Dennis Tuuri

Joshua 13

Please stand.

“Now Joshua was old and stricken in years. And the Lord said unto him, ‘Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. This is the land that yet remaineth, all the borders of the Philistines, and all Geshurites from Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanites, five lords of the Philistines, the Gazathites, and the Ashthites, the Eshtaolites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites, and the Avites, from the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah, that is beside the Sidonians, unto Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites, and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon toward the sunrise.

From Baal-gad under Mount Hermon unto the entering into Hamath, all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon unto Misrephoth-maim and all the Sidonians, then will I drive out from before the children of Israel. Only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance as I have commanded thee. Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance unto the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh, with whom the Reubenites and the Gadites have received their inheritance which Moses gave them beyond Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of the Lord gave them from Aroer, that is upon the bank of the river Arnon and the city that is in the midst of the river and all the plain of Medeba unto Dibon and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites which reigned in Heshbon under the border of the children of Ammon and Gilead and the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites and all Mount Hermon and all Bashan unto Salecah, all the kingdom of Og and Bashan, which reigned in Ashtaroth, and at Edrei, who remained of the remnant of the giants.

For these did Moses smite, and cast them out. Nevertheless, the children of Israel the children of Israel expelled not the Geshurites and the Maacathites, but the Geshurites and the Maacathites dwell among the Israelites unto this day. Only unto the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance. The sacrifices the Lord God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance as he said unto them. And Moses gave unto the tribe of the children of Reuben inheritance according to their families.

And their coast was from Aroer, that is on the bank of the river Arnon and the city that is in the midst of the river and all the plain by Medeba, Heshbon and all the cities that are in the plain, Dibon and Bamoth-baal and Beth-baal-meon and Jahazah and Kedemoth and Mephaath and Kiriathaim and Sibmah and Zareth-shahar in the mount of the valley and Beth-peor and Ashdoth-pisgah and Beth-jeshimoth and all the cities of the plain and all the kingdoms of Sihon king of the Amorites which reigned in Heshbon whom Moses smote with the princes of Midian.

Evi and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba, which were dukes of Sihon dwelling in the country. Balaam also the son of Beor the soothsayer did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them. And the border of the children of Reuben was Jordan and the border thereof. This was the inheritance of the children of Reuben after their families, the cities and the villages thereof.

And Moses gave inheritance unto the tribe of Gad, even unto the children of Gad according to their families. And their coast was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, unto Aroer that is before Rabbah, and from Heshbon unto Ramoth-mizpah, and Betonim, and from Mahanaim, unto the border of Debir, and in the valley Betharam, and Bethnemrah, and Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, Jordan, and his border, even unto the edge of the Sea of Chinneroth, on the other side Jordan eastward. This is the inheritance of the children of Gad after their families, the cities, and their villages. And Moses gave inheritance unto the half-tribe of Manasseh. And this was the possession of the half-tribe of the children of Manasseh by their families. And their coast was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair which are in Bashan, threescore cities and half Gilead in Ashtaroth and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og and Bashan were pertaining unto the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, even to the one half of the children of Machir by their families. These are the countries which Moses did distribute for inheritance in the plains of Moab on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward. But unto the tribe of Levi, Moses gave not any inheritance. The Lord God of Israel was their inheritance as he said unto them.”

We thank God for his word and pray that he would illumine it to our understanding.

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We continue today with our sermons going through the book of Joshua. We’re in the 13th chapter of the book of Joshua. Next week, of course, we’ll have church at family camp, not here, and Dr. Bahnsen will be sharing with us out of the Proverbs.

Joshua 13, as we said last week, begins really the second portion of the book of Joshua. The first 12 chapters having to do with the entrance into the land of Canaan and then the conquest of the land of Canaan. The second half of the book having primarily to do with the inheritance, the dividing up of the land to the tribes, although there are conquest themes to this as well as we’ll see today.

The title of today’s sermon is “The Meek Inherit the Land” or the earth in the New Testament. And here in the Old Testament, the meek inherit the land of Canaan.

We’ll look a little bit in an overview of chapter 13 and then we’ll look at how the meek inherit the land described to us in this chapter as kind of an introduction to the various chapters dealing with inheritance of the various tribes that we’ll deal with over the next few months.

This is a portion of scripture that should increase greatly our thankfulness to God for the blessings that he provided to us symbolically, of course, by way of the inheritance of the land of Canaan to these tribes, but then understanding that with Christ he has come to cause the meek to inherit the entire earth.

