Scripture Daily

Context No. 590 of 4322 · Joshua

Context · Reflection

Joshua 19:40-51: in context

40The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families. 41The border of their inheritance was Zorah, Eshtaol, Irshemesh, 42Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Ithlah, 43Elon, Timnah, Ekron, 44Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath, 45Jehud, Bene Berak, Gath Rimmon, 46Me Jarkon, and Rakkon, with the border opposite Joppa. 47The border of the children of Dan went out beyond them; for the children of Dan went up and fought against Leshem, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and lived therein, and called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their forefather. 48This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families, these cities with their villages. 49So they finished distributing the land for inheritance by its borders. The children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua the son of Nun among them. 50According to the LORD’s commandment, they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnathserah in the hill country of Ephraim; and he built the city, and lived there. 51These are the inheritances, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance by lot in Shiloh before the LORD, at the door of the Tent of Meeting. So they finished dividing the land.

The long work of dividing the promised land among the tribes is finally finished, tribe by tribe, lot by lot, down to the last territory for Dan. And then, at the very end, comes a small detail that says a great deal about the man who led them. When they had finished distributing the land to all the tribes, the Israelites gave Joshua an inheritance among them, the city he asked for, and he settled there. Joshua, the leader of the whole nation, the man in charge of the entire distribution, took his own portion last. After every tribe had received its allotment, only then did the one holding the pen receive his, and it was a modest town in the hill country, the place he requested, nothing grand.

Consider how easily it could have gone the other way. Joshua controlled the whole process. He could have taken the best land first, secured the choicest region for himself before anyone else was served, used his position to see to his own interests. Instead he served everyone else first and himself last, waiting until the entire nation was settled in its inheritance before he claimed his own. That is the shape of servant leadership, and it is not accidental that the man who led Israel into the land is shown taking his share dead last. The leader ate, so to speak, only after everyone at the table had been fed.

That measures how I handle whatever authority or advantage puts me first in line. The natural instinct, when I control the distribution, is to make sure I am taken care of first, to secure mine before I worry about anyone else's. Joshua reversed it: everyone else provided for, then himself. Where I have the standing to serve myself first, do I, or do I make sure the people in my charge are provided for before I take my own portion, the way Joshua waited until all Israel was settled before he claimed his modest town?

Sources