40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Joshua 14:1-15:63 (Episode 194)

Episode Date: December 13, 2019

There is a lot about Caleb in this episode. He is older but no less ready to take the land God has promised them. A strange promise is made involving marriage. Why does Caleb use the word "perhaps"? In God what has become of death? Chad and Daniel discuss all of this. Have a listen! 1517 Podcast Network Houston City Event Las Vegas City Event Donate

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. And while you're over there, you can go to the events page, and you can see where the events are happening in 2020. We've got two city events coming. We've got one in Chad's great state of Texas, down there in Houston,

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big thank you man that was awesome that turned out spectacular yeah we uh we reached our goal uh exceeded our goal so uh thank you so much to those of you who uh who chipped in and uh hey if you if you haven't and you wanted to you know we're still it's still the end of the year we're still trying to get everything ready for 2020 and we're still trying to raise funds so if you want to join up with us you can still do that by going over to the donate page and and doing that but uh but thank you so much to those of you who made Giving Tuesday a success. We did hit the goal that we set for that one day. It kept us on track for where we wanted to be at the end of the year. So that is due to you, and thank you so

much for making all of this stuff possible. All right, Chad, where are we at in the gospel according to Joshua? Yeah, we're entering into—I mentioned this last time—we're entering into a section that's uh it's it's we're gonna move pretty fast let me put it that way we got a lot of division of land we got we got a lot of place names in these chapters let's put it that way so uh we're gonna touch on a few matters in uh at least chapter 14 and 15 we'll see about the other chapters but this is going to take us like through chapter around 19 uh the division of the land. So we will move as rapidly as we can through that so we can get kind of to the end of the book and spend some time on those last couple chapters. So anyway, we're in 14 right now, and I'm going

to talk a little bit about Mr. Caleb in chapter 14. So we started with the division of the land in chapter 13, and that's where we had the two and a half tribes mentioned that we've discussed multiple times, receiving their inheritance on the eastern side of the Jordan. Now we're going to shift gears in chapter 14 to a focus upon where Caleb is going to receive his inheritance, and we're going to hear a little bit about him, and I want to talk about something in relationship to Caleb that I don't think that we have touched on before. And that is his family tree. Because as it turns out, Caleb actually comes from a non-Israelite family when you go back a couple of generations. So I don't think we've talked about that before. So we'll discuss

that. Anyway, once we finish chapter 14, we'll jump into 15. And 15 is all about the division of the land for the tribe of Judah. So I want to talk just in kind of big terms about the place of Judah as a tribe in the history of Israel. Just kind of give us a, I know for some people that might be a little bit of review, but I want to try and give kind of the big picture of where Judah fits in to the broader biblical story, and then specifically why that tribe is so significant as it relates to to the messiah that's 14 to 15 and beginning with 16 we have 16 through 19 we have a discussion of how the various other tribes received received their inheritance so that's what's coming up jump back to the beginning of 14 and this is what we hear this is kind of the

introduction to this whole section now these are the territories which the sons of israel inherited in the land of canaan which eleazar the priest you remember that he inherited the high priesthood eleazar did and joshua the son of nun and the heads of the households of the tribes of the israelites apportioned to them for an inheritance by the lot of their inheritance as the lord commanded through moses for the nine and the half tribe so you know this is kind of confusing to some people when you start adding up the tribes because you have uh really you have 13 tribes basically the way this is divvied up instead of 12 because what happened with joseph's two sons ephraim and manasseh his inheritance was split between those two they were sort of adopted as

the sons of uh of jacob so you have you have ephraim manasseh kind of joseph joseph himself split into two tribes but the tribe of levi doesn't receive an inheritance except the cities and so it ends up where 12 tribes receive their portions and then this other tribe the levites they only receive the cities so if you're ever confused was like you start adding up and it's like what wait looks like there's 13 that's because joseph was split in two between his two sons and that's how you have this division so anyway you got the nine and a half tribe uh mentioned here in verse two so this is the way they did it they've got they got everybody involved joshua he's the leader of the israelites of course you got eliezer so he's the high priest