So hopefully this is a chapter that will generate your thanksgiving. Hopefully it’s already begun to do that. If nothing else, in the reading of chapter 13 that was just done, you should at least be thankful that you didn’t have to read all those names publicly in front of everybody and on tape for all posterity. Difficult task, and we’re not used to this kind of portion of scripture where you’ve got an awful lot of names, whole long accounting list of God, of the borders, boundaries, cities, et cetera of various tribes.

But it’s important, just as an introductory thought to some of these long lists that we’ve been dealing with, to realize that God is a bookkeeper. God does keep books. He keeps lists of names and properties and territories. All the details that these things speak to us are important to us for various reasons, and they’re certainly important to God as is revealed in his holy word. So God is a God of particularity as well as a God of generalities.

And so we see particular details here in terms of inheritance.

Well, let’s look quickly at chapter 13 and just an overview of it to make sure that you understood, in the midst of all those readings of names, what actually is going on there.

We have in verses 1-6, or you could say verses 1-7, the command of God to Joshua to divide the land to the various people and tribes. There’s a context for that command, and then after that, he then gives a list—a summary of the list—of the land that was divided up on the trans-Jordan area, the other side of Jordan from Canaan proper, for the two and a half tribes. And then after that summary of lists, he then goes and gives specifics in terms of those two and a half tribes. What did Reuben get and where did they live? What was their inheritance? What did Gad get? And then the half-tribe of Manasseh, and specifically Machir the son of Manasseh is mentioned as dwelling in lands on that side, the trans-Jordan.

So that’s what’s going on in this first chapter—a summary command to divide the land up to Joshua, a summary then of the lands that need to be possessed yet, or where the Gentiles or the Canaanites need to be driven out of, and then a summary of the inheritance of the tribes in the trans-Jordan and then specific listings of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh in the trans-Jordan region.

And then next week, or actually not next week, probably several weeks away, but when we get to Joshua 14, we then have the list of the inheritance of Judah, the tribe whose name means to praise God. And so we’ll see then the beginning of the division of the land of Canaan proper.

Okay, as we said, the first portion of this chapter then is the hand of the Lord to Joshua to divide up the land. And this command has a context. It’s important to recognize these literary structure here. Again, it tells us something.

The very first thing we’re told in verse one of chapter 13 is that Joshua is old and stricken in years. Commentators think he probably was about 100 years old. And he apparently—we can infer from this particular verse that he didn’t age as well, for instance, as Moses or some other saints. He was stricken in years. He was becoming somewhat infirm apparently at this time in terms of strength.

So God then tells Joshua—excuse me, God tells Joshua—that he reminds him that he is at an old age, and that’s part of the context for the command that God gives to Joshua to divide up the land.

He then also reminds Joshua that there’s lots of land that needs to be possessed yet. In verse two, “this is the land that yet remaineth.” And there’s a list then of territories of land that remains. Included in that list in verse three are the five lords of Philistines. And if you know your Bible history, you’ll immediately recognize the name of the Philistines here. They weren’t Canaanites proper, but they were in the land that belonged to the Canaanites. And so they were in the extension of the term Canaanite—they were in that line.

The Philistines here are referred to as five lords. You’ll remember, or maybe you won’t, but perhaps you will if I remind you of history of the nation of Israel in the land, later on. These five—the five lords of the Philistines, not specifically the same ones, but nonetheless, five lords of the Philistines—come up against Israel and make war upon Israel in the time of Samuel and Eli, the priest who wouldn’t discipline his two sons.

The Philistines remember come up and the people say, “We need to beat these guys in warfare. So let’s go get the ark.” They take the ark out and a big cheer goes up from the people. The ark comes out, the Philistines hear it, but the Philistines don’t get afraid. The Philistines just harden their hearts. They quit themselves like men, to quote from the text in the book of 1 Samuel. They get their courage up and actually take into captivity the ark of the Lord.

And so God’s judgment comes upon Israel, and the Philistines take that ark and they take it back to their area. And then later the ark, if you remember, goes into a kind of demonstration of the power of God even in the context of gentile hands, and starts bringing judgments upon the Philistines. And they recognize that it is something to do with this ark and the God of the ark. And the Philistines send the ark back to Israel later on.

Do you remember all this? And they send it back with golden mice and golden emeralds. I’m not sure what those were. But there were five lords then that are specifically mentioned in the text of the Philistines. And so when they send it back with these various decorations and tribute to the God of the ark, there are numbers of five because of representing the five lords of the Philistines.

