoglah; then the border ended at the north bay at the Salt Sea, at the south end of the Jordan. This was the southern boundary.
20 The Jordan was its border on the east side. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, according to its boundaries all around, according to their families.
21 Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin, according to their families, were Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz,
22 Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,
23 Avim, Parah, Ophrah,
24 Chephar Haammoni, Ophni, and Gaba: twelve cities with their villages;
25 Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,
26 Mizpah, Chephirah, Mozah,
27 Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah,
28 Zelah, Eleph, Jebus (which is Jerusalem), Gibeath, and Kirjath: fourteen cities with their villages. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families.
Joshua 19 (NKJV™)
1 The second lot came out for Simeon, for the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families. And their inheritance was within the inheritance of the children of Judah.
2 They had in their inheritance Beersheba (Sheba), Moladah,
3 Hazar Shual, Balah, Ezem,
4 Eltolad, Bethul, Hormah,
5 Ziklag, Beth Marcaboth, Hazar Susah,
6 Beth Lebaoth, and Sharuhen: thirteen cities and their villages;
7 Ain, Rimmon, Ether, and Ashan: four cities and their villages;
8 and all the villages that were all around these cities as far as Baalath Beer, Ramah of the South. This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families.
9 The inheritance of the children of Simeon was included in the share of the children of Judah, for the share of the children of Judah was too much for them. Therefore the children of Simeon had their inheritance within the inheritance of that people.
10 The third lot came out for the children of Zebulun according to their families, and the border of their inheritance was as far as Sarid.
11 Their border went toward the west and to Maralah, went to Dabbasheth, and extended along the brook that is east of Jokneam.
12 Then from Sarid it went eastward toward the sunrise along the border of Chisloth Tabor, and went out toward Daberath, bypassing Japhia.
13 And from there it passed along on the east of Gath Hepher, toward Eth Kazin, and extended to Rimmon, which borders on Neah.
14 Then the border went around it on the north side of Hannathon, and it ended in the Valley of Jiphthah El.
15 Included were Kattath, Nahallal, Shimron, Idalah, and Bethlehem: twelve cities with their villages.
16 This was the inheritance of the children of Zebulun according to their families, these cities with their villages.
17 The fourth lot came out to Issachar, for the children of Issachar according to their families.
18 And their territory went to Jezreel, and included Chesulloth, Shunem,
19 Haphraim, Shion, Anaharath,
20 Rabbith, Kishion, Abez,
21 Remeth, En Gannim, En Haddah, and Beth Pazzez.
22 And the border reached to Tabor, Shahazimah, and Beth Shemesh; their border ended at the Jordan: sixteen cities with their villages.
23 This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Issachar according to their families, the cities and their villages.
24 The fifth lot came out for the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families.
25 And their territory included Helkath, Hali, Beten, Achshaph,
26 Alammelech, Amad, and Mishal; it reached to Mount Carmel westward, along the Brook Shihor Libnath.
27 It turned toward the sunrise to Beth Dagon; and it reached to Zebulun and to the Valley of Jiphthah El, then northward beyond Beth Emek and Neiel, bypassing Cabul which was on the left,
28 including Ebron, Rehob, Hammon, and Kanah, as far as Greater Sidon.
29 And the border turned to Ramah and to the fortified city of Tyre; then the border turned to Hosah, and ended at the sea by the region of Achzib.
30 Also Ummah, Aphek, and Rehob were included: twenty-two cities with their villages.
31 This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families, these cities with their villages.
32 The sixth lot came out to the children of Naphtali, for the children of Naphtali according to their families.
33 And their border began at Heleph, enclosing the territory from the terebinth tree in Zaanannim, Adami Nekeb, and Jabneel, as far as Lakkum; it ended at the Jordan.
34 From Heleph the border extended westward to Aznoth Tabor, and went out from there toward Hukkok; it adjoined Zebulun on the south side and Asher on the west side, and ended at Judah by the Jordan toward the sunrise.
35 And the fortified cities are Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Chinnereth,
36 Adamah, Ramah, Hazor,
37 Kedesh, Edrei, En Hazor,
38 Iron, Migdal El, Horem, Beth Anath, and Beth Shemesh: nineteen cities with their villages.
39 This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Naphtali according to their families, the cities and their villages.
40 The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families.
41 And the territory of their inheritance was Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir Shemesh,
42 Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Jethlah,
43 Elon, Timnah, Ekron,
44 Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath,
45 Jehud, Bene Berak, Gath Rimmon,
46 Me Jarkon, and Rakkon, with the region near Joppa.
47 And the border of the children of Dan went beyond these, because the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem and took it; and they struck it with the edge of the sword, took possession of it, and dwelt in it. They called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father.
48 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families, these cities with their villages.
49 When they had made an end of dividing the land as an inheritance according to their borders, the children of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua the son of Nun.
50 According to the word of the LORD they gave him the city which he asked for, Timnath Serah in the mountains of Ephraim; and he built the city and dwelt in it.
51 These were the inheritances which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel divided as an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. So they made an end of dividing the country.

New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.

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06 Joshua - 1998

Pastor Skip Heitzig expounds on the book of Joshua as a historical book, as the Israelites enter, conquer, and divide up the Promised Land, and also as a practical book on victorious living.

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Let's turn in our Bibles to Joshua, chapter 16; Joshua, chapter 16. Let's pray. Father, we now look to you believing that you through the agency of your Holy Spirit through a variety of different methods are the author of this book. You wrote it, Lord. You inspired those who penned it, and yet ultimately your Spirit is the author. Help us, Lord, as we read it to understand why certain portions were written, what we can glean from it. And, Lord, as we open up these Scriptures tonight, we lay our hearts bare before you. We want to apply these things for us rather than for someone else. We don't want just more ammunition, as far as truth is concerned, as much as we want the application of it, that we might be changed by it. And so we humbly read this, Lord, because this is your light to the world, in Jesus' name, amen.

