Joshua 13:1-21:45 - The Dividing of the Land
Introduction: The Importance of the Details
Well, good evening, church. How are you guys? It’s kind of fun to be here. I know some of you were out of town last week, so welcome to what might be your first experience in our new building. If you’re a guest with us tonight, my name is Mike, and I have the great privilege of continuing in the series we’ve been in now for fifteen weeks.
If you have your Bible with you, I want to invite you to turn to Joshua chapter 13. Last week, we took a bit of a reprieve to talk through the mission of The Well—what we’re about and what we’ve always been about. But in the messages previous to that, we were in Joshua chapter 10 talking about the conquering of the land. We saw the southern conquest as Joshua defeated the kingdoms to the south, and then in chapters 11 and 12, we saw the northern conquest.
Tonight, as we embark on our sixteenth message in Joshua, we actually have just two messages left in this book. Now, you may be saying, “Wait a second, Mike. My Bible has 24 chapters in Joshua. How can we only have two weeks left?” The reality is that chapters 13 through 21—nine whole chapters—are about the dividing of the land. Now that the major military campaigns have mostly been taken care of, we are going to see how the land God gave these people is allotted.
Think about this: the first five chapters of Joshua were about preparing for battle. Chapters six through twelve—seven chapters—were about conquering the land. Yet the biggest chunk of scripture in the book, nine chapters, is devoted to the dividing of the land. Almost half the book is about this. It is intricate. It is detailed. It is full of names of individuals, families, and tribal groups. It’s full of cities, villages, and borders. It reads, if I’m honest, a bit like a genealogy. You might think that sounds about as exciting as watching paint dry, but hold on. There is some stuff in here that is absolutely paramount to us as believers.
When I was in seminary, I had the privilege of taking a class from Howard Hendricks, one of the most famous professors there. He taught a class called Bible Study Methods, and one of the laws he taught us was the Law of Proportion. This means the amount of text dedicated to a certain topic tells you how important that topic is. It tells us what is important to God versus what we sometimes find important.
A classic example is 1 Samuel 17, the story of David and Goliath. It’s a 58-verse chapter, but only about a verse and a half is actually spent on the battle itself. God is saying there is something far more important going on than just the fight. In a similar way, God is saying there is something incredibly important for us in these nine chapters of land allotment.
The Roots of the Promise
The million-dollar question is: why does God spend so much time on these details? To answer that, we need to go back to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis 12:1-3, often called the Abrahamic Covenant, is one of the most important portions of scripture in your entire Old Testament. God makes an unconditional promise to Abraham here.
Genesis 12:1-3 (NASB)
Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.’
God promises Abraham three specific things: a seed (descendants), a blessing that would reach all families of the earth, and land. God says, “I have a piece of land that I have given to you, that will be inherited by you.” And not just any land—sixteen times in the Old Testament, God calls this a “good land.”
Listen to the description of this land from the book of Deuteronomy. It describes a land of brooks, fountains, and springs; a land of wheat, barley, vines, and honey; a land where you will eat without scarcity. This promise was made to Abraham around 2100 BC. It was passed to Isaac, then Jacob, then Jacob’s sons. Can you imagine a group of people waiting for seven hundred years to see God fulfill a promise? Imagine if God gave a promise to George Washington, and today we were still four hundred years away from seeing it fulfilled. That is how long these people have waited.
As we get to Joshua chapter 13, the people of God have been waiting for seven centuries to see God make good on His word.
Joshua 13:1 (NASB)
Now Joshua was old [and] advanced in years when the LORD said to him, ’You are old [and] advanced in years, and very much of the land remains to be possessed.
Joshua is now 90 to 100 years old. The major war has been won, but the battles are still there to be fought. There are remaining skirmishes. God, through Joshua, has put down the major threats, but now each tribe must clear their specific allotted land. In verses two through six, God describes what is left to be cleared, and then He makes a promise.
Joshua 13:6 (NASB)
’All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon as far as Misrephoth-maim, all the Sidonians, I will drive them out from before the sons of Israel; only allot it to Israel for an inheritance as I have commanded you.
