Joshua: Five Requests

The hymn that our brother gave out was written, of course, by Isaac Watts. Prior to Isaac Watts, only psalms were sung in, quote, church services. And Isaac Watts came home one day and told his father that the singing was pretty dull, pretty monotonous, just the tunes they used to sing them to, very depressing tunes.

His father said to him, if you think you can do better, go ahead and do it. And we are the richer for all the hymns that Isaac Watts has penned. You wish sometimes you could say things the way the hymn writers said them, and we're privileged to be able to sing it nevertheless.

Before we open to the word of God again, we'll speak to God in prayer. Our Father, we bow together. It is with a renewed sense of appreciation that we come into thy presence.

We have sung together of a love so amazing, so divine, a love that really demands our heart, our life, our all. And yet, how slow we are to respond to grace. We confess how self-occupied, self-centered we are in our lives and cry for grace that we might be more pleasing to thee and more yielded to the will of God and the Spirit of God in our lives.

Help us in the great process of the remolding, making us more like thy son day by day, and grant that the fruit of these meetings, in some little measure, in some soul, might be greater conformity to thy Son. We commit all of this to thee now in our Savior's worthy, precious name. Amen.

And again, a very sincere welcome back and a very sincere thank you to the assembly for the invitation to be with you. And I join with them in thanking many coming from far, distant assemblies and being with us several hours driving for some of you. I appreciate your presence and encouragement.

Now, our last meeting will deal with five different requests. I've titled these the Entreaties. Really, these are the requests made in the Book of Joshua.

Five different times requests are made in the Book of Joshua and we will consider them together, beginning in Chapter 14. Again, I know this is deja vu with Caleb, but I think there are some fresh things we can point out from the life of this man. So, Joshua, Chapter 14, and beginning at verse number 6. Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenzite, said unto him, Thou knowest the thing, the Lord said unto Moses, the man of God, concerning me and thee in Kadesh Barnea.

Forty years old was I when Moses, a servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land. I brought him word again as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God.

And Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's forever, because I was wholly followed the Lord my God. And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years. So I gather this is five years after they crossed into the land, five years of fighting and battle, and now they have a relative pause.

So he says, Even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old, and yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me, as my strength was then, so also is my strength now for war both to go out and to come in. Now therefore, give me this mountain where the Lord spake in that day. For thou heardest in that day how the Ammonites were there, and they that cities were great and fenced, if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.

And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh, Hebron, for an inheritance. And the chapter ends, and the land had rest from war. That actually serves as a division of the epistle, of the book, different expressions, the land had rest, there fell no good thing of all the Lord spake, and so on, a number of times, five different times or so, that expression, or a similar one occurs, that divides the book.

Look in chapter 15, pick up at verse 16. And Caleb said, He that smiteth, curjeth, suffer, and taketh it to him will I give Aksa, my daughter, to wife. And Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it, and he gave him Aksa, his daughter, to wife.

Now don't think that's the way you get a wife today, just a suggestion, and you girls, please, don't think your father is going to find you a husband that way. And it came to pass, as she came unto him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field. She laid it over her ass, and Caleb said unto her, What wouldst thou? And he answered, Give me a blessing, that was given me the south land, give me also springs of water.

And he gave her the upper springs, and the nether springs. Look at chapter number 17. Moses is dividing the inheritance to the tribe of Manasseh, and break in at verse number 3. Now Zelophehad, the daughter of Hepha, the son of Gilead, the son of Makar, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but daughters.

These are the names of the daughters, Mala, and Noah, Hagla, Milcah, and Tirzah. You won't find them on Google's list of most common names for girls in the 21st century, okay? But if you want to name your girl a very unique name, you've got them here. These five, the fabulous five, the five of faith, that are listed here for us.

And let's see where we want to go with that. Sorry, I'm not finding the verse that I was looking for very hurriedly. Forgive me.

Nevertheless, they ask for their inheritance because there are no sons left in the family. They ask for their inheritance among the tribe of Manasseh. And Moses is going to... Verse 4. Thank you.

