Joshua 12 & 13 More to Conquer

Uh I enjoy traveling.

I enjoy seeing uh different cultures.

We my wife and I we we left uh and my kids we left right after two Sundays ago service, and we actually went to the airport basically and and and took off.

And so different foods, uh languages, just the different topographies of the world, just walking around.

Like it's it's great.

I enjoy it.

I'm definitely proud to be an American.

Um amen.

And uh honestly, it's it really is my joy to bring the word of God here each week.

Like I I love that.

I I I do like my breaks, but man, uh it's it's good to be home.

You know, the uh the reason why I'm home actually it would be like, oh, he jumped on a plane and he got home.

Or the reason why I'm up here would be like, well, when Pastor Dan decided to go to the Netherlands, Pastor Ben said, Hey, what about me?

You know, but the reality is the reason I'm up here is because of God's grace.

Right?

The reason why any of us are here is because of God's grace.

And you know, it was it was my high school years.

I wasn't in school, but I was actually at at home, and my dad shared the gospel with me.

I was sitting across from the big desk.

He's a businessman, and he just a big desk was like, you know, it's like a big truck.

I don't know who does that.

Anyway, um and he shared the gospel with me and he prayed for me, and it's God's grace that allows me to preach today.

So, anyway, I just thought I just really, really need to put the if we're giving somebody an applause, we're giving the Lord an applause.

Amen?

Let's do that.

Yeah.

Despite what people murmur, it's actually okay to give the Lord an applause.

In praise, to glorify God in that way, to have an external manifestation of joy and excitement, and to clap for the Lord is actually okay.

So if anybody's ever shamed you for that, just in one ear, out another.

God's doing something in them, let him do it, but let God work in you.

Let's pray.

Lord, this morning, um, God, might our priority be to hear from you, God.

Not entertainment, uh, not some sort of emotional hives, Lord, that can happen when we hear really exciting and good sermons, God.

Um, or even just uh some sort of something that inflates our own ego.

God, we don't need any of that today.

We want to decrease, actually, in light of you.

We want you to increase in our minds' eyes.

We look at this passage.

And honestly, Lord, I look at this passage and it's not, it's like super exciting passage to me.

Lord, yet you preserved it for us now.

It's not superfluous, it's not extra.

God, it's your word.

And it's our privilege to be able to sit under it today.

Holy Spirit, would you show us, would you, would you, would you bring us to a place where we could see what you have for us in this?

And even if it's just a pause from the world and life and the pursuits that we have, God.

And just to be in your presence with other believers.

That is that is plenty.

That is more than we deserve, God.

Just want to surrender to everything that you want to do in us today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, last week Pastor Mark stepped in and he really brought it.

He really brought it through chapter 11, and um, we're still in the book of Joshua.

For you guys who don't know, I mean, we we we go through chapter by chapter, verse by verse, through the word of God, not ignoring the challenging parts.

And if you've been here or you've been watching online when you weren't here, or you're watching online right now, there are some challenging parts to the book of Joshua.

There's some really challenging parts where we see some of the things, some of the objections that we've had that we've heard from other people.

God brings them out.

And if you're reading chapter by chapter and verse by verse, you can't ignore them.

And you have to surrender them to the Lord.

And we've seen God's heart, we've seen his sovereignty, we've seen his love, we've seen his judgment in all these things.

And you guys are, whoa, I kind of missed some of that.

Well, I can't, I could, but I'm not going to rehash Joshua chapters 1 through 11 right now.

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

But we save all these things, uh, we have them available for you guys online, you guys on YouTube, on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts.

You guys can catch up on all that you've been missing, and it can really just kind of be a little bit of an education of what Joshua and what God is doing through this book available to you at any time.

So anyway, these next two chapters are sort of uh uh what God has done in these battles over the last 11 chapters.

Okay?

There's some really detailed descriptions in here.

