How Long Will You Wait?

Joshua 13:1-19:51

Key Verse 18:3  

So Joshua said to the Israelites: “How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?”

In this passage we would like to learn how the Lord God wants his children to claim the promises he has made to them. 

First, be sure to allocate the land (13:1-7)

Look at v. 1. "When Joshua was old and well advanced in years, the LORD said to him, ‘You are very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over.’" The expression "You are very old" indicates that Joshua's strength had finally worn out; he could not fight against the enemies as vigorously as he had in the past. And the problem was that there were still very large areas of land to take over. In vs. 2-5, the Lord God identified the areas that were yet to be taken. Then the Lord said, "Be sure to allocate ‘this’ land to Israel for an inheritance.” This command is not easy for anyone to obey. Normally, when a person goes out fishing in the Pacific Ocean, fish are first caught and only then distributed. How can you distribute fish before they are caught? What if you end up not catching anything, not even a single anchovy? But the Lord God commanded Joshua to allocate the "unconquered" land to Israel as an inheritance among the nine and a half tribes! 

Thus the division of the land began. How could Joshua obey? The answer is obvious. He believed that eventually the land would belong to them. He had faith in God's promise. This passage then teaches us that faith is the key to turning God's promises into reality. In God's dictionary faith is as good as cold, hard cash. Speaking of the same truth, Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." 

"Be sure to allocate this land to Israel as an inheritance..." Again we can see that the Lord commanded Joshua to train the Israelites to live by faith in his promises. Nowadays the daily bread passages are from Habakkuk. One of the key messages in Habakkuk is that “the righteous will live by his faith” (Hab 2:4). Later the Apostle Paul repeated the same idea in Romans 1:16,17. In Romans 1:16 Paul said that gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Then in v. 17 he says, "The righteous will live by faith from first to last." 

"Be sure to allocate this land to Israel as an inheritance..." In Israel’s case, the Lord God had promised the land to them. But for us, the contents of God's promises extend way beyond the land. Of all the great promises the Lord God gave us, the greatest is the promise called the "gospel." The word "gospel" means good news [of great joy – according to the Apostle Luke in Luke 2:10]. But what is so good about the gospel? In Romans 1:16, Paul says that the gospel is good because it represents God's power of salvation. Salvation embraces the sum total of God's plan to restore fallen men back to their un-fallen condition. It is to bring us back to the glorious condition of man's life, as glorious as even the risen Jesus Christ. The other day, my daughter Becky was a little bit concerned about my wife Rebekah's high blood pressure. And Becky said, "Dad, did you know that mom has high blood pressure?" I said, "I know." Then she said, "Do something for her." Then I said, halfheartedly, "Uh huh." Then I thought about the problem more seriously. And I recognized that, ultimately, there is not that much I can do. What can I do? Well, if she – God forbid – dies because of this, I can do what the Apostle Peter did when he said to Tabitha, "Tabitha get up!" That is, I can likewise say, "Rebekah get up!" She may or may not get up. But even if she does get up, I know that she will have to die and go to be with the Lord someday. And I am not worried. Why not? Because the gospel is the power of God for everyone who believes! Do you know what? In the Christian’s dictionary, there is no death, for Jesus said in John 5:24, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." Missionary Rebekah has crossed over from death to life! Why then do I worry about death? I don’t. 

Second, the division of the land east of the Jordan River (13:8-33)

Practically, then, what is it to live by faith? Is it just to know how to recite John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life," and no more? No. There is a lot more than that. Then what is it? What more is there for one to live by faith in God's promises? In order for one to be able to practically "cross over from death to life" what must first take place? Let us remember one thing here: the expression "cross over" simply means "cross over." It is a practical transaction, as practical as a man crossing from point A to point B. And if you cross a bridge like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, you will know that you have crossed it. Likewise, if you crossed over from death to life, you yourself must "know" that you have. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. What then is it to really “believe”? 

