Joshua 16 - 22

Joshua — Steve Gregg

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Joshua 23 - 24

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Joshua 16 - 22

JoshuaSteve Gregg

This section of the book of Joshua discusses the distribution of land among the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Zebulun. The speaker reflects on the method of casting lots to divide the land, a practice also used by the apostles to choose a replacement for Judas. The speaker also touches on the importance of following God's commandments and avoiding alternative religions.

Transcript

Exhilarating section of the book at this point. We are of course reading details of geography intermixed with occasional little anecdotes of events. But for the most part we're reading about how the land was divided among the nine and a half tribes that remained to receive their inheritance on the western side of the Jordan.

In the last chapter, the entire chapter is devoted to the tribe of Judah and their inheritance and particularly focusing on one man in his family and that was Caleb. But now we turn to Ephraim and the other half of the tribe of Manasseh that are on the, that's with the nine tribes in the land. Ephraim and Manasseh were the two sons of Joseph.

That's why they're mentioned together so frequently. The tribe of Joseph was divided into two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. Of the two, Ephraim became much more considerable, much more influential, much more powerful and big.

Though Ephraim had parts of its tribe on either side of the Jordan, even combined, they were much smaller than Ephraim and in later times, the northern confederacy of tribes that broke off from Rehoboam were sometimes even called Ephraim as a nation because it was so much the most significant and dominant tribe of that coalition. Just as the southern kingdom was made up of Judah and Benjamin, but the kingdom was called Judah because Judah was so much more prominent than Benjamin. So Ephraim.

But we're going to read about Manasseh and Ephraim together here because of them both being descended from Joseph. The lot fell to the children of Joseph from the Jordan by Jericho to the waters of Jericho on the east to the wilderness that goes up from Jericho through the mountains to Bethel. Then went out from Bethel to Luz.

Now this is a strange statement because in Genesis we're told that Luz was the ancient name of Bethel. And that Bethel came to be renamed as Bethel instead of Luz as a consequence of Jacob having his dream there and declaring when he woke up that this is the house of God. Bethel means house of God.

And we're told repeatedly in the book of Genesis that Bethel formerly had been called Luz. So it's not clear exactly what it means from Bethel to Luz. There are in the Septuagint it says they went out to Bethel to Luz and maybe then Luz would be explanatory of what it means to Bethel.

So the Septuagint reads a little differently. It's not all that important but it's just a confusing point. The border passed along the border of the Archites and Adderoth or at Adderoth and went down westward to the boundary of the Jephthahites as far as the boundary of lower Beth-horon to Gezer and it ended at the sea.

So the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim took their inheritance. Now with reference to Ephraim in particular, it says the border of the children of Ephraim according to the families was thus the border of their inheritance on the east side was Adderoth Adar as far as the upper Beth-horon and the border went out toward the sea on the north side of Mesh-methath or Mech-methath or whatever. Then the border went around eastward to Teaneth Shiloh and passed by it on the east of Janohah.

Then it went down from Janohah to Adderoth and Neara reached Jericho and came out at Jordan. The border went out from Tapua westward to the brook Cana and it ended at the sea. This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim according to their families.

The separate cities for the children of Ephraim were among the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities and their villages. So apparently the Manassites who were not on the other side of the Jordan, the ones who came across, simply got separate cities from Ephraim in the same general territory. They did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gaza but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day and have become forced laborers.

Now just like the Gibeonites had become forced laborers, the Canaanites who were not driven out were but there is a difference. The Gibeonites were under a covenantal agreement to be in a sense confederates of Israel and there is a covenantal bond there. That gave the Gibeonites a somewhat higher privilege than the Canaanites who were not under contract but who were just resistant and the people of Ephraim gave up on driving them out so they made them serve them instead.

And then we have the other half of the tribe of Manasseh. We should read a lot about Manasseh it seems like. These were the male children of Manasseh, the son of Joseph according to their families.