So if you guys are the very studious ones who like to read ahead, okay, um, I told my my elder board, I said, would love to have you guys read through the book of Joshua and bring me all kinds of juicy nuggets and morsels that you see uh from the book, and not one person brought to me something from chapter 12 or 13.

Okay?

Um I really like how he talked about the border from here to here, you know.

Uh it just didn't happen, okay?

And I don't blame them for that.

I've created a couple maps that are gonna help depict a little bit about what we're reading.

Okay, we'll show you those in just a second.

But my Bible and yours probably have two headings in the book of uh Joshua, sorry, in the chapter 12 of the book of Joshua.

Okay, so if you're if you're looking at a physical Bible, it probably says the kings defeated by Moses and the kings defeated by Joshua.

Anybody have those headings in their Bible?

Okay, all right.

How many of you guys that don't have a Bible?

Raise your hand.

Oh, yeah, those one.

It's okay.

It's okay, God loves you.

I'm judging you, but God loves you.

Um the king is defeated by Moses.

But Moses is gone, remember?

Moses has died.

Moses was from was before Joshua.

And he wasn't able to see the promised land.

Well, we know he saw the promised land.

He wasn't able to enter into the promised land.

Moses, he wrote the first uh five books of the Bible.

Most of you guys know that.

Um really Moses himself is sort of like a personification of God's law, right?

Remember, do you guys remember why God held him back from going into the promised land?

Yeah, some of you guys remember that, right?

And and and it's it is um, especially if you've been in church for a while, this is not a news story, but we we we talk about Moses a lot.

Uh, and Moses has been heralded a lot throughout history and throughout church history.

But it was, well, it was actually in Exodus 17 when the children of Israel were grumbling and they needed water.

Okay?

And so this is not Joshua chapter 12 and 13 right now, but this is some backstory, and this is even before the book of Joshua.

Joshua 12 · chapter mention

In the book of Exodus, in chapter 17, the the children of Israel were thirsty.

And they did this the whole thing.

They always did it.

What did you bring us out of Egypt just so we could die here in the desert?

It was like I feel like that was like every chapter of Exodus.

And then Moses takes his staff and he strikes the rock, and water comes forth.

And he did that because God had told him to.

Okay.

But then later, he strikes the rock again.

This is in Numbers.

Okay, chapter 20.

So if you want to go back and read some of this stuff, you can go back and read.

He goes, he goes, and he actually strikes the rock again.

In fact, he hits it twice.

But that time, God had actually told him something different in order to provide water.

God had actually told him to speak to the rock.

And what did he do?

He struck the rock and didn't come out, and instead of going, Lord, forgive me, he just doubled down.

Whack.

And he just beat the rock.

Many would say, and I would say in frustration.

And it was, I don't know why God switched from striking to speaking.

But I think that there's something when we watch something happen.

Like if I was sitting there and I'm one of the Israelites, and I see Joshua, I'm sorry, Moses strike the rock, and then water comes out, you might go, man, what's on the end of that staff?

You know, I might look at that and go, or man, Moses is really strong.

There might be something in me that wants to give Moses a little bit of credit.

I don't know.

But when when God said, Moses, speak to the rock, could you imagine just the rock?

Hey, what do you want me to say?

Uh, rock?

Some water, please?

I don't know.

And then water starts gushing out.

Moses is gonna get no credit at all, right?

So I don't know if if God in doing that progression was just really trying to increase the faith of the Israelites.

And we get to heaven, we'll get to have that conversation.

But it was really Moses' disobedience and his striking of the rock twice that just showed he wasn't trusting God in that moment and he didn't enter the promised land.

He misrepresented God in that moment.

So we see that only a portion of the land that God really was giving the Israelites was captured under Moses.

Uh, the rest we'll see is under Joshua.

That's why it says the king of the kings defeated by Moses and the kings defeated by Joshua.

So let's throw up a map here of the land conquered by Moses and the land conquered by Joshua.

Okay, so this is kind of small.