he's another one of the leaders and then you have these representatives from all these households the heads of all the households of the israelites and they start casting lots and dividing everything up and we've we've we've had this before already back in the torah the discussion of where these particular tribes are going to receive their land kind of scattered throughout uh scattered throughout the holy land so then it goes on verse three for moses to give any inheritance of the two tribes and the half tribe beyond the jordan but he did not give an inheritance the levites among them all this is just rehearsing what we've covered for the sons of joseph were two tribes this is what i was just discussing manasseh and ephraim and they did not give a portion to the

levites in the land except cities to live in and their pasture lands okay so that's all just kind of pulling together what we've discussed and explained many times before. Now, before he gets into the major divisions, he's going to spend the rest of the chapter, verses 6 through 15, talking about one particular individual and how he is going to get his land and why he gets his land. And this individual we're talking about is Caleb. So we met Caleb way back, right? Caleb was one of the the 12 guys that moses selected as spies to send across the jordan to check out the land and of course they all came back with the initial report that yeah everything is so awesome there i mean you got this fruit everywhere everything just looks fantastic except 10 of

them went on to say but there's no way we can do it because we're going to get killed because you know we look around everybody has fortified cities we compare our size to them we were like grasshoppers you got these sons of the aunt these uh the anakin the sons of anak these giant uh giants there so we just can't do it and of course that was the beginning of their 40 years of of wandering in the desert but we met caleb back then and of course joshua they were the two spies who said, no, we can do this. God's on our side. And they tried to get the people to, to follow them, to heed their advice, to trust in God's word, but to no avail. So they were the only two besides, yeah, they were the only two, they were the only two adults, 20 years old or over who

made it all 40 years and were allowed to cross into the promised land. So we're, of course, we've heard a lot, plenty about Joshua. This whole book is even named after him, but we haven't heard as much about caleb well now we're going to kind of get back to caleb and he's a he's a he's a pretty cool guy i mean it's it's you look at the old testament and there's plenty of people who you're like just kind of shake your head like my god this guy so many so many problems so many issues so many somebody just screw ups right after the other but there there are a few there are a you guys, you look at him, you're like, yeah, you know, I like this guy. And he kind of seems to have his act together. Well, Caleb is one of those rare specimens in the Old Testament, who to me,

anyway, seems to be like that. And I guess one of the reasons I appreciate this particular part of the story so much, too, is because he is old. He's 85 when all this happens. So it's not like you got some young guy he's like 25 and he's like as we'll hear in a minute he's like yeah give me that land because there's a bunch of big guys there and i'm gonna go in and i'm gonna kick their butts and i'm gonna drive them out of their cities and i'm gonna take over that land from them this guy's 85 years old so anyway that's kind of setting up uh what what's what's about to be what's about to be said okay so let's just kind of go through it and then we'll we'll discuss the details so uh the the sons of judah so the tribe of judah they come to joshua and gilgal and caleb

who is described as the son of jefunah the kinesite we're going to come back to that just a minute so that's his dad is jefunah or jefunah however you want to say that and he's described as a Knesset. Okay, so they say to Joshua, you know, or Caleb says to Joshua, you know the word which the Lord spoke to Moses, the man of God, concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear, but I followed the Lord, my God, fully. So what happened? Well, Moses swore on that day saying, shrewd the land on which your foot has trod and

shall be an inheritance to you and to your children forever because you have followed the Lord, my God, fully. And now look, the Lord has led me, has let me live just as he spoke these 45 years from the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses when Israel walked in the wilderness and now behold i'm 85 years old today i am i love this verse 11 i am still as strong today as i was in the day moses sent me as my strength was then so my strength is now for war and for going out and for coming in so what does he want to do well verse 12 tells us now that give me this hill country about which the lord spoke on that day for you heard on that day that Anakim, those are the giants, Anakim were there with great fortified cities. Perhaps the Lord will

