Have many of you have more than one child? Or how many are managers of departments with more than one person? For those of you that answered “I am”, I want you to put yourself in Joshua’s shoes for a few moments.
You have been leading these people, these children and they have been following you from victory to victory but now it’s time to stop and enjoy the spoils (the goods, the stuff) of battle. How do you divide it fairly and make everyone happy?
“After Israel had captured the land, they met at Shiloh and set up the sacred tent. 2 There were still seven tribes without any land, 3-7 so Joshua told the people:
The Judah tribe has already settled in its land in the south, and the Joseph tribes have settled in their land in the north. The tribes of Gad, Reuben, and East Manasseh already have the land that the Lord’s servant Moses gave them east of the Jordan River. And the people of Levi won’t get a single large region of the land like the other tribes. Instead, they will serve the Lord as priests.
But the rest of you haven’t done a thing to take over any land. The Lord God who was worshiped by your ancestors has given you the land, and now it’s time to go ahead and settle there.
Seven tribes still don’t have any land. Each of these tribes should choose three men, and I’ll send them to explore the remaining land. They will divide it into seven regions, write a description of each region, and bring these descriptions back to me. I will find out from the Lord our God what region each tribe should get.
8 Just before the men left camp, Joshua repeated their orders: “Explore the land and write a description of it. Then come back to Shiloh, and I will find out from the Lord how to divide the land.”
9 The men left and went across the land, dividing it into seven regions. They wrote down a description of each region, town by town, and returned to Joshua at the camp at Shiloh. 10 Joshua found out from the Lord how to divide the land, and he told the tribes what the Lord had decided.” Joshua 18:1-10 CEV
Battles had been won, enemies defeated, victory was theirs but they were still living in tents as they had in the wilderness. The cities they had conquered were unoccupied and there were fields to harvest and livestock to care for. But who would get what?
Joshua was determined to follow the Lord’s leading so he didn’t act in haste but waited for the men to return with a report of the land and then he “found out from the Lord how to divide the land, and he told the tribes what the Lord had decided”.
Now I am sure someone may have been tempted to complain as Joshua was giving out the allotments but I can just hear Joshua’s replay – I’m only doing what the Lord said, if you have a complaint take it up with Him.
As I was reading and studying Joshua I was also reading through Proverbs again. Solomon was the wisest man to ever live and as King he had to make many hard decisions. He said the thing he valued most was wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge in a right way.
None of us will probably ever have a responsibility as great as Joshua or Solomon but we all need to wait on the Lord for the decisions we do make. As I look back on my life, I can see the times when I made decisions without asking the Lord to direct and the times I have – the times I have certainly were the better.
When we follow the Lord it doesn’t mean that we won’t encounter enemies or battles but it does mean under His leadership we will emerge victorious and we will find rest!