Okay, leave it there for like that just for a second.

And on the left, I have this diagram.

Is it diagram?

I have this graphic available for you if you text me.

I can send it to you.

Um but in red, there's a lot of red dots, and in blue, there's very few blue dots.

The red represents the kings who were defeated by Joshua, Moses' um successor.

And then Moses is the blue dots, okay?

And you can see there's only two of those.

Alright.

Go ahead and zoom in just a little bit.

I know we kind of clip this a little bit so you can kind of see the number, right, of kings defeated under the two leaderships.

So Joshua definitely had a few more battles than Moses.

And I'm gonna read through this.

You're like, where did this come from?

This actually comes from chapter 12, and what we're gonna read now.

But if you uh get a little bit bored and you guys hear me mispronouncing some of these things, you can look back up at the graph and try to pronounce them yourself.

Okay.

Um, Joshua chapter 12, verse 1.

Joshua 12:1

Now these are the kings.

You could leave the graphic up, yeah.

Uh now these are the kings of the land whom the people of Israel defeated and took possession of their land beyond the Jordan towards the sunrise.

So that would be the sun towards the sunrise, that'd be the east side of the Jordan.

Okay, so before they cross, from the valley of Arnon to Mount Hermon, with all Arabah eastward, Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon and ruled over Areror, Auror-Er, which is the edge of the valley of Arnon, and from the middle of the valley as far as the river Jabuk, the boundary of the Ammonites, that is half of Gilead, and Erabah to the sea of Chineroth, eastward, and in the direction of Beth Jeshemoth to the sea of Arabah, the Salt Sea, southward to the foot of the slopes of Piskah, and Og, king of Bashan, so there's our second king now, one of the remnant of the Rephium, Rephaim, who lived at Ashteroth, and Edri, Edri, sure, and ruled over Mount Hermon, and Selekah and all Bashan to the boundary of the Gesherites and the Makithites, and over half of Gilead to the boundary of Sihon, king of Heshbon.

Moses, the servant of the Lord, and the people of Israel defeated them.

And Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave their land for a possession to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh.

Thank you for suffering along with me.

The only thing harder than reading those names is probably for you guys listening to me read those names.

Believe it or not, I actually read through that a number of times, and that's the best you got right there.

Okay.

So take a look at the map again.

So when we zoom in a little bit, you can see the two kings that uh we're dealing with on the right hand side of the map, uh, Og and Sihon.

Um and basically what this is doing is that's these these words are how smarter people than me uh put together those boundaries.

And then we can see them on the map.

Okay?

So it can be hard sometimes because we're trying to get uh in our in our modern day, why are we reading this?

We're reading about a culture that we don't understand, a people with that we never knew, and and so it can feel just so disconnected that sometimes we're like, what does this have to do with me?

And so at least putting real boundaries, so then if we zoomed out of that, don't zoom out of it now because you can't zoom out this far, we would see exactly where this lies within our globe and be like, oh, I can I can go there, right?

And I start to see what God is is doing.

So um, so two and a half tribes uh liked the land that Moses actually captured there.

And they were like, we'll we'll stay there.

Maybe they're just really super loyal to Moses, you know, they just liked it.

And um and that that area there is primarily modern-day Jordan and Syria.

Okay, so that that's where that would be now.

And this these two tribes, um they decide, hey, we're gonna we're gonna stay here, the Reubenites and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh.

Maybe like the idea of uh a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush, right?

We we like it here, it's good enough for us.

Um, and as we said, under Moses' leadership, that stopped because of his unfaithfulness to the Lord and doing what he said, this is as far as he got.

Okay, as the people of Israel coming out of the uh the wilderness and into the promised land.

So God raises up Joshua, okay?

God raises up Joshua next, and then we'll go there to verse 7.

It says, and these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the people of Israel defeated on the west side of the Jordan.

And you can read all those at home tonight if you have insomnia.

I'm gonna skip down to verse 24 so you don't have to suffer with me again.

