Skip to content Joshua 16-18: Possessing the Promised Blessings Apr 23 · 13 min ...more
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Possessing the Abundant Life 0:10 Good morning. Welcome to Stand on the Word. Alright. 3 relatively short chapters today. We're gonna look at Joshua chapter 16 through 18. Verse 3 of chapter 18. Then Joshua said to the children of Israel, how long0:22 will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you? Now we're moving more, deeper into the allotment of the land to the various tribes. Here we have Ephraim, the0:34 half tribe of Manasseh, and the tribe of Benjamin. Now keep in mind, we've discussed before that the promised land does not represent heaven for the New Testament believer. Right? It's a type rather0:46 of the abundant life that Jesus Christ came to bring to us. Life and have that life more abundantly. Joshua, as I pointed out as we began this book, means Jehovah is0:58 salvation. Now we're saved we're saved by grace alone through faith. Just as Israel was given the land, they had to possess it. Okay? They had to stay and to stay in the land, they1:10 had to it required that they pursued God and that they obeyed God and that they walked with him. And so it is with us. If we want to possess all that God has for us, if we1:21 want to walk in that abundant life, we have to walk in his ways, and we have to take a hold of what he intends for us to have. Alright. Let's look at the the the last1:33 verse of chapter 16 verse 10. And they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day1:45 and have become forced laborers. Now this is loaded with, with meaning. They did not drive them out. Mark this mark this down because there's more to come. We've not heard the last1:57 of this matter. God was very specific in telling them to remove the inhabitants from the land, lest they be influenced by them and drawn away from God, and we're gonna see that that's exactly2:09 what happens. Now go to chapter 17 beginning in verse 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. Look. They're they're2:21 not always gonna roll over. The the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're spiritual for the tearing down of strongholds. We're gonna face some strongholds. And and we don't just push and it2:33 doesn't move and we give up. We've gotta be persistent. 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. Manasseh failed2:45 to do the same thing, which was planting the seeds of their own destruction as we'll see later. And by the way, this is very important because we hear this all the time. I hear it all the time. The consequences2:56 of compromise on the explicit instructions of God, they, they they don't come right away. It's not like you do this today and tomorrow, you know, the3:08 sky falls. You know, when the the redefinition of marriage, you know, we would hear, well, the sky hasn't fallen. Yeah. But the seeds of compromise, of moving away from the word of3:20 God, it's just like anything. It takes a while. In some cases, it's generations later as we're gonna see as we read through the history of the nation of Israel. Just because it doesn't happen immediately3:32 doesn't mean it won't happen. I mean, second Peter chapter 3 verse 9 says, the lord is not slack current concerning his promises as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any3:44 should perish, but that all should come to repentance. You see this this time in between, just as we talked about, earlier when god told Abraham that the the the the fulfillness or the fullness of the3:55 wickedness of the inhabitants of the land, Canaan, was not yet full. 400 years transpired before the land vomited them out and the children of Israel were brought in. God is long4:07 suffering. His heart is for us to come to repentance. But sometimes when we don't see god move in our disobedience, we take that as indifference. My friends, it's not indifference.4:19 Alright. Look at, what the children of Israel, the children of Joseph, I should say, do next. Verse 14. Then the children of Joseph, that's both tribes, spoke to Joshua saying,No Excuses: Joshua's Challenge to Joseph's Tribes 4:31 why have you given us only 1 lot and 1 share to inherit since we are a great people inasmuch as the Lord has blessed us until now. Wait a minute. They were given land, but4:43 they didn't possess it. Why? It was too difficult. So they simply asked for more land. Why not ask for help in taking possession of what they had already been given? You know, before we become4:55 too critical of Joseph's offspring, we should do maybe a little self evaluation. I mean, have you ever heard someone say, I'm I'm you know, I'm just looking for God's direction for my life. I'm looking for his5:07 will for my life. Well, the first question in, helping them find the answer is this, are you in the word of God? The word of God is just that. It is God's word. It's definitive. It provides5:19 direction for our lives. It gives us guidance on how we should live, how we should raise our children, how we should do our work, and frankly, how we should spend our time. Abiding in the word, what you're doing here on5:30 this journey, is abiding in Christ, which is abiding in Christ, which is the source of our power and our direction. You see, God is not going to give us more direction5:42 until we have used what he has given us. We have in our hands in this Bible the means to live in the abundant life that Jesus has provided. We simply have to5:54 listen and obey. Now let's continue to verse 15. So Joshua answered them, if you are a great people, then go up to the forest country and clear a place for yourselves there in the land of the Perizzites6:06 and the giants, since the mountains of Ephraim are too confined for you. But, verse 16, the children of Joseph said, the mountain country is not enough for us, and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley6:17 have chariots of iron, both those who are in Beth Shean and its towns and those who are in the valley of Jezreel. And Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, saying,6:30 you are a great people and have great power. You shall not only have 1 lot, but the mountain country shall be yours. Although it is wooded, you shall cut it down, and its farthest extent shall be yours.6:42 For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and are strong. You know, I kinda detect a little sarcasm in Joseph's Joshua's response.6:54 Yes, you need more land, and you can have the mountains with the giants. I don't think that's what they wanted to hear. But he says, if you're a great people, as you say, then act like it.7:06 I I do think in his response, he though he was also affirming them or at least challenging them to be who they could be. You are a great people and have great power, but you have to act upon it. It's7:18 it's not just faith, not just believing. It's acting. Faith without works is dead. You know, Paul wrote in, in to the Corinthians, and I I quoted it earlier, second Corinthians chapter 10 verse7:30 4. