The book of Joshua divides into three chapters; 1 through 4 is a record of entering the land promised to Abraham. Chapters 5 through 12 describes how the nation liberated the land from the Canaanites. Joshua chapters 13 through 21 describes how the people took possession of the land.
Chapter 13 is essentially a list of how the land was divided between the individual tribes of Israel. To us, thousands of years later, it seems merely tedious history, easily skipped or skimmed through – no drama, no action, and no application to us today. Or so it would seem. But when we read this like an Israelite we see a remembrance of something very significant. It is dull to us because the Lord has not given us the inheritance of a specific ‘land’. The Lord promised to these people, “to your seed I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7) and now Abraham’s grandchildren could walk into valleys and hill tops and count the villages that were promised.
Verses 1-7: “Now Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the LORD said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess. This is the land that yet remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all those of the Geshurites (from the Shihor, which is east of Egypt, northward to the boundary of Ekron, it is counted as Canaanite; there are five rulers of the Philistines, those of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron), and those of the Avvim, in the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the boundary of the Amorites, and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal-gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo-hamath, all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephothmaim, even all the Sidonians. I myself will drive them out from before the people of Israel. Only allot the land to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh.”
If we forget all that came before we may take verse 1 as a negative: ‘there remains yet very much land to possess.’ But when we look at a map we see that they had already conquered most of the land! What remained was a strip of Philistine land in the southwest of Canaan and in the north a section of territory approximately 50 miles wide extending from Lebo-hamath to 50 miles north of Damascus. In other words, this land was on the edges of Israel’s land. The first seven verses of Chapter 13 indicate that Israel had achieved a significant dominance in the main part of Canaan. It was not total dominance, but it was substantial. Joshua was ‘old,’ there remained no organized Canaanite resistance movement—it was time to allot the land to the individual tribes who would follow up and extend the conquest from town to town. Even then, the Lord was not leaving them to accomplish all this under their own power but in verse 6 says, “I myself will drive them out from before the people of Israel.”
Verses 8-13: “With the other half of the tribe of Manasseh the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, as Moses the servant of the LORD gave them: from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the tableland of Medeba as far as Dibon; and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, as far as the boundary of the Ammonites; and Gilead, and the region of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salecah; all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (he alone was left of the remnant of the Rephaim); these Moses had struck and driven out. Yet the people of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maacathites, but Geshur and Maacath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day.”
This section is very relevant to Christians today. We see the start of Israel’s failure to follow up the Lord’s command to them: to conquer the land that was assigned to them. “Yet the people of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maacathites …” We read much more of their failure in Joshua chapters 15-17 and Judges chapter 1. I am saying that this is the same struggle that we have in our prosperous ‘Western’ culture. Comfortable Christians tend toward boredom and a subsequent lack of attention to our ‘first love.” (Rev. 2:4). It seems that when Christians are not under some great crisis of faith; enduring great storms; fighting great battles, we tend to get distracted from the simple faith that characterized our early walk with Christ. Granted, it is not easy to patiently plod along with what seems to us to be no big quest or battle. But we should never see things a small when the Lord see them as ‘big.’ Living a simple life of obedience, loving our Lord Jesus Christ and His church, loving our families, loving our neighbors as ourselves, being good workers and citizens wherever the Lord places us … these are not small things!
In the remainder of this chapter (verses 8-33) we see repeated reminders of past battles. Brother Dale Ralph Davis says it best: “All which seem to us as so many lakes, rivers, valleys, plains, and towns all jumbled together. However we must not miss the repeated allusions to Israel’s victories over our old friends Sihon and Og (vv. 10,12,21.27,30-31), not to mention Balaam (v. 22; see Num. 22-25; 31:8). What does this mean? It means that throughout all this geography and topography there are constant allusions to the victories Yahweh had previously given to Israel under Moses. The allusions jog Israel’s memory and fortify their faith in the face of any contemporary enemies; for it is in remembering how Yahweh handled Sihon and Og (Ps. 135:10-12; Ps 136:17-22) that Israel finds assurance that Yahweh will still have compassion on his servants and that his covenant love persists into present prime time as well (Ps. 135:14; Ps 136:19-20). This is the biblical prescription for faith; faith finds both steadfastness and expectancy by rehearsing and reveling in Yahweh’s past acts of faithfulness.” (brother Dale’s quote taken from Davis, D.R. No Falling Words, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1988)
