J14-3: The Reason Why Some Things Are Repeated Over And Over Again In The Scriptures

“These are the inheritances which the people of Israel took in the land of Kenaan, which Elazar the cohen, Y’hoshua the son of Nun and the heads of the ancestral clans of the tribes of the people of Israel distributed to them by lot for them to inherit, as Adonai ordered through Moshe, for the nine tribes and the half-tribe. Moshe had already given the inheritances to the two tribes and the half-tribe beyond the Yarden; to the L’vi’im he gave no inheritance among them. ⁴ The descendants of Yosef constituted two tribes, M’nasheh and Efrayim; and they gave no portion of the land to the L’vi’im except cities to live in, with the open land surrounding them for their livestock and crops. ⁵ As Adonai had ordered Moshe, so the people of Israel did — they divided the land.“-Joshua 14:1-5

In verses 2-5 of Joshua Chapter 14, for the umpteenth time, we are reminded of the following facts:

-Moses divvied up the land among the 2 1/2 tribes (Reuben, Gad and Manasseh).

-The Levites did NOT receive any land inheritance.

-It is the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh who together represent the single tribe of Joseph (in other words, the single tribe of Joseph was split up into the 2 tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh).

So here’s what we’ve got to understand whenever things are repeated in the Scriptures.

Things are being retold so that both present and future generations can understand why certain decisions were made.

And not just that, other important bits of information and nuances are being added to give us a more complete picture of what’s going on.

For example, consider the reminder we’re given about the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh who together represent the one tribe of Joseph.

This was done so that when the current group of Israelites went back and examined the early tribal records of Israel found in the 5 books of Moses and noticed mention of Joseph but then later on found out that Joseph had disappeared to be replaced by Ephraim and Manasseh, they’d understand how this change happened and that it was the Lord’s plan from the beginning.