Of chapter 17. Now they came near before Eliezer the priest, and before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the princes, saying, The Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brethren. Therefore, according to the commandment of the Lord, he gave them an inheritance among the brethren of their fathers.

Now one of the stipulations was that they had to marry within the tribe so that the inheritance did not pass out of the tribe to a different tribe. Look at chapter 21. Verse number 1. Then came near the heads of the fathers of the Levites and the Eliezer the priest, unto Joshua the son of Nun, unto the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel.

And they spake unto them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, The Lord commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with the suburbs thereof for our cattle. And the children of Israel gave unto the Levites out of their inheritance, at the commandment of the Lord, these cities and these suburbs. And they list the various cities that were given.

And maybe the end of the chapter, verse number 43, or maybe verse 41. And all the cities of the Levites with the possession of the children of Israel were forty and eight cities with their suburbs. These cities were where every one of them with their suburbs round about them.

Thus were all these cities. And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which He swore unto them to their fathers. They possessed it and dwelt therein.

And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that He swore unto their fathers. There stood not a man of all their enemies before them, and the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. There fell not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel.

All came to pass. Then go back to chapter 17 again. And verse number 14.

And the children of Joseph, that would be Ephraim and Manasseh, spake unto Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me but one lot, and one portion, to inherit, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as the Lord hath blessed me hitherto? Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself therein the land of the Perizzites, and of the giants of Mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee. The children of Joseph said, The hill is not enough for us. All the Canaanites dwell in the land of the valleys of chariots of iron, both they who are of Bethshean and her towns, and they who are of the valley of Jezreel.

And Joshua spake unto Joseph, he unto Ephraim, and to Manasseh, saying, Thou art a great people, has great power. Thou shalt not have one lot only, but this mountain shall be thine. For it is of wood, and thou shalt cut it down, the outgoings of it shall be thine.

For thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong. And so on. So five different times.

The request of Caleb, the request of Caleb's daughter, the request of the five daughters, the request of the Levites, and the request of the sons of Joseph. Five different times that requests were made in the book of Joshua. Lessons to be learned.

So let me begin again with Caleb, and I hope I'm not being too redundant. But here's a man, and we see a man who has convictions. He reminds them of God's promise, first of all, that God had promised them the land.

He reminds them of God's protection. God has kept me alive all these years. He has a purpose in what he's doing.

He reminds them as well of the provision that God had made, and he wanted Hebron. Now I mentioned already, Hebron was the highest point of elevation in the land. He wanted to live in the heights.

Hebron was linked with Abraham, and Abraham's altar, and Abraham's first place of dwelling, and the cave at Mechpelah. Hebron as well was a place where Abraham had built his altar in the land. He wanted to go back to Abraham and to the beginning.

He was a man who wanted to live close to heaven. His convictions, first of all. Can I say something else as well about his conquest? Part of the nation was capitulating.

Part of the nation was compromising. Part of the nation was living with a sense of complacency. Not this man, Caleb.

He wanted to conquer for God. He wanted to move forward and gain more ground, and so on. He lived a consistent life, 45 years.

He knew no weakness through the way. Just not a matter of physical strength, but I think we see spiritual vigor that continued all the way through. He had been consistent in his life for God all the way through.

The same at 85 as he was at 40. Age is no barrier. Now, I know that memory and concentrating ability, all that, it wanes as we get older.

But age is no barrier to spiritual growth. Don't ever feel like you've grown enough. Don't ever feel as though there's no more mountains for me to conquer.

Don't ever feel as though I've arrived. This man, Caleb, did not feel that he had arrived at 85. You know something very interesting about Caleb? You never read of his death.

Now, I know Caleb died, obviously. But it seems like he walked out into the sunset, if you can use that, with all the vigor and strength that he had at 40 years of age, now as a man of 85. There's no weakening of the man.

