Israel Receives a Land

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Introduction

As we come to our lesson today, we have walked through about 2,500 years of history. If we put this in our modern chronology, the entrance into the promised land happened around 1451 BC. The taking of the land took time, and the dividing of the land happened about 1445 BC.

• • Write on the board, “Were all of the promises to Abraham fulfilled?”
  • Pass out the Scripture Strips if you haven’t done so already.
  Let’s stop for a minute to consider how many things the Lord had done to show himself faithful to the Israelites since the Exodus from Egypt. What are some things you can think of? Have the students offer examples: protection at the Passover, deliverance from slavery, provision of riches leaving Egypt, protection from Pharaoh’s army, Red Sea crossing, manna in the wilderness, victory over enemies, crossing over the Jordan on dry ground, the fall of Jericho, etc.

  When we left off last week, Joshua had led the conquest of the central part of Canaan. The rest of chapter 10 describes the conquest of the southern area of Canaan. The refrain “He left none remaining” is repeated, reminding us that as they took possession of the land, Israel was to wipe out the Amorites and Canaanites for their idolatry. Israel’s men of war were an instrument of judgment in the hand of God. Another repeated idea we see in these chapters is that God “fought for Israel.” While the men fought, God ensured their victory as part of his plan to judge the wickedness of the people and to fulfill his promise to Abraham.

  Today, we are going to look at how the promises were fulfilled and how the promised land was divided among the tribes.

Continuing the Conquest

Chapter 11 of Joshua gives a description of more battles for the land, this time to the north.

Let’s read Joshua 11 together. Divide the passage for class members to read aloud.

• Who gathered against the Israelites? Many different groups in the north, led by the king of Hazor.
• How are the armies described in verse 4? A great horde like the sand of the sea.
• Why did such a large army assemble? They had heard of Israel’s conquest.
• What is the “this” referring to in verse 1? Jabin had heard of Israel’s conquest of the south as described in chapter 10.
• What did God say to Joshua? God told him not to fear as he would give the armies over to Joshua.
• Had these words of encouragement been said to Joshua before? Yes, this phrase has been said by God to Joshua multiple times in various forms (1:9, 6:2, 8:1, 8:18, 10:8).
• Why did God say this to Joshua? It seems that he was intending to constantly encourage Joshua and confirm the plan to take the land. Joshua repeated the words of encouragement from God to his troops.
• What is the extent of the success God gave regarding the battle? God would “give over all of them, slain.”
• How is the initial action of the battle described? The Israelite army “came suddenly” and “fell upon them.” This gives a sense of fast-paced action.
• How did the battle go? Just as God said, they struck until there was none remaining (vv. 8–9).
• What was the result in Hazor? Complete destruction is described, ending in burning with fire.
• What is the function of verses 12–15? This is a summary passage that looks back to the time when Moses described the conquest of the land. The promise to and through Moses was passed to Joshua and completed by him.
• What is the function of verses 16–20? These verses give a summary of the conquests of Joshua.
• How is the time period of the conquest described? He “made war a long time” to take all of the land.
• How was God working in all of this (v. 20)? God was hardening the hearts of these groups.
• What group is described in verses 21–23? The Anakim, giant people in the land.
• Where have we heard about this group before? These are the giants that the 10 spies were so afraid of when they spied out the land (Numbers 13).
• Were they all wiped out? No, they remained in certain areas. We will meet Goliath and others later.

Let’s jump ahead to chapter 14 and quickly read verses 6–15. Have someone read the passage.

This is a postscript to the battle that we just read about in chapter 11—the conquering of the territory of the Anakim.

• What grounds did Caleb give for requesting this plot of land? He recounted the spying of the land and how he “wholly followed the Lord,” and Moses had promised him an inheritance.
• Was this an accurate assessment of Caleb’s life? Yes. Joshua affirmed this as he blessed Caleb, and verse 14 affirms that the inheritance was given because he “wholly followed the Lord.”
• Back to chapter 11. How does verse 23 summarize the events? The promises to Moses were fulfilled, the land was given as an inheritance to Israel, and the land had rest from war.

Discover the Truth

Joshua was faithful to God in carrying out all he commanded. And God was faithful to fulfill all of his promises. It was not an immediate conquest, but one that took years to complete. The description of the battles that still followed and the division of the promised land is described in chapters 12–22. Then the closing chapters give Joshua’s commands to the future leaders of Israel before he dies.