Now the point of all that is that right here in verse three, as the inheritance is beginning to be spoken of here and the land remaining to be possessed is given as the context for the command to divide up the land, immediately those of you who are aware that the Philistines are a perpetual problem to the Israelites realize that they’re not going to be faithful in possessing all this land and in driving out all the people.

So right here in the middle, in the very beginning of a chapter having to do with the blessings of God and inheritance—when the meek shall inherit the land—we’re reminded also of the fallibility of men and their sinfulness, and specifically the nation of Israel.

But in any event, part of the context then for the command of God to Joshua is his old age and then the land that remains to be possessed. And then we have the specific command itself in verse six: “only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance as I have commanded thee.”

So at the beginning of this chapter, the beginning of the division of the land, it’s a command of God. He tells Joshua, “Divide up the land. And here’s why I want you to divide up the land: You’re old and so you’re going to be going away pretty quick, and there’s much land that needs to be possessed.”

The grant of the land is not simply blessing. It’s blessing that brings with it responsibility to drive the pagans out of that land. So there is still a conquest theme at play in the second half of the book of Joshua as well. Mostly it’s about gift and blessing and inheritance of the land. But it’s also about the responsibility of these individual tribes and families now to take the conquest that they have performed as a unit and to apply it individually in their specific regions.

Okay. And then right in the context of this, we have an opening statement of the lords of the Philistines that reminds us they will not do that to the degree they should. And then later as well, there will also be a specific statement that they will not actually perform this responsibility.

So the command is given to divide the land by lot. It isn’t Joshua’s idea of who gets what. It’s very directly pictured as the sovereignty of God which tribe gets what.

There’s a conditional blessing attached to this command also in verse 6. It says in the context of the lands that need to be possessed yet, “all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon unto Misrephoth-maim and all the Sidonians, then will I drive out from before the children of Israel,” and then he says, “divide the land by lot.”

So in the midst of this command to divide the land, for the purpose of dispossessing the rest of the people that remain, God says this: he attaches to it a conditional blessing. He says, “I will drive all these people out from before you.” And it’s emphatic in the Hebrew that it’s God who’s doing the driving out.

Okay. Now, we know it’s conditional, however, because God doesn’t drive out all the nations. And he tells them later on specifically that he’s not going to drive out all the nations because of their rebellion—because of the children of Israel’s rebellion and their failure to follow him in all their ways.

In Judges 2, the book of Judges is kind of the counterbalance to the book of Joshua. In Judges 2, God says, “I will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died, that through them I may prove Israel whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein as their fathers did or not.”

Again, in Joshua chapter 23, later in the book of Joshua itself, it says, “If you do in any wise go back and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain upon you, and shall make marriages with them and go in unto them and they to you, know for a certain that the Lord your God will not—excuse me—will no more drive out any of those nations from before you.”

In Joshua 23, at the summation of all this inheritance portion, God says specifically, “If you like those Canaanites enough, and if you enjoy those other gods enough, and start marrying them and worshiping them and enter into covenants with them, I’m not going to do this what I promised you back in chapter 13. I’m not going to drive them out.”

So it’s a conditional blessing attached to the command as a sanction to the command or stipulation of God. And now in the sovereignty of God, even if they sin, God has a purpose in chastising his nation through the leaving of the people in the land. He says, as I read from Judges 2, that he’s going to leave those nations there and not dispossess them, that he might try Israel. He’s going to chastise it, try it, evaluate Israel to cause them to evaluate whether or not they’re walking in obedience to him as their fathers did.

So from one side there’s man’s responsibility, his failure to drive out the nations, and as a result the loss of the conditional blessing attached to the command to enter into their inheritance. And on the sovereign side, there’s God chastising his people that they might then submit to him and bow the knee to him in all things.

Okay, so that’s the first portion of this—the command with its context, the age of Joshua, the remnant of the lands to be possessed, and then the conditional blessing attached to the command.

Then in verses 7 and following, this specific short command becomes particularized and gets fleshed out, so to speak. First, the summary command is particularized in verses 7 and following. He tells them to go ahead and divide the land for an inheritance onto the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh. And then in verses 8-12, we have a summary of the trans-Jordan inheritance of the two and a half tribes.

Total of 12 tribes. Joshua is being commanded to apportion the land in Canaan to the nine and a half tribes because the two and a half tribes already have their inheritance on the other side of the Jordan. That inheritance is summarized in verses 8 through 12. And God says there what is going on in terms of that inheritance.