He's marked by strength all the way to the end. Now, we may not be physically strong as age comes upon us, but we can be spiritually stronger, stronger than we were early on. God is in the business of strengthening us and making us more and more useful for him in different ways.

I think you're all familiar with the name of Ruth Graham. She was the husband of the well-known evangelist Billy Graham. Ruth Graham died, I think it was June 14th, 2007.

She's buried down in North Carolina, and she had instructions of what would be placed on her tombstone. Here's what's written on her tombstone. Construction finished.

Thanks for your patience. Construction finished. Thanks for your patience.

God is in the business of building, growing, increasing, flourishing, prospering each one of us, and it is a lifelong task that he's involved in. Here was this man, Caleb. He was going to grow and prosper for God all the way to the end.

Age was no barrier to him at all. As well, he knew there would be challenges to face. He knew there were giants in the lands.

He knew it would not be an easy task. He was not pipe-dreaming, not wishful thinking. He knew there were going to be challenges.

But if God is with me, I'm up to the challenges. He was marked by uncompromising convictions, unalterable courage, unflagging confidence. I mentioned already that he wanted to live in the heights.

But let me tell you what happened to Hebron. Number one, Hebron became a city that belonged then to the Levites. He was able to give something, able to leave something to the work of God.

But not only that, Hebron became a city of refuge. He was able to leave something to the people of God that became a place of safety, a place of refuge, a place of hope, a place of help. This man just didn't gain a city for himself.

He gained it and gave most of it away. I know the Levites got the suburbs and so on, but still, he was going to give something that would become a city of refuge, belong to the tribe of Levi. He left something for generations to come by the fact that he would not yield to the temptation of age.

He was willing to keep at it, willing at 85 to claim what God had promised him earlier in life. And as a result, there was blessing for ages to come. Every man who slew someone without intention was able to flee to the city of refuge.

Hebron was one of the six able to flee to the city of refuge and find safety and find help. That's what this man left for generations to come. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to leave something behind for generations to come? To be able to leave something behind that would be a place of safety, an arc of safety for the people of God to run to, for refuge, and so on.

Here was a man, then, who gave what he conquered. He gave it back in appreciation to God for what he had done. But very quickly, he had a daughter, and his daughter learned from her father.

He said, give me this mountain. She said, give me springs. So what did he have in Caleb's daughter? She wanted prosperity for what God had given her.

She wanted it to flourish. You've given me the field. I need the upper springs and another spring.

I need something to water. I want to see this ground prosper. I want to see prosperity in my day, and I want you to give me this.

The gift of land needed springs of water to nourish it. Now, God has given us the Spirit of God. We don't have to pray for it.

Never do you read in the Word of God of a prayer for the Spirit of God, either baptism in the Spirit or being filled with the Spirit. You never read believers praying for the Spirit of God. So that's not the idea here.

We pray, rather, for the power of the Spirit of God to flow through us. She realized, if this land is going to be fertile, if I am going to be fruitful for God, I need help. I want the upper springs and the other springs to be mine, and I want to enjoy what God has given me.

She didn't want to dry up. Ever know people who dry up in their Christian life? Their prayer every Sunday morning, the young people sitting in the back could almost recite it. It's the same every Sunday, right? Nothing fresh.

They get up on a Wednesday night in prayer meeting or Tuesday night, whatever it is, and they go to the same list of people again. Now, I know repetition is not wrong, but it doesn't have any freshness to it. Nothing, no touch of God in it.

Here's a young woman. She didn't want to dry up. Didn't want to just become fruitless.

Very easy. Very easy to get detoured, isn't it? The wise man speaks about a little folly, a little folding of the hands, the little flies, the little foxes. Just little things.

Little foxes that spoil the vine. Little flies that get into the ointment. Little folding of the hands that can spoil it, can dry us up, can make us unfruitful for God.

So a need then to be very, very concerned. Give me these. Give me the spring.

Give me freshness. Give me that which is going to produce fruitfulness for God in my life. Now, I know we don't pray for the Spirit of God, but have you ever prayed that God would make you more fruitful? Make you more like his son and use you to be more fruitful for him? Now, fruit, of course.

