Josué 13

Josué 13

Wiersbe - The word inheritance is found over fifty times in these nine chapters and is a very important word. The Jews inherited their land. They didn’t win their land as spoils of battle or purchase their land as in a business transaction. The Lord, who was the sole owner, leased the land to them. “The land must not be sold permanently,” the Lord had instructed them, “because the land is Mine and you are but aliens and My tenants” (Lev. 25:23, NIV). Imagine having God for your landlord! The “rent” God required was simply Israel’s obedience to His Law. As long as the Jewish people honored the Lord with their worship and obedience, He would bless them, make their land productive, and keep their nation at peace with their neighbors. When Israel agreed to the blessings and curses at Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal (Josh. 8:30–35), they accepted the conditions of what is called “the Palestinian Covenant” Their ownership of the land was purely the gracious act of God; but their possession and enjoyment of the land depended on their submission and obedience to the Lord. (See Lev. 26 and Deut. 27–30 for the details of the Palestinian Covenant.) The Promised Land was a gift of God’s love; and if the Israelites loved the Lord, they would want to obey Him and please Him in the way they used His land (Deut. 4:37–39). Unfortunately, they eventually defied the Lord, disobeyed the Law, and defiled the land; and God had to chasten them in the land of Babylon. And very much of the land remains to be possessed (yarash) - Note not just a small area, but very much! The point is that although Joshua had conquered and subdued the Canaanites in the Promised Land giving the land had rest from war, there were still Canaanites in the land. The enemy had been utterly destroyed in most of the battles, but still many Canaanites remained in the land. And so it was land that had to be possessed. The word possessed (yarash) means to take something from someone else and possess it for yourself (to occupy it by driving out previous tenants, and possessing in their place.) In short, the major war for the Promised Land was over, but there were still battles that each tribe must fight in order to dispossess the occupants and take full possession for themselves and their families. F B