• As you consider what we just read, what do we learn about God, and what attributes of God do we see? God’s power (omnipotence) is seen in helping the army defeat the enemies; God’s sovereignty is seen in hardening the hearts of the pagan kings and peoples so that they would go to battle against Israel; God’s holiness and justice are seen in carrying out judgment on the wicked people of Canaan and the command to wipe out everything associated with them; God’s grace is seen in giving the Israelites all that they need to accomplish the task he gave them. Discuss others.
• What have we learned about Joshua and Caleb? They are examples of faithfulness and trust in God. They have stood firm since the time 40 years earlier when they trusted God, and they continued to do so.

  Through all of this struggle, God brought rest to his people—the rest he had promised to Abraham and Moses. This reminds us of the fact that even God rested after his work of creation. And he commanded his people to imitate him in resting on the Sabbath from all of their work. This is a reminder that the perfect creation was a place of work, but it was also a place of rest.

  There was no war or death in God’s perfect creation, but in the fallen creation, war and struggle were part of Israel finding their rest. But it was a rest provided by God. The Israelites came into a land of plenty after living as slaves where they had little and worked much. But their rest was temporary.

  All of this points us forward to the rest that would ultimately be found in the coming of the Seed—Jesus—who offers eternal rest.

  How the Sabbath commands apply to Christians today is a matter of denominational difference. You may choose to teach your church’s view of Sabbath at this point and how it points to Jesus.

Promises Fulfilled Activity

Connect to the Truth

So let’s talk about how these promises were fulfilled.

• How did the prophecy about a land in Genesis 15:17–21 find its fulfillment in Joshua 21:43–45? The land from the river of Egypt on the south to the Euphrates in the north and all the territory in between was inhabited by those tribes listed (these are detailed in Joshua 12).
• How did the prophecy of a nation in Genesis 17:1–8 find its fulfillment in Joshua 23:1–13? The Israelites grew into a great nation represented by the 12 tribes and separated from the nations around them.
• How did the sign of the covenant in Genesis 17:9–14 find its fulfillment in Joshua 5:1–9? Joshua had all of the males circumcised to mark them as members of the covenant given to Abraham.
• Did the promise of a Seed (Offspring) in Genesis 12:1–3 and 22:18 find its fulfillment in the book of Joshua? Other than the preservation of the tribe of Judah through whom the Messiah would come (Genesis 49:8–12), the promise of the Seed has not been fulfilled at this point. This points forward to Jesus.

  The promise of the land had been fulfilled. The promise of a great nation had been fulfilled. But there was still a coming Messiah. The Seed that would bless all nations was still a promise the people were waiting to see fulfilled. Joshua indeed gave them rest for a time, but Joshua was not the Messiah.

  But we can see in Joshua many parallels between Joshua and Jesus. (Some would call Joshua a type of Christ, though the text never makes that explicit connection.)

• What are some of the parallels we can draw between Jesus and Joshua? Their names are related: Joshua is variously spelled as Jeshua and Jehoshua (pronounced with a Y as Yeshua in Hebrew) in other OT passages and the name means “Jehovah the Savior.” Jesus is our English form of the Greek Iesous, which is the Greek form of Joshua. And Jesus is the name given to Mary and Joseph for their son who was the Savior (Matthew 1:18–23; Luke 135–38). Joshua and Jesus were faithful leaders of the people of God; both led the establishment of a nation/kingdom of God.

  But we can only carry these connections so far before we run into the fact that Jesus is God come in flesh and Joshua was just a man used by God. While we can see men like Joshua as examples, we must ultimately look to Christ as our perfect example. Joshua delivered rest to the Israelites for a time, but Jesus offers us eternal rest (Hebrews 4).

Dividing the Inheritance

If you remember back to our time in Genesis, we used a map of Canaan to talk about the tribes of Israel and how they would receive the promised inheritance. Today we are going to review that and look again at the texts that describe how God gave the land to his people. Use a copy of the Twelve Tribes map (originally used in lesson 49) as you work through the next section. Students may have a copy from before, or you can hand out more.

Now we are going to look at the inheritance of the promised land and how it was divided among the 12 tribes. We are going to be jumping through a lot of passages. I passed out some Scripture Strips to some of you as you came in, so be ready to read those. And have your Twelve Tribes map out so you can see where these lands are. Have someone read each passage aloud. They will just be reading to the beginning of the description of the borders of the land, not the whole description. Move through these fairly quickly to establish the division and how it was accomplished.