So we are told that they received something by lot but it would appear that since there are no boundaries given it is simply portions and cities within the tribe of Ephraim it would appear because it did mention that in verse 9 of chapter 16. The separate cities for the children of Ephraim were among the inheritance of the children of Manasseh or maybe it is the other way around. I said the Manasseh cities were in Ephraim maybe it is the Ephraim had some cities in Manasseh.

It is not perhaps as clear as we would like. Now verse 3, but Zelophehad the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Makar, the son of Manasseh had no sons but only daughters. And these are the names of the daughters, Mala, Noah, Hogla, Milcah and Tirzah.

Now there has been mention of these girls in previous discussions back in chapter 27 of Numbers and again in chapter 36 of Numbers. Twice these women have come up for consideration because they were apparently the only family in Israel that had no sons. Which is strange, I mean of course having sons was very important because that is who you would leave your inheritance to.

And you say well why wouldn't you leave it to your daughters? Well you could but that would be the end of your inheritance because your daughters were almost certainly going to marry. And then their husbands would have the inheritance but it was their wives. And so this became a problem, how this man leaves his inheritance when his daughters will certainly marry into other families and he has no sons to take over his.

And it was decided that the daughters of Zelophehad could inherit their father's property but they had to marry men of the same tribe. So that the property didn't go outside the tribe of Manasseh. That was decided back in Numbers.

And it says in verse 4, And they came near before Eliezer the priest, before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the ruler, saying, The Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers. Therefore, according to the commandment of the Lord, he gave them an inheritance among their father's brothers. Ten portions fell to Manasseh besides the land of Gilead and Bashan which were on the other side of Jordan.

Because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance among his sons and the rest of Manasseh's sons had the land of Gilead. And the territory of Manasseh was from Asher to Mishmathah that lies east of Shechem. And the border went along the south to the inhabitants of El and Tapuah.

Now the mention of Asher of course is the tribe of Asher. We're also going to see the tribe of Ishtashar is mentioned in verse 10. And we're told that Ephraim's, or Manasseh's territory was adjoining Asher on the north and Ishtashar on the east.

Now we've not yet read of where Asher and Ishtashar's tribal boundaries were. That comes up later on. So it's anticipating the later way things were structured for later readers.

They'd know that where Asher and Ishtashar ended up but have not yet at this point in the story received their territory. It was bordering Manasseh. And in Ishtashar verse 11 and Asher, Manasseh had Beth-shean and its towns, Iblium and its towns, the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, the inhabitants of Endor.

Of course there's a witch there that became prominent later on in the time of Saul. And its towns and inhabitants of Tayanak and its towns and the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns, three hilly regions. Megiddo of course is the town after which the word Armageddon is named.

Armageddon in Hebrew means, or Aramaic or whatever, it means the mountain of Megiddo. Actually Megiddo is in a valley, not a mountain, but Megiddo is the town. And therefore the reason that Armageddon is so called is because the region that is identified for the battle is the mountain of Megiddo.

Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities but the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land. Interesting that the ones who were driven out weren't determined to stay. It sounds like the Canaanites were really just decided, you're not getting us out of here.

Now why was it that we find that the children of Israel were unable so often to drive out the enemies when God said He would drive them out before them. God said He would give them the land of those people, give them victory. Why didn't they take the land? Why couldn't they? Now we're going to find later on in some cases we're told that they couldn't drive people out because they had iron chariots.

On the other hand there were some who did drive out the Canaanites who had iron chariots. But the whole issue of, you know, they couldn't take the land. Well was God unable to defeat iron chariots or what was the problem? And I think we, although we're not told, we probably get something of an answer to that when we look at a couple of passages of the Gospels.

In Matthew 13 for example, the very last verse in Matthew 13, verse 58, speaking of Jesus at Nazareth speaking. It says, and He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Now it specifically says Jesus did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

But the parallel statement in Mark, Mark chapter 6 and verse 5, Mark 6, 5 says, Now Jesus could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. So when He came to Nazareth, depending on which story you're in, it says He could not or would not, He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

And the other one says He could not do many mighty works there. God was limited, Jesus was limited by their unbelief. He could do a little bit but their belief level was so low that it prevented Him from doing more.