Now, we could spend fully a year easily on this chapter of scripture, going through the specific places, looking at some biblical references to those places, what the names of the lands mean, et cetera. We don’t have time to do that in the providence of God. I think he wants us to move through this book quickly. We won’t do that.

But just as an example, in verse nine, we read that part of the trans-Jordan inheritance was “all the plain of Medeba.” The plain is a tableland area. It has the connotation of being a green pasture. Medeba means “still waters.” And so we have in the context of the trans-Jordan inheritance a green plain, a plain in green pastures beside still waters—a picture in Psalm 23: “He leads me into green pastures, leads me beside the still waters.”

So it’s a real picture of blessing to the two and a half tribes in the trans-Jordan inheritance, just that one little name of the town attached to a type of geography that it’s located next to. And all these names have those kind of connotations to them. They build increasingly, in those who would read these lists in the original language and knowing biblical history, a great sense of thankfulness and awareness of the blessing of God that he has conferred upon his people in the Jordan and trans-Jordan areas.

Now, if that’s a shadow—which the scriptures tell us is what it is, a shadow of the great blessings when the Son of Righteousness rises in the person of Jesus Christ in the New Covenant times after he’s done his work—think of the tremendous implications of blessing for us as we read through this list of particular blessings to the people in the shadows of the old covenant times.

These portions of scripture are tremendous sources of blessing and awareness of the depth of blessings that God has given to us. That’s one example.

In any event, after the summary of the trans-Jordan tribes, he then says in verse 13, a very specific statement to the inability of the people of God to be obedient. He says, “Nevertheless, the children of Israel expelled not the Geshurites nor the Maacathites, but the Geshurites and the Maacathites dwelt among the Israelites until this day.”

And so, at the time of the writing of this book, those two nations were still there, those two peoples were still in the trans-Jordan area. And that’s a problem, as we’ll see in a couple of minutes.

Okay. He then, before you get into the specific enumeration of the two and a half tribes—Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh—in verse 14, after the summary of their inheritance, we read, “Unto the tribe of Levi, he gave none inheritance. The sacrifices the Lord God of Israel made by fire are their inheritances, he said unto them.”

And that hearkens back to the laws and numbers restated in the book of Deuteronomy, that the Levites would receive offerings, tithes, and portions of the burnt offerings, et cetera, that were provided to the Lord. And that is what’s being referred to here as “the sacrifices by fire.” Their inheritance is not the land and the result of the produce of their land necessarily. It is primarily the result of the produce of the rest of the tribes’ land, as they did the service of the Lord at the tabernacle and then dispersed throughout the country as well.

And so they get their inheritance, their blessing, their sustenance not from the land directly but from the faithfulness of God’s people. And of course the unfaithfulness of God’s people means that they don’t get that inheritance, and they end up doing other work at various times in old covenant history.

Okay. We then go back. So we’ve had a summary command and then a number of verses where it kind of fleshes out the command and talks about what happened in the trans-Jordan. And then we have a list of specific references to the two and a half tribes.

The enumeration of the inheritance of the two and a half tribes is contained in verses 15-31, the bulk of the chapter. And first is the inheritance of Reuben in verses 15-23. Reuben means “see a son” or “see, a son”—the firstborn of Jacob and first in the list of the inheritance list here in this portion of scripture.

Reuben will not become a predominant tribe. Of course, Levi, Judah, and Benjamin will become the predominant tribes in the history of Israel—the ones that are most blessed. In his typical Old Testament fashion, the firstborn son is usually associated with sin, error, and as a result, an element of cursing from God.

But here we see the emphasis upon the blessing of Reuben as firstborn with the first listing of their inheritance. Reuben, the name meaning “see a son,” implies faith—to see a son born, given us, by God in his faithfulness. So the connotation of the name involves faith.

Now, interestingly enough, we mentioned this before—I think it’s good to mention it again. We read in verse 22 in terms of this list of the inheritance of Reuben that “Balaam the son of Beor the soothsayer” was one of those that were killed by the children of Israel as they slayed these various people.

Here we have the only specific reference in scripture that tells us that Balaam was a soothsayer—a diviner, a practitioner of what you could call black magic. Things that were prohibited from God’s people. You weren’t supposed to allow such a person to live in the context of the land.

Balaam can be a confusing character to people that don’t understand the sovereignty of God. God takes the soothsayer who wants to curse Israel and has paid the soothsayer’s price to curse them, and turns his words into blessing. Of course, Balaam’s dumb ass who talks to him earlier is a picture of what Balaam becomes in God’s hands.

