Context No. 2420 of 4322 · Joshua
Context · Reflection
Joshua 15:55-63: in context
55Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Jutah, 56Jezreel, Jokdeam, Zanoah, 57Kain, Gibeah, and Timnah; ten cities with their villages. 58Halhul, Beth Zur, Gedor, 59Maarath, Beth Anoth, and Eltekon; six cities with their villages. 60Kiriath Baal (also called Kiriath Jearim), and Rabbah; two cities with their villages. 61In the wilderness, Beth Arabah, Middin, Secacah, 62Nibshan, the City of Salt, and En Gedi; six cities with their villages. 63As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah couldn’t drive them out; but the Jebusites live with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.
The long survey of Judah's towns runs on, village after village through the hill country and the wilderness, down to En Gedi by the Salt Sea. Then the chapter ends on a confession: as for the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out, and so the Jebusites remained among them in Jerusalem to this day.
Of all the places to leave an enemy lodged, it was Jerusalem, the city that would one day be the heart of the nation and the site of the temple. The unconquered pocket sat not on some far border but at the center. Judah took the whole inheritance around it and simply learned to live beside the thing it could not, or would not, dislodge, and it stayed there for generations until David finally took the stronghold. The most stubborn compromises are often the ones nearest the center of our lives.
What have I learned to live beside at the very center of my life, an unconquered thing I keep meaning to deal with and never do?
Sources
- Joshua 15:63: As for the Jebusites... the children of Judah couldn't drive them out; but the Jebusites live with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.
- 2 Samuel 5:7: Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion. That is David's city.
- Hebrews 12:1: let's lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let's run with perseverance.