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought7:41 into captivity to the obedience of Christ. You see, the weapons we've been given to take the land spiritually are powerful. What does that mean? It means that we7:53 need to take the land. We need to take our heritage, our families, our children, our communities, our culture, but it's not gonna be handed to us. We need to pray, but8:05 we also need to act. We need to pay take possession of what God has said is ours. And I can tell you if with certainty, it begins in our family. We we we need to take8:16 authority over our families, over our children, over our grandchildren. The the Lord has given us that authority, and he's given us the weapons of the spiritual warfare that we're8:28 engaged in. The the door is open. We just have to walk through it. Alright. Chapter 18 verse 1. Now the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the tabernacle of meetingShiloh and the Call to Action 8:40 there, and the land was subdued before them. Now this is significant. The tabernacle was moved and set up at Shiloh where it remained for 369 years. This became the center of the new nation. It8:51 was a place of God's presence. Shiloh is 1 of my favorite places to visit in Israel. It is such a significant part of the nation's history and its identity. And I should note, this is9:03 1 of those areas that's in the so called West Bank. Even though it is geographically chosen by God, it is in it is in Judea. And since, you know, he directed the tabernacle to be9:15 placed in the heart of the nation. This was this was their identity. It was who they were. And this is 1 of those places that, you know, internationally, they're pushing Israel to give up as a part9:27 of this flawed 2 state solution. In fact, the governor of this region is a friend of mine. I was with him last year in Shiloh, where the red heifers are currently located. We'll talk more about that as we get into our9:38 journey. So this move to Shiloh, appears to have caused Joshua and the children of Israel to to kind of press the pause button on allocating the land to the tribes, because we read9:50 here there were still 7 that had not taken possession of the land. Verse 2, but there remained among the children of Israel 7 tribes which had not yet received their inheritance. Then Joshua said to the children of10:01 Israel, how long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the lord your god, your the lord god of your fathers has given you? Now we can only speculate as to why this delay. It could have been that they were10:12 enjoying the nomad life. They've been doing it for 40 years. The area was fertile. They didn't have to fight. They didn't really have any responsibility of upkeep. They didn't have to cut the grass. They didn't have to10:21 paint the house. Alright. Maybe the last 2 are not legitimate. But we seek that, Joshua here is passing on to them the very same thing that God said to10:33 him back in chapter 13. Remember that? You're old. Time is short. Get busy. So Joshua here had a little fire built under him, and so he builds that fire under them. Pick out from among you10:45 3 men from 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. So 21 men are selected to go and survey the land10:57 and report back with a detailed account of the land, carefully dividing the 7 equal dividing into 7 equal portions, on the value and the worth of the land. So it was a11:09 careful analysis. This was significant, in this undertaking and, was probably prompted in part by the earlier complaints from the children of Joseph about their11:21 allocation. So Joshua now was involving others in the process, I think, to make it more difficult for criticism to arise. I mean, this is actually a smart leadership principle. We see this in, in11:33 Joshua. Father, thank you for your word. And, lord, I pray that you would you would help us to walk through the doors11:45 of opportunity that you've given us, that we would possess the abundant life that Jesus made available. Yes, Lord, we need to pray. We need to seek you, but, Lord, we need to act upon our faith.11:57 And so I pray that we would with confidence. And, Lord, knowing that it is it is you that fight that that fights these battle. You've won the battle. You've won the battle spiritually. And so, lord, I pray that we would12:08 stand with confidence and with courage and, lord, taking authority over our families, over our homes, over our our communities, our places of business. Lord, give us12:20 an understanding of the authority that we have in you. And, lord, may we walk may we walk in the possession of the the abundant life that Jesus has made available. And we thank you for12:32 that, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. Have a great day. And until next time, keep standing on the word.12:42 Today's study comes from the Stand on the Word Bible Reading Plan available for free at frc dot org slash bible. By following along in just a few minutes a day, you12:54 can read through the entire Bible in just 2 years. Learn more and request the free reading guide at frc dot org slash bible.In this video 0:00 Possessing the Abundant Life4:22 No Excuses: Joshua's Challenge to Joseph's Tribes8:34 Shiloh and the Call to Action
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