My father was a real estate developer in Southern California. He was an entrepreneur. He bought and sold lots of property, and he was able to pass those parcels down, with all their headaches, to my mother when he passed away. But I always remember him coming down from his office, coming home with deeds and documents and all sorts of contracts, and as I tried to look through them, I didn't understand them much. It was pretty boring, a lot of technicalities: this is where the boundary lays, and this is what the rights of the owner will be, and the conditions and the terms, etcetera. Now, for the person owning the property it would be very exciting, for an outsider looking in it might not be all that exciting.

But if you own it, you go, "Wow! That's what I got? This is where my boundary . . . This is how much it's worth." It can be exciting. I say that to begin, because the next several chapters read like real estate deeds. In fact, that's what it is. It's all allotments of land in the nation of Israel to the various tribes, the twelve tribes of Israel. Now, lest you think, "Ah, well this is boring. And this doesn't apply to me. And who cares?" Keep in mind this is payday for the children of Israel. They have looked forward to this since they were back in Egypt when God said, "I will make good the promise I made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," that they would inherit the land and then going forty years through that desert.

And then finally at the edge of the land, and then finally going into the land and checking it out, and the battles that lasted about seven years. Now, to put out these documents, so to speak, to by lot establish the boundaries for each tribe, it was electric. They were excited on the day that these chapters come to fruition. And so you might want to just place yourself in their sandals, so to speak, as these are the ones that are going to inherit and inhabit the land of Israel. There is considerable amount of writing concern this; that is, the boundaries are marked out by city, by border, by clan, by families, etcetera. And it might seem awfully detailed for what we in the New Testament would consider irrelevant material.

But it ought to show you a very important lesson: the kind of detailed concern that God has for his people, so detailed, down to the---where you're going to put the boundary line, and what family is going to inhabit this portion of land, down to the individuals named. God is concerned about everything. Well, the Bible says, "God will perfect that which concerns [us]." All of those little details of your life that you think, "Oh, they're not important, it's just a little private, personal matter," God wants to stick his nose in. He wants to be the Lord of that. "Oh, I shouldn't pray about this. This is so insignificant. God is so big. He's running the universe making that thing spin on its axis. I couldn't bring this before him."

Bring it before him. It's these kinds of chapters that bring out that kind of a lesson, the detailed concern that God has. David framed it beautifully when in Psalm 8, no doubt he was thinking of his shepherd days, as he looked up in the heavens and he said, "When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you visit him?" That's a good perspective. First of all, God is concerned, but it ought to blow your mind, as it did David, to think how much God is concerned about you in lieu of the fact that we live in a pretty big home, this universe.

It always helps sometimes to just walk outside and look up and think how small you are and how big this is. You are one of 5.7 billion other little people that inhabit this sphere that's floating in space 45,000 miles per hour, rotating on its axis at a thousand miles per hour as it spins, 8,000 miles in diameter. And then this earth itself is pretty small when you think of the universe that it's in. If you were to just look at the sun---well, not look at the sun, consider the sun. David didn't say, "When I look at the sun," but, "When I consider the heavens." But the sun is 93 million miles away from the earth and yet the energy that it exerts that we can feel 93 million miles away is pretty significant.

The sun, now, rather than 8,000 miles in diameter is some 86,000 miles in diameter---excuse me, 860,000 miles in diameter. And if you were to put it in perspective, you could put 1,200,000 spheres the size of this earth inside of it. That's just the nearest star. There are other stars and there are other galaxies beyond that. And so the real question of David---and I'm bringing all this up to set this up---is, "In lieu of the fact we have such a grand universe, why would you think so intimately about us, so detailed about me?" And God does. Did you know that? God is concerned. Even down to how he thinks about you.

One of our favorite verses, Jeremiah 29:11, "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of good not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." And then Psalm 139, as David thinks about the majesty of God, "And he says, "How great are the sum of your thoughts to me, O God! If I were to count them all out, there'd be more in number than the sand in the seashore," the thoughts of God. In this chapter, chapter 16 and 17, we have a portion allotted---I'll show that in a moment---to the sons of Joseph. That's where we left off last time, Ephraim and Manasseh. You say, "Wait a minute, didn't we cover Manasseh?" Well, we covered half of Manasseh? Remember half of this tribe said, "I don't want to go into the land. I like the east side better."

And so they took the heights, the Golan Heights up by northern Galilee. That's where half of them settled, and the rest of them settled in central Canaan. Let me just show this so you. There's the map. You can check it out. If you remember back to Genesis 49, when Jacob had his sons around his bed when he died, he allotted to Joseph, he allowed Joseph's sons to be numbered among Joseph's son's uncles, the rest of the brethren, so that the tribe of Joseph had actually two allotments split up by the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh.

And so in chapter 16, verse 1, "The lot fell to the children of Joseph from the Jordan, by Jericho, to the waters of Jericho on the east, to the wilderness that goes up from Jericho through the mountains to Bethel, then went out from Bethel to Luz, passed along the border of the Archites at Ataroth, and went down westward to the boundary of the Japhletites, as far as the boundary of Lower Beth Horon to Gezer; and it ended at the sea. So the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance." So as you can see on the map, the two tribes put together, stretching a good section of land from the Jordan River, that's their eastern boundary, to their western boundary which is the Mediterranean Sea.

In a moment you'll read of Shiloh where the tabernacle stands and it stood in this area, the heart of the land of Israel. Look at verse 10. "And they did not"---and the reason I'm skipping down verse 10 is because a lot of these names like Japhletites and Archites, and you're going to go, "Who? What? How? Did he pronounce it right?" These are names of settlements and boundaries that unless you have an ancient map and were to follow along and really plot it out, we'd leave you in the dust, so the important points. Verse 10, "They did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day," that is, to the day of the writing of this book, "and have become forced laborers."

Interesting. No doubt, motivated by materialism, this tribe of Israel, rather than booting them out, put them to labor so that they could gain more wealth. Now, this is a grave mistake, because by the time of the book of Judges these Canaanites that they didn't drive out will grow stronger and stronger and form alliances and enslave the children of Israel, make them forced laborers. So, it will reverse. That which they thought was a nice, easy compromise will come back to bite them and destroy them almost. It will rule over them. There's a lesson in that, a lesson of spiritual compromise. You might think that you can tolerate some pet sin, some little problem, some little vice: "It's not that big. I can maintain it. I can manage it."