Surprisingly, we can find the answer to this question from the way Moses, and of course his successor Joshua, helped the so-called two and a half Trans-Jordan Tribes (which I conveniently call the TJTs): Reubenites, Gadites, and a half tribe of Manasseh. We know that Jacob, whose name is also Israel, has twelve sons. And in many places of the Bible these twelve sons are collectively called "Israel." When you think about it, in a community of believers the name "Israel" as used in the Bible is understood to be synonymous with all who believe. But upon close examination of the quality of the faith of each of the twelve tribes of Israel, not every single tribe had the same quality of [genuine] faith. Such was the case with the faith of the TJTs. They looked like real believers, but they were not. This is not my observation but that of Moses. Where can we find evidence of this? In Numbers Chapter 32. Let us go back a little in our Bibles and read Numbers 32:1-5. Let us stop for a moment and think about what they said: "Do not make us cross the Jordan!" 

They wanted to live a "cross-less" life, so to speak! They hated even the word "cross!" 

When he heard this, Moses got really angry. He immediately said, "Shall your countrymen go to war while you sit here [having a picnic]?" Then he gave a long sermon with great pain. In the sermon, Moses gave the example of approximately 600,000 people who had collapsed in the desert without being able to see the Promised Land! They all became food for desert scorpions. Why? Look at Numbers 32:11. Moses pointed out that they were not following the Lord wholeheartedly!  Here is a question for you. How are you doing, spiritually? Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." Say, "Follow me." But are you in fact following him? And if so, then how so? Half-heartedly? Or wholeheartedly? If you are wishy-washy in following the Lord, you are already very close to becoming food for desert scorpions. 

Unbelievers cause a lot of trouble to a spiritual leader like Moses. What kind of trouble? The trouble of having to go through so many funeral services! Thus far, I have attended less than a dozen funeral services. And for some of these funerals, I myself even led the service and gave sermons at the services. But in the case of Moses, he went through not just hundreds, or even thousands, but more than 600,000 funeral services! Imagine Moses having to see all these stinky dead corpses! What a horrible experience it must have been! And these TJTs standing in front him were already oozing out the smell of death! Already Moses felt the bad odor coming out of this dead bunch! But still Moses was a shepherd for them. He had a broken shepherd’s heart for them. Out of his broken shepherd’s heart, what did Moses do? Look at Numbers 32:14. "And here you are, a brood of sinners, standing in the place of your fathers and making the LORD even angrier with Israel." Wow! "Here you are, a brood of sinners!" Then Moses said, “If you turn away from following him, he will again leave all this people in the desert, and you will be the cause of their destruction” (Num 32:15).

What did the TJTs say? Look at vs. 16-19. "Then they came up to him and said, ‘We would like to build pens here for our livestock and cities for our women and children. But we are ready to arm ourselves and go ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them to their place. Meanwhile our women and children will live in fortified cities, for protection from the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our homes until every Israelite has received his inheritance. We will not receive any inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan, because our inheritance has come to us on the east side of the Jordan.’" Moses was greatly pleased with their repentance. But he was still not 100% sure whether or not they really meant business in their repentance. So Moses said to them, “If you will do this--if you will arm yourselves before the LORD for battle, and if all of you will go armed over the Jordan before the LORD until he has driven his enemies out before him--then when the land is subdued before the LORD, you may return and be free from your obligation to the LORD and to Israel. And this land will be your possession before the LORD. But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the LORD; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:20). 

Moses' instructions to the TJTs come with four if’s. The first three if’s talk about the life that denies oneself, takes up one’s cross, and follows Jesus wholeheartedly. The last “if” is the consequence of the life that lives without the cross. "But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the Lord; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out!" 

