DIVISION OF THE LAND WEST OF JORDAN.—THE INHERITANCE OF CALEB
CRITICAL NOTES.—The section of the history which is introduced in the first five verses of this chapter terminates with chap. 19., and deals with the division of the land lying between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, among the nine and a half tribes.
Joshua 14:1. Eleazar the priest] He was solemnly set apart to this office in Mount Hor, just before the death of his father. As the distribution of the land was to be by lot, Eleazar the priest is named before Joshua. This, too, is the order in which the names occur in Numbers 34:17. As Keil points out: “In every other respect, even in the distribution of the land, Joshua was at the head of the commission appointed for that purpose, as we may clearly see from Joshua 14:6, chap. Joshua 17:14, Joshua 18:3.” The high priest only had precedence in things purely sacred. To consult God was the first step in dividing the land, and this was to be done by God’s high priest. Heads of the fathers of the tribes] Called “princes” in Numbers 34:18, following which the ten names of the representatives are given.
Joshua 14:4. The children of Joseph were two tribes] Levi not being counted. This is stated to show how the number of twelve tribes was nevertheless preserved in the territorial division. Cities … with their suburbs] The extent of these suburbs was to be one thousand cubits beyond the city wall, in each direction (Numbers 35:4-5). The difficulty of the verses in Numbers is well explained by Keil. Therefore they gave] Heb. = “And they gave.” It is not said that this was the reason why the Levites had no portion of territory.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Joshua 14:1-5
GOD’S CHOICE OF HIS PEOPLE’S INHERITANCE
The principal topic of these verses is the division by lot of the inheritance of the nine and a half tribes. The lot was of the Lord; the details of the method in which it was obtained are not stated. Probably the process was carried on at the door of the tabernacle, and presided over by Eleazar, the high priest. Further than this we know little. The Rabbins think that two urns were used, one containing the names of the districts to be chosen, and the other the names of the tribes, a simultaneous selection being made from each urn. The employment of two urns, however, is a mere speculation. The operation would have been equally definite had the representative of each tribe drawn for his people the name of the district from one urn. However the process may have been conducted, the issue was directed by Jehovah. “The lot was cast into the lap” (lit., “bosom,” perhaps meaning that of the vessel or garment employed); “but the whole disposing thereof was of the Lord.”
Looking in a general way at the subject of the verses, the following thoughts are suggested:—
I. An insignificant lot, feeble creatures to occupy it, and the lot, nevertheless, chosen by God. The Jews fully believed in the Divine guidance in this form. In the solemn judgment of Achan, the question, to them, must have been placed altogether beyond doubt. Scripture continually teaches that God directly affords His guidance to men, and that in other matters than on occasions like this. “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”
1. God’s choice of our lots in this life is no fiction, but an evident reality. It is not manifest and visible; it is nevertheless placed beyond doubt. No eye could see the hand of God within the urn from which the princes made their selection; that hand was there notwithstanding. It is thus always. We can never pronounce upon this as we look at the process; we can often speak confidently as we mark the results. Taking this case, for instance, of the dividing of the land, compare the prophetic blessings of Jacob and Moses with the issues of the lot. “The portion, says Masius,” as reported by Dr. Clarke, “fell to each tribe just as Jacob had declared two hundred and fifty years before, in the last moments of his life, and Moses immediately before his death; for to the tribe of Judah fell a country abounding in vineyards and pastures; to Zebulon and Issachar, sea coasts; in that of Asher was plenty of oil, wheat, and metals; that of Benjamin, near to the temple, was, in a manner, between the shoulders of the Deity; Ephraim and Manasseh were distinguished with a territory blessed in a peculiar manner by heaven; the land of Naphtali extended from the west to the south of the tribe of Judah” (cf. chap. Joshua 19:34). While there is some difficulty as to the case of Naphtali, the general correctness of this description of agreement is unquestionable. In the same way who can fail to see God’s guidance and choice in the lot of Abraham, of Joseph, of Moses, or of Cyrus. Similarly Christ marked out the future of some of His apostles. He said of John words which seemed to intimate a long life; to Peter, “Thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee;” and, not least noteworthy, of Paul, “I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” No less does God choose the lot of His servants now. The unseen process. The reality of the fact.
