“…the land of the Givli; all the L’vanon eastward, from Ba‘al-Gad at the foot of Mount Hermon to the entrance of Hamat”-Joshua 13:5
Alrighty, so we’re moving right along through Joshua Chapter 13.
In verse 5 (copied and pasted above), we’re told of the third region that was left unconquered by Joshua starting from right above Sidon (most likely an area called Byblos) that stretched towards the east.
Again, notice mention of the nation of Lebanon.
Lebanon is the set of mountains located in the western area of Canaan right next to Phoenicia.
And that’s right, like I’ve said before, Lebanon belongs to Israel.
It is most definitely part of the land that Hashem promised to Israel through Moses.
To sum things up, the mountainous territory and desert areas starting from the Jordan River and moving towards the west were successfully conquered by Joshua.
However, Joshua’s army wasn’t able to conquer the land all the way up to the Mediterranean Sea.
The entire coastal region beginning from the upper Sinai Peninsula (in the south) stretching all the way northwards unfortunately remained in the hands of the gentiles.
Let’s move on to verse 6.
“As for the inhabitants of the hills between the L’vanon and Misrefot-Mayim, that is, all the Tzidonim, I myself will expel them ahead of the people of Israel; all you have to do is assign it to Israel as an inheritance, as I have ordered you.”-Joshua 13:6
The Lord is making it clear to Joshua that it didn’t matter if Israel hadn’t yet conquered all of the territory they were supposed to, the time was ripe to start dividing up the land according to their inheritance.
In His own good time, God makes it clear He will kick the enemies of Israel out from the land.
Let’s not mince any words about what is happening here.
Joshua is getting up there in age.
He has grown old, fatigued and his fighting days are drawing to an end.
In spite of this, the Lord is telling Joshua and his men and also all the future generations of Israel not to be concerned.
Although Joshua, the warrior who was anointed by God to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land, won’t be around much longer, there’s no need for worry because the eternal God of Israel will still be with His people to keep His plans intact.
Therefore, here we see that Joshua will not finish off his life as a warrior but as a distributor of the land that had already been conquered.
I want to share 2 points before I close.
FIRST, notice how verse 7 emphasizes that the conquered land to be distributed is to go only to 9 1/2 tribes.
Why?
Because the 2 1/2 tribes of Reuben, Gad and 1/2 of Manasseh had already received their land inheritance located on the eastern side of the Jordan River.
SECOND, notice how I said Joshua was an anointed warrior by God.
Do you remember what the Hebrew word for “anointed” is?
It is the word MASHIACH.
MASHIACH is Hebrew word for “messiah”.
Therefore, Joshua was a messiah for Israel.
I’m not saying he was THE Messiah.
But he was definitely one of the messiahs or “anointed ones” who faithfully served Israel as best as he could.
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