be with me, and I shall drive them out as the Lord has spoken. So this big long speech that Caleb gives, and there's only three verses left. Here's what Joshua says. Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb for an inheritance, and therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb until this day because he followed the Lord God of Israel fully and then it ends with this verse now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath Arba for Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim then the land had rest from war what do you think of Caleb Caleb it reminds me of there's a this a while back that somebody asked michael jordan uh who's now like 50 if he could still dunk and he was like extremely insulted and and he says and he says what kind of question is that

and i'm thinking i don't know it seems like a reasonable question this is what this is what this reminds me of like caleb's like i'm exactly as good as i've ever been that is just exactly the way it is verse 11 hey i'm still as strong today as i was in the day moses sent me i mean i mean i i don't i i don't know of any 85 year olds who uh who would make that boast but caleb does this is good now as i as i used to be yeah that's uh yeah and you and you might think like oh he's maybe talking about like i'm as strong in the faith as i ever have yeah but that's not what he says like i'm as strong for fighting i'm as strong for i'm as strong for everything yeah whatever whatever you need me for i'm good you know i've kept up a

healthy diet i go to gold's gym avoid bad habits no i mean i i really think this is it's it's sort of his uh implicit way i think of of giving praise to god right because i mean he earlier says the lord has kept me alive all these years and i think it's more than like yeah i'm still got a you know beaten heart and breathing lungs i think he's kind of saying god has has done more than just kept me alive he's kind of kept me vivacious i suppose he's kept me in very good shape and i'm And I'm ready to ready to rock and roll still pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, Caleb is a, it's kind of hard not to, not to admire somebody like Caleb, but he made, he's got a long history here.

So I was trying to figure up here the years. So probably, so if he was 40 when Moses sent him in to spy off the land, that means he was probably about 38, I guess, when when they left egypt because it was brought up about a two-year period between when they you know crossed the red sea they journeyed through the wilderness they stay at sinai forever like over a year and then they have to go from there to to the holy land so yeah so he was say he was about about about 38 then he's 40 when he goes in and a spy and then you know for the next 40 years

he has to walk around and wait for his whole generation to die off and now here they are and for the last few years they've been doing all these conquests and we've mentioned this before you know it seems as if this is sort of a blitzkrieg right israel goes in and just beats everybody up wins almost every battle and it all happens within a matter of weeks well no no no it's not the way it happens i mean this is sort of telescoped here this whole account it makes It seemed as if it happened really fast, but it didn't. It took some time, five to seven years, we'll say, that they've been waging these battles and conquering cities

and doing everything they've been doing. So Caleb has been a very busy man leading his people these last few years. But he's not done yet. I mean, when I'm 85, if God gives me that length of life, I'm probably not going to be volunteering for military service. or for or for a whole lot of other things uh i might surprise myself but i don't really see that happening but he's like give me a challenge i want a challenge you know i'm not i'm not just say like give me a place with like a lot of fig trees and some some really good land i'm gonna

build a house and just gonna settle down there and bounce my grandkids on my knees now he's like you know you know where i want to go that hill country where all those giants still are that's what i want dude i'm like i'm 39 and if they were you know if they were like let's go fight the russians i'd be like god that sounds like a young man's game i'm not yeah i'm 39 years old man i can't do that like i can't be i can't be running around i'll serve as their counselor i can't go fight i'll give advice yeah so here we are with uh with mr 85 year old caleb uh wanting to want to lead his people into battle you know i can't and this kind of gets back something i was alluding to earlier i wonder and this is this is nothing but pure speculation but i wonder if part of the

reason that caleb is the way he is is because he kind of comes from it's almost well i don't want let's say he wants to prove himself, but you know, if someone is an outsider and they come in, there is sort of this idea that they're going to make sure by the efforts that they put forth, that everybody knows that they're, they're part of the team. You know, they are, they are fully in to whatever this endeavor is. And I wonder if maybe part of that might be Caleb's motivation because here's is what I was going to get to earlier. So Caleb comes from a family, a tribe, a people known as