But that thing can grow and grow and one day you can wake up and you are enslaved to it. You don't have a grip. You don't have a control on it. You're under its bondage, because you didn't deal with it immediately and radically when you should have. And so the children of Israel will learn the lesson the hard way. Chapter 17 we continue with the sons of Joseph, principally Manasseh. "There was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph: namely for Machir, the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because he was a man of war; therefore he was given Gilead and Bashan," or Bashán, it's upper east.

"And there was a lot for the rest of the children of Manasseh according to their families. But Zelophehad"---what a great name. If you're looking for biblical names, maybe you have a son coming up, and you're thinking, "If I have a boy, I'm going to name him Zelophehad," that would be unusual. "Zelo" for short, I guess, around the house. [laughter] He was "the son of Hepher," not much better, [laughter] "the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters. And these are the names of his daughters"---think that guy was bad, listen to this---"Malah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah." So, more options if you have girls.

"And they came near before Eleazar the priest, before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the rulers, saying, 'The Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers.' Therefore, according to the commandment of the Lord, he gave them an inheritance among their father's brothers. Ten shares fell to Manasseh, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which were on the other side of the Jordan," that is east, "because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance among his sons; and the rest of Manasseh's sons had the land of Gilead." You really have to go back to get the story. It's in Deuteronomy, but there was a guy, a father, named Zelophehad.

Zelophehad, he had no sons, but he had five daughters. The law, it would seem, stipulated that the male children would take the inheritance, but this guy had no male children. So the daughters come and they made an issue out of it. And so there was a decree at the hand of Moses, that they get into the land, there's a decree if a guy has no sons that the daughter receives the inheritance. So they make an issue of it here. And I'm glad they did, because they simply recall the Scripture. And the Bible does say, "God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him," and also, "You have not because you ask not." And so they bring up this issue, so that the land can fall to the gals, since there were no men in the family.

This is important. Again, God's concerned. Lest you think, "Well, I read the Bible and God is a male chauvinist. It's all patriarchal. It's only for the guys. There's nothing in it for the gals." That's not true. In other nations, and perhaps even culturally, because those other nations there was this intense patriarchal system. But there were rights for the women and God ensured that these woman had rights even when it came to the owning of the land and the property. It was to be divided up to them. And in so many of the cultures around Israel women were considered, well, something owned like chattel, and you can trade, you could sell. It was a piece of property. But not in the Bible.

If you look all the way back to the book of Genesis when God created man and woman upon the earth, when the Lord brought the woman to the man, he said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She will be called woman, because she was taken out of man." And God brought this beautiful partnership together. And I love what Matthew Henry said about that. He said, "Woman was not taken from man's head to be above him, nor was she taken from man's foot to be walked on by him, but she was taken from his side to be next to him, to be close to his heart." The plan of redemption in the Bible, upon creating the first woman God gave the first promise of redemption in Genesis 3.

In the New Testament the plan of redemption was first announced to a woman. It was women that were first at the tomb of the resurrected Christ and were helpers also in the ministry of Jesus Christ. And I also hear that Paul was a chauvinist. You know, Paul the apostle was so down on women because of some of the texts that---"I forbid a woman shouldn't speak in the church." And there's text that are used, and some are applied, some are misapplied. Paul the apostle said, "There is neither male nor female, Scythian, bond, free---we're all one in Christ." Mankind makes the distinctions and sometimes these cultures make the distinctions where there were no rights, but the Lord was on their side.

Verse 13, "And it happened, when the children of Israel grew strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out." Now, you're going to read this over and over again. It seems that all of the tribes develop a soft spot and they go, "Oh, why hassle it? Why drive them out? We could use them. Let's strike a compromise." We just mentioned that compromise can turn around and bite you. I actually heard of a criminal who was fleeing the police in one state and he managed to get over the state line. And he parked his car on the other side of the state line. And the police from the state pulled up to the state line. Their jurisdiction ended.

They hadn't got cooperation from the other state yet. And so there was the criminal facing the authorities over the state line. And so the authorities did a very clever thing. They put down their guns and they said, "You know what? We gotta hand it to you, you're very clever and you're very fast. "You got away from us. You're on that side. We're on this side. We really can't do anything. You know what? You won. Congratulations. Let's call it a deal, let's call it over, and let's shake on it." [laughter] So as the guy pulled out his arm, the authorities grabbed him and yanked him over on their side of the line again. Now he was in their state and they booked him.

The Canaanites will do that to the children of Israel. "Let's shake on it." "Okay." [laughter] And they will become forced labor later on. There's a mega theme that runs through this book. Have you noticed it? God wants his people go to through all of the land, to take all of it. "All of this is yours. Walk on it. Every piece the sole of your foot touches is yours, but you got to walk on it. You have to claim it by walking on it. You have to go in and take it." There is a place that God wants his people to come, a place of victory, a place of occupying their inheritance that he gives to them, and so many of us settle for less. "Oh, that's enough. I don't want any more blessing, God. I don't want any more influence in my life. This is just fine. I just want to be right here."

And sometimes we settle for less and sometimes we settle for that average, dull, kind of living, when God wants---what did he say?---"rivers of living water" to come from us. Jesus said, "Out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water." There's a spiritual inheritance to be had for the church. So, you may want to ask yourself---and we're almost done with the book of Joshua if we keep going at the rate that I plan to go. But we are to run a race, the New Testament says. And sometimes we get all excited about this race at the very beginning, put on our little Nike running shoes, our number's on the vest, and we're out running, we don't pace ourselves.