We have three different powers at work to produce fruit. We're all familiar, of course, with John chapter 15, abiding in a vine. The life of Christ flowing through you and flowing through me that makes us fruitful.

Not fruit in seeing people saved or fruit in seeing additions to the assembly, but making us more like his son. Reproducing the life of the vine in the branch. We are branches.

He's the vine. That life is reproduced in you and reproduced in me as a result of abiding in it. So, in John 15, it's the person of Christ, abiding in him, that produces fruit.

Galatians 5, of course, is the fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit of God indwelling me who will produce fruit as I yield to him. So we have the ninefold fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians chapter 5 that is produced as a result of allowing the Spirit of God to control my life.

2 Peter chapter 1, we have three things God has given that we might be fruitful. He's given us like precious faith. He's even given us exceeding great and precious promises.

He's given us all things that pertain to life and godliness that by these we might become partakers of a divine nature. So we have all that God has provided. We have the Spirit of God within.

We have Christ and all he is. So we have all of this to make us fruitful for God so that we can call upon God and ask him, help me to become more fruitful in my life. And, of course, there is the fruitfulness in terms of our labor, in terms of our activities, whether it's children's work, gospel work, ministry, whatever it may be, asking God to make us more fruitful for his pleasure, for his glory.

And so here was a young woman and she was not content, not content, to simply have the land without it becoming fruitful, without it becoming a blessing. In that Upper Room ministry we spoke of, John 13 to John 17, you'll have to look at it for yourself, five different mentions in five different ministries of the Spirit of God and his activity in the lives of believers. Now some of it has already passed relative to the writing of the Word of God given to the apostles.

He would tell them things to come. So some of that ministry has passed, but some of it is still very present. And some of it is still very active.

So the Spirit of God in his ministry and your life and mine, making us fruitful for God. So there were men who was not content. Give me a spring, prosperity that was deserved.

Then we have the daughters of Zelophehad. These five young women who desired fruit, rather, desired their land. These verses, if we went into them in detail, describe the Western half.

Two and a half tribes, you recall, dwelt on the Eastern side of Jordan. The other tribes possessed the land that God intended them to be on on the Western side of Jordan. So the Western half of the tribe of Manasseh situated on the West of Jordan was the inheritance of these five sisters.

These sisters, these five sisters stand in stark contrast to the sons of Joseph. They wanted more, but they weren't willing to possess what they had. They weren't willing to drive out the enemy.

They're too short. They've got chariots of iron. We can't take care of them.

Give us something else. Here were women who stood up and said, we want what God has promised us. We want these places that God has promised us, and we want to enjoy all that we have.

Here is the boldness of grace. We're looking for God to bless us. We want God's blessing.

We want what God has brought to us. Now, elsewhere we would read that Moses brought their cause before the Lord, and explained their situation, and God made an ordinance, and so on. But I just want to use this as an illustration, because what they did preserved inheritance among the tribe for the rest of that tribe's existence.

We don't want the inheritance of our father to pass out of the tribe. We want it to stay within the tribe. We don't want the tribe to lose anything because our father did not have sons.

Sisters can be a tremendous blessing to a local assembly. Please never think for a moment that because you are silent, and you take a place of submission, that somehow you are ancillary to the whole cause of the assembly. You are as vital as every brother is, and you can contribute to the assembly as much as any brother contributes.

We don't have time, but you look at 1 Timothy 2, the assembly prayer meeting, and you'll find that the presence of the sisters carries as much weight as the words of the brethren. Okay? Look at it. Women are there encouraged to be submissive, and to be putting emphasis not on the outward attire, and gold, silver, and so forth, but rather on a meek and quiet spirit, which is the spirit of God of great price.

So what's that got to do with the prayers of the brethren? What are the brethren praying for? They're praying for men to realize the value of the spiritual instead of the material. And so here are sisters who are living that. They're showing the value of the spiritual over the material.