the Kenizzites. It's kind of a strange word, K-E-N-I-Z-Z-I-T-E. And we don't know hardly anything about who the Kenizzites were, except this. So the only other mention of them not in connection with Joshua, because, I mean, not in connection with Caleb, because there's plenty of references of the Kenizzites in connection with Caleb, but the only other mention of them is back in, turn to it now, Genesis chapter 15, of course, Genesis 15, that's still in Abraham's day, and listen to these couple verses. This is from Genesis 15, 18, and 19. so this is this is the actually dan this is the we might have talked about this but this is the lost episode for those of you who are new listeners uh we were talking about this the

other day there is an infamous lost episode early early in the days in the youthful days of 40 minutes in the old testament we actually recorded it yep and then something just it got it got corrupted uh the file was corrupted it got taken down and then we i don't we didn't have the original and it's it's it's just gone forever yeah so if you're listening to 40 like if if you're uh like a lot of people have done you know they start listening when we're in exodus or deuteronomy or even now and they're like hey you know i kind of like this thing i think i'm gonna go back to the beginning this is lots of people have done this and they start listening genesis 1 onward and they'll get to certain you know what the you know which one it was it is uh

it is episode 21 okay so they'll get to 20 and they're like all right and they look for episode 21 and it's not there that is the lost episode and i'm pretty sure that lost episode was when we talked about the smoking oven that passed through the sacrifice and it's no big deal No, it's not like it was corrupted because we're spouting heresy during that particular episode or something. It's only one of the most important events in the entire life of Abraham. It's fine. Yeah, no big deal.

Well, maybe one of these days we'll come back to. But anyway, all that as a preface to what I was about to say. So this is 15, 18, and 19. On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying to your descendants, I have given this land from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephraim and so on and so forth. So Genesis 15, 19 is the only other reference besides those specifically linked with Caleb to the Kinezites, which means to me that at some point, the family of Caleb basically became part of, like were adopted by the tribe of Judah. so his family when you when you go back a few generations they came from a non-abrahamic lineage non-israelites and so they were basically converts to the faith of abraham at some point now we don't know when this happened we have no idea because we're never told but the fact that he is

from the Kenizzites tells us that he is not a physical descendant of Abraham, and in a sort of ironic way, Caleb is entering now, or has entered these last five to seven years, has entered into the land which originally was the location of his people. Now, we don't know where exactly the Canaanites were located in Canaan, but we know they were there, and so now in this kind of strange turn of events, Caleb, who's originally from, his family originally from Canaan, but who was brought into Israel, is now returning, and he is now in the covenant with God, receiving from God the land which he swore to Abraham, so it's kind of one of those God things, one of those strange turn of events that God was able to bring about for Caleb. And so here he is, after all these

years, about to enter in. And he's going to go into the hill country, which is where his foot trod, to use that language of the text, where he walked all those years before when he was spying out the land. So this is where he's going to be. And he says, the Anakim there, the people we've talked about many times they have their fortified cities and he he's got this there's one word there which might like raise questions for people it's it's the word perhaps he says now verse 12 now then give me this whole country about which the lord has spoken on that day for you heard on that day that the anakin were there with great fortified cities perhaps the lord will be with me and i shall dry them out just as the Lord has spoken. Now, don't make too much out of that particular word.

