Revering the Word
Joshua 18 Why was Benjamin blessed to be alotted land in the south?
Good morning everyone. This morning we are in Joshua chapter 18. Then the whole congregation of the sons of Israel assembled themselves at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there and the land was subdued before them. Now they still have not allotted all of the land but they are setting up the tabernacle area in Shiloh at this time. They still have not settled as they will one day in Jerusalem. They remained among the sons of Israel seven tribes who had not divided their inheritance. So Joshua said to the sons of Israel how long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the Lord the God of your fathers has given you. So really they're stopping short I think they probably were somewhat satisfied with the peace where they had where they were but yet all the land has not been taken and you know many tribes still don't have their allotted inheritance. And what is said now is provide for yourselves verse four three men from each tribe that I may send them and that they may arise and walk through the land and write a description of it according to their inheritance then they shall return to me. So they're gonna send out surveyors so to speak. So we have clear definitions of of the land. I think God is wise in making sure they know whose land is whose and how it's going to be divided so that they don't have to you know argue about it later. They shall divide it into seven portions. Judas shall stay in its territory to the south and the house of Joseph shall stay in their territory to the north. You shall describe the land in the subdivisions and bring the description here to me. I will cast lots for you here before the Lord our God for the Levites have no portion among you because the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance. God and Ruben and the half tribe of Manasseh also have received their inheritance eastward beyond the Jordan which Moses the servant the Lord gave them. Those are the people that stayed on the other side after they came over and fought and they were able to go back to the other side. Then the men arose and went and Joshua commanded those who had went to describe the land saying go and walk to the land, describe it and return to me. Then I will cast lots for you here before the Lord and Shiloh. Casting lots was a kind of a random way of choosing something but they didn't believe that God was absent from that type of random choosing. So it was a way for them to also again not really have to argue or debate but trust that God was in the casting of lots this way of choosing and in that way they could say all right well that's what happened here you know you guys get this we get that we you saw that you know we cast lots for it and we believe God is in the the actual what appears random to us. So so the men went and passed through the land and described it by cities in seven divisions in a book and they came to Joshua to the camp at Shiloh and Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord and their Joshua divided the land to the sons of Israel according to their divisions. When the lot of the tribe of the sons of Benjamin came up according to their families and the territory of their a lot lay between the sons of Judah and the sons of Joseph their border on the north side was from the Jordan then the border went up to the side of Jericho on the north and went up through the hill country westward and it ended at the wilderness of Bethhaven. Now what I want to mention to you is that there were you know 12 tribes of Israel and two of them really three but one kind of gets kind of gets adopted by Judah so Simeon's territory which we'll see in chapter 19 ends up being in the midst of Judah's territory which is to the south and Judah's territory was from Jerusalem you know and then all the way south down to Gaza and Simeon just had a territory within Judah's territory. Benjamin had a very small territory that was just to the north of Jerusalem and then all the other 10 tribes got land to the north and a little bit to the west towards the sea so basically your main two southern tribes of what now is called Israel are Benjamin and Judah again Simeon is a little bit of a mystery they kind of end up getting encapsulated by Judah but anyways the 10 tribes to the north end up becoming what's known as the lost ten tribes of Israel those tribes ended up going with Jeroboam one of Simeon's sons later when the kingdom divided so you know in the years to come the kingdom divides and Judah and Benjamin become what's called Judah and they're in the south and they have Jerusalem and then the other ten tribes rebel against Judah and Benjamin and there ends up being a major division and they're at war with each other. Reebom and Jeroboam Solomon's two sons end up splitting the land the southern kingdom of Judah and Benjamin which included Jerusalem was the more faithful kingdom that doesn't mean that they were always faithful but they at least had kings from time to time who were faithful the tribes to the north they were unfaithful they never even had a good king and God allowed them to be defeated much sooner so the Assyrian Empire eventually comes in and defeats what's known as at that time Israel so there was a division between Israel and Judah they were like two separate countries so to speak but really all of it is kind of Israel but anyways those ten tribes become the ten lost tribes of Israel because after the Assyrian Empire took them over they're just basically lost and then the two southern tribes lasted longer until Nebuchadnezzar came in and eventually defeated the southern territory of Judah and then as I've talked about you know that happened in around 500 plus BC after that Israel was not a country again for a long long time you might know that they came back during the days of Jesus well before that through Ezra and Nehemiah and rebuilt the temple and the walls but they didn't have a country anymore they were they didn't own it anymore they were just allowed to come back and worship and they didn't become a country again Israel that is until after World War II isn't that incredible from 500 and I think it was like 32 BC although until like 1948 Israel was not a country and then became a country again so you can see God's divine plan that he still has a plan for Israel the fact that they even became a country again after not being a country for you know 2,400 years but anyways why bring that all up now is you know when the Lot fell to Benjamin you know they were blessed because they ended up being in the south connected with Judah and ended up being one of the more faithful territories or people Benjamin and Judah to the south so you know we kind of look at this is like we're just casting lots for various land but this this has a future and and Benjamin's gonna end up being blessed by being in the south so anyways we're gonna end it there today we'll pick up some of the other territories in Jeremiah chapter 19 next time God bless you all You