And soon we start looking around at other things that other people are doing and other people are having and we start slowing down. And instead of running or walking in the Spirit, we are vegging in the Spirit, we are couch potatoes in the Spirit. We're not moving forward anymore; we've just sort of stagnated. It's a very dangerous place to go. And so pretty soon we have the enemies just camping all around. "Oh, I'll just leave them. No big deal. I could use it someday. I like these cool little sins that I grew up with. They're my friends. I can't just let them out in cold." And so later on they can turn around to get us, to bite us. Verse 14, "Then the children of Joseph"---now this is, I find, very interesting.

It's a twist in the story. "The children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, 'Why have you given us only one lot and one share to inherit, since we are a great people, inasmuch as the Lord as blessed us until now?' " Now, they have a whole section east of the Jordan. They have two large sections west of the Jordan. And where do they come off going, "Hey, man, you only gave us one"? It seems that there is a principle, and I've seen it repeated, that to whom much is given, the same complaineth much. [laughter] "But you have so much." "Well, it's not enough." It's not that they need more. If you take the combined territory of Ephraim and Manasseh and compare it, say to Judah, Judah had 78,000 compared to their 56,000.

So what does it mean when they say, "Well, we're great. We're a great people"? I don't think they mean in terms of numbers, but "We're cool. We're awesome. We're great. Remember our heritage? Joseph, he was the prime minister of Egypt. That speaks, you know, volumes, Joshua. We are somebody. We are cooler than thou, hepper than thou." I think it was a prideful thing. They wanted more than was their allotment. "Don't you know who we are?" Sometimes God's people can get fat and lazy and complain. "How come I'm not noticed more? How come I don't have a bigger ministry? How come I'm not seen and I'm not in the limelight? I want more exposure."

Look at Joshua's answer, verse 15, "So Joshua answered them, 'If you are a great people, then go to the forest country and clear a place for yourselves there in the land of the Perizzites and the giants' " "If you're that great, go get the giants." " 'Since the mountains of Ephraim are too confined for you.' " I love this: "If you're so great, there's plenty of room and land unoccupied by you. It's in your allotment. You're just not there yet. Go take it. Go dwell in it. Clear trees. Go live in it. If you're great, go for it." They had the land, but they hadn't taken title of it. They hadn't moved in on it yet. Why? Because this is spiritual inertia: "We just want to go so far. It's easier to settle here. It's a little harder to go up to the mountains."

And so they ask him for more. In the church there is often this problem, as I mentioned. Sometimes people say, "I need more exposure. I need more notoriety. I want a bigger sphere of influence." The solution is: use what you have. There are things to be done right where you are in the sphere that God has given you, maximum that. Bloom where you're planted. Let God use us with the gifts he has given you right now, and let's see what God does with it. There's a principle in Matthew 25 that speaks to this, verse 29, Jesus said, "For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even that which he has will be taken away."

There's no greater opportunity until you've gone with what God has given you right now. Verse 16, "But the children of Joseph said, "The mountain country is not enough for us; and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron"---ooh, this is the real problem then, it's fear---"chariots of iron, both those who are of Beth Shean," which is one of the principle cities, just west of the Jordan up north, "and its towns and those who are of the valley of Jezreel.' " One of the most constricting, immobilizing emotions is fear. Fear causes so many of God's people to live in that listless, dull, mediocrity and not go for it.

Fran Tarkenton said, quote, "Fear causes people to draw back from situations. It brings on mediocrity, it dulls creativity, and it sets one up to be a loser in life." At the same time, fear is one of the most natural emotions when you're facing a battle. "Hey, they've got chariots of iron. This is a big job you're asking us to do. Yeah, we want more land, and we don't want to have to go through this battle again." Yet, hadn't they been through a bunch of battles already? Hadn't they watched walls fall down when they blew trumpets? Hadn't they seen ambushes take place and God routing and the sun standing still in the Valley of Aijalon? All of these miracles, couldn't they cop a clue that God is in this thing?

It could at least motivate them to go, "I'm going to trust God for this one. If I look back in recent history, the last seven years, God's been all over this place. I bet he's going to be up ahead." That was Caleb's whole philosophy last week: "Give me that mountain. I don't care if there's giants. I'll go for it." But they were afraid. Here's Joshua's response to that, verse 17, "And Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph---to Ephraim and Manasseh---saying, 'You are a great people,' " he's quoting them. "We're a great people." " 'You are a great people and have great power; and you shall not have only one lot, but the mountain country shall be yours.

"Although it is wooded, you shall cut it down, and its farthest extent shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots and are strong.' " He's saying, "Go for it. Don't let this fear stand in your way. Okay, they're strong, but you know what? You're stronger by virtue of the fact that you're God's people." One of our favorite psalms, we quote it a lot, is Psalm 27, "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?" "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world," said John. So it's important to apply this, that we check some of our own attitudes.

You might want to ask yourself if any of these attitudes are in your own life. Attitude number one: "I'm just hanging out. I'm just hanging out in the Spirit. I'm not really active. I'm not really moving forward. I'm just, well, I'm vegging for the Lord. It's my calling in life." Then put your running shoes on and run the race and walk that walk of faith. Move forward. Don't stop. Attitude number two: "I'm not happy where God has me. Doesn't God know that I have great gifts and great talents and I can be a mighty vessel for him?" Answer to that attitude: Bloom where you're planted now. Maximize who you are and what you have now. Give yourself to it. God knows what he's doing.

Attitude number three: "I'm scared." My answer to that is: Go for it anyway. Walk right through it with fear and all and watch what God does. You know what's going to happen? You're going to find that that mountain shall be removed. You're going to find that that enemy will scatter. You're going to find that God will give you that area. But he wants us to move. He wants us to walk. And that will bolster your faith as you watch God pull through. Let's move in our next chapter, chapter 18. Look it, we've covered two chapters. That's a record. "Now the whole congregation of children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of meeting there. And the land was subdued before them."