The Hebrew there is often used as sort of a, it's almost like a humble and hopeful expression. Caleb is not saying, I don't know, God might not be with me. I mean, I'm not sure. It's kind of a, I don't know, a self-deprecating sort of way. He's not like a lack of trust. It's just an expression of humility perhaps the lord will be with me and i shall drive them out just as the lord has spoken i mean i guess you could kind of compare it to our uh the latin phrase deo valente right if god wills i mean i'm not saying that this is like a for sure thing but if god wills it perhaps then uh not the perhaps isn't that he's gonna be with me but i shall be able to drive out these uh these giants yeah it's the difference between uh faith and presumption yeah that's a

i mean yeah there is uh there is a a bad thing that happens uh in the realm of faith uh we see this this is pervasive like where you just say like if i say this thing is going to happen then it's going to happen so i so you know i i say well i declare that chad does not going to need glasses anymore and because i believe it then god has to do it um that's not faith that's presumption what caleb is saying is that if god does go with him then he's definitely going to win he's not wondering if god goes with him if he will it'd be like me saying if you if we did go pray for someone who was sick we would say perhaps god will heal him now we're not doubting whether or not god can we're just saying perhaps it is in his will and if it's in his will it's definitely

going to happen yeah yeah yeah yeah i think the the biblical story i always go to kind of along these same lines in the in this same discussion is i was trying to find it here uh so when oh yeah here it is uh it's in it's in daniel it's the it's famous story of shadrach meshach and abednego getting thrown into the fiery furnace or right before they are thrown into the furnace you know of course they're not going to bow down to this uh to this idol the statue and uh here's When Nebuchadnezzar basically says, well, if you don't, you know, I'm going to barbecue you. They say, this is Daniel 3, 16 and following. Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter.

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. but even if he does not that's what i like but even if he doesn't let it be known to you that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up so you have this this twofold answer basically hey god can deliver us and he is is very able to do that but if even if he doesn't even if for whatever reason he doesn't do that well we're still going to do his will. And I mean, it's sort of like that here with Caleb. And I think it's just kind of a good model to follow. Yeah. I mean, you trust in the Word of God to do what it says, but it's not like you're guaranteed 100% results with regard to your actions, even as you trust God to be faithful to

His Word. Yeah. God always delivers you. He just doesn't always deliver you in a temporal sense. Yeah. I mean, sometimes you get martyred. Yes, this is true. Yeah. And when Paul says, god causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him it doesn't mean that we get always to see that either so that's a good thing to keep in mind yeah oh paul this is why paul could say that to live is christ and to die is gain yeah so i mean shadrach and meshach and abednego i think they're similar uh in the sense that i mean god will deliver us now he might not deliver us from this in fact this might be our entrance into that final deliverance that's the way he wants to do it but he certainly can yeah so i think that's the that's the way to uh the

way to view these i like the way you put it it's matter of faith and not presumption yeah well i don't know if you know this chad but chad ramishak and abednego did in fact eventually die so so this is how this works i mean at some point god doesn't deliver you from death yes yes yeah uh but the greater reality is that god always delivers you from death right right yeah i mean that's why you have that that uh kind of language in john right so i die but i but i don't die because if i'm in christ i don't die because i live in him so yeah i'm gonna die but but i don't or like paul says in galatians you know i've already died with christ and so it's he who lives in me now yeah that final deliverance is uh is is the great reversal where death becomes the doorway into

eternal life i mean it's it's all backwards yeah yeah well is it in first corinthians where paul says all things belong to us and they has this list and one of the things that's listed is death yeah let's just yeah it's a strange uh notion that death now belongs to the christian yeah we don't belong to it that's the great that's that other great reversal not like it's not like we are slaves of death and i'm quite the opposite actually slave death becomes a slave to us we own it so that it has to serve us by through death delivering us into into the kingdom yeah this is why and this is now we're way off the beaten path here but one of my favorite things that jesus does all the time is where he refers to death as sleep it's like it's like he refuses

to acknowledge its power because he knows he's going to go strip it of all that power so uh you know, who walks, some, some Lazarus or some kid that's like, ah, he's, he's, he's not dead. He's asleep. And I assure you he's dead, but not, not to Jesus. Jesus is like death. That's sleep to me. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I, I'll never forget this. I think I was at seminary. I was in a class and I could be wrong here, but I think it was with William Weinrich. I believe he's the one who taught me this. I didn't, I didn't realize it before. So for those of you listening who don't realize this here you go here's a moment you realize it that the greek word behind the word that we get for cemetery means sleeping place oh yeah so cool so when you refer to the cemetery

