“Then the descendants of Yosef spoke to Y’hoshua; they said, ‘Why have you given me only one lot and only one portion to inherit? After all, I am a great people, since Adonai has blessed me so.’ Y’hoshua answered them, ‘If you are a great people, go up to the forest, and clear land for yourself there in the territory of the P’rizi and the Refa’im — since the hills of Efrayim don’t give you enough space.'”-Joshua 17:14
From verse 14 of Joshua chapter 17, we get a perfect example of the kind of squabbles the Israelites got into over their land inheritance distribution.
In this particular verse, we’re told that Ephraim and Manasseh were NOT pleased with the amount of territory they had received and asked Joshua for more.
Notice the Scripture uses the phrase...“the descendants of Joseph”.
Again, this is referring to the two Joseph tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.
Also, notice that the last half of verse 15 is in quotes as if we’re reading a direct statement that was recorded.
Well, there ain’t no quotes in the original Hebrew, so what gives?
The answer is simple.
Our English Bibles through quotes are just reflecting a Hebrew literary style of storytelling.
The leadership of Ephraim and Manessah, full of ego and arrogance, were grumbling to Joshua about the land they received.
And when I say they were full of “ego and arrogance”, I ain’t kidding man.
They were descendants of the great Joseph who was second only to pharaoh in Egypt and felt like they deserved special treatment.
Well, Joshua, being a tough and hardened general wasn’t about to accept this BS.
He responds by telling the Joseph tribes if they think they’re such hot stuff to head their butts on up to the forested hill country and clear out the area currently being inhabited by the P’rizi and Refa’im themselves if they want more land.
Heck, per God’s command, that’s what they were supposed to do anyway.
In essence, Joshua was telling them if they wanted more land to go out and do the hard work of getting it themselves instead of expecting to receive hard won territory that had already been assigned to the other tribes.
The Joseph tribes reply by saying…
“The hills won’t be enough for us; and all the Kena‘ani living in the valleys have iron chariots — both those in Beit-Sh’an and its villages and those in the Yizre‘el Valley.”
Again, Ephraim and Manasseh were just making excuses by saying that even if they cleared all the trees, there still wouldn’t be enough land which was a bunch of hogwash.
They go on moaning by saying the Canaanites with their formidable iron chariots were to much to deal with blah, blah, blah.
Well, Joshua was having none of this ridiculous nonsense.
He plays to their ego and replies by saying…
“You are a great people with much power; you will not have only one lot, but the hills too will be yours. Although it is a forest, you will clear it, and the resulting open land will be yours. You will drive out the Kena‘ani, even though they have iron chariots and are strong.”
The takeaway I mentioned in yesterday’s post remains.
The Lord has indeed reserved great plans and a “Promised Land” for us but it ain’t gonna be like some gift sitting under a Christmas tree just waiting for us to unwrap.
We’ve got to fight for our inheritance!
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