Bible Reading: Joshua 14:6-15; 17:12-17
Conquer or Whine?
Joshua chapters 12-21 are accounts of the distribution of the land Israel conquered to the various tribes, and I confess, can be boring reading. I suppose if I had a map and took the time to trace each area outlined it would make more sense. So, (I’m confessing again), I skip over those parts. But amongst the list of cities and names of kings conquered, there are real gems of truth. That’s why I’ve listed just certain scriptures above to go along with today’s devotion.
Joshua 14:6-15 tells about Caleb coming to Joshua and asking for his inheritance. If you recall, Joshua and Caleb were two of twelve spies sent into Canaan to check it out forty years earlier. The spies came back with glowing reports of the land and its productiveness, but ten of the spies said in spite of that, the people were too powerful and big for Israel to be able to conquer them. Joshua and Caleb said they were well able to go in and take the land. And that was actually God’s plan for them. Because Israel listened to the bad report of the ten spies they wandered in the wilderness for forty years until all those who refused to go in had died off, including the ten spies. Only Joshua and Caleb were left alive because they believed God!! Now at the age of 85 Caleb is asking for his inheritance, and not just any flat piece of land. He wants a mountain!! He is just as confident in the Lord as he was forty years earlier. He said “The Lord helping me, I will drive them (the Anakites) out just as he said.”
What an example of faith and confidence in God, and a great lesson of how God rewards that faith. Age was not a factor in how he was living. He said he was just as strong and vigorous as the day Moses had sent them to spy out the land forty years earlier.
Another portion that deserves attention is Joshua 17:12-17. It also is a contrast to the faith of Caleb. Half of the tribe of Manasseh had received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan. Now the other half of the tribe was to get their inheritance on the west side of the Jordan, but they weren’t able to drive out the Canaanites. When they grew stronger they did subject them to forced labor.
Verse 12.
It is interesting that in verse 14 they are called “the people of Joseph.” Joseph had two sons – Ephraim and Manasseh. Their descendants took their place in the tribes of Israel as the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. I think it’s recorded this way because God is making a point. Joseph was a man of courage and came against so many obstacles; he didn’t let anything stop him. But his descendants are complaining that they weren’t given enough land because they were so numerous and that the inhabitants are too powerful for them. Where was the spirit of Joseph in them? Instead of giving them more land Joshua said, “If you are so numerous and if the hill country of Ephraim is too small for you, go up into the forest and clear land for yourselves there in the land of the Perizites and Rephasites.”
It sounds to me like they began whining. “No, it’s not enough for us and all those people who live in the plains have iron chariots. We can’t do it Joshua. What are you going to do for us? Aren’t you going to help us?” (My imagination working!!) I love Joshua’s answer to them; I’m putting it in my own words. “I’m giving you the forested hill country and that’s all you’re going to get. There are a lot of you and you CAN drive them out. Now get with it!!! Stop your whining. Even though they’re strong you can do it!!”
What a contrast to Caleb; 85 years old, but he was raring to go. “I will drive them out.” He was working on hill country too. But here’s these numerous descendants of Joseph, whining that the people were too powerful for them. I think the difference is the confidence that Caleb had in the Lord. 2 Tim. 1:12 says “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” We can have the same confidence in the Lord that Caleb had and be just as courageous against the things that come against us or whatever Satan might throw at us. Phil. 4:13 says “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” It’s not confidence in our own ability, it’s confidence in Him who has all power!!
Go conquer some enemies and take some mountains!!!
God is good all the time,
Naomi Brinkman