Now there's nothing wrong, nothing wrong with sisters being well-dressed, being nicely attired. You should be. It's a testimony to yourself.

But to put all the emphasis on the outward, all the emphasis, and nothing on the inward, is to misplace the value. So here are men, they're praying for men to realize spiritual more important than material. Here are sisters who are showing by their attire that the spiritual is more important than the material.

But then, what else? Well, the men are praying that leaders will be submissive to the Word of God and recognize their need for salvation. What about the sisters? By their silence and their attire, they're showing their submission to the Word of God. So they're submitting to the Word of God so that men can pray without compromise that men will be submissive to the Word of God and salvation.

So the attire, the behavior, the submission of the sisters carries as much weight as the words of the brethren. So you're not secondary. But not only that, but most individuals who are brought out to gospel meetings that we have are brought out by the sisters.

They have the contacts in the neighborhood, contacts at school where children are brought to school, contacts that... So the sisters really are evangelistic in a tremendous way. At least, I can tell you from our own assembly and our own experience at home, we were... When my wife and I first came into fellowship, very small assembly, likely less than 20. Now we're 50.

The majority of the individuals added to the assembly were through the work of sisters. Three sisters in particular who have been instrumental in different ways, never moving out of their sphere of usefulness, never moving out of their scriptural place, but they have been instrumental in seeing the assembly grow and prosper. The work of sisters through personal work, through bringing people to tent meetings and the domino effect, one stranger gets saved, they bring their friends, they get saved.

So sisters have a tremendous role to play in a local testimony. Never think that your role is subsidiary to the brethren. Never think that your role somehow is secondary and not important.

You are as important as any brother. Remember, personhood, there's absolute equality of personhood. It's position that is different.

In every sphere of... Every unit, whether it's government, family, society, assembly, there is hierarchy, meaning there are those who are leaders and there are those who are submissive in leadership. So never, never feel that you are somehow secondary. Here were women and they had a vision for the future.

As they looked at their future, they realized there's a danger of the inheritance being lost and somehow we don't want that. We want to maintain what God has given us. So could I just appeal to the sisters? Do you have a vision? A vision for the assembly? What it could be? Do you ever look at people and think, if God could save that person, what a... I think I'm going to latch on to that.

I want to see that person saved. I want to see that person brought in. People with vision.

I know that verse is often quoted, where there is no vision, the people perish. Of course, that's got to do with prophetic vision and the truth of God, but I think still there's a measure in which we can apply it. Every assembly needs vision, needs to be able to think of the future, what could be, what God could do, how God could bless.

So our sisters especially need to be encouraged, need to be strengthened and to realize you have a great role to play in the assembly. You can influence more lives in your personal contacts than many times the brethren can. So do not ever think you are a subsidiary, secondary, minor role.

You have a major role to play in God's assembly, as important as any of the brethren. You can have an exercise to see the assembly blessed, to see the assembly fruitful. Having a deep burden for the future and the blessing of God's assembly.

Then we have the request of the Levites, give us our cities, give us our cities. Again we have faith claiming what God has promised for them. Interesting that of all the tribes, of all the tribes and their inheritance, it's only Caleb and the Levites who actually come to claim their inheritance.

All the other tribes sit back and wait for Joshua to give them their inheritance. But Caleb and the Levites come claiming their inheritance. So here are people who come claiming God's inheritance.

Now I think here is a wonderful story, a wonderful lesson. Let me go back with you for a moment. You remember the sad, tragic story of Levi and Simeon in the book of Genesis.

They used the sword and the result of their use of the sword upon the men of Shechem and the deceitfulness and the slaughter and the barbaric treatment of others. Jacob said that he would divide them in Israel. They wouldn't have an inheritance.

They wouldn't have a place that would be their own. Simeon got absorbed into the tribe of Judah eventually. But the Levites, the judgment that they would be scattered, seems like such a tragedy.

But God turned the tragedy into a blessing. Because again, once again, the Levites took up the sword. This time, it's Exodus 32.