Shiloh was up in the hill country of Ephraim. Oh, these gadgets. Can you see my pointer, the little airplane? [laughter] Right where the airplane is landing is right around where Shiloh is. It's today about fifteen to eighteen miles north of Jerusalem just a few miles away from Shechem, or Nablus, considered part of the West Bank territory. This was the heart of the land, and the camp moves from Gilgal, which is down by the Jordan. Now the camp of Israel is in a new location, new strategy point, Shiloh. They set up the tabernacle there. Now, the tabernacle is a place of worship that they add through the wilderness.

The tabernacle will stay in Shiloh until the Philistines get it sometime later, and then it'll be moved to Jerusalem once the children of Israel recapture it. But for now it's in Shiloh and the day they set the tabernacle up was an exciting day, because this is now the first time the tabernacle is set up on this side of the Jordan, the first time the place of worship is established for the children of Israel before it moves to Jerusalem. The tabernacle indicates that holy God wants to dwell with sinful man. God comes near in the tabernacle. God dwells with his people. God breaks into the sinful society and manages a way to dwell with sinful man.

Granted, you have to come through blood sacrifice; granted, you have to go through a mediator, a priest; granted, you have to come trepidatiously into the presence of God, but nonetheless the way was provided for man to fellowship with God, and so the tabernacle was set up. By the way, that is the difference between religion and revelation. Religion is always man seeking God, seeking ways to find God, because man realizes that they are bound by time and space. It's like a box and the walls are time and space. And so every now and then somebody will say, "I want to find God. I want to reach God. I want to escape this box, this time and space continuum."

And so they come up with a system of rituals, and they say, "If you do this, and you do this, and you do that, you can reach God." And every time that is established, a new religion is developed. The opposite to that is God in heaven revealing himself to man, drawing near to man. The solution to man's dilemma is for God to come near, God to speak to prophets through mediators, all throughout history God revealing his will to man. And then, finally, God himself crawling into man's box via the incarnation, Jesus Christ, God made flesh and dwelt among us. But in the meantime there is this tabernacle. If---and you don't have to, but if you were to go back to Exodus, chapter 25, after they leave Egypt, Moses takes an offering.

It's the only time they take an offering in the wilderness. They take an offering. Why? For an unusual building called the tabernacle. They bring their silver, their gold, they make tapestries, golden lampstand, table of showbread, different altars, lavers for washing. The estimated value to reproduce that today is about 5 million bucks. It was essentially a portable worship center made out of tent material, cloth material. It was convenient because God was leading them through the wilderness with this cloud, this pillar of fire, and this pillar of cloud. And so when the cloud moved, they understood, "We better go that way. Follow the cloud. So pack up the tabernacle, follow it till it stops, and set up the camp again."

So they did this through the wilderness. It was this portable structure. They could bring animal sacrifices in, and they could worship the Lord out in the wilderness. While you and I might think the tabernacle is a subject that is unimportant, it is not. Let me give you a few reasons why. And I mention it because it's the first time that we read about it now that they've come into the land. There is more space in the bible devoted to the tabernacle than any single other subject. I'll just give you an example by way of comparison. There are two chapters written in Genesis about the creation of the heavens and the earth---that's it. There are over fifty chapters in the Bible written about the tabernacle.

So God had a lot to say a lot of times about this structure. One of the most amazing things, and probably this is the key to it all, is that the tabernacle was a model. It was a model of something else. So that when you came into the tabernacle, it was to remind you of something, because it was a model of something else. Just like you make a model out of cardboard and wood and little stones for a building, architects will do that. Or you have a model car. It's not the car, it's a model. It looks like the car, but it's a miniature. The tabernacle was a model of heaven. Did you know that? The writer of Hebrews in chapter 8, verse 5, says they (the priests) serve in a sanctuary that is a "copy and a shadow" of what is in heaven.

That is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain." The next chapter, Hebrews 9:23-24, "It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things should be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves were better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true; but he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence." So when you stepped into the tabernacle, it was like, in a sense, stepping into heaven. There were some similarities.

And you may want to compare a study of the tabernacle with things like Revelation, chapter 4 and 5. If you go up to the tabernacle, there were not only priests, but there were the trumpeters that announced the time of sacrifice or the holy days. There was only one door that lets you into the entrance of the courtyard. And so you turn to Revelation 4, "And the first voice was as of a trumpet speaking with me, that said, 'Come up here,' and I saw a door that was open in heaven." And if you were to walk into the tabernacle in the Old Testament, you would see this big laver, this big pool of water where they would wash their hands. In the book of Revelation it's now hardened.

It's a sea of glass, of crystal, because you don't need to wash anymore. The atonement is over. Sacrifices are ended. It's now hardened. It's crystal. It's past tense. But there are so many similarities in heaven to the tabernacle and it would just be an interesting study if you want to do that sometime. Verse 2, "But"---let's get it all in context, the whole verse 1. "The congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of meeting there. And the land was subdued before them. But there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet possessed their inheritance.

Then Joshua said to the children of God: 'How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you?' " This is great. It seems that Joshua is waiting for the tribal leaders to take the initiative. Now, they're just standing around. There's seven tribes with their hands in their pockets, saying, "What me? What about my need? What about my land?" And Joshua says, "What are doing hanging around here? Go get it! You take the initiative. You find out what God has for you." Again, Joshua 1:3, the Lord said, "Every place the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you," as a gift.

So the land was a gift, but they had to walk through it---even as you have a Bible full of promises, but you gotta use them. It's a good question to ask yourself: What do you do with the promises of God? Some people might say, "I collect them. [laughter] Yeah, I've got those little Jesus Promise books or Loaves of Bread and I pull out a promise every day." Hey, that's cool, great, whatever. "I underline them." H'm, great. "I memorize them." You know what? All of that is fine, but the real answer ought to be: "I use them. I believe them. I walk in them." The Bible needs to be bound in shoe leather. We need to take the promises of God and walk with them.

And sometimes the words of Joshua could be said of us: "What are you standing around for? Go for it. Use it." We've told you at the beginning of our study in Joshua that if you were to take and plot the land that God had given them in totality, the measurements originally God gave, there were 300,000 square miles. At the peak of their history, under David and Solomon, they only occupied 30,000 square miles, a tenth of all that God originally promised them, a tenth. God had so much for them, but they never took it. So it's not enough to say, "I'm saved." The follow-up question is: "Am I enjoying the inheritance God has for me? Am I stopping or am I running? Am I walking or am I vegging?"