Uh, the king of Tirzah 1 and all, 31 kings.

So Moses 2, Joshua 31.

31 kings.

Again, representative the different dots there, right?

You have your blue dots and your red dots, Joshua 31 kings.

Remember, I said earlier that Moses represents the law of God?

Well, Joshua, whose full name is Yhashua, means the Lord saves.

And it's really a foreshadowing of Jesus.

See, Moses, who represented the law, could only bring the people of Israel right up to the promised land.

But it was Joshua who would lead them into it.

Similar to how the law can teach us so much, but it's not until we step out and we accept Christ through faith that we actually move into all that God has for us.

See, the law can show us our sin, it can show us so many things, and it can point us to the Lord, but it's when we accept Christ that we can actually move into the promised land.

So we see uh uh Joshua again, he defeats these 31 kings as he followed God, and he's leaning on the promise that he got in Joshua chapter 1, verse 9.

Joshua 1:9

Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous.

Do not be frightened, do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

So when you look at the scoreboard, the scoreboard of 2 to 31, I think it would be very easy to think of Joshua as getting pretty tired.

You know, he's already in his 80s.

Literally a man in his 80s, and he's like, Moses, who the whole church is gonna talk about for ages to come and forever.

Two, God, you've been faithful to work through this ministry and my leadership to bring 31 kings into submission.

And he's like, I can imagine getting tired.

Victory, all of these foreign and pagan foes, and he's like, I think it would be really easy just to sit back and relax.

80 something years old, 31 kings defeated.

I mean, I can just imagine somebody walks up, you know, because Joshua's gonna be one of the oldest, him and Caleb.

Everybody else is the new generation.

Walking up, hey, what's next?

Joshua's like, dude, did you see the scoreboard?

Take a look at the scoreboard, young fella.

I'm not saying he did that.

That's a hypothetical, but I know I would do that.

I would be lazy.

Um, you know, in fact, I actually have done that.

Less in my faith, but more um in the world that God has has transitioned me, sort of beyond and out of.

I was really uh business and and what I do with my gym and iron mile.

Um, I could be proud of that in some ways, uh a brand that kind of stands alone and is is a is a is a big deal in the fitness space with our event company that we run, and it's sort of a big deal within the fitness space.

I could go, you know, some of you go, hey, what's next?

I go, hey, look, I built this and this.

Or maybe my personal fitness, some of my numbers, you guys would be like, oh yeah, that's you don't even know, right?

It doesn't matter if you know the sport or not.

But they would be good numbers.

Right?

They would be great that you squatted this much or you lifted this much.

You don't really look that big.

You lifted that much?

Somehow your shirts don't fit.

But when we when we do that, we look at the past and all of our accomplishments from the past.

All that would do is elevate me.

If Joshua was like, hey, 31 kings, you want me to name them all for you real quick?

Just elevate himself.

I mean, as a, I don't know, as a business owner or as a professional, we we do have to just brand ourselves, don't we?

So shouldn't we just be talking about all the things that we've done?

Shouldn't we be talking about our degree, our education, our network?

Shouldn't we make sure our car is perfectly polished and one step above everyone else's?

Or a company car, because then you're like, good.

Right?

Like, there's a part of us that just kind of wants to just do that constantly.

But Joshua, I'm just saying, I don't really know that that's how we're supposed to go about doing it.

Joshua didn't earn these victories through self-promotion.

Simply doing what he thought was best.

It's about pointing to the Lord.

We saw what happened when Joshua actually would do that, right?

Joshua chapter 9.

Joshua 9 · chapter mention

The Gibeonite deception.

Joshua did not want to continue doing that.

So he just said, you know, I'm gonna do what the Lord has for me.

And I think that's likewise what we're supposed to do too.

We're supposed to do that.

Stop self-promoting, looking at ourselves like we created something.

God is doing something in us, through us, and we need to give him the glory.

I mean, it's true.