the etymology of that is not like a place for the burial of the dead the the the greek behind our english word for cemetery is sleeping place and just so the very word cemetery is sort of a it's a christian theological statement because we're when we when we go to the cemetery we're just just like you were saying oh look at all these people they're asleep yeah they're just waiting waiting to be woken up by that final trumpet blast and to have their bodies raised uh by by christ yeah this is why paul borrows that language or is it luke uh that That's where he says that, you know, like 500 people saw Christ right, you know, after after his resurrection. He says some of which are still alive and others who have fallen asleep, fallen asleep.

Yeah. Yeah. In other words, they will be woken up. Yeah. That's one of the I don't know. For me, that's just one of the most beautiful parts of the of the Christian confession with regard to the last things is that. yeah i mean we all have this fear of death but there's really no reason to have that fear because it's just like it's going to it's going to sleep let's get stuff i guess there's more we can say about uh chapter 14 but i think we pretty much uh covered everything in there so let's move on that's mr caleb and we got a few minutes here to talk about chapter 15 so i i thought i'd take chapter 15 is a case uh as as a jumping off point to as i mentioned earlier to talk about the tribe

of judah because all of chapter 15 is about the division of the land given to the uh to the tribe of judah now what's interesting about judah is that early on we saw this already in genesis right judah emerges as sort of the leader of the brothers so if you remember kind of the way back in the Joseph story, Judah was a total jerk. Judah the man was a total jerk at first with regard to Joseph. And then over the course of the whole Joseph narrative, Judah actually emerges as a pretty good guy. He emerges really as this leader of the rest of the brothers. And he's the one who kind of pledges his own life when it comes right down to it with regard to going down into Egypt. And then eventually, of course, realizing that Joseph, this man who was so powerful in

Egypt was actually their brother, Joseph. So all I have to say that early on Judah as a man emerges as sort of this leader among all of the brothers. He's the fourth son, by the way, not of the favorite wife. He's the fourth son of Leah. And once we get to Genesis 49, that's when Jacob blesses his sons. Even though Joseph is his favorite, the one who gets the longest blessing is Judah. So you see already in the blessing of the sons of Jacob, this prominence that's given to Judah. And then you get to a census in the book of Numbers. Well, who's the most populous of the tribes? Well, it's the tribe of Judah. And so now when we get to chapter 15 of Joshua, who gets the biggest portion of land? Well, it's the tribe of Judah. And this, by the way,

happens to be, I think it's 63. Yeah, 63 verses long. Joshua 15 is as long as chapter in the book of Joshua. So, in other words, Judah's kind of a big deal, and rightly so. Not just because at this point he's a big deal, but because as time goes on, of course, Judah emerges as the preeminent regal tribe of the Israelites. It's going to be Judah that, of course, David comes from, and it is not only the tribe of Judah, but the family of David, that in 2 Samuel 7, you have the very specific promise of the Messiah connected with, where David wants to build a house for God, and God turns around and says, no, no, no, I'm going to build a house for you. I'm going to build this regal lineage that's going to culminate in the Messiah. That's a promise that I've been

giving to you. So you see, over time, you begin with the guy named Judah, and then you have the tribe named Judah. And then over the course of the Old Testament, pretty much the nation itself is known as Judah, right? In fact, by the time you get to the first century, it's referred to as Judea which is both connected with the word for Jew as well as as Judah himself so anyway over time you have more and more of this focus this almost like exclusive focus upon upon the tribe of Judah until finally Christ is born and of course Matthew in his opening chapter makes quite a bit about that because he's focusing upon David and that genealogy and David is from the david is from the tribe of judah so uh anyway that's why that's why joshua 15 devote so much