He wants to curse Israel. He doesn’t love God. He doesn’t love his people. This scripture tells us specifically he was a soothsayer, a fortune teller, or one who can manipulate God for his own purposes. But he cannot manipulate the God of scripture. And so he produces a string of blessings upon Israel describing their conquering of the land instead of their being cursed.

Balaam also—we mentioned this last week, but it’s so important to keep in mind, it’s repeated for us in the book of Revelation—Balaam put a stumbling block before the children of Israel. He taught Balak, the enemy of God’s people, how to cause them to stumble, and that was through idolatrous marriages and lustful actions toward the women and hence to the gods of the Canaanites.

And so the Balaam strategy always is not to attack God’s people directly but to pervert them so that they would rot or decay from inside. And as a result, God’s failure to bless them based upon their ethical disobedience to him.

The Balaam strategy is quite important.

Now, I mentioned Geshurites and how it was important that they were not conquered, and that we understand what these names mean in scripture. In 2 Samuel 3, we read of Absalom, one of the sons of David. He was the son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. So Absalom’s heritage goes back to the king of Geshur—that the scriptures tell us the Geshurites were not eliminated from the land.

Absalom’s heritage is not a particularly good sign described here. And Absalom, as he rebels against David, goes to the territory of Geshur once more. That’s described for us in verse 38 of 2 Samuel 13: “Absalom fled and went to Geshur and was there 3 years.”

And so Geshur—unholy alliances between David and one of his wives. These things are pointed out in scripture as a relationship of all that happens here in these inheritance passages to later Israelite history. The Geshurites, as God promised they would be, those that they failed to drive out, become thorns in their sides and pricks in their eyes to the people of Israel. And that’s what Absalom is to David for his lack of faithfulness in terms of his marital relationships and in terms of those old enemies of the Philistines left in the territories where Israel was to live.

And again, that’s the Balaam strategy at work: bad marriages, failure to keep covenant in terms of reliance upon God, and then the curses of God come upon a people.

That’s why, by the way, in our church covenant, one of the important things we say in there is that people covenant, as they become members of this church, for themselves and their children, that they will not marry a non-believer. Very important basic biblical principle drawn from the covenant time of Nehemiah and the reconstruction of the land then.

And so we think it very important for us today—when one of the basic sins of the Christian community in the last hundred years in America has been to marry outside of the faith and as a result to move into idolatry and bring God’s curse upon a people that have succumbed to the Balaam strategy of the enemy.

We’ve taken some flak for that position in this church from various elements that we wouldn’t expect that flack to come from. But nonetheless, it is an important biblical truth, and it’s an important way to guard God and ensure God’s blessing upon a covenant people to make sure that marriages are understood in the context of covenants and a fidelity to the God of scripture.

Okay. Well, in any event, so we have then the description of the areas of Reuben, and then we move from there to the inheritance of Gad in verses 24-28.

Gad, the name means “a troop cometh.” Talks about increase but also increase in a military sense. And here in the context of the division of the lands, Gad’s relationship to Reuben—the faith, “I see a son,” and Gad, “a troop cometh.” Military strength and increase. Those two things are linked together. Faith and military conquest, obedience and responsibility in the driving out of the nations of the trans-Jordan. And the result being their receipt of the inheritance of that area.

We have mentioned in this list Gilead. That’s where the balm of Gilead comes from. That was in their inheritance. The inheritance given unto Gad. Succoth and Penuel are also within the province of Gad’s inheritance. Those were important towns in the time of Gideon. The story of Gideon occurs in this tribe. And also Sharon, where you know the famous roses of Sharon. This was also found in the area of Gad and his inheritance. And that’s described for us in this picture in this list rather, in verses 24-28. Gad’s inheritance.

And then finally, the inheritance of Manasseh is specified in verses 29-31. Manasseh means “forget.” And I mention this because then the son who is mentioned, the son of Manasseh, Machir, who is part of this inheritance—Machir means “he who recollects.” It’s interesting: the father’s name means “forgetting” and then his son’s name means “to recollect.”

And that’s a picture of the Christian faith as well. Forgetting what’s in the past, forgetting the gods we once served. Recollecting, keeping in mind the God of the scriptures who we now serve as we move obediently into the inheritance that God gives us. Forgetting and remembering are important aspects of the biblical faith when applied to the correct objects.