Charles Spurgeon said, "Most Christians, as to the river of experience, are only up to the ankles. Some have waded till the stream is up to their knees. A few find it breast-high. And but a few---oh! how few---" he said, "find it a river to swim in, the bottom of which they cannot touch." He continues, verse 4, " 'Pick out from among you three men for each tribe, and I will send them; they shall rise and go through the land, survey it according to their inheritance, and come back to me. And they shall divide it into seven parts. Judah shall remain in their territory on the south, and the house of Joseph shall remain in their territory on the north.

You shall therefore survey the land in seven parts and bring the survey here to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord our God. But the Levites have no part among you, for the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance. And Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan on the east, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave them.' Then the men arose to go away; and Joshua charged those who went to survey the land, saying, "Go, walk through the land, survey it, and come back to me, that I may cast lot for you here before the Lord in Shiloh.'

"So the men went, passed through the land, wrote the survey in a book in seven parts by cities; and they came to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh. Then Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord, and Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions. Now, the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families, and the territory of their lot came out between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph." I'll show it to you on the map. Inside the yellow is the tribe of Benjamin, a small tribe, a small portion of land.

And, yet, within this small portion of land are some of the key cities of the land of Israel: places like Jericho, which was their first stop; Ai, which was their second battle that they won; the town of Bethel that Jacob stopped years before; the town of Gibeon that had on alliance formed with Israel we saw a few chapters ago. The tribe of Benjamin, though small, were warriors. If you turn to the book of Judges---not now, we'll get to it---we will find that they have this warlike temperament. They're ready to fight. In fact, on Jacob's deathbed, when the twelve sons were gathered, part of the prophecy is that Benjamin would be like a ravenous wolf, which they fulfilled in just being a warlike tribe.

The most important thing to remember about this tribe is that they were next to Judah. See, Judah's the big, big tribe down south in the green. Being next to Judah they were close enough in proximity to the temple in Jerusalem, so that when the nation splits in two, ten tribes go north. The two tribes that remain loyal to the true worship system is Judah and then Benjamin. And so this forms the alliance of the country, the nation of Judah versus the nation of Israel later on in the north. Now chapter 19. "The second lot came out for Simeon, for the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families."

By the way, verses 11 through 28 of the previous chapter are all the little names that you have fun with and name all your children those funny names, if you'd like. [laughter] "For the tribe of the children of Simeon," verse 1, chapter 19, "according to their families. And their inheritance was within the inheritance of the children of Judah. The inheritance," verse 9, now skip down, "the inheritance of the children of Simeon was included in the share of the children of Judah, for the share of children of Judah was too much for them. Therefore the children of Simeon had their inheritance within the inheritance of that people."

If you see on the maps in front of you, Judah is that huge area in green. Simeon, without any easements by the way, is sandwiched right in the middle of them. They have no boundaries, they have no border, except Judah all the way around them. Judah is given preference for a couple of reasons. It's the royal tribe. It's the kingly tribe. It's the leadership tribe. They first march to battle. Jerusalem will be centered in Judah, the spiritual, moral, political capital of Israel. Also, if you remember back in the book of Genesis, the two sons of Jacob, Levi and Simeon led a slaughter against the Shechemites, the men of Shechem, to avenge their daughter Dinah who had been defiled.

And it caused great bloodshed and it was very murderous. It was a scandal all over the land. So in Genesis 49 on Jacob's deathbed twelve sons are gathered around. This is what dad says to them: "Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; and their wrath for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." So it's interesting that Levi has no lot allotment. It's the priestly tribe. They have some cities scattered throughout Israel. And Simeon has its land inside Judah without its own natural borders. Now verse 10, after that allotment is given.

"The third lot came out from the children of Zebulun according to their families, and the border of their inheritance was as far as Sarid." Now, if you can see on the slide, you've got Zebulun up to the north sort of sandwiched up in the middle, southern, Galilee region. It looks landlocked in the lower Galilee, but there was easement of land that protruded out to the Mediterranean so that they had sea access. And it's important because, again, Genesis 49, dad gets the twelve kids together, he says, "Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea; he shall become a haven for ships and his borders adjoin Sidon." So that's the tribal allotment of Zebulun.

If you look in verse 13, there is a city that by now you should be familiar with from Sunday morning studies: Gath Hepher. Who came from Gath Hepher? Jonah, all right, this guy gets an A. [laughter] That was the town next to Nazareth. Nazareth is in this area. They're not mentioned in your study, but Gath Hepher a few miles from Nazareth is mentioned. Then down in verse 17, after that we get, "The fourth lot that came to Issachar, for the children of Issachar according to their families." And you can see again on the map this is Southern part of Galilee. What I put on the slide is Issachar the land of crops and confrontation. Issachar is the Valley of Jezreel; another name for the Valley of Jezreel, the Valley of Armageddon.

It's one of the most fertile valleys in the entire Middle East. It's filled with moshavim and kibbutzim, these are the farms, the collective farms of the Israelites, abundant rainfall, abundant resources. The land is rich. And if you were to stand on the mountain, the Tel of Megiddo, where the city of Megiddo was, and you look all around you to the north, you can see Mount Tabor and you can see the valley spread out up toward Galilee---beautiful! But one day this valley from this tribe will be filled with blood. This is the land of confrontation. More battles are fought in Israel in this valley than anywhere else, and the last great battle will be fought there as well.

Verse 24, "The fifth lot came out for the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families." You can see on the tribal map that these are the costal lands of the north, which made it a beautiful place. When I lived in Israel the first time, I lived in the land of Asher just a few miles from the Mediterranean Sea on a slope. You could look down and see the ocean every day, every night. But because it was close in proximity to Tyre and Sidon, where the Phoenicians lived, these people and their ships would come down and attack Israel, and so the Asherites had to defend the land from the Phoenicians.