And I think that's when we find that God's people couldn't drive out the people, though God said He'd do it for them. It must be because of their unbelief. They probably became complacent once the land was more or less settled.

There were Canaanites nearby that needed to be driven out but these Jews had found consolation in being able to rest from their wandering and move into the houses that were there still standing and farm and they probably didn't have a taste for going to war anymore. So instead of continuing to trust God to give them total victory, they compromised with the Canaanites nearby and did not have the faith or the determination that the Canaanites had to drive them out. It's interesting, it says the Canaanites in Joshua 17, verse 12, the Canaanites were determined to dwell in the land.

Apparently the people of Ephraim or Manasseh were not determined to drive them out, at least not as determined to drive them out as the Canaanites were determined to stay. And it's obvious if there's some people that God said to drive out and they're determined not to let you do it, you've got to be more determined than they are. And it's obvious that the Israelites were not as determined as they should have been to carry out the whole thing that God told them to do because they had reached the stage of victory that was comfortable.

They were not in danger it seemed, physically, and so they just decided let's call that a complete war, you know, let's rest now. Verse 14, then the children of Joseph spoke to Joshua saying, why have you given us but one lot and one portion to inherit since we are a great people inasmuch as the Lord has blessed us until now? 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 Perizzites and the giants since the mountains of Ephraim are too confined for you. But the children of Joseph said, the mountain country is not enough for us and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are in Beth-she-an 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, you're a great people and have great power. You shall not have one lot only, but the mountain country shall be yours. Although it is wooded, you shall cut it down and its farthest extent shall be yours.

And for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and are strong. So the attitude of the children of Joseph here was somewhat different than that of Caleb. Caleb just said, hey, give me those giants.

They're going to be neat for me. I'm going to go take them. These guys are saying, these people are formidable, we don't really want to have to fight them.

And we're not satisfied with the land you've given us. And Joshua said, well, there's some land right over there that's still undefeated. You can have that, you just have to go win it.

And we don't want to do that, we can't do that. They've got chariots of iron. He said, well, that's the land I'm giving you.

Take it or leave it. You go out and fight them. You can beat them.

God will give you the victory. So, so much for that. Now we've still got seven tribes to consider.

And yet it says, the whole congregation of in chapter 18 of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the tabernacle of meeting there. And the land was subdued before them. The tabernacle is only mentioned twice in the book of Joshua.

And here we find it set up in the land, apparently for the first time. We don't know. It was traveling in the wilderness with them in the time of Moses.

And obviously, they brought it across the Jordan with them as they, it's a, the tabernacle, of course, is a prefab building that you could tear down and put back up and move it. And so we don't know if they had set it up at Gilgal before this. Gilgal had been their encampment.

They may have had it set up there, though we haven't read of it previous to this. They, they had their headquarters at Gilgal, but now they moved them to Shiloh. And Shiloh is where the tabernacle then was set up and remained for several hundred years.

It was there that Eli tended the tabernacle and served as a priest. And then Samuel, as it were, went to live there in the tabernacle. And it was during that time that the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant in war, and then apparently destroyed Shiloh at the same time so that the tabernacle was eventually destroyed and didn't exist anymore.

So that when the Ark returned from the Philistines, they didn't put it in the tabernacle, which was no longer there. They put it in somebody's house. And it remained there until the time of David, when David brought it to Jerusalem and put it under a makeshift tent.

But this is the first stated location for the tabernacle in the Promised Land. And it remained there for some time until Samuel's day. And so they set up the tabernacle there, but there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance.

Then Joshua said to the children of Israel, how long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord, your God, the God of your fathers has given you? Now, it sounds like there was something they were supposed to do and they weren't doing it. I mean, he's scolding them. How long is it going to be before you go get your land? Now, I don't know what had they been instructed to do prior to this, but there no doubt was a lot that had been said and done that was not recorded for us.

Apparently, they were just sluggish about doing what they should do. And it wasn't they who came to Joshua saying, give us our land. It was he who said, what are you going to go get your land? So he says, pick out from among you three men from each tribe and I will send them and they shall rise and go through the land, survey it according to their inheritance and come back to me and they shall divide it into seven parts.

