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Context No. 1764 of 4322 · Joshua

Context · Reflection

Joshua 13:1-16: in context

1Now Joshua was old and well advanced in years. The LORD said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed. 2“This is the land that still remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all the Geshurites; 3from the Shihor, which is before Egypt, even to the border of Ekron northward, which is counted as Canaanite; the five lords of the Philistines; the Gazites, and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avvim, 4on the south; all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the border of the Amorites; 5and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal Gad under Mount Hermon to the entrance of Hamath; 6all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim, even all the Sidonians. I will drive them out from before the children of Israel. Just allocate it to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. 7Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.” 8With him the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of the LORD gave them: 9from Aroer, that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain of Medeba to Dibon; 10and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, to the border of the children of Ammon; 11and Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salecah; 12all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (who was left of the remnant of the Rephaim); for Moses attacked these, and drove them out. 13Nevertheless the children of Israel didn’t drive out the Geshurites, nor the Maacathites: but Geshur and Maacath live within Israel to this day. 14Only he gave no inheritance to the tribe of Levi. The offerings of the LORD, the God of Israel, made by fire are his inheritance, as he spoke to him. 15Moses gave to the tribe of the children of Reuben according to their families. 16Their border was from Aroer, that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain by Medeba;

Joshua has grown old, and God speaks plainly to him: you are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed. God lists the regions still unconquered, the Philistine territories, the land of the Sidonians, the hill country, and tells Joshua to allot even this unconquered land to the tribes as their inheritance, trusting that God will drive out the inhabitants. Much had been won under Joshua's leadership; and much still remained to be taken.

There is a realism in God's words that is worth sitting with: you are old, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed. Joshua had led Israel in great conquests; and still, at the end of his life, the task was not complete. Much land remained unpossessed, and Joshua would not live to take it all. The work God gives is often larger than one lifetime; we labor at it, accomplish something, and then must hand it on unfinished, with much still remaining. This is a truth worth accepting rather than resenting. We would like to see our work completed, to finish what we set our hands to, to leave nothing remaining; and often we cannot. Like Joshua, we come to the end of our strength or our years with much land still to be possessed, the task advanced but not done. This is not failure; it is the ordinary shape of God's work, which outlasts any of us and is carried forward by those who come after. And there is a second word here: the unpossessed land was still to be allotted, still claimed by faith as Israel's inheritance, still to be taken. Much remaining is not a reason to stop possessing; God tells Joshua to allot the unconquered land, trusting God to drive out its inhabitants. So we are called to keep possessing what God has given, not settling short because the task is unfinished, and to hand on to the next generation both the ground gained and the ground still to be taken. Much land remains; the call is to keep taking it, and to pass on the work.

Do I resent that the work God gives me is larger than I can finish, or can I accept, as Joshua had to, that much land remains to be possessed beyond my strength and years, and both keep possessing what God has given and faithfully hand on the unfinished work to those who come after me?

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