Moses' instructions to the TJTs are also for modern-day Christians. In identifying the problem of modern day Christians living in the so-called post-modernist world, it is helpful to revisit what the TJTs said: "Do not make us cross the Jordan." Thus far I have come across at least two different ways in how Bible scholars see the Jordan River and the land of Canaan. One view is to see the Jordan as death and Canaan as heaven. The other view is to see Canaan as a higher level of the Christian life. According to this second view, crossing Jordan and arriving in Canaan means going through spiritual conflicts and struggles such as Paul describes in Romans 7:23 where we read, "But I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members." According to this second view, then, the Canaanites represent a type of spiritual enemy as Paul described in Ephesians 6:12. The Israelites' warfare with the Canaanites and Anakites is symbolic of the fight of faith, and the Canaanites who remain unconquered are likened to unrepented sins which “the Israelites ‘did not’ drive out...” (Josh. 13:13); “Judah ‘could not’ dislodge the Jebusites...” (Josh. 15:63); “They ‘did not’ dislodge the Canaanites” (Josh. 16:10), etc. In my opinion, these two opinions are not all that different. They talk about the same thing – the problem of the TJTs – that is, they have not yet fully crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires (Gal 5:24; 2:20). They want to cross from this world into the kingdom of God without going through the spiritual bridge called "the cross of Jesus." In other words, they want to live a cross-less life. 

How did Moses help them out? As we have already seen, Moses helped them not only to cross the Jordan but also to fight against their enemies, and not to fight from the rear but in the front lines! Then and only then did Moses allow them to occupy their inheritance of the land of Israel. Moses' instructions to the TJTs thus teach us that we must fully repent of our unrepented sins, take up the cross of mission, and follow Jesus wholeheartedly. 

Third, the division of the land west of the Jordan River (14:1-19:51)

We can divide Joshua 14:1-19:51 into three sub-divisions, each of which teaches us how the Lord God wants his children to take possession of the promises God gave to them. Jacob produced 12 sons. In the latter part of Jacob's life, however, he gave a double portion of his blessings to Joseph by adding to his blessings Joseph's two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, so that out of Jacob came a total of 13 tribes. But of the 13, the Lord God set apart the Levites as belonging to the Lord, so if we exclude the Levites, we have the 12 tribes of Israel. Now, the Holy Spirit who is the true author of the book of Joshua (2Ti 3:16), divides the 12 tribes into three subcategories: 2.5, 2.5, and 7. The first 2.5 are the TJTs. The next 2.5 consist of Judah, Ephraim, and the other half of Manasseh. The remaining 7 tribes consist of Benjamim, Simeon, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan. And there is a reason why the Holy Spirit treats them separately. Let us see why.  

(1) Allotment to Judah (14:1-15:63)

The Lord God treats Judah favorably. Why? Was it because of Judah's human abilities like the ability to speak eloquently? No. It was because of his faith. God never shows favoritism. Regardless of our own merits or demerits, and despite all of our weaknesses, character flaws, bad habits, or sin problems, the Lord always treats us equally. To him, each person is dear. Why then does he treat Judah favorably? The answer is obvious. He had firm faith in the Lord. In Genesis 38, we see that Judah was a great sinner who even ended up sleeping with his daughter in-law. But he had one great point: that is, he was quick to admit his sin and repent. And in the account of Joseph's conflicts with his 11 brothers including Judah, Judah demonstrated his faith powerfully not with his words alone but also by his sacrificial act of repentance. Some people express their repentance with words alone, but Judah was different. Some people express their faith with mere lip service. They say, "I believe." But in reality they have not really repented of their sins. But Judah was different. He had a better way to reveal that his faith was genuine: that is, through repentance. And when he repented, he risked his life even for his enemy, Benjamin (Gen 44:33,34)!

In the passage we see another supreme example of why the Lord favored Judah, that is, the faith of Caleb. Let us read Joshua 14:6-15 responsively. Here, we can see that of all who had come out of Egypt, only Caleb and Joshua followed the Lord wholeheartedly. By faith in the Lord's mighty power, both of them, particularly Caleb, emphatically stated, “We should go up and take possession of it, for we can certainly do it!” (Num 13:30; 14:9) What faith! To Caleb, faith meant action. What do we mean by action? Let us read Joshua 15:14, "From Hebron Caleb drove out the three Anakites--Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai--descendants of Anak." Then in attacking the city named Debir, he ran out of strength. But he did not give up. Instead, he made an offer to give to anyone who conquers Debir his daughter Acsah in marriage. Acsah means "pain." She was so beautiful that everyone who saw her felt pain, exclaiming, "Wow! She is so beautiful. How can I marry a woman as beautiful as she?!" Although she was so beautiful, no one was able to step forward and accept Caleb’s request to conquer Debir, and thus win her hand in marriage, for going against a fierce enemy like the brave soldiers of Debir was suicide. So no one volunteered. But guess what? Caleb's own brother Othniel stepped forward! And he went and took the city! Normally, you do not give your daughter to your brother. But what else could Caleb do? A promise is promise! So Othniel married the beautiful Acsah! And thank God. 