Judas shall remain in their territory on the south and the house of Joseph shall remain in their territory on the north. That is, they've already got their territory, so this will not apply to them. You shall therefore survey the land in seven parts and bring the survey here to me that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord, our God.

But the Levites have no part among you for the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance and Gad, Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan on the east, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave them. Now, these tribes were just in three minutes or 21 spies or not spies, but surveyors, really would go into the land and they would just make some kind of a general survey of the desirable regions and what the lay of land was, what the topography was and bring back the survey so that they could just divide it into seven parts. But no one knew which part any tribe was going to get.

No one could say it was, you know, fixed in favor of any one tribe because each of the tribes had an equal number of representatives out there doing it. But once the land was divided on a map into seven portions, they would cast lots to see which tribe would get which portion. And so this way it was left to God to decide how it would be apportioned and not man.

And no one could complain that any favoritism would be shown on Joshua's part about giving the best land to anyone in particular. No one could complain except to God. So verse eight, then the men arose to go away and Joshua charged those who went to survey the land, saying, Go walk through the land, survey it and come back to me that I may cast lots for you before the Lord in Shiloh here.

So the men went, passed through the land and wrote the survey in a book in seven parts by cities, and they came to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh. Then Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord and there Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel, according to their divisions. And of course, they're immediately the next chapter and more discusses those seven apportionments.

We're not going to go into the details of the cities and so forth that are given to each one, because frankly, for the most part, those things are not important enough for us to detain ourselves with. But suffice it to say that the tribal regions were determined by God, by the casting of lot. And the Bible does say that the lot is cast into the lot, but it's every decision is from the Lord in Proverbs 16, 32.

So God made his will known through the casting of the lots. We know that he did so again when Jonah was aboard the ship and the sailors cast lots to see who is responsible for the storm. And the lot fell on Jonah.

And the apostles had such confidence in this method of dividing the will of God that they picked two candidates to fill the position left by Judas. And they picked between those candidates by the casting of lots. So they recognize God as sovereignly working through this means.

And so the land of Benjamin is described in verses 11 to the end of this chapter. Small tribe, they bordered on Judah. And like I say, they shared Jerusalem with Judah.

Jerusalem was on the border, although neither of them could actually conquer Jerusalem for the longest time. But it was it was in their territory. And we do have essentially the same kinds of descriptions describing borders and cities and so forth here that we had in the earlier descriptions of Judah and Ephraim's land.

And for that matter, Reuben and Gad, Manassas. We come to chapter 19 in the first nine verses. It describes the land of the inheritance of Simeon, which really wasn't separate land at all.

Simeon had a small portion within the boundaries of Judah and Simeon really seemed to have gotten a raw deal here because they didn't really get land to their own, but just got portions of Judah's land. But that's partly a judgment upon them, because both Levi and Simeon. They're the men, Levi and Simeon in the days of Jacob, were the ones who ran that bloody raid on Shechem and murdered the whole population of males just out of personal vendetta.

It was a very wicked thing to do. And Jacob said so. He didn't discipline them as severely as he should have, but he did say that they will be dispersed in Israel.

They will really not have an inheritance. We've all been reading again and again. Levi did not have an inheritance of land, but that's because they kind of redeemed themselves later on in the days of Moses by taking God's side in the incident of the golden calf.

And because Levi took God's side in that case, he promised that they would be the priest and therefore, although they don't get land inheritance, they have a privilege to be serving God. Simeon didn't redeem themselves at any time. So they're still kind of under the curse from that bloody act that they did in the days of Jacob.

And so they get a very tiny inheritance and it's only a little portion of what's in Judah's boundaries. Then verses 10 through 16 talk about the region given to Zebulun and, you know, number of cities are mentioned here. Not that we need to go bother ourselves with their list.

The land of Isishar in chapter 19, verses 17 through 23. Similarly, the land of Asher's boundaries and cities and so forth are mentioned in verses 24 through 31. Then from 32 through 39, you have the land given to Naphtali and then finally the land given to the tribe of Dan in verses 40 through 48.