We rest on Christ's finished work, not ours.

Our salvation is not perfunctory.

It's not because of something we did.

So let's look at chapter 13.

Okay?

I know we moved quickly through chapter 12, but that's because I skipped reading like 10 verses, which I would still be reading if I didn't do that.

So Joshua chapter 13, verse 1, it says, Now Joshua was old and advanced in years.

Joshua 13:1

And the Lord said to him, You are old and advanced in years.

And there remains very much land to possess.

I was gonna insert a joke here, but you guys already laughed when I read it, so I don't need to do that.

But sometimes old people can't hear, and you say things twice different ways.

You're old, you're advanced in years.

That's really the same thing.

Right?

But old people sometimes.

And I'm getting there.

Believe it or not, my hearing is it's actually just selective.

It's fine, but it's selective, super selective.

Um, so you're old and advanced in years, and it remains very much land to possess.

This is the land that yet remains.

All the regions of the Philistines and all those of the Gesherites from the Sihor, uh um Sehor, whatever, which is east of Egypt, north, northward to the boundary of Ekron, it is uh counted as Canaanite.

There are five rulers of the Philistines, those of Gaza, Ashdod, uh, Ashkelon, Gath, Ekron, and those of Avim.

In the south, all the lands of the Canaanites, there's a lot of Canaanites, um, and Mira that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphak, to the boundary of the Amorites, and the land of the Gebelites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal, Gad, below Mount Hermon to Lebohemoth, all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misropheth, Middle earth, even all the Sidonians, I myself will drive them out from before the people of Israel, only allot the land to Israel for an inheritance as I have commanded you.

Now therefore divide the land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh.

Okay.

So breather.

Even words like the are hard when you're trying to sound out every syllable of those.

You're like, what is that word?

Oh, te, te-he.

The.

Okay.

So if if Joshua's temptation really was to sit back and say, hey, look at the scoreboard.

You know how I had 15x compared to Moses in victories.

Uh the Lord has a different scoreboard for Joshua to look at.

So let's pull up the the conquered versus remaining map.

Yeah, that's good.

Really good.

Wow, who designed that?

Anyway, um, so here we have uh in green, this is the land that's already been subdued, uh, allotted land basically to the tribes of Israel.

Okay.

And you can see already a lot of it, really, the green there has been conquered by on the uh east side of Moses and Joshua.

So there's already a good amount of conquering.

But there's still the the red there.

There's still a lot to be done.

And I think part of the reason why, why God said you're old and advanced in years, is he's he's trying to uh he's doing something I do with my kids, okay?

We are God's children, but my kids will do this thing where they act a certain way and I'll just come against it, and then they don't really listen.

They go, but I'm tired.

So now this is what I do.

I say, Violet, I know you're tired, but you still need to be kind.

Right?

Piper, I know you're hungry again, but you still need to be polite.

Corbin, I know you're bored, but you get the point, right?

Joshua, I know you're old.

Can't hear, your knees hurt, you know.

So he's sort of doing the same thing with Joshua there.

And he's basically just getting out in front of the objection.

Hey, I know you're old.

You and I both know it, but there's still work to be done.

There's still work to be done.

You're advanced in years, but you still have work to do.

There isn't time to sit back.

Uh you have a heartbeat, so there is work.

Right?

You're not in this in-between place, in between living for the Lord and being at home with him.

There is no in-between.

Right?

If we're alive, we're here, and if we're dead, we are with the Lord, the Bible says.

So why we're here, we work unto the Lord.

We work out our salvation, not for.

So we don't have a record of Joshua objecting that he's he's old.

He's like, oh, you're right.

Especially can you imagine being the only old person, him and Caleb being literally the only old people?

Everybody else is like, way younger.

Anyway, I just think that's very interesting.

But he has to be where God has him.

So he steps up to the work.

And really, church, my question is this: if we look at this map and we try to internalize it a little bit, and we just we take a leap and we go, where is the Lord telling me that there's still a lot of land to possess?