And so we have the description here of the inheritance of Manasseh given here. And again, the Bashan is famous for trees and forest; later on, the oaks of Bashan. Also, cattle of Bashan are also a picture in the scriptures of the fruitfulness of that area that Manasseh had. Those who would forget the things that are past and recollect and remember what God has called them to do, they get great blessing and fertility from God. And yet they also have potential curse.

It was strong bulls of Bashan, by way of metaphor, that surrounded our Savior. And so those bulls can be bulls of blessing. As we said before, they can be bulls that are prepared and fattened for slaughter—those who are cursed by God as well. Elijah and Elisha were of this particular region and tribe as well.

Okay, then we have a summary statement of the trans-Jordan inheritance in verse 32. “These are the countries which Moses did distribute for inheritance in the plains of Moab on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward.”

He rounds off the section for us with summary restatement, and then he says, for the second time in this chapter, “unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave not any inheritance,” but a different phrase is attached to why: “the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance,” as he said unto them.

So twice we are told in this chapter, very importantly, that the Levites have no land inheritance. The first thing we’re told is the sacrifices by fire, the offerings by fire, is their inheritance. And then we’re told that God himself is the inheritance of the Levites. A reminder to the people of God in the Old Testament that God was to be their inheritance as well.

Levi represented the firstborn. Remember how that worked out? Instead of taking the firstborn of every tribe, he took one tribe. There was a specific enumeration so that it would match up the tribe of Levi to the firstborn at that particular time when the Levites were chosen. And the Levites then represent the whole of Israel, reminding them that God is to be in their midst and that ultimately their inheritance also is God in his own person. That is who their ultimate inheritance is.

So the Levites’ exclusion is mentioned in verse 33. And that concludes this chapter.

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Now let’s look at the theme of the meek inherit the land.

The meek inheriting the land, first of all according to this passage, due to the diligence of the agent. Due to the diligence of the agent—the agent here obviously is Joshua. Because Joshua is diligent to do what? God has instructed him to do. The meek do inherit the land, or at least the bulk of it, in Joshua 13 and following, and then in Israelite history as well.

Psalm 71—I could read the whole thing. It’s an excellent psalm, all of them are of course, but in terms of what we’re talking about today, military conquest, the enemies of God—it says in verse 13, “Let God’s enemies be confounded and consumed, that are adversaries to my soul.”

That’s what happens to the Canaanite nations generally.

Verse 14: “I will hope continually and will yet praise thee more and more. My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day, for I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of the Lord God.”

That’s one of the themes of the book of Joshua—to go in the strength of the Lord God of Israel. It’s reading now from Psalm 71:16 and following. “I will make mention of thy righteousness even of thine only. Oh God, thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. This could have been written by Joshua—talking from his youth to rely upon God, taught with the excellent example of Moses, the servant of the Lord.

And then verse 18, “Now also when I am old and gray-headed, oh God, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to everyone that is to come.”

That’s the prayer of a righteous man or woman approaching old age in the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament times as well. Joshua had that mindset—that even when he was old and gray-headed, he wanted to show forth the strength and praises of God to the next generation.

Joshua’s diligence was an important aspect of the inheriting of the land by the meek—those who were humbled and broken to God’s harness. That’s what the word “meek” means: broken to God’s harness. Those that were meek inherited the land in part because of the diligence of the aged.

Matthew Henry commenting on this portion of scripture said that some do not care to think of their advancing age and therefore need to be told of it so that they may be quickened to do the work of life. And so Joshua is reminded by God that he was approaching the time of his departure from this world. And as a result, he had to get done what God had given him to do in terms of the people—to lead them into inheriting all the land and to get on with it.

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Secondly, this inheritance—the meek inherit the land—for a task, to complete God’s holy war. We’ve spoken about how this wasn’t just blessing; it was responsibility. It was a change in the way the conquest would take place.

Moses was no longer as strong as he was, and so his own infirmity is a picture now of the need for a change of strategy in terms of conquest. The strategy changes: now instead of being one whole group out marching around capturing various areas, they now disperse. Each tribe is given its portion. Each family within the tribe and clan is given their portion. And they then have that responsibility before God to continue God’s holy war of driving out the heathen and establishing themselves as God’s people, Israel—those who rule for God in the context of the land.