And this section ends by talking about Joshua's own inheritance. So he was of the tribe of Ephraim, but he kind of put his own interest last. You know, he's the one dividing up all the land.

He makes sure everybody has their portion before he takes his. And although Ephraim received a portion earlier on, he of that tribe did not define his own land or his own inheritance until after all the other tribes had been served. And in verse 49 says, when they had made an end to dividing the land as an inheritance, according to their borders, the children of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua, the son of Nun.

According to the word of the Lord, they gave him a city which he asked for, Timnath, Syrah, in the mountains of Ephraim. And he built the city and dwelt in it. These were the inheritances which Eliezer, the priest, Joshua, the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel divided as an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

So they made an end of dividing the country. Now, everything is divided up, but we still have to identify cities of refuge and cities of the Levites. The Levites are going to get a certain number of cities and the city of refuge are a certain number that have been taken out.

There's going to be three cities of refuge on each side of the Jordan. And what they are for and so forth, of course, is described here again. There have been a number of times in the Pentateuch, which we have not studied here together in this session, but that give the same information pretty much.

Only this time we get the names of all six cities. In Moses day, three cities of them in on the east side of Jordan were identified. But now, of course, that the West has been conquered, they can now identify the three cities on the West as well.

Chapter 20, the Lord also spoke to Joshua saying, speak to the children of Israel, saying a point for yourselves, cities of refuge of which I spoke to you through Moses, that the slayer who killed any person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there and they should be your refuge from the avenger of blood. Now, the avenger of blood was, generally speaking, the next of kin of the deceased. This is before they had regular police forces and, you know, jails and things like that.

There's just kind of an understanding. You get killed. Your brother comes and avenges you on the murderer.

That is, if you're murdered. So the idea is that if a man murders somebody, he should be put to death. And the appointed executioner is assumed to be his next of kin, his brother or the nearest relative that can do this for him, to avenge him.

But if the death was accidental, the avenger of blood might still want to avenge the death. He might even question whether it was accidental. In the law, there's even an example given, like an example would be if a man is swinging an axe and the axe head flies off the handle and accidentally hits another guy and kills him.

Well, that's obviously unintentional. That's involuntary manslaughter. Now, it did involve the killing of an innocent person.

Therefore, there was guilt for it. But because it was unintentional, it was not considered to be worthy of death. So the unintentional killer, to avoid himself being killed by the avenger of blood of the victim, could flee to a city of refuge.

And these cities were located in the north and the south and the middle section of each of the districts on the east and the west side of the Jordan. So that, in general, anyone could get to one without too much difficulty. And so if a man accidentally found that he'd accidentally killed somebody, he would have to flee to the city of refuge.

And there, apparently, there would be a court to hear his case. And if he proved to be guilty, if the court there decided he was guilty, they'd throw him out of the city of refuge and then he could be killed by the avenger of blood. But if he was considered to be innocent, he had to stay in the city of refuge and the avenger of blood was not allowed to come and get him there.

He'd have to live the rest of his life in that city or the rest of the high priest's life. The death of the high priest would also end his tenure there and he could leave. And then the avenger of blood could not kill him.

If he did, then the avenger would be a murderer and then he'd have to die. So this is how these unintentional murders were treated. It's interesting that, though it's completely unintentional, he's still restricted to the city of refuge.

But he is released at the time of the high priest's death, perhaps intended to be a picture of Christ's death, our high priest being that which frees us from our confinement or our bondage because of our guilt, of our sin. I'm not sure if that's what's intended, but it seems very possible. So he said, appoint for yourselves cities of refuge.

Verse three, that the slayer who kills any person accidentally, unintentionally may flee there. And they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. And when he flees to one of those cities and stands at the entrance of the gate of the city and declares his case in the hearing of the elders of that city, they shall take him to the city as one of them and give him a place that he may dwell among them.

If the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not deliver the slayer into his hand because he struck his neighbor unintentionally but did not hate him beforehand. So it's actually the hatred factor. I guess the question is, was it a hate crime? The distinction between a hate crime and a non-hate crime.

