“As for the west border, the Great Sea was its border. These were the borders of the territory of the descendants of Y’hudah, by clans.”-Joshua 15:12
There’s much more than meets the eye to verse 12 which I’ve copied and pasted above.
When it says “the Great Sea is Judah’s westernmost boundary”, this is more than just a simple statement of fact.
How so?
Well, let’s consider 2 important facts we know from the earlier chapters of Joshua.
Fact 1: Joshua had yet to conquer any of the coastal areas of Canaan.
Fact 2: The land given to Judah includes these coastal areas of Canaan which covers parts of Philistia as well as the territory of the Gerushites (now Israel’s ally).
Bottom line, here’s what we’ve gots to understand.
The giving of the land wasn’t just a real estate gift homies.
It was also the assignment of responsibility to DRIVE OUT the enemies of Israel who were still occupying the land.
This was work folks…and dangerous work at that.
It was like being given a piece of wild and untamed land and being told you had to work that land so that in due time it would produce fruit.
That’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears we’re talking about folks.
Much of Judah territory had already been defeated, but there were still other parts that were in enemy hands.
And it was up to the men of Judah to conquer those parts.
Later on, we’re going to find out that many of the other tribes flat out told Joshua “We don’t want our land inheritance”.
Why?
Simply because they didn’t want to have to fight a war to get it (major spiritual lesson here folks).
Things got so bad that Joshua had to gather up a group of soldiers to get the hemming and hawing tribes to do what God originally commanded them to do…which was to conquer the freakin’ land!
Does this attitude sound familiar?
It should because it hearkens back to the time when Moses sent out the 12 scouts to reconnoiter the land and upon returning, 10 of the men were like “Hell no, we’re not attacking the land of Canaan”.
Remember it was only 2 men who decided to remain faithful: Caleb from the Tribe of Judah and Joshua from the Tribe of Ephraim.
As a result of the unfaithfulness of the majority, Israel was cursed and had to wander for 40 years in the wilderness until the entire 1st generation of Israelites who left Egypt died off (save for Caleb and Joshua of course).
Before I close, I want you to notice an interesting pattern and recall that I’m always incessantly telling you guys that the Torah, the rest of the Scriptures and Biblical history itself operates under consistently reoccurring patterns.
So check this mind-blowing pattern out.
Caleb representing Judah and Joshua representing Ephraim were the ONLY 2 men who were faithful to God after they returned from scouting the land, right?
Well, it was also Caleb and Joshua who also unhesitatingly received their land inheritances while the majority declined.
People just don’t change over time, do they?
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