2. This concern of God in the lot which men shall occupy in life is very wonderful in its condescension. How glorious is the universe over which Jehovah rules! How insignificant must any one of these little divisions of Canaan have appeared to Him! How frail, physically and religiously, were the creatures who were to occupy these little lots! For what a mere point of time, to Him who is the Eternal, could they hold them! How very wonderful does Divine condescension appear as we see the Divine attention seemingly concentrated for century after century on these few lots of land in Palestine, which pass successively towards, into, and through the hands of so many occupants! What a mere morsel of a lot each individual life is concerned with, and for what a mere moment of time is the lot held by any particular life! Yet all this is but a picture, taken from the gallery of Providence by the hand of Revelation, and held out to the gaze of men. It is only a section, and that given but in outlines, of a long panoramic view of God’s care of human lives, which began with Adam, which has never ceased with any one of his descendants, which is being extended to-day, and in which, it may be, the redeemed shall presently, through the ages of eternity, examine with wonder, awe, and admiration, the wisdom, patience, and love displayed in God’s marvellous care for His creatures.
II. Many lots, and many would be choosers, but the choice of the Lord the only choice worth following. Men see about them in life an endless variety of conditions, and not a few think the lot of their neighbour better than their own. Men and women cry out not only for a “changed cross,” but for a changed lot. Contrary to what they feel to be the leadings of Providence, not a few try to force their way through life in some other direction. They have no care to study the will of God, and not unfreqnently try to avoid it. Either here or hereafter, the sorrowful issues of a course like this cannot but disclose its folly. The following things should be borne in mind touching the choice of God:—
1. It is the choice of one who knows us perfectly. We know little of ourselves. Every day’s experience proves this. The very proverbs which have obtained an abiding place in our literature prove it: “Man, know thyself;” “The greatest study of mankind is man,” etc. God knows how much we can bear; how much prosperity, how much adversity, how much change, how much monotony. He knows us altogether.
2. It is the choice of one who sees our lot as perfectly as He knows ourselves. We can see no distance before us. We cannot take into the account what our great poet calls the “millioned accidents” which intervene between our plans and their results, and “blunt the sharpest intents.” All these, even as we ourselves, are “naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”
3. It is the choice of one who prepares our lot beforehand. The lot of our lives is no haphazard thing. God had been four hundred and thirty years preparing these lots for the Israelites. From the call of Abraham onward, a hundred events shew the careful preparation of the Lord.
4. It is the choice of one who ever holds our lot well within His own control. Nothing surprises Him. Nothing defeats His purpose. Nothing escapes without the boundless circle of His management. Nothing changes His benevolent designs. “He is in one mind, who can turn Him?” Only we ourselves, by persistent sin, can break away from His gracious intentions.
5. It is the choice of one who equally controls all surrounding lots. All the lots which lie around our own, all events of others which touch upon the events of our own lives, are also at His bidding. And “All things work together for good to them,” etc.
These are but items in the list which, could we read it fully, would tell us of His infinite fitness to undertake for us. Let the song of the after ages, from the lips of the descendants of Israel, bear its witness to the blessedness of the choice of the Lord (cf. Psalms 47:1-4). The children of these very people, centuries later, learned to cry out in a great and irrepressible joy: “O clap your hands all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.… He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom He loved.”
III. The Divine choice of human lots acquiesced in by men, or resisted by men, and God’s will alike prevalent in either case.
1. Think of God’s choice in its interworking with the willing efforts of His own people. The land was to be divided by lot, but the lot could only point out the district; the extent of its boundaries had to be decided by the leaders of the people. A large tribe was to have much territory; a small tribe was to have little. That was the general rule for the distribution (Numbers 26:51-56; Numbers 33:54). “The lot,” says Clericus, “appears to have determined only the situation, but not the size of the fields.” So Calvin, Masius, and Keil also expound. God determined the situation, and, saving regulations to guide them, He left men to determine the extent. It is much the same in our lives now. God interworks with the man who follows His will, and while He shapes the life in its main features, He leaves very much to ourselves. He leaves much to our faithfulness in conflicts which yet remain. He leaves much to our energy and industry in daily toil. He leaves much to our judgment, asking us in all difficulties to refer back to Him for further guidance. Thus, Providence is no mere machine which forces us into life, through life, and then presently forces us out of life. We are purposely left to determine much ourselves, thus forming and cultivating and proving our own character. “We are workers together with God.”
2. Consider God’s choice in its triumph over those who oppose His will and oppose His people. Ultimately, as many instances bear testimony, His way prevails. It was thus with Joseph’s brethren, with Pharaoh, with Haman, and with others of those who set themselves against the Lord, and against the people whom He called His own. (a) It is useless to resist God in His plans for our personal life.
