Joshua 18:24-28: a reflection

This passage lists the towns given to the tribe of Benjamin as their inheritance, a straightforward roll call of place names and numbers. But hidden in the list is a name that would come to mean everything: the Jebusite city, also called Jerusalem. At this point it is just one town among many, not yet the city of David, not yet the site of the temple, not yet the place where the greatest events of redemption would unfold. It appears quietly, almost unnoticed, in a list of allotments.

There is something striking about seeing Jerusalem here as an ordinary entry, one of fourteen cities assigned to a tribe. The place that would become the center of Israel's worship, the city over which prophets would weep and kings would reign, the city near which Christ would die and rise, begins as a small, unremarkable name on a list. God's great purposes often start in places that look entirely ordinary, their future significance completely hidden at the time.

This is a quiet encouragement. God assigns each person and place their portion, and what looks small and unremarkable now may hold a significance you cannot yet see. The ordinary town of Jerusalem would become the holy city. In your own life, do not despise the ordinary place God has assigned you, or assume that because something looks small it holds no future. God works his largest purposes through what begins as unremarkable. Be faithful in your portion, and leave its significance to him.