Now, if you can’t see the relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ and what he’s done with his church, then you’re missing the point. He does the same thing, doesn’t he? He can’t accomplish his once-for-all victory over the entire land through his work in the cross. And then for 2,000 years, the church—people within the various churches, families within them, individuals within them—all have their sphere of inheritance. And that inheritance is linked in the scriptures, and certainly here in this text, to the further pursuance of God’s holy war where he, through time, through his judgments, blessings, and cursings, dispossesses the wicked and establishes the righteous in the land.

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Third, the meek inherit the land in unity and diversity. These two relationships—the group of Israel fighting together and then the individual portions of the land—is a picture of unity and diversity in the context of God’s work.

And throughout our lives, these are two principles that, based upon the idea of the Trinity, should be balanced and understood. God is not one to the exclusion of being many. He is three persons but one God. Okay? And so God is many and yet he is also one. And anytime structures tend to stress only the one or only the many, anarchy on one hand, totalitarianism on the other hand, it’s sinful. It’s a perversion of that principle that runs throughout scripture.

And here in the perpetuation of the holy war of God, unity and diversity is pictured.

Now, a failure of this is pictured for us as well in Judges Chapter 5. In Judges 5, verses 15 and 16, Deborah bemoans the failure of Reuben to act on behalf of the whole nation of Israel. War coming on, Reuben instead wants to just hang out in their area: “We don’t have people fighting us. Reuben says, ‘We’re enjoying the good gifts that God gave us in our part of the land.’” And Reuben forsook their responsibilities to the unity of the nation for their own particular concerns. Deborah bemoans that fact, and that’s one of the reasons why Reuben subsequently in history is dwindled as a people in terms of prominence and then actual territory as well.

They don’t see this balance between the one and the many, between unity and diversity. Tribes and clans within tribes here are portrayed as having specific areas that they inherit. And so this is important to understand the relationship of these people to their own responsibilities and yet also to the greater responsibility. They’re all one people, all who had rule for God performing this holy war, but now worked out in individual spheres primarily.

Okay, and then fourthly, the meek inherit the land with the assistance of the Levites. The Levites are not collected into one area. What do the Levites do? Well, they perform the sacrificial system, that of course, but they also teach. They teach the law of God—God’s word’s application in every area of life and thought to all of these tribes to do that.

They are not a centralized institution that people go to. They’re a decentralized institution in the context of the land. They go out to the people. The Levites live in the context of each of these tribes of Israel. Levitical cities will be established as we’ll see later in the book. And so the assistance of the Levites is absolutely essential to the proper inheritance of the land that the meek will perform.

They are instructed by the Levites. They have a responsibility to the Levites to support them in their work, and the Levites then assist them in being the social glue. Everything is understood on the basis of God’s word. These were world and life view Christian world and life view people in the Old Testament, and that world view was taught to them, its application, by these Levites.

And so the Levites’ assistance in their perpetuation of their inheritance and responsibilities of it were absolutely vital. Later in history, when they neglect the Levites, or when the Levites no longer serve on behalf of the King of Kings and Yahweh, the Lord of Israel, then things go bad, and the people go off and get cursed as a result by God.

And when the Levites are established as an institution—that’s one of the very first things to happen in the reconstruction times of Hezekiah or Josiah. The Levites and their support from the people and their responsibility to teach the people the application of God’s word in every area of life and thought—that gets stressed anew at the time of reconstruction. The assistance of the Levites is absolutely essential.

And fifthly, the meek also inherit the land avoiding idolatry. This chapter stresses the need to avoid the sin of Balaam by mentioning him again—the Balaam strategy of idolatry, in terms of not understanding how our families themselves are linked to our greater covenant to God and must serve that King in the context of our homes and of our marriages.

And so there’s an avoidance of idolatry that is absolutely essential.

And then finally, the fact that the Levites are described as those who have the inheritance of God—inheritance that is God himself. The Levites stand as a part for the whole, and all Israel is warned against the idolatry of worshiping the land instead of the God who gives us the land as a picture of his blessings.

Okay. The Levites have no inheritance because God is their inheritance. That doesn’t mean that God wasn’t the inheritance to the rest of the people of Israel. He was to be their inheritance as well. The Levites were a picture of that to the people: “Don’t get too tied to the land because the land is simply a picture of the blessing from God. Yes, the faith is a land-based faith and land is important. It’s created by God. It’s good. It’s not bad. Material possessions are good and not bad.

But if we take delight in them without being delighted by the one who gives us it as a picture of his glory and his fruitfulness, then we’re idolaters.