“There’s a Divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.”—Hamlet.
He who wants his own way in life without hindrance, must begin by choosing submission to the way of the Lord.
“Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours to make them Thine.”—In Memoriam.
(b) It is equally useless to resist God in His plans for others. One of the greatest instances of this has recently entered upon the pages of history. In order to prevent the escape of their slaves, the American Senate enacted the Fugitive Slave Law, which required, under severe penalties, that no one should harbour the fugitive who was fleeing from bondage, or in any way assist his escape. But God’s time for the end of American slavery had come, and the effort to retain it in greater strength did but hasten its overthrow. The operation of the Act is thus described by the late Wm. Arnott: “The stroke which was intended to rivet the fetters of the slave more firmly, guided in its descent by an unseen hand, fell upon a brittle link, and broke it through. The newspapers announced that the cruel device had been enacted into a law. The intelligence fell like a spark on the deep compassion that lay pent up in a woman’s heart, and kindled it into a flame. The outburst took the form of a book, the instrument of power usually employed in these later ages of the world. It is certainly true, and is widely known, that the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law produced the book, and that the book caused a panorama of slavery to pass before the eyes of millions in America and Europe, inexpressibly augmenting the public opinion of the civilised world against the whole system, root and branch. Let no one imagine that we are elevating little things into an undue importance; we speak of Jehovah’s counsel, and how it stands erect and triumphant over all the devices of men. He is wont to employ weak things to confound the mighty. Long ago He employed the tears of a helpless child and the strong compassion of a woman (Exodus 2:6) as essential instruments in the exodus of an injured race, and it would be like Himself if, in our day, while statesmen and armies contend in the senate and the battle field, He should permit women who remain at home to deal the blow which decides the victory, and distribute the resulting spoil. ‘He sits King upon the floods.’ ‘All are His servants.’ ‘Stand still and see the salvation of God.’ ”
Such has ever been the way in which God has made it apparent that “the counsel of the wicked shall not stand.” He may work by feeble means, as though He would shew the abundance of His power, but His way must stand. He who opposes the will of God does but hasten his own overthrow (Jeremiah 13:24-25). In this, as in many things besides, the volume of Divine revelation and that of human history are one.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Joshua 14:1.—INHERITING THE PROMISED POSSESSION.
I. The promised possession in its reality. “Which the children of Israel inherited.” The promise given to Abram, and repeated through several generations, was not merely a promise. The time for actual inheritance had come at last. God’s promises all end in an estate.
II. The promised possession in its need of faith and patience. The inheritance had been a long time coming. More than four hundred and fifty years had passed since the Lord called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land, and look upon it as the future home of his people. Canaan was for so long “The Promised Land,” that it got to bear that name, a fact not a little significant, intimating, perhaps, something of the long struggle between human hope and human impatience. He who “waits on the Lord” may well wait in confidence. “The vision is yet for an appointed time.”
III. The promised possession in relation to the grace and power of God. Now that the people had to last come to the inheritance, what a picture was presented in the path behind them of the longsuffering and help of Jehovah. Egypt, the Exodus, the Wilderness, the crossing of the Jordan, the fall of Jericho, and the various victories which followed, were all eloquent of the power of the Divine arm and the love of the Divine heart. What had the people done apart from God? We come into nothing worth holding, saving as we reach it by the same might and the same love. “Not by might, nor by power,” etc. As when we look back from each valuable estate in life, we have to feel that God hath wrought all, so when we look forward to blessings for which we wait, let us be willing to accept the Lord’s words, “Without Me ye can do nothing.”
IV. The promised possession on earth a possession in which rest is only partial. The land which Israel was about to divide, could only be entered upon with much care and much conflict. Faith, patience, wisdom, and work were still largely needed. It is ever thus with all estates on earth, not excepting our more spiritual possessions. Rest is broken, not only by toil, but by conflict. We never get an inheritance here in which there are not left some foes to dispute the possession with us.
V. The promised possession in heaven a possession in which rest is perfect. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” It is only at the point of death that we come to the last of our foes, but after that the inheritance is undisputed for ever. We must not think, however, that the rest is free from work. It has no toil, yet it is full of activity. As has been remarked, while Scripture teaches that heaven is perfect rest, it also says of some there, “They rest not day nor night.” Inaction must be worse than toil. How blessed must be the activity which is all prompted by love, which knowns no conflict, and which feels no care!