By the way, from the New Testament perspective, Anna the prophetess that you read about in the early parts of the New Testament comes from this tribe, the tribe of Asher. Go down to verse 32. "The sixth lot came out to the children of Naphtali, for the children of Naphtali according to their families." And Naphtali on the map is again up north. They settle in the upper and lower Galilee. This is the Hula Valley, another beautiful, beautiful place. If you've been with us on our tours to Israel, do you remember the day when we leave Galilee and we go up north to tell Dan and Caesarea Philippi? We go through this valley. This is their tribal allotment, the Hula Valley.

One time in the early part of this century it was a swamp that was drained by the Israelis when they came in and reoccupied the land. There is a mention of this area in prophecy in Isaiah, chapter 9, a messianic prophecy that Matthew lifts out of the Old Testament and applies it. In Isaiah, chapter 9, this is what it says: "As when at first he lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterwards more heavily oppressed her, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in the Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light as shined."

Now originally this was speaking of those who were oppressed by the Assyrians and God would protect them in their oppression. But it had a secondary meaning; and that is, the light of Christ would come and shine and the Galilee of the Gentiles, which it was called at the time of Christ. A population of Gentiles that was all around in the Decapolis, the ten cities around the Galilee, had seen the glorious light of Jesus Christ. He lived in this area. That was his headquarters, Capernaum. Now, look at verse 40. This is the seventh lot, the final lot. "The seventh lot came for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families."

Dan, as you can see on the map, has a portion of land a little bit on the sea, but it's down south between the tribe of Benjamin and the Mediterranean Sea. This is Philistine country in the Old Testament. The Philistines, as soon as this tribe settled in and Dan was putting down its roots and building its towns, the Philistines and the Amorites came and attacked them so repeatedly. Well, look at the book of Judges sometime with Samson, Samson was a Danite from the tribe of Dan, and all the conflict that Samson and the children of Israel had with the Philistines. Goliath was the big Philistine, big dude, the giant. The pressure became so great that eventually the tribe of Dan migrated north to the very tip of Israel to a city called Laish.

And if you've been with us to Israel, we'll take you to a place called Tel Dan where the tribe of Dan migrated and there are altars up there. The ancient city of Laish, which was the town that Abraham came to when he came to the land, is still there, the ruins of it. In fact, we'll show you the gate made out of mud, mud bricks, that dates from before the time of Abraham. And it's supposed when you look at this gate that that's the gate Abraham walked through in Laish to get into the land when he first left Mesopotamia. And to think that that gate and that city was there, and then the tribe of Dan later moved, and by the time they got there it was an ancient city, it's mind-boggling to think---it is mind-boggling.

You know, we in the United States we show people something, we say, "This is two hundred years old." "Wow! That's ancient." People are still living in homes that are seven hundred years old in Jerusalem. It's been passed down through the family. And so to see thing thousands of years old and the archaeological evidence of these tribes in their locations is very amazing. Verse 49, ooh, we're making good headway here. "When they had made an end of the dividing of the land as an inheritance according to their borders, the children of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua the son of Nun.

"According to the word of the Lord they gave him the city which he asked for, Timnath Serah in the mountains of Ephraim; and he built the city and he dwelt in it. These were the inheritances which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel divided as an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. So they made an end of dividing the country." Just so you know, this is approximately the place that Joshua got, a place called Timnath Serah. Couple of interesting things to note: number one, Joshua didn't ask for it first. He waited till everybody else got their inheritance.

Instead of saying, "Look here, I'm the general. I took over for Moses. I'm the big guy on the block. I get my inheritance first. Caleb got his; I get mine." No. He let everybody else go and at the very end he asked for his allotment. The place that he asked for, Timnath Serah, is a dive. It's rugged. It's mountainous. It's infertile. It's barren. Hardly anything grows there. And you look at it and you wonder, "Why would anyone want this?" It reminds me of Abraham and Lot. And Abram said, "Hey, Lot, you take whatever you want, take the best of the land, and I'll take what's left over. I trust the Lord." And so Joshua let them have the best and he didn't get, you know, a nice beach villa down by the Mediterranean.

He didn't get the beautiful verdant highlands of the northern Galilee. He got this barren, desert, rocky, rugged place and he was a builder. This was one of the last glimpses we get of Joshua and he takes this land and he builds it up. And there's archaeological evidence of the place that was built from the time that Joshua inhabited today. One of the last glimpses we get of Joshua is this guy who takes the backseat. It reveals a lot about his character. It also reveals a lot about their character, the children of Israel, that they would say, "Yeah, great, you take the trashy parts, we just want the good parts."

The fact that they even let them do that, I would think they would say, "No, no, Joshua. We're going to let you have Jerusalem or the area around the Sea of Galilee or, you know, a nice place the surf's good in Caesarea," something like that. But, no, they just let him have this barren old place, but he built from there---a lot about his character. I say this is one of the last pictures of Joshua. We'll see the final picture as he makes a commitment toward the end of the book. But this is not the last we're going to see of the tribes of Israel. We're going to see the story unfold, the drama of the war, the strife, the kingdoms that emerge from these tribes. We're going to watch as they're taken into captivity.

We're going to watch as the kingdom is split into two separate nations and the Assyrians take the north and the Babylonians come and take the south and merge the two later on. We're going to watch as they come back into the land. We're going to watch as they're occupied by the Romans in the times of the New Testament. And we're going to get a glimpse of the tribes of Israel way off into the future. God still has a plan for the tribes of Israel, a future plan for Israel. Israel is an amazing group of people. God has preserved them, God has chosen them for his purpose, for his plan. Now, a lot of his plan has been unfolding. Paul in Romans says from the Jews came the Messiah, came the Scriptures, came the oracles.

