I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 21-22.

I rarely get much out of the passages which describe what land was assigned to which tribe.  However, when I read today’s passage I was struck by how allocating land to the Levites from within the allocations of the other tribes provided for spreading religious teachers among them.  By spreading the Levites among the other tribes the Levites also provided a unifying presence to all of the tribes.  With the Levites spread out among the other tribes, they would have been encouraged to travel further than most people would have done.  This would have meant that cultural practices would have been kept more uniform across the entire nation of Israel, which in turn would have kept the people thinking of themselves as a nation.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 18-20.

So, at this point, the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh, had settled east of the Jordan River.  The tribes of Judah and Ephraim, and the other half of Manasseh, had settled land west of the Jordan.  The other tribes were still living as nomads.  They had not yet claimed their territory in the Promised Land.  Many of us behave in the same manner.  We know the promises God has made to us, but we fail to take the actions necessary to claim those blessings, whether from fear, laziness, or some other reason.  We need to claim God’s blessings by doing as He directs us.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 15-17.

Today’s passage describes the land allotted to the tribes of Joshua, Ephraim, and Manasseh.  It also gives us the first hint about the problems which are to come for the people of Israel.  All three tribes fail to completely drive the people living in the land from the land given to them.  In particular the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh are intimidated by the technology of some of those people.  We learn that later when they became powerful enough to defeat those people they enslaved them.  In other words, they did to these people what the Egyptians had done to their ancestors.  By enslaving them, the Israelites gave themselves the worst of both worlds.  They did not force them out of their land, nor did they fully assimilate them, giving them an interest in the success of their society.  Instead, they allowed them to remain among them as a separate people whose interests conflicted with those of the Israelites.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 12-14.

Under Joshua the Israelites conquered a large portion of the land of Canaan, but not all of it.  This was as God had promised through Moses.  He would not give them all of the land at once because they would need time to consolidate control over the land.  So, when Joshua reiterated the borders for each of the tribes he included land which the Israelites did not yet control.  As Joshua was reminding the Israelites of the territory which belonged to each tribe, Caleb, the only surviving contemporary of Joshua, asked for his portion.  Caleb was 80 years old, or so, at this point.  Despite his age, Caleb was not too old to do the Lord’s work in conquering a portion of the land.  The Bible contains many accounts which remind us that we are never too young to do that to which God calls us.  This passage reminds us that we are also never too old to accomplish the tasks to which God calls us.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 10-11.

This passage describes how the Israelites under Joshua were successful against the overwhelming forces of both the southern kings and the northern kings of the land of Canaan.  The fact that the peoples who lived in the land before the Israelites divided into southern and northern alliances provides us with a sort of foreshadowing of the later division of the Kingdom of Israel into a northern and southern kingdom.  However, I want to spend a moment noting the reasons for Joshua’s success in the major battles of both of these wars.  His success resulted from following God’s guidance and from acting before his opponents expected him to.  In the southern war, Joshua marched the army of Israel overnight to the battle and attacked upon arrival, taking the army of the southern kings completely by surprise.  In the northern war, he appears to have employed a similar tactic.  While they did not appear to march overnight, nevertheless they caught the northern army off guard.  My guess from the wording is that the Israelites attacked as soon as they arrived at the battlefield, rather than setting up camp and taking time to rest before entering battle as the other side expected.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 8-9.

The first time the Israelites attacked the city of Ai they were defeated badly.  Yesterday’s passage blamed that on the fact that Achan had kept for himself loot from the sack of Jericho despite God’s command to destroy it all.  Yet, in today’s passage, Joshua set an ambush with a larger force than the force sent in the first attack while launching a frontal attack with the rest of the Israelite army.  Typically, we understand yesterday’s passage to mean that if Achan had not sinned the force sent against Ai the first time would have been sufficient.  However, today’s passage suggests another interpretation: God allowed the Israelites to originally underestimated the force necessary to defeat Ai because of Achan’s sin.

In a way, the defeat at Ai reflects the same mistake which Israel made when they allied with the Gibeonites, and the victory gives us guidance into what they should have done.  After spying out Ai, the Israelites relied entirely on their own judgement about the situation in deciding what to do, and sent an inadequate force to attack.  In making an agreement with the Gibeonites, the Israelites relied on their own ability to judge the situation as to where the Gibeonites came from.  In both cases they failed to seek God’s guidance before making a decision.  In the successful attack on Ai, Joshua sought God’s guidance as to how they should attack.  The important point about both stories, the failed attack on Ai and the deal with the Gibeonites is that we do not know what we do not know.  If we seek God’s guidance, even for a decision which we think looks obvious, He will reveal to us those things which we may not realize are important.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 5-7.

This passage talks about something which has always puzzled me: none of the Israelite men born from the time they left Egypt until they crossed the Jordan River had been circumcised.  What makes it even more interesting is that when Moses’ son was not circumcised until Moses was returning to Egypt to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.  I spent some time looking for what other people thought about this and found nothing satisfactory.  However, I found that people who were concerned about why the Israelite boys born in the wilderness were not circumcised also wondered why they used flint knives rather than metal ones on this occasion.  The answer to that is actually pretty easy.  Flint knives would have been sharper than any metal knives which the Israelites would have had access to at that time.

Now, I have my own theory about why the Israelites did not practice circumcision in the wilderness.  The Egyptians of that time also practiced circumcision.  Further, I suspect that the Israelites were circumcised in Egypt as part of the Egyptian practice, not as a result of being descendants of Abraham.  In addition, the practice almost certainly had religious meaning for the Egyptians, meaning which would have been idolatrous.  So, circumcision would have had idolatrous meaning to those who left Egypt, but when that meaning was completely gone when the Israelites entered Canaan, as all of those who were adults when they left Egypt had died by then.  I don’t know if this explanation will stand up to thorough examination, but I wanted to throw it out there.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 1-4.

When Joshua took over leadership of the Israelites after Moses’ death, God instructed him to be strong and very courageous.  God told Joshua that if he obeyed the instructions from God which Moses had given him he would be successful in all that he did.  God promised that if Joshua did that He would be with him wherever he went.  I believe that the same is true today.  If we do as God has commanded, turning neither to the left nor to the right, we will be successful in all that we do and God will be with us wherever we go.  In addition to telling Joshua, and us, to be strong and courageous, God told him not to be afraid or discouraged.  There is more to this than just having the faith to not allow ourselves to be afraid or discouraged.  As we see the results of following God’s instructions we will find it progressively easier to not be afraid or discouraged.