Why do the Scriptures go into so much detail concerning the borders and boundaries of the various lands conquered and redistributed and which territory was given to which tribe and so on and on?
The answer is actually a cinch…especially to anyone who has ever purchased a home.
Personally, I’ve never bought a home or actual real estate.
So I don’t have firsthand experience with this but I’ve heard that when the transaction is completed, you receive what’s called a “Property Description” along with the title deed to the land or home you just bought.
This Property Description is super detailed.
In addition to the basic city, state and zip code info, the actual length, width, latitude and longitude of the land is also meticulously detailed (sometimes down to the very inch I’ve heard!).
Why is this done?
The answer is simple: To resolve any property disputes should they arise.
See, during Bible times, they didn’t use “Title Deeds” or “Property Descriptions” like we modern folks do.
Instead, it was the rivers, large trees, wells and caves as well as the names of kings who controlled certain areas at given times that served as the Property Description.
Understand that fighting over territory was as common back then as it is now.
Hence, in order to resolve these heated disputes over property, a VERY thorough description of a given region became a necessity.
However, one major challenge was that over the passage of time, rivers dried up and disappeared, some landmarks were torn down and if there was a war, entire cities were destroyed which resulted in the names of rulers changing literally overnight.
Because of all this chaos, in the Biblical era, specifically defining the boundaries of a specific piece of real estate minus a sufficient amount of detail proved to be very challenging if not impossible at times.
We know that in 1948, the Jewish people returned to their rightful land inheritance.
Yet according to what’s detailed in Scripture, we know there is still much remaining land that must and will be returned to God’s people (including Lebanon).
In this sense, Scripture is the ultimate Title Deed or Divine Property description that will NEVER be overturned by some manmade decision or document.
And who will be the legal enforcer of this document?
Well, of course, the Messiah.
And what is his name?
His name is the very same name of the title of the book we are currently studying: Y’hoshua.
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