One more noticeable thing here is that by faith Caleb claimed one of the most important pieces of the land in Canaan: Hebron, where the patriarchs and matriarchs of faith were (and still are) all buried. Yet, this important site was occupied by one of the strongest of all Israel’s enemies, the Anakites, the descendants of the Nephilims who were all as formidable as Mike Tyson (Num 13:33). 

Caleb's example then teaches us that when we have absolute faith in the Lord, the Lord keeps us strong and healthy. Even in our eighties, he keeps us as strong as an18-year-old. Surely faith in the Lord is the key to gaining a fighting spirit. And it was in this fighting spirit that Caleb, the tribal leader of Judah, won one of the most critical victories in God's redemptive history!

(2) Allotment to Joseph (16:1-17:18)

While Joseph himself was a noble man of noble faith, his descendants Ephraim and Manasseh were not as impressive as he was, with the exception of Zelophehad's five daughters whose faith is written about in Joshua 17:1-6, and certainly with the additional exception of Joshua, the descendant of Ephraim (Num 13:8). 

We find the same is true in the way the leaders of Ephraim and the remaining half tribe of Manasseh approached and complained to Joshua. Let us read Joshua 17:14-18. Clearly from what they said in v. 14, we can see that they were conscious of the fact that they were descendants of Joseph, a prominent man of God. But Joshua did not yield to their complaints. Rather, although he was also a descendant of Joseph, he sharply rebuked them saying, "You go up, fight the enemies, clear up the land, and take possession of the land!" From this we learn that instead of insisting on our own privileges as a child of God or as a Christian or as a member of UBF, or whatever, or instead of insisting on seniority based on human conditions like how old one is, how many years one has been in the U.S., or how many sacrifices one has thus far made, we must forget about such things (cf. Phil. 3:8), come back down to ground zero, and in great humility, look up to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and by faith in him and his promises alone, we must daily run the spiritual race and fight the good fight of "faith" from first to last! 

(3) Allotment to the remaining seven tribes (18:1-19:51)

In categorizing the allotments for the remaining seven tribes, and by mentioning them separately in the latter part of the passage, we see that the Lord God has another message for us to learn as far as going for all the promises the Lord God has assured for his children. 

What was their problem? Joshua 18:1-10 answers the question. Let us read especially v. 3. "So Joshua said to the Israelites: ‘How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?’" The expression "How long will you wait" gives us a clue to their problem. They waited, waited, and waited. Unlike Judah's flock, or unlike Joseph's descendants, or unlike the powerful women of faith like the beautiful Acsah or Zelophehad's five daughters, these seven remained passive all the time. They kept their mouths shut. They must have folded their arms and watched everyone else taking possession of the land. While others came out forcefully and took possession of the land they did nothing but watched. While watching, what were they thinking? Nothing. They were like seven sandbags sitting quietly in the corner. Seven is a powerful number. But these seven were a powerless bunch. Figuratively speaking, they were like a man lying down beneath an apple tree, with his mouth wide open, waiting, waiting, and waiting for an apple to fall right into his mouth. But remember what Jesus said to his followers: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” (Mat 11:12).

Helping a passive sheep like this is not easy. Yet, how did Joshua help? Let us read 18:3-6 again. "So Joshua said to the Israelites: ‘How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you? Appoint three men from each tribe. I will send them out to make a survey of the land and to write a description of it, according to the inheritance of each. Then they will return to me. You are to divide the land into seven parts. Judah is to remain in its territory on the south and the house of Joseph in its territory on the north. After you have written descriptions of the seven parts of the land, bring them here to me and I will cast lots for you in the presence of the LORD our God.’" Thanks to Joshua's practical solution, they too came to take possession of the Promised Land and became members of God's kingdom. 

One word: How long will you wait?