And the children of Israel are worshiping a golden calf. And Moses says, who's on the Lord's side? And the tribe of Levi steps forward. Again, they take the sword.

This time, they take the sword to accomplish the will and work of God. And as a result, God is going to bless them. And so while God had pronounced judgment upon them to scatter them, God is going to scatter them and make them useful for the children of Israel by making them those who would teach the word of God in all the cities where they were scattered.

So God turned what seemed to be a tremendous failure into blessing for the nation. God intended the Levites, as they were scattered in all of these 48 cities, to become those who would teach the law of God to the people of God in the various cities to which they were sent. Now, of course, they didn't accomplish all they were supposed to do, but nevertheless, it's grace reigning again in wondrous beauty.

So let me just take a moment. One of the things we learn about God is that failure is never final with God. God can take very, very difficult, very dark circumstances, and where there is a desire, where there is repentance and a desire to honor God and please Him, He can turn and bring about recovery, restoration, and usefulness.

Levi took the sword once and dishonored God. He took the sword again and honored God in his taking of it. And God now is going to give them inheritance in the land and is going to bring blessing upon them and use them as a result of their dispersion throughout the cities to be a blessing to the entire nation of Israel.

I think it's wonderful that we have a God of restoration. We have a God who is able to take what seems to be failure and even despite the failure and through the failure, bring blessing to His people. He's done it time and again.

We mentioned Jonah earlier. As a result of Jonah's disobedience, he and his sailors were saved. I take it the men on the boat, when they threw Jonah overboard and cried to God for forgiveness, they were saved.

They had heard of the God, they had a visual demonstration of the greatness of the God that Jonah believed in and Jonah followed. And as they saw the awesomeness of that God and realized the justice of that God, they cried to Him for mercy. So men were saved as a result.

God is a God who moves in sovereign ways and wondrous ways. So we're reminded here then of the Levites and their requests that God would give them were a God of recovery, a God of restoration, a God who can re-employ and use people for His glory. We mentioned as well, or we read as well, verse number four, the children of Israel gave unto the Levites.

The chapter ends with God giving unto the nation. So those who gave to the Levites, God gave to them. So listen to this, you never lose by giving to God.

You never lose by giving to God. You can never out-give God. Though He may not give you back exactly what you've given Him.

You may think, well, maybe tomorrow morning I'll give $50 instead of $25 and that means God's going to give me $75. No. He doesn't always respond in the same currency.

But you never can out-give Him. He will always out-give you in one way. It may be spiritual wealth, it may be a blessing in some other form, but they gave to God.

The children of Israel gave to the Levites their inheritance at the mouth of the Lord, at the commandment of the Lord. And the chapter ends by God giving them all the land. They gave 48 cities, God gave them everything.

Never withhold from God for fear that somehow you're losing out. We sang those words. I am embarrassed to sing them, I have to tell you.

We're the whole realm of nature of mine that we're an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my heart, my life, my all. I can only sing them from the standpoint that that's what He does deserve.

I'm not sure that I have ever reached that point in my own life. But that's what He does deserve, our all. Here are those then who gave and God gave back in return.

What about the men of Ephraim, the men of sons of Joseph? Their misconception, first of all, we are large in number. Somehow numbers gave them a sense of entitlement. Because we're big, God should have special favor towards us.

Never forget, never forget, none of us have entitlement to anything. We have no entitlement. We all stand on the ground of mercy and grace.

No entitlement. So if God blesses another family and your family is not blessed, God saves someone else's children and your children aren't saved, have no entitlement, no guarantee. You might say, I've done this, I've brought my children to meeting the entire time, and I've given God a place in my life, and you can't make God sign a contract with you.

You can't make God sign on a dotted line that if I bring my children to all the gospel meetings, you will have to save my children. God frequently does work that way, but he's not under contract. We can't make God somehow indebted to us.