Jesus said, if you're angry at your brother without a cause, it's comparable in some ways to murder. And it says in 1 John that he that hates his brother is a murderer. So it's what's in the heart very much that God's looking at.

And a person who didn't hate his brother and didn't intend to kill him, even though he sheds his blood, it can't be overlooked that he's not guilty at the same level. So it says, and he shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment and until the death of one of the one who is the high priest in those days. Then the slayer may return and come to his own city, his own house, to the city from which he fled.

So they appointed Kedesh in Galilee, in the mountains of Naphtali, Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and Kirgeth-Aba, which is Hebron, in the mountains of Judah. So, of course, Galilee is in the north, or the Galilee as the Jews call it. And Kedesh is in the middle part there in the region of Ephraim.

And then in the south there's Hebron in the land of Judah. And on the other side of the Jordan, by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness of the plain from the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh. These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel and for the stranger who sojourned among them that whoever killed any person accidentally might flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stood before the congregation.

So he'd get a fair trial, and if he was innocent, he stayed there until the death of the high priest or his own death. But if the high priest happened to die before he did, he was free to go and would suffer no harm. Now, here in this next chapter, we have a list, really, of the cities of the Levites.

And there were a lot of them. It's sort of like some of these other chapters we've skimmed over or even passed over to detail because it's just a listing of cities so that it's not really the case that there's a lot of profit in us just reading the list. It does say, now the heads of the fathers of the Levites came here to Eliezer, the priest, to Joshua, the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel.

And they spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, The Lord commanded through Moses to give us cities to dwell in with their common lands for our livestock. So the children of Israel gave to the Levites from their inheritance at the commandment of the Lord, these cities and their common lands. Now, the lot came out for the families of the Kohathites.

Now, you remember that the Levites were divided into three clans because Levi, the man, had three sons, Kohath being one, as we have the Kohathites descended from him. And then, of course, there was Mereri. And then the last one is skipping from my mind.

What is it, Frank? Gershom, right. Yeah, yeah, Gershom. OK, so we have the Kohathites, the Mererites, and the Gershonites, and they are all different branches of the Levitical family of the Levites.

And it says that the lot came out for the families of the Kohathites and the children of Aaron, the priest, who were of the Levites, had 13 cities by lot from the tribe of Judah, from the tribe of Simeon, and from the tribe of Benjamin. These cities were in the tribal boundaries of other tribes that the cities were given to the Levites, but not entirely because there were others who were not Levites living in the cities with them. But there was also a length of distance from the walls of these cities that was the common lands of the cities that also went to the Levites to grow what livestock they had and whatever possessions they needed to store.

They could keep outside the walls of the city and wouldn't have to bring them inside with them. And it says the rest of the children of Kohath had 10 cities by lot from the families of the tribe of Ephraim, the tribe of Dan, from the half-tribe of Manasseh. Verse 6, and the children of Gershon had 13 cities by lot from the families of the tribe of Isishar, and from the tribe of Asher, and from the tribe of Naphtali, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh and Bashan.

The children of Mereri, according to their families, had 12 cities from the tribe of Reuben, from the tribe of Gad, from the tribe of Zebulun. And the children of Israel gave these cities with their common lands by lot to the Levites as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses. So they gave from the tribe of the children of Judah and from the tribe of the children of Simeon these cities which are mentioned here by name, but we will not necessarily read them.

They are indeed mentioned here by name, but we're not going to read their names. And so, actually, we're going to essentially skip over this without much comment. There's not really, as I scan down through, I don't see anything particularly that has to be commented on to the end.

So once you've got the identification of all these Levitical cities, and you've got the cities of refuge, that's really everything. We're done. And so at the end of chapter 21, verses 43 through 45, it says, So the Lord gave to Israel all the land which he had sworn to give their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it.

And they took possession of the land, but as we know, they didn't drive out all the enemies out of every town, their city. The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that he had sworn to their fathers, and not a man of all their enemies stood against them. The Lord delivered all their enemies into their hands.