God is saying, “Continue to be faithful. As I have been faithful in these major battles, I will continue to drive out these remaining groups.” The book of Numbers describes how this was to happen: they were to inherit the land by lot according to their families. This wasn’t the California Gold Rush where people just ran in and claimed Malibu or Carmel. God determined the portion based on their needs and their size.
The Map of Inheritance
In Joshua chapter 14, we see how this allotment begins. Eleazar the priest and Joshua are the ones overseeing the distribution.
Joshua 14:1 (NASB)
Now these are [the territories] which the sons of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the households of the tribes of the sons of Israel apportioned to them for an inheritance,
If you look at a map of the Promised Land, you have the Mediterranean to the west, the Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee to the east. On the east side of the Jordan River, you have two and a half tribes: Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh. On the west side, you have the other nine and a half tribes, from Simeon in the south all the way up to Asher and Naphtali in the north.
If you’re looking closely at the list of tribes, you’ll notice two names are missing. First, there is no tribe of Joseph. Joseph received a double portion of the blessing, so his inheritance went to his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. The other missing name is Levi. Levi was one of the sons of Jacob, but his tribe received no land.
Joshua 13:14 (NASB)
Only to the tribe of Levi he did not give an inheritance; the offerings by fire to the LORD, the God of Israel, are their inheritance, as He spoke to him.
Even though Eleazar the High Priest came from this line, the Levites were not given a massive territory. I want you to file that away, because we’re going to circle back to why that is the case at the end.
Caleb: Faithfulness at Eighty-Five
In chapter 14, the dividing begins with the tribe of Judah. Specifically, we see a man named Caleb. If you remember, Caleb was one of the original spies who went into the land with Joshua forty years earlier. He is now 85 years old, and I think you’re going to like this guy. Listen to what he says in chapter 14.
Joshua 14:11-12 (NASB)
’I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in. ‘Now then, give me this hill country about which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim [were] there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the LORD will be with me, and I will drive them out as the LORD has spoken.’
This 85-year-old man says, “I am just as strong today as I was then. Give me the hill country—the place where the giants live.” He has a confidence in the Lord. He believes exactly what God said is true. He steps up and goes first.
Joshua 15:14 (NASB)
Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak: Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the children of Anak.
Caleb drives out the sons of Anak—the giants. He doesn’t care if he’s 85 or 100; he knows God is faithful. He represents a confidence and assurance in what God can do.
The Danger of “Good Enough”
Unfortunately, Caleb’s attitude was not the predominant one among all the tribes. A problem begins to emerge, and we see it first in the tribe of Judah.
Joshua 15:63 (NASB)
Now as for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the sons of Judah could not drive them out; so the Jebusites live with the sons of Judah at Jerusalem until this day.
This theme is repeated throughout the chapters. The tribes did not fully drive out the inhabitants as God commanded. It raises the question: was this a “could not” or a “would not”?
God had promised the land unconditionally to Abraham, but He didn’t hand it to them on a silver platter. They had to work. They had to obey. God warned them that if they let the inhabitants remain, they would become like pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides. There is no such thing as partial obedience; they did just enough to get by, stopping at “good enough.”
It wasn’t that they couldn’t drive them out; it was that they wouldn’t. They rested on their laurels. Chapter 17 explains the motivation behind this.
Joshua 17:13 (NASB)
It came about when the sons of Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely.
Why didn’t they drive them out? For the same reason you or I might take a shortcut. They realized they didn’t like cleaning toilets, plowing fields, or chopping wood. They thought, “Why don’t we just take these people we’ve defeated and make them forced labor? I’ll sit in my easy chair and watch Oprah while they do the work.”
They took the easy road, and it caused the rest of the tribes to put it in neutral. They stopped moving forward because they didn’t want to do the hard work of total obedience.
Joshua’s Leadership: Going Last
As you can imagine, Joshua is not happy about this. In chapter 18, he calls the people together at Shiloh, where they set up the Tabernacle.
Joshua 18:3 (NASB)
So Joshua said to the sons of Israel, ’How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?
He calls them out. “How long are you going to wait? How long are you going to walk in disobedience?” He tells them to get out of their “holy huddle” and finish the job. He sets up a plan to survey the remaining land and divide it among the seven tribes that haven’t received their portion yet.