We're indebted to him. Here were men who thought they had an entitlement to more land, to a bigger inheritance, to something greater, but they weren't willing to claim what was theirs already. So they had this great misconception and were large in number and God should give us more, but they actually hadn't possessed what they could have possessed.

Notice their malcontentedness. They're marked by arrogance. They're not content with what they have.

Don't mention they ever followed Joshua's advice. Now, sadly, sadly, this attitude with Ephraim didn't end here. You trace this to the book of Judges.

Ephraim is marked by belligerence, by warfare, by pride, by arrogance. Eventually, eventually, we'll see that you go into the book of Judges with Gideon, with Jephthah. The case against Jephthah, when they rose up in anger against Jephthah, 42,000 of the tribe were put to death in battle.

Tremendous loss because of a sense of entitlement and pride. I don't know much about Iowa other than lovely Christians, great assemblies, great gospel activity, all the rest. But I do know in other parts of the world, personality conflicts and pride have brought immeasurable damage to assembly testimony.

Standing my ground, wanting what I deserve, holding for my rights. We have no rights. You'll never find your rights in the word of God.

All you'll find are your responsibilities. Now, I know that we have to stand for truth. And we can parade our particular personality desires with a thin veneer of truth, as though we're standing for truth when really it's personality and pride that is behind it all.

Pride was going to divide the nation. Pride was going to lead to tremendous damage and destruction to God's testimony in Israel. So we need to all judge that in the presence of God.

Someone has well said, pride is the last thing that dies when a person dies. You've seen them die in the hospital. They still want their makeup on.

They still want to look nice, okay? Because pride is the last thing that goes. We're all the same. We all dress it up in different ways.

But here were men marked by pride and it led to murmuring, it led to discontent, it led to problems in the nation. Eventually it was going to really ruin the nation. This ephraumatic pride that was going to be responsible.

Here the seed was sown at the very beginning, at the very entrance into the land. The seed was sown that was going to become a destructive force in the nation. Because men wanted more than God gave them and they refused to even enjoy what God had already given them.

Give us something else. The chariots are too strong. The chariots of iron we can't fight against.

Give us a different inheritance. No. You've got what God has given you.

Go in and possess it. But they refused. And as a result, they sowed division, sowed the seeds of discontent within the nation.

How much better? How much better to be a Caleb? Or to be an Aksa? Or to be like the priestly men of Levi? Or to seek to enjoy like the five daughters of Zalophah had, to seek to maintain what God has given and to be a blessing to others. So these five entreaties, five requests that punctuate the little book of Joshua, as men either claim their inheritance or fail to claim it. It's amazing.

If you Google it, there's an entire army of individuals out there, attorneys and so on, who will be happy for a price to find you inheritances that you didn't know you had. Even find out if you belong to royalty in some distant way, whether you can trace your roots back to some ancient Danish king or some ancient English monarch. All happy to do it for a price because people do not enjoy their inheritance.

Tragic if we, the people of God, fail to enjoy our inheritance because our inheritance, first of all, was purchased at tremendous cost. Our inheritance is secure because of Christ. Our inheritance is far greater than any material inheritance could ever be.

Our inheritance is what is ours for all eternity, all because of our Lord Jesus Christ. Shall we pray? Our Father, we thank you for the day we have had and thank you for the truths that we have been reminded of from thy word. Pray that speaker and hearer alike will be challenged by it and seek to grow and to live in the good of all that God has provided for us.

Thank you for thy people. Thank you for the kindness of the assembly in convening this day of ministry. Thank you for their kindness in meeting all of our physical needs and our spiritual needs as well.

Pray for all those who have come from a distance that safety will be granted as they travel home and remember the meetings on tomorrow, both the remembrance and gospel work. We pray for blessing to attend the preaching of the word of God for the good of thy people and the blessing of souls. And now we return thanks again for the word of God and the meeting we have had together, praying for thy good hand to be with us as we return our thanks, conscious of thy mercy and grace of which we have become the beneficiaries.

Receive our thanks in our Savior's worthy, precious name. Amen.