Now, if their enemies didn't stand against them, of course, if that means they couldn't resist them, that's not entirely the case. We've already been told that some of the Canaanites were able to resist them from taking their territories, but they weren't able to prevent them from taking the land as a whole, including that which surrounded their cities. I mean, they could not defend the land from the invasion of the Israelites, although in some cases they could claim a little spot of a walled city as a as a place that had not yet fallen.

Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel all came to pass. And so you remember that the agreement was that the tribes that took possession of land on the other side of the Jordan were to lead the armies of Israel and put themselves in harm's way with their brethren while they conquered the western territories. And then they would return back to their families that they left and their cattle that they left on the eastern side of the Jordan.

And thus we read about their return now, which their return is going to be the occasion of a story in this next chapter that is that causes a bit of conflict, actually a bit of a crisis. But it is solved without a fight. Fortunately, it says, Then Joshua called the Reubenites, the Gadites and half tribe of Manasseh and said to them, You have kept all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you.

You have obeyed my voice and all that I commanded you. You have not left your brethren these many days up to this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord, your God. And now the Lord, your God, has given rest to your brethren as he promised them.

Now, therefore, returning, go to your tents and to the land of your possession, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you on the other side of the Jordan. But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law of the Lord, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you to love the Lord, your God, and to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart, with all your soul. So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.

Now, to half the tribe of Manasseh, Moses had given a possession in Bashan, but to the other half of it, Joshua gave a possession among the brethren on this side of the Jordan, westward. And indeed, when Joshua sent them away to their tents, he blessed them and spoke to them, saying, Return with much riches to your tents, with very much livestock, with silver with gold, with bronze, with iron, and with very much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren.

So the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh returned and departed from the children of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the country of Gilead, to the land of their possession, which they possessed according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses. Now, OK, they've gone back to their families, but now they set up an altar which causes problems, friction. So then when they came to the region of the Jordan, which is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh built an altar there by the Jordan, a great impressive altar.

Now, it's unclear. It seems like they would have built this altar in their own territory on the east of the Jordan, but it says they built it apparently before they crossed the Jordan, before they left, on the west of the Jordan, in the land of Canaan, they built an altar. And this caused some controversy.

Why they built it there instead of on the other side where they lived, we don't know. And the children of Israel didn't even know why they built an altar at all, since they're supposed to come and offer their sacrifices in Shiloh at the tabernacle and not on makeshift altars of their own choosing. This is what caused the problem.

Now, the children of Israel heard someone say, behold, the children of Reuben, the children of Gad and half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar on the frontier of the land of Canaan in the region of the Jordan on the side occupied by the children of Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh to go to war against them. Then the children of Israel sent Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the priest and the children of Reuben to the children of Gad and to the half and to half the tribe of Manasseh into the land of Gilead and with him ten rulers, one ruler each from the chief house of every tribe of Israel.

And each one was the head of the house of his father among the divisions of Israel. Then they came to the children of Reuben, the children of Gad to half the tribe of Manasseh to the land of Gilead. And they spoke with him, saying, Thus says the whole congregation of Yahweh, What treachery is this that you have committed against God of Israel to turn away this day from following Yahweh in that you have built for yourselves an altar that you might rebel this day against the Lord? Is the iniquity of Peor not enough for us? As Baal Peor, where the Balaam incident took place, from which we are not cleansed until this day, although there was a plague in the congregation of the Lord, but that you must turn away this day from following the Lord.

And it shall be if you rebel today against the Lord, that tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel. Nevertheless, as they found when even Achan said the whole congregation suffered, if two and a half tribes rebel, how much more is that going to make God angry at the whole nation? Nevertheless, if the land of your possession is unclean, then cross over to the land of the possession of the Lord, where the Lord's tabernacle stands, and take possession among us. But do not rebel against the Lord, nor rebel against us by building yourselves an altar besides the altar of the Lord our God.

So the business here is that they're supposed to all go to the tabernacle to worship. Why are you building an alternative shrine, an altar? He said, if you want, you can change your mind and come over and get an inheritance here on the western side of the Jordan with us. If it's like too far to go to the tabernacle from where you are, well, instead of making an alternative religion, come over and live with us like you could have in the first place.