Where have I had victory?

But then, but but where is God calling me that there is still more?

He still wants me to walk with him into these unknown areas or into these difficult regions, right, where the challenges are ahead.

Is it something like missions?

Have you conquered your fear when it comes to sharing your faith?

Are there a couple of addictions that you've you've brought in way back under control, but you know they're still there?

Church, I think that I think we get a little complacent.

And I know Joshua didn't say, God, I'm not gonna do this, I'm old.

And it was a hypothetical, but I think when I think about myself and some of the conversations I've had with some of you, I think there's a real tendency just to lean back and go, God, look at what I've already done, look at what you've already done in me.

Can I just rest?

And I think God is saying there's still a lot of land to possess.

We still have somewhere to go.

And where we might discount ourselves because of our age, young or old, we might discount ourselves because of our looks, really good looking or just slightly less good looking, where we might discount ourselves because of our finances, poor or rich, where we might because of our nationality or a language barrier.

I don't think God's putting those same restrictions on his people.

He's not seeing us that way.

And he's going, you know what?

You might not be the smartest.

Anyone here going like, I'm the smartest?

Raise your hand.

You're just like, I'm literally the smartest person.

Some of you guys are like, I really want to raise my hand, but I'm not gonna do it.

Because then we have pride, okay?

So we have all these things, but you guys, God is not done with you.

And he's saying, hey, let's go further.

I don't want you just pointing at the map of the thing that you conquered ten years ago or two days ago.

Like, walk with me now.

What is still left but to possess?

Because that is so huge.

So many of us romanticize the past and all that God has done, and it's good to reflect on it, but not as a place where we stay.

We reflect on it to give us confidence to move forward in Christ.

We reflect on those things and we remember the altars that we had to build when God did something good, just like they did here, like they crossed the Jordan and said, build an altar.

Let's remember this.

But they didn't stay there, they didn't stay there.

We shouldn't stay there.

Yes, we have a testimony.

In fact, I think our testimony is such a huge part of what God is doing in us.

And the way he's going to use us moving forward.

But sometimes I can't even remember my testimony.

You know that?

That's weird.

Like my most early experiences with Christ, the things where I'm like, I heard his voice so loudly.

But you know what he does?

This morning, okay, this morning, I'm laying in bed and I have jet lag and some weird things going on with my sleep.

And I was telling Brother John over here, um, I I closed my eyes and I said, Lord, because it's four o'clock in the morning, if you want me to stay asleep, and just it'd be good for me to get rest.

Just help me fall asleep.

If you want me to wake up, get me out of bed.

Okay?

Now, some of you guys, maybe you've prayed that before.

Anybody prayed that before?

Something similar to that?

Okay, okay, there's a few of you guys, not alone.

Wish there was more of you, I'd feel less alone, but that's okay.

The five of us are outnumbered.

But I think that it at least is common to some of you.

So I pray this, and I close my eyes, and it was like a flash from an old camera went off.

And I went, I'm like, I wasn't asleep yet.

Okay, I literally just finished praying, going to the bathroom.

And um I I roll out of bed, the way my my room is situated right now, it's um, I can almost roll over and look out into the hallway, and I can look out into the backyard through another door.

And I'm like, I thought that uh, because I thought there was a natural explanation for this.

There was a helicopter overhead, and maybe a light had come and swept through and just kind of I live in Rio Linda, there's an airport there, I'm like kind of anything, right?

I'm listening, I can hear snoring.

And uh it actually wasn't my wife.

I was making that joke.

She wasn't snoring.

Um she has snored though.

Uh so I I closed my eyes again, I go, oh, that was weird.

And I I just close my eyes again.

I go, Lord, if that was you, can you confirm it?

Like just like I prayed in the half.

Anyway, I'm just be I'm hyper-spiritualizing, I'm half asleep.

Literally, same thing, like a flash of light.