Joshua 14:2.—THE INHERITANCE DIVIDED BY LOT.
I. The lot of God in its silent and invisible working. The unseen chariot of Providence is drawn by invisible steeds, and the wheels thereof run noiselessly.
II. The lot of God in its extensive range. It dealt with the whole country. Providence has no waste land. Every acre of the universe is under its inspection and cultivation.
III. The lot of God in its mysterious complexity. Every single lot had its relation to every other lot, to every year in each succeeding century of Israelitish history, to every inhabitant of the land through all that period, and thus to nations, far and near, outside of Canaan.
IV. The lot of God in its irreversible issues. The lot once taken was not to be altered. The ways of Providence shew no hesitation, and suffer no readjustment by men.
V. The lot of God in its witness to Divine wisdom and love. The wisdom is corroborated by the song of the generations following (Psalms 47); the love is apparent in the condescension which shews such care at the time, and in the patience which helps and blesses for so long a period afterwards. God not only chooses the portions of His people, but gives them many an after-occasion to sing, “Thou maintainest my lot. The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.”
THE LOTS NOT ALL DRAWN AT THE SAME TIME
“It is somewhat remarkable that the casting of the lots was stopped as soon as Judah and Joseph had received their shares. The command of God, that the whole land, even that which had not yet been conquered, should be portioned out amongst the nine tribes and a half (chap. Joshua 13:1-7), would lead us to expect that when once the casting of the lots had commenced, it would proceed uninterruptedly, until every tribe had received its share; and that it would only have to enter it in reliance upon the Divine promise, and exterminate, or at least subjugate, the Canaanites who still remained. But, instead of this, as soon as the shares had been allotted to two tribes and a half, the camp was removed from Gilgal to Shiloh (chap. Joshua 14:6, Joshua 18:1; Joshua 18:9), and the tabernacle set up there; and the other tribes manifested so little anxiety to receive their inheritance, that Joshua had to say to them, ‘How long are ye slack to go to possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you?’ He then appointed a commission, consisting of twenty-one men, three from each tribe, and sent them out to survey the country, and bring home a description of it, and to divide it into seven parts. And it was not till after the description of the country, thus arranged according to its cities, had been received, that he was able to proceed with the lot, and distribute to each tribe its appointed share. The reason for this interruption is not stated. Masius (on chap. Joshua 15:1-4) thinks it necessary to assume, that after the defeat of the Canaanites in the south and the north, the division of the conquered land was commenced by the territory which fell to the tribes of Judah and Joseph being awarded by lot, without any accurate measurement, and that only the two tribes mentioned, as being the most powerful, were allowed to draw lots for it. By the appropriation of the southern district of Palestine to these tribes, the camp at Gilgal was well guarded from any sudden attack on the part of the enemy; an important precaution, as the other tribes had shewn so little desire to take possession of the inheritance which was hereafter to be assigned to them. The exact distribution of the land was therefore postponed until messengers had been despatched in every direction to make a survey of the country, and to bring back an accurate description. This view is generally approached by Rosenmüller, De Wette, and Lengerke.” [Keil, pp. 346–7.] To this assumption of Masius, however, Keil very properly objects that “it is at variance with the Divine command to divide the whole country by lot amongst the nine tribes and a half, the unconquered as well as the conquered portions, and almost destroys the value and defeats the purpose of the lot.” Probably, as with the seven tribes later on, the lot merely decided the general position to be occupied by Judah, Ephraim, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, leaving the more exact adjustment of territory to be made after the general survey had taken place. This accords best with the subsequent settlement of Simeon within the lot roughly given at first to Judah, and with the subsequent cession of towns and territory made by Judah and Ephraim to the smaller tribe of Dan.
Joshua 14:3-4.—LEVI, MANASSEH, AND EPHRAIM.
“It is here repeated for the third time, with regard to the Levites, that they were not included in the number, so as to have the portion of a tribe assigned to them; but it is mentioned for a different purpose, for it is immediately after added that the sons of Joseph were divided into two tribes, and were thus privileged to obtain a double portion. Thus had Jacob prophesied (Genesis 49), or rather, like an arbiter appointed by God, he had in this matter preferred the sons of Joseph to the others. God therefore assumed the Levites to Himself as a peculiar inheritance, and in their stead substituted one of the two families of Joseph.”—[Calvin.]