That's what they're saying. Did not I can the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed thing and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel and that and that man did not perish alone in his iniquity. And it's not only his family, but 36 Israelites perished also because of it.

Then the children of Reuben, the children of Gad and half tribe of Manasseh answered and said to the heads of the divisions of Israel, the Lord God of God, the Lord God of God, he knows and let Israel itself know if it is in rebellion or or if in treachery against the Lord, do not save us this day. If we have built ourselves an altar to turn from following the Lord or if to offer it on it, burnt offerings or grain offerings, or if to offer peace offerings on it, let the Lord himself require an account. Now, what they're saying is we didn't actually plan to use this altar.

This was just kind of a memorial. You know, we know we're not allowed to offer sacrifice. They wrote that record.

We never intended to. We just kind of built this for a different reason than what you're thinking. So but if in fact we have done it for fear, for a reason, saying in time to come, your descendants may speak to our descendants saying, what have you to do with the Lord God of Israel? For the Lord has made the Jordan a border between you and us, you children of Reuben and children of Gad.

You have no part in the Lord. So your descendants would make our descendants feast from fearing the Lord. Therefore, we said, let us now prepare to build ourselves an altar, not for burnt offering or sacrifice, but that it may be a witness between you and us and our generations after us that we may perform the service of the Lord before him with our burnt offerings, with our sacrifices, our peace offerings, that your descendants may not say to our descendants in time to come, you have no part in the Lord.

Therefore, we said that it will be when they say this to us or to our generations in time to come that we may say, here is the replica of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, though not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifices, but for a witness between you and us. Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn from following the Lord this day to build an altar for burnt offerings, for grain offerings and for sacrifices besides the altar of the Lord, our God, which is before his tabernacle. So it's a good thing that instead of making war with these guys, they sent over a delegation to ask first.

It was a misunderstanding. It was probably ill advised for these guys to build an altar without explaining their intentions. Obviously, when you build an altar in those days, it usually was intended to be used for sacrifices and it was reasonable enough for the tribes on the West to assume that this was intended to be an alternative altar to that in Shiloh.

But it turns out it wasn't. It's kind of a dumb idea in a way. I mean, at least the two and a half tribes that did this were not thinking very well or weren't communicating very well.

But in any case, where a war could have occurred, it was averted by at least communication, getting the story straight. And so when Phineas, the priest and the rulers of the congregation, the heads of the divisions of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the children of Reuben, the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them. Then Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the priest, said to the children of Reuben, the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh, this day we perceive that the Lord is among us because you have not committed this treachery against the Lord.

Now you have delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of the Lord. That is, they won't have to be judged by God. And Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the priest, and the rulers returned from the children of Reuben and children of Gad from the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan to the children of Israel and brought back word to them.

So the thing pleased the children of Israel and the children of Israel. Bless God. They spoke no more of going to war against them in battle or going against them in battle.

To destroy the land where the children of Reuben and Gad have dwelt. And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar witness for it is a witness between us that the Lord is God. So apparently the reasoning of these people was that the Jordan River creating a natural boundary would tend to make later generations think of those on the east and those on the west as not the same nation.

And since those on the west were certainly the majority of Israel and they had the tabernacle there, they would assume that the western tribes were the ones who were really worshipping Yahweh and that those who are separated by the river must be pagans of a sort. And so they built this altar there on the shore in order to be a witness that they still had their foot in the territory. They built it in Canaan before they went home to the other side, but it was their altar.

It was their project. They constructed it as a witness to their involvement in the same religion, the same God as the one that was on the west side. So that's what they apparently intended that altar to communicate, though it obviously would not communicate that without an explanation.

And so fortunately they had a chance to give an explanation before they got another war on their hands. Well, the last two chapters of Joshua will take tomorrow. They are Joshua's parting addresses, just as the Pentateuch ends with Moses making some final speeches in which he reminds them of their history and exhorts them to be faithful to the Lord in the future.

So Joshua ends the same way with him making speeches of a similar sort. But we'll save those for next time.