We're to be thankful to the tribes of Israel for giving us with such accuracy, preserving the Scriptures that were passed down. They are chosen by God. Now, a lot of people have problems with that. All of Israel's neighbors have problems with that. And so there are peace negotiations concerning this little piece of real estate. Even many Jews have problems with that. If you remember Fiddler on the Roof, remember Tevye? Fiddler on the Roof, he's thinking about the history of the Jews, they're persecution, the anti-Semitism, and he thinks, "God, why didn't you choose somebody else? Knowing all that we've gone through, couldn't you have chosen somebody else?"

But God did choose them and there was something yet future. I want to sort of put a bow on this tonight by looking at Revelation, chapter 7. We've got three minutes left, plenty of time to cover that section. Revelation, chapter 7, look at a few verses. "After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the winds should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. And then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, 'Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.'

"And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed." And then after that notice the tribes are mentioned by name, twelve tribes, and twelve thousand from each tribe. The funny thing about this Scripture is that every group (almost) known to man wants to identify themselves as the 144,000. The Jehovah's Witnesses talk about they're the 144,000. Of course, they had to change things when they had over 144,000 converts. So they say the rest will inherit the earth. They've changed their theology a bit.

Seventh-day Adventists say the 144,000 are the faithful Seventh-day Adventists who keep the Saturday Sabbath, not the mark-of-the-beast Sunday Sabbath. Herbert W. Armstrong at one time in the Worldwide Church of God---things have, thank God, changed since then---but they were the 144,000, and they said that they will send telexes, information out to the faithful when the time has come for them to be hidden way by God during the tribulation period. All sorts of groups claim they're the 144,000. Anytime I meet anybody who says, "I'm one of the 144,000," I always ask them this question: "Which tribe are you from?" "Well, what do you mean, 'Which tribe'?"

Yeah, just so nobody would get some weird notion of who they are, they are Jews, and so that we wouldn't get any misconception about that, the tribes are named tribe by tribe in Revelation. So, "Which tribe are you from?" ""Well, these are spiritual tribes." Okay, which spiritual tribe are you from?" I don't want to be one of the 144,000. I have no desire at all to be one. Thank God I'm not going to be one. The 144,000 are those numbered and sealed during God's wrath upon the earth, poured out on the earth after the rapture of the church. I plan to be among those who are sealed by God before the tribulation begins, a whole different group. I'd rather be the first group than the second group.

Who are they? They're messianic Jews. It says they're "of the children of Israel." And never mix up in Scripture Israel and the church. They're two distinct groups. The church is not Israel; Israel is not is church. These are messianic Jews who have embraced during this time Jesus as their Messiah. The purpose of the 144,000 probably, these Jews from these twelve tribes, they probably came to faith or will come to faith in the tribulation period because of the two witnesses who seem to be Jewish in origin and do certain miracles, etcetera. They probably come to faith through the two witnesses and then the 144,000 become witnesses. I say that on the grounds, two grounds: logical grounds and theological grounds.

The logical grounds, there's two groups mentioned in this chapter: the 144,000 and this innumerable Gentile multitude. The question is: How did this innumerable Gentile multitude get saved? The logical connection contextually is the two prophets of Israel, the two witnesses gave their witness, their testimony, 144,000 Jews became messianic in Israel, and then they became the witnesses during the tribulation to this other great multitude. Then there's theological grounds. Jesus predicted in Matthew 24 what would happen during that time. And he said this, Matthew 24:14, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come."

Now, I don't know how often I've heard Bible students, prophecy students, and missionaries say the mandate of the church now is to preach the gospel, because Jesus can't return until every creature on the earth has heard him, and so we hasten the return of Christ. That's nonsense. As we see here in the context of this chapter, this must occur before the second coming of Jesus Christ, which happens at the end of the tribulation period, not before the rapture of the church. We know that during the tribulation an angel will go through heaven preaching the everlasting gospel to every creature on the earth.

And there's going to be 144,000 messianic Jews who are probably the instruments to this great multitude that comes to know Christ. Have you ever seen a Jewish person come to faith in Christ? Do you know any, they're Jews, they come to faith in Christ? When they come to Christ, they're, like, turned on, way turned onto Christ, because there's a lot at stake for them to come to Christ. For them to embrace Jesus as the Messiah there's a lot of baggage and family stuff, inherited stuff, that when they finally make that decision, they're like 500-watt lightbulbs. Everybody knows something has happened. They're not like your average run of the mill.

Now if twelve disciples, twelve messianic Jews turned their world right side up in the first century, the twelve including Paul the apostle the great rabbi, think what twelve thousand times twelve could do. That's the kind of revival you can expect during the tribulation. So the question: "Will people be saved?" Oh, like crazy during that time. All sorts of people will be coming the faith, Jews and Gentiles, which I see as fascinating, because in Israel today it's very secular. If you get outside of Jerusalem, you go to Tel Aviv, only 8 percent of the population of Tel Aviv is religious, only 8 percent even goes to the synagogue once a year. The rest of them go very sporadically.

A very small percentage attend worship services. So, to have this revival that would embrace Jesus as the Messiah in the land of Israel, wow! It would have worldwide repercussions. So, I wanted to close the twelve tribes with that thought, kind of projecting into the future, and we'll pick up next time. Perhaps we'll finish the book---doubt it, but perhaps.

For more teachings from Calvary Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig visit calvaryabq.org.



Additional Messages in this Series

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7/29/1998
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Joshua 1
Joshua 1
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8/5/1998
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Joshua 2
Joshua 2
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8/12/1998
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Joshua 3
Joshua 3
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8/19/1998
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Joshua 4-5
Joshua 4-5
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8/26/1998
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Joshua 6
Joshua 6
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9/2/1998
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Joshua 7
Joshua 7
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9/16/1998
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Joshua 8-9
Joshua 8-9
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10/21/1998
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Joshua 10-12
Joshua 10-12
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10/28/1998
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Joshua 13-15
Joshua 13-15
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11/11/1998
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Joshua 20-21
Joshua 20-21
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11/18/1998
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Joshua 22
Joshua 22
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12/9/1998
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Joshua 23
Joshua 23
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12/16/1998
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Joshua 24
Joshua 24
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There are 13 additional messages in this series.
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