• Joshua 13:1–7—Command to divide the land
• Joshua 13:14—Levites
• Joshua 13:15–16—Reuben
• Joshua 13:24–25—Gad
• Joshua 13:29–30—Manasseh (East)
• Joshua 14:1–5—Dividing the land by lot
• Joshua 15:1–3—Judah
• Joshua 16:1, 5–6—Ephraim
• Joshua 17: 1–2—Manasseh (West)
• Joshua 18:1–10—Surveying for the remaining land
• Joshua 18:11–12—Benjamin
• Joshua 19:1–2—Simeon
• Joshua 19:10–11—Zebulun
• Joshua 19:17–18—Issachar
• Joshua 19:24–25—Asher
• Joshua 19:32–33—Naphtali
• Joshua 19:40–41—Dan
• Joshua 19:49–50—Joshua
• Joshua 19:51—Divided by lot
• Joshua 21:1–5—Levites
• Joshua 21:43–45—The promise fulfilled
• What method was used to divide the land? Joshua 14:2 and 21:8 talk about the casting of lots to divide the land. While we might think of casting lots as a random process, God was the one who directed the outcome of the lots (read Proverbs 16:33 to the class). Remember that this was the method used to determine Achan as the one who brought trouble into the camp (Joshua 7:18), though the word “lot” is not explicitly used.
• What did Moses have to do with this? Cross-references in those verses should connect the students to Numbers 26:55, 33:54, and 34:13. The original command was given to Moses and carried out by Joshua and the elders of Israel.
• Which of the tribes received two sections of land? Manasseh, Joseph’s son, received two portions.
• Which tribe only received cities and small sections of land? The Levites.
• Why didn’t they get a separate land? They were to serve as priests and receive offerings from the other tribes to support themselves.

Discover the Truth

So the land was given by lot to the tribes who had come from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel). There were still some specific lands that were to be conquered, and there were even some peoples who remained in the land. But the promises of Abraham’s descendants receiving a land and becoming a great nation were fulfilled. God was faithful to his promises.

Application

More than 400 years had passed since God told Abraham he would make him into a great nation and give him the land. Throughout the descriptions we read, we saw how God was actively involved in the battles, but the armies still had to go and fight. This is a great reminder of the connection between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. Even as the land was given by lot, the people had to survey the land and define the regions.

And we have seen Joshua and Caleb as examples of faithfulness as leaders of God’s people. For their faithfulness, God blessed them with lands and wealth where they could find rest from their labors of wandering and war. This should remind us of our desire for a future rest. The Israelites got to eat the produce of a land that they did not work and live in houses they did not build. They benefited from the work of others. And isn’t that what we are looking forward to? In the consummation of all things, we will live in a place that has been prepared for us by our Lord. And as Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 explain, we are entering into God’s rest knowing that Jesus has done the work necessary for our salvation and our future rest in eternity.

Let us make sure that we think of how we can apply these ideas as we leave and go out into the world we live in. We want to make sure that we are not merely hearing the Word, but seeking to be doers of what we read in it.

• As the Israelites took over the promised land, there were still remnants of the pagan cultures that were not wiped out, contrary to God’s command. What do you think the consequence of this will be for the Israelites in the future? God warned them that the people of the land would be a snare to them and lead them to false worship. We can expect to see that happen as we move forward.
• Have you ever had doubts or questions about how God controls things like the casting of lots? How can we seek to understand these claims that are so clearly presented in Scripture? There are many clear passages that point to God using these devices in the past to help his people see his will clearly. While we may not understand the exact mechanism by which God brought these things to pass, we can see that he did work through them.
• Whom do you know who is like Joshua or Caleb, faithful examples of trusting in God and obeying him? How does that encourage you? How could you encourage them? 1 Corinthians 11:1 calls us to imitate those who imitate Christ. Discuss how the examples of others can be an encouragement and how we can be a blessing when we let others know of the encouragement we receive by seeing them faithfully following Jesus.
• How does the detail in the description of the division of the land relate to the reliability of the Bible? Reading through the details of the lands, we can still identify many of these boundaries and cities to this day. The detail points to the fact that these were actual divisions and not some fanciful story of a people conquering imaginary lands.
• Our memory verse for this section, Joshua 1:9, is a direct command to Joshua from God—to be strong and courageous, knowing that God would not leave him. How do we apply this verse to our own lives as Christians living thousands of years later? Discuss how the context places Joshua as the recipient of that command, but we can take the general idea of taking courage in what God commands us to do. We also have the promise that God will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5–6), and we are to work in the power of his might (Ephesians 6:10). Discuss any other passages from the New Testament that support this idea.

Group Prayer

Be sure to pray with your class before you dismiss them.

• Praise God for his faithfulness, seeing what he did for Israel and knowing what he has promised to us.
• Ask God for faith to trust him in areas we do not fully understand.
• Thank God for being constant and the source of our power.