I go, okay.

This is weird.

But I know God is at work in me now.

Okay?

And I'm not gonna go way more into it.

I could I could make this a really fun story, but what God did was He He got me out of bed.

And he gave me today.

And I got into His Word, and I can I can say that as a testimony of God's still at work in me.

So if you're if you're forgetful or old and advanced in years, you can't remember the exact day and the wind blowing through your hair when you kneeled down next to the park bench and prayed to receive Christ for the first time.

It's okay.

It doesn't mean God's not working in you anymore.

Just talk about the good things that God is doing in you now.

And whatever you can remember, it's okay.

That is our testimony.

But you guys, I want to encourage you, I want to edify you, I want to, I want to exhort you to look at your life like the map and go, where is God telling me that, yeah, cool, we've done all this, but there's still much more.

Even God didn't go, hey, look at all we've done together.

Let's talk about it for a while.

He's like, nope, we gotta go.

We gotta go.

We keep going.

The unbelief, right?

There's areas of unbelief still in our hearts.

Not massive unbelief, but sometimes where we doubt God.

We're not sure how he's at work in this situation.

Are you really working through this relationship, this friendship?

Am I still supposed to be at this job?

What are you calling me to, Lord?

All of it.

Eradicating sin, self-righteousness, all that stuff.

God is asking you, He's telling you, there's still more land to be taken.

Verse 8.

With the other half of the tribe of Manasseh, the Reubenites and the Gadites, received their inheritance, which Moses gave them beyond the Jordan eastward, as Moses the servant of the Lord gave them, from Aror, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the tableland of Medeba as far as Debon, and all the cities of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon as far as the boundary of the Amorites, Ammonites, excuse me, and Gilead and the region of the Gesherites, and uh somebody told me that one again, but I forgot, and all Mount Hermon and all Bashan to Salem, organ, I think.

Uh all the kingdom of Og and Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edri, he alone was left out of the remnant of the Rephrum.

These Moses had struck and driven out, yet the people of Israel did not drive out the Gesherites and those people, but Gesher and Makath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day.

To the tribe of Levi alone, Moses gave no inheritance.

Psych, just no land.

The offerings by the Lord, uh, sorry, the offerings by fire to the Lord God of Israel are their inheritance, as he said to him.

So if you keep reading, there's a lot more there.

But what we see here, uh, and I'm gonna read verse 29, okay, I'm gonna do my best here, 29 through 33, uh, to give us an idea about this inheritance.

It says, and Moses gave an inheritance to the half tribe of Manasseh.

It was allotted to the half tribe of the people of Manasseh according to their clans.

Their region extended from gosh, through Bashan, the whole kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jer, which are in Bashan, sixty cities, and half Gilead, Ashteroth, Idriai, the cities of the kingdom of Og and Bashan, these were allotted to the people of Maker, uh, the son of Manasseh for the half of the people of Maker according to their clans.

Okay, verse 32, this is important.

These are the inheritance that Moses distributed in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan, east of Jericho, but to the tribe of Levi, Moses gave no inheritance.

The Lord God of Israel is their inheritance, just as he said to them.

Okay.

For the Lord or for my reading?

Um, growing up, you guys, I knew what an inheritance was.

Okay?

I didn't experience an inheritance at this point.

Um my friends and I would occasionally play this game where what would you do if you inherited, and we'd inflate the number to like a gagillion dollars, and ignore all tax implications, of course.

Um, I mean, we we would just talk about everything that we would get.

I would get a house like a basketball court.

These things have just changed through the years, right?

Like now I'm like I want a little piece of land that's like two miles from everybody in every direction, and uh people just leave me alone.

No.

Um so we we have this idea of inheritance.

It's what you get when somebody dies, right?

It's what they left for you when somebody dies.

And the word inheritance is repeated over and over and over again in this chapter.

And so I think it's worth slowing down and pausing over that as we start to bring this to a close.