Urged by Joshua, the tribes finally begin to move. Benjamin, Simeon, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan finally take their land. But I want you to notice who goes last in this process.
Joshua 19:49-50 (NASB)
When they finished apportioning the land for inheritance by its borders, the sons of Israel gave an inheritance in their midst to Joshua the son of Nun. In accordance with the command of the LORD they gave him the city for which he asked, Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim. So he built the city and settled in it.
Joshua was from the tribe of Ephraim, and his tribe received their land way back in chapter 16. Yet Joshua chose not to take his portion then. He chose to go last. Joshua understood a vital leadership principle: there is a time to go first, and there is a time to go last. Instead of cutting to the front of the buffet line, he made sure everyone else was taken care of and walking in obedience before he took what was his. It is a beautiful picture of a servant leader.
The Levites: A Different Kind of Inheritance
Finally, we have to address the tribe of Levi. Why didn’t they get an allotment of land? Chapters 20 and 21 are dedicated to them. While some tribes get only eight verses, Levi gets two whole chapters.
God gave the Levites 48 cities scattered throughout the territories of all the other tribes. Six of these were “Cities of Refuge.”
Joshua 20:2-3 (NASB)
’Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ’Designate the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, that the manslayer who kills any person unintentionally, without premeditation, may flee there, and they shall become your refuge from the avenger of blood.
If someone committed what we would call second-degree murder—an unintentional killing—they could flee to one of these cities for protection until a legal trial could be held. Beyond these six, an additional 42 cities were given to the Levites from the other tribes’ inheritances.
From north to south, east to west, the Levites were scattered. Their job was to intercede between God and man, and God placed them everywhere. At the end of this long process of dividing, we get this summary:
Joshua 21:43-45 (NASB)
So the LORD gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. And the LORD gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the LORD gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which the LORD had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.
Seven hundred years after the promise to Abraham, God fulfilled every word. He dotted every “i” and crossed every “t.”
Application: God is Our Treasure
So, why is this here for us? Why does this matter? I have three final thoughts.
First, God is faithful to His promises. One of my favorite pastors, Chuck Swindoll, says, “God is seldom early, but He is never late.” We see this all through Joshua. It might not have been on the timetable Abraham or Jacob wanted, but God was faithful. That hasn’t changed. As believers, we have so many promises in the New Testament—that we are redeemed, forgiven, and have an inheritance waiting for us. Looking back at God’s faithfulness to Israel gives us an anchor to believe He will be faithful to us today.
Second, we are called to be faithful to Him. God’s promises do not preclude our responsibility. The Israelites got stuck because they didn’t want to do the hard thing. They wanted the easy road. Often, I want God’s will to be like a 401(k) plan—a rocket ship that only goes up. But the people God uses most often go through seasons of great difficulty and pain. We have to put off the short-term benefits of the “easy road” or the temptation of sin and choose to walk faithfully, believing God’s way is better.
Lastly, God has an inheritance for all His people. Just as the Levites were scattered to be a light, the church today is called to be a “royal priesthood” in every neighborhood. But what fascinates me most about the Levites is what God said to them in Numbers 18: “I am your portion and your inheritance.”
Their inheritance wasn’t dirt; it was God. God wanted them to realize that the greatest treasure of the Promised Land wasn’t the land itself—it was Him. We are like the Levites. Our delight is to be in God. He is our all-consuming treasure.
I want to finish with a quote from John Piper that unpacks this. He asks:
“The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?”
Propitiation, redemption, and forgiveness are all good news for one reason: they bring us to God. If we don’t want God above all things, we haven’t fully grasped the gospel.
One day, we will see our Savior face to face, where sin no longer encumbers us. We will realize then what the Levites were taught: He is our greatest inheritance.
Let’s pray.
Father, as we reflect on Your faithfulness, would You incline our hearts to realize that You are our greatest treasure? It was true for the Levites, and it is true for us. Draw our hearts to You and remind us that our greatest delight is simply being in Your presence. We love You and thank You. In Christ’s name, amen.
Numbers 18:20 (NASB)
Then the LORD said to Aaron, ’You shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.