Joshua 22
RileyJoshua 22:1-34
THE OF THE LANDJoshua, Chapters 13 to 19 and 21, 22.“Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the Lord said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed” (Joshua 13:1). “This is the land that yet remaineth”, etc.MEN grow old differently. Some men remain hale and hearty. “Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated” (Deuteronomy 34:7). Others are weighted with years, and feebleness is their lot. Joshua has been a mighty man; and yet, more than a century has swept over his head, and the Lord is reminding him that the end is near, and what remains to be done must have prompt attention. When the field yet to be occupied is Divinely surveyed, its immensity astonishes us, and suggests an essential truth, namely, that no matter what battles have been successfully fought, and what great victories have been won, there remaineth always much land to be possessed. One of the sad things about growing old exists in that very circumstance.
What man ever accomplished marvelous results—results that amazed his fellows, without realizing that what he has done is small beside what he would like to live to do?Youth has its ideals, and age sometimes experiences the realization of those ideals to a large degree, but in the very process of accomplishment, larger things have loomed before the worker; greater plans have evolved, and when life is drawing to a close, one feels that he has only succeeded in laying foundations, and yearns to live that he might build thereon. But time moves, and the man who puts his stamp permanently upon it must remember his numbered days and wisely utilize till the last.This division of the land relates itself to the twelve tribes, and in the appointments there will necessarily result some disputations.THE EAST SIDEThis received first attention, as is shown in chapter 13.There were conquests yet to be accomplished.
We will not attempt to follow these borders and to show the exact location and limitation of each tribal occupancy. That were a work of super-erogation. Almost any good Bible carries a map showing these tribal locations in colors, and a moment’s glance of the eye at such a diagram would accomplish more than extended discussion. Let us learn, rather, the spiritual significance of this further occupancy of the soil.What man ever lives long enough to do all that he ought to do; to put down all the enemies that ought to be trampled under his feet; to occupy all the territory that he himself should conquer? Not one! On the other hand, the best that we can do is to hope in our successors.
Christ Himself was shut up to that necessity. When Luke came to write the Book of the Acts, he said, “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach” (Acts 1:1).
How strange a sentence to employ with reference to the Son of God! We thought Jesus “finished”. Did He not say on the cross, “It is finished”? Was not His work in the world complete before the last breath went from His body? Nay, verily! He completed but one task and that was to make an atonement for the people. As for His deeds and His teaching, they were only beginnings; as for the progress of His church, it was in its infancy; as for the bringing in of His kingdom, that was a far-off event. He only “began to do and to teach”.
His disciples, His Church; they must carry on. Joshua must die, but Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, must occupy the East Side. It was theirs to complete what Moses and Joshua had commenced; it was theirs to inherit and subdue the plains of Moab on the other side of Jordan by Jericho eastward.The pledge of Moses was now to be fulfilled to them. “The Reubenites and the Gadites have received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond Jordan eastward” (Joshua 13:8).Joshua, then, was not to settle the question of that section. It was settled already; but Joshua was God’s agent to make good to Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh what Moses pledged.In Jesus, our Joshua, we find both the execution of the law and the fulfillment of prophecy. It is in Him that we have both made sure to all believers.The Lord was to be the portion of the Levites. “But unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave not any inheritance: the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as He said unto them” (Joshua 13:33).That sounds like scant treatment, but, as a matter of fact, that’s a declaration of great riches. What man is to be envied as that man who has “the Lord for his inheritance”?
Is he not the richest and the most honored of all men? Is he not to be the most envied of all heirs?
Can he not sing with good occasion, “My Father is rich in houses and lands,He holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands!Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold,His coffers are full—He has riches untold.I’m a child of the King, a child of the King!With Jesus, my Saviour, I’m a child of the King?”Moses fell heir to honor and fortune. His adoption into Pharaoh’s house made him the child of both, but the day came when he deliberately chose to “suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward” (Hebrews 11:25-26).