Remember, we talked about this in the New Testament. Jesus said that the idolatrous people are the ones who swore by the gold of the temple instead of by the one who dwells in the temple. Gold’s not bad. The gold’s a reflection of the glory, the heaviness, the shining brilliance of God and his glory in the throne room of heaven. But if all we look at is the gold and not think of it in relationship to its creator, we become idolaters. It becomes our God.

And so for the meek to inherit the land, they had to avoid idolatry, false covenants, the Balaam strategy, but also being idolatrous of the very blessings that God has given to us.

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It’s interesting. When I was reading the account of King Philip’s War and the Puritans in the early years of this country, there were preachers—good Puritan preachers—who thought that one of the reasons for King Philip’s War was a chastisement from God against people who got too idolatrous relative to land possessions.

He talked, for instance, of one man who I read about. He said that there were some ministers who gave up their ministry to go off and get a couple hundred acres of land someplace. Picture the idolatrous nature of the people. Land’s good, but it can be an idol as well to people. And so God’s people are warned against it here.

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Now, these things, of course, all apply to us. These aren’t just a story of Old Testament saints that don’t have application to us. We are encouraged, exhorted to be diligent in our old age as Joshua was. Our lives do not finish, so to speak, when we die. What we have done, the work that we perform, is for the kingdom of God, and it’s to be transmitted and given over as an inheritance to the children.

Joshua was forward-thinking beyond his own death. And we should be forward-thinking past our own deaths. And what are we doing with our old age? You know, these some of these people drive around with a bumper sticker: “I’m spending my children’s inheritance.” Complete reversal of what’s going on here. Joshua spent his last days not just resting on his laurels. No, he spent it doing the work, completing the work that God had given him to do, that the next generation might have their inheritance, might move on in faithfulness, that Joshua might glorify God by completing his task to the end.

I would recommend in this congregation that every one of us get very familiar with verse 18 of Psalm 71, which I read earlier: “Now also when I am old and gray-headed, oh God, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this generation and thy power unto everyone that is to come.”

That is a life verse as people reach old age. We are to look at the increase of our years and our aging process as being not a time to rest and to go into retirement, but as instead a time to really turn on the heat to finish the work that God has given us to do. It’s like the sprint toward the end is the way Joshua saw it. God says, “You’re getting old. Think about it. Think about what you’re supposed to do. And now hear the instructions from me and my word as to how to fulfill that task in the few years or few days you’ve got left.”

Joshua went to work.

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Now, it’s not too early for some of us to be thinking as well in terms of the inheritance of our children and how are we passing on, for instance, goods and property to our children, and we made preparation for that. Wills. Kent and I were talking last week about probably the need to go through and get everybody up to speed again. Look at your wills again. Those of you who don’t have wills in terms of the of your possessions, or more importantly, where your children will go should you die—it’s a good time to think through that and do something about it.

Be forward-looking like Joshua was. Be diligent. Recognize the meek, those broken to God’s harness, inherit the earth based upon their diligence in old age as well. And so the greatest possessions that God has given to us must be passed on and made provision for. And the wills that we draw up in terms of our children are a certain important aspect of that, so that they end up in covenant households and not with the state or not with relatives even that we may not think would raise them properly, ultimately raising them for the glory of God.

Life insurance is another hot topic, a lot of dissension and discussion about that. I don’t want to get into all the particulars of that, but I’m telling you right now that you got to be thinking about some way, as much as possible in a positive godly sense, to provide a godly heritage for your children. You’re supposed to be forward-looking again and being diligent to that end.

Whether it’s through savings, whether it’s through the application of money in terms of life insurance and what type of life insurance, et cetera, I don’t know. But what do you do? You should be diligent as you age in terms of your years to make provision for your children and for the succeeding generations.

The scriptures over and over again talk about the grandchildren of the righteous as being the proof of their faithfulness. And we should be thinking at least a generation or two out.

It’s interesting that in the sabbatical cycle of the Old Testament, you had daily sacrifices going on. Then you had the weekly sabbatical systems. You were to think in terms of a day. You were to think in terms of evaluation at the end of the week. You had a lunar cycle. So you’re thinking in terms of each month, the passage of months that go by. Then there was a yearly Sabbath as well. So you’re trying to have plans for years. And then what was there? There was the year of Jubilee, 50 years out, 49 + 1. And that, of course, for most of us means you’re thinking about the day of your death.

And your planning, then, in terms of your week, your day, your weeks, your months, your years, and your whole life as well should be evaluated by you, to an end, to perform the task that God has given you to do.

Okay, we’re going to inherit the land that God has given to us.