Joshua 13:1 – 14 “Now Joshua was old and well along in years, and the LORD said to him, “You are old and well along in years, but very much of the land remains to be possessed. This is the land that remains: All the territory of the Philistines and the Geshurites, from the Shihor east of Egypt to the territory of Ekron on the north (considered to be Canaanite territory)—that of the five Philistine rulers of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, as well as the Avvites; to the south, all the land of the Canaanites, from Mearaha of the Sidonians to Aphek, as far as the border of the Amorites; the land of the Gebalites; and all Lebanon to the east, from Baal-gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo-hamath. All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim—all the Sidonians—I Myself will drive out before the Israelites. Be sure to divide it by lot as an inheritance to Israel, as I have commanded you. Now therefore divide this land as an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.” The other half of Manasseh, along with the Reubenites and Gadites, had received the inheritance Moses had given them beyond the Jordan to the east, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had assigned to them:
The area from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along with the city in the middle of the valley, the whole plateau of Medeba as far as Dibon, and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites who reigned in Heshbon, as far as the border of the Ammonites; also Gilead and the territory of the Geshurites and Maacathites, all of Mount Hermon, and all Bashan as far as Salecah— the whole kingdom of Og in Bashan, who had reigned in Ashtaroth and Edrei and had remained as a remnant of the Rephaim.
Moses struck them down and dispossessed them, but the Israelites did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maacathites. So Geshur and Maacath dwell among the Israelites to this day. To the tribe of Levi, however, Moses had given no inheritance. The offerings made by fire to the LORD, the God of Israel, are their inheritance, just as He had promised them.”
God wanted to give the Israelites a large amount of land; however, the Israelites had to go in and conquer the people who were already living there. As long as Joshua was strong enough to lead the Israelites, they continued to conquer, but now Joshua was elderly and could no longer fight as well as he once did. Unfortunately, the Israelites were adequate followers but without a strong physically vigorous leader, they were more than willing to sit in the cities they had already taken. One commentator notes that the Israelites would get all the land on which they would set their feet. Overall, the Israelites eventually wound up with only about one third of the land they could have had.
Now God is ordering Joshua to divide up the land. Once the land has been allotted, it will be up to the Israelites to conquer the land and to annihilate the occupants. Now there’s a problem. There’s still a large amount of territory to be conquered, but the Israelites don’t appear to be very worried about it. It’s almost as if the Israelites are hoping that God is just going to hand them land without any struggle on their part.
APPLICATION: “NO PAIN, NO GAIN!” Anyone who wants to get into shape knows that there’s no way you can exercise without having some aches and pains. But if you will continue to exercise properly, the aches and pains will eventually get better.
The problem for the Israelites throughout the Book of Joshua was that once Joshua was no longer able to lead effectively, the Israelites didn’t want to take any initiative. It’s as if the Israelites thought that God was just going to drop the Promised Land into their laps without any efforts on their part. Moses had already warned the Israelites that they would have to fight for the land, but they weren’t paying attention. While we might want to criticize the Israelites, the question is, what do we do when faced with a challenge? Those of us who work in other cultures continually find ourselves limited by our command of local languages. In our hospital, we can easily go through five or six different tribal languages in the course of a day in the consulting room. I find myself continually recording new phrases in my efforts to communicate better with my patients and their families. While I do have workers who can translate for me, patients and their families are much happier when I can communicate with them directly. (One of the most useful phrases to learn is “Don’t laugh at me; I’m doing the best that I can!”)
Spiritually, there are lots of temptations to relax once we have reached a certain point; however, our standard is not ourselves but Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12:2 tells us, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Although conventional wisdom tells us to compare us with ourselves, Jesus is the perfect Example. May we never give up and may we continue to look to Jesus!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help us to look to Jesus and not to ourselves or to our friends or colleagues as examples. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
Burunche's Blog 
February 28, 2022 at 4:52 pm
So sad that Joshua did not ask for a successor, and that they no longer fought united. Still, it was up to them to be as strong as they wanted to be and as large as they wanted to be. Slave mentality is hard to break, people from prison wait to be told what to do every minute of the day. They needed young blood to fire them up, but the patriarchal society would also have limited that, expecting them to honor an elder. This all emphasizes the importance of everyone having a personal relationship with God.