time to uh to this this particular tribe and they are going to inherit if you can kind of picture in your mind or you can look this up there's plenty of maps that you can check out that show tribal divisions but if you're not there if you're just listening this kind of picture in your mind how israel looks well if you take the area from just about the the north end of the dead sea to the south end of the dead sea and just stretch it across all the way to the mediterranean that was a tribe that was the land apportioned to the tribe of judah it's a big chunk of land so all the way from the jordan river kind of the top of the dead sea to the bottom of the dead sea and then westward all the way to the mediterranean so that all that was given to them they it wasn't until i guess

solomon's reign before they actually possessed all of it because you had the strong holdout of the philistines along the the mediterranean coast in their cities that were of course still given david issues uh when he when he became king but anyway that was the big swath of land that was given to them. Now, we have one little story here that is, I think, of interest, if nothing else, and kind of a humorous tone to it. This is in the middle of the chapter, verses 13 and following. So, well, here's what happens. Caleb does exactly what he said he was going to do in chapter 14. So he goes into the whole country, and he captures the city of Hebron. It says he drove out the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahimon, and Ptolemy, these three descendants of Anak.

Verse 14 says he drove them out. And then it says he went from there to this city called Devir, formerly known as Kiriath Sefer. And Caleb makes this promise. He's like, all right. So he doesn't attack it for whatever reason. Probably because he's 80-something years old. Probably because he's 85, yeah. So he says, I tell you what.

Gathers all the guys around. Anybody who takes this city, I've got a prize for you. I'm going to give you my daughter, Aksa, as a wife. So we don't know anything about Aksa at this point, But evidently, it was enough motivation for one guy, Othniel. He is Caleb's nephew. So Caleb and Canaz are brothers. And Othniel is the son of Canaz.

So Caleb's nephew, Othniel, hears this promise. And he's like, all right, challenge accepted. And he goes and he captures this city. And as a result, then Caleb gives Othniel his cousin as a wife. So this is one of those, we were talking about this a little bit before we started the podcast. This is one of those, what to us is rather odd, biblical practices. But it was not uncommon whatsoever in the Bible for people to marry their cousins. I got two thoughts about this.

The first thought is, how old is his daughter at this point? If he's 85, he's like, all right, here's the deal. My 60-year-old daughter who hasn't been able to find a husband, is this what's going on? What is this? This is weird. Does he have a daughter when he was 65? Maybe.

We don't know. Maybe. Don't know. The other thing is that this is just another example why you need to be really careful with the with the phrase biblical view of marriage which always freaks me out when people say that i hold to a biblical view of marriage i'm like oh yeah like well be careful yeah do you have the old testament in your bible because it's a little weird sometimes man it does it does yeah i mentioned to you beforehand that i did not realize

this uh until i was doing some research on this but you know there's there's lots of prohibitions uh in uh in the old testament but uh and i've yet to double triple check this but according to the commentator that i read it would not be a prohibition of biblical law for a man to marry his niece so yeah there's there's lots of what to us are very strange uh marital practices uh in the old testament yeah usually when people say a biblical view marriage they mean uh one man one woman for life or whatever uh not realizing that biblical view of marriage includes go kill these guys and i'll give you my daughter yeah right yes so be careful would use that particular phrase yeah so anyway that's that's what happens uh they ended up uh getting some land and some springs

on top of because oxa is evidently one of these ladies who knows how to get what she wants so uh she uh she gets not only the land but some springs of water out of her dad as as a result of this so you could you could it's a short story but i think it's kind of kind of humorous tells us a little bit about the personality of oxa as well if you're reading between the lines there but anyway that's uh that's 40 minutes and that's two more chapters 14 and 15 moving along all right yeah man we are out of time guys uh we're we're net we're coming down the stretch for joshua and then things are gonna get crazy and judges uh again thank you so much to all of you who support the podcast if you would like to join those who have done that you

can go over to 1517 go to the donate page and you can get that done i really appreciate it chad we will see you next week see you then