Joshua 11 – 15
During this period Joshua continues his taking of the promised lands and has learned his lesson about obeying God. God says do this and Joshua does; simple and outright obedience to the father. As we saw previously, once Joshua goes outside the will of God, things disintegrate quickly. That alone is a book in and of itself about life and obedience to the will of God. But let’s just suffice that there are boundaries God gives us for life and once we leave them things quickly go awry.
This has great impact on your life and lives of others around you. I think about my fathering before reconnecting with Christ and how the spanking was the only form of discipline. I wish I could reverse those years and help guide my children differently, but I pray that those scars heal and help develop character. As much guilt as I have for that, I feel sorry for what others have been through. This morning screams of terror rock my office as a friend relives the horror of their past in a dream. I do not wish to imagine what cause this, but pray the damage heals and life can go on.
As we continue the through the chapters there are many interesting stories on how the land is allocated to the various tribes of Israel. We get to see where many of the names come from as far as people and places. Pisgah gap is one of those names I always thought was Cherokee but discovered in this chapter is from the Promised Land. It is cool when you see how much of our nation and how many people are named from the Bible.
Now getting up there in years I have become acutely aware of the age of these men, I mean Noah living to 950 years!! Chapter 14 verses 10 and 11 gives Joshua’s age and condition:
10 And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. 11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming.
I know at 50 I keep thinking that, but the 20% more me is a constant reminder that this is not so. I read this and wondered if it was true or if it is Joshua’s disillusionment about his actual condition. I wonder if this world has changed of our bodies have changed to much shorten our lives. As life spans increase and we discover ways to cure sick bodies it is still difficult to imagine a strapping 85 year old, much less a 950 year old.
If you get an opportunity look at how the lands were divided, it’s interesting when compared to a modern day map of Israel. It is very similar and I assume the 1948 UN Resolution used much of this historical information to determine the boundaries to return to Israel. This has been a constant state of contention since where terrorism and wars have been battled since all for this small 10,000 square mile chunk of the earth God promised Abraham. It was taken by force and has been defended ever since. The land has been conquered and occupied by many over the thousands of years since. Judaism, Christianity and Islam place Jerusalem as their hub. This history is real interesting when you look at how it still effects the lands today.