Israel's land was an inheritance because God had promised to give it to them.

Okay?

They fought battles.

Um earn the promise.

We know the living God gave them that land, that place to call home.

But some of you guys, and I think that's why really what Kevin was clapping was in verse 33, how it ends, it says the Levi, uh, it says Levi received no land, an inheritance, because, no land inheritance, because the Lord Himself was their inheritance.

And for me, that kind of stops me for a moment, right?

For a minute.

And I go, God gave all this land to the other tribes, twelve tribes, um, with cities and borders, but he reminds us that the greatest gift that we can get is himself.

His people get him.

And I think that points us to something that's very germane and critical and central for every believer today.

God has promised us an inheritance as well.

He has promised through uh, I mean, Hebrews 9, 15 tells us plainly that Christ's death secured our inheritance.

Colossians 1 says the Father has, he's the one who qualifies us to share in it.

And Peter calls 1 Peter, in fact, we we were in 1 Peter not long ago, uh calls it an inheritance that cannot perish or fade and is kept in heaven for you.

It's not going to be defiled, it's kept by God.

And God has really been faithful to Israel, and we see that they are inheriting this land, but it's in Joshua chapter 21, and I won't fast-forward us all the way there, he gave them the land, he promised, and we know that not one of his promises has ever failed.

Joshua 21 · chapter mention

God keeps his word.

But when we look forward at inheritance in the New Testament, Hebrews 4 shows us that Joshua is just a foreshadowing, that he didn't give Israel and the people of God their final rest.

Hebrews 4, 8, for if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

And that is Christ coming again, or coming.

Not again, he will come again, but coming the first time.

So yeah, the land was real, the inheritance was real, and still God is pointing them to something greater.

That's what all this is.

So you're wondering why these graphs?

Why this map?

Why these victories?

Why these battles?

It's pointing us to something greater.

And that greater is Jesus.

He was the fill, he is the fulfillment of the law.

And every foreshadowing that we see in the Old Testament.

When he said it is finished, he had done everything necessary to secure our inheritance.

He died, he rose again.

1 Peter, right?

In something that cannot perish, fade, or be taken away.

And I know we haven't seen it all yet.

We won't see it until we get to heaven, but God will keep his promises.

And I just want to leave you guys with this exhortation and encouragement, I think, from Hebrews chapter 3.

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

Now I'll read it for you.

It's two verses, it's 12, 13, three verses, 12, 13, and 14.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Because regardless of your age, young or old, God has more he wants to do through you.

Hold fast to his promises.

Hold fast to what God is doing in you.

Finances, like I said, race, health, popularity, prickly personality, whatever, God wants to work in you and through you.

And guys, in this room, this might be redundant.

But if you're not a believer, God actually is calling you through through the Old Testament.

He's showing you that there was a foreshadowing, that he is for real.

All of Scripture is actually designed to point towards Christ.

So when he goes, I don't know, I kind of just feel like church is just good for my family.

And that's why I'm here, because it's a great spot just to, you know, ground ourselves.

Church isn't about that.

You know, it's easy to do though.

Because out in the world, it's crazy.

What are you gonna do to ground your family if you don't have all the finances and all the pieces together, or if you got a broken home?

Where are you supposed to go?

So you come here and you go, it's better here.

But it might make you miss why we're here.

It's not just because it's better here.

It's better here if people of uh the people of God are following God's design, but ultimately we're trying to point you to Jesus.

So your performance as a mom, as a husband, uh, as a friend, whatever, uh student.

None of that gets you closer to God.

So don't come in here and mimic behavior that you see that seems good.

But all who did receive him, who believed in his name, that is by faith, not performance, he gave the right to become children of God.

That's how we get our inheritance by faith.

So, hey, if you've been in here and you've been you've been playing Christianity because you were trying to mimic and get something good that way, I get it.

The world doesn't have much to offer.

But hear the truth that you can come to God through Christ, and you can come to Christ through faith.