Joshua 16-18

Joshua has just finished the military campaign through Canaan conquering 31 city kings, the land allotment phase is now underway and we are beginning to see disobedience from the tribes of Israel. God's command to the Israelites is clear: drive out the Canaanites from the promised land. The land of Reuben and Gad were allotted, no indication of foreign peoples that needed to be destroyed since their land was conquered by Moses and the Israelites. Caleb is given the city of Hebron for his unwavering faithfulness to the LORD, Joshua 14:14 says, "he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel" what a legacy to leave! The cities in the land of Judah were largely conquered, verse 63 of chapter 15 indicates the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem were a people that the tribe of Judah could not drive out. 

Ephraim and Manasseh either did not or could not drive out the Canaanites in the cities and towns of Gezer, Beth Shean, Ibleam, Dor, En Dor, Taanach and Megiddo. The passage indicates that as the Israelites grew strong that instead of driving the Canaanites out of the land that they simply subjected the people to forced labor, this is not what God instructed the tribes through Moses or Joshua. The children of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, come to Joshua and with dissatisfaction complain that the allotment is not enough for the size of their people, to which Joshua in great faith says:

Joshua 17:17-18 (NKJV) "And Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph - to Ephraim and Manasseh - saying, "You are a great people and have great power; you shall not have only one lot, but the mountain country shall be yours. Although it is wooded, you shall cut it down, and its farthest extent shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and are strong."

What is peculiar is that immediately after this commission to the children of Joseph, there does not seem to be any further military expansion or campaign to take the wooded mountain country of the Perizzites or further destruction of the Canaanite peoples in the land they settled. This is the beginning of Israel's disobedience, Judges 1:27-36 corroborates this. Judah conquered most of their land in the south of Israel, Gad, Reuben, Ephraim and Manasseh took their land inheritance but the remaining seven tribes were slow, or as Joshua put it neglecting to go and possess the land that God promised. Joshua had to rally them together and assign men from each tribe to go in and survey the land. My read of this is simple: What God commands we must do without hesitation, He sustains us and will strengthen us to do His will. When what we see is impossible, we must be confident in the greatness of God to fulfill in and through us what he intends, we must remain in faith and wholly follow the LORD God, just like Caleb not forgetting what the LORD promised. 

Joshua 14:14 (NKJV) "Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel."

Genesis 15:18-21 (NKJV) "On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates - the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."

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