Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Our Inevitable Question for God | Historical Books | Joshua 14-19

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

Eventually, every Christian will ask God an important question: why? Why does God give us commands? Are they good for us? In today's episode, Jensen shares how Joshua 14-19 reminds us why our faithfulness to God is for our own good. Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Joshua 14-19

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Why? This is the one word that has dominated the last few months of my life. It is uttered most often in the moments right before I leave my three-year-old in his room to sleep for the night. Jude, my son, has become a very inquisitive little boy lately, particularly around the subject of why, he needs to go to bed. Why, Mama? Why Jude need to sleep in his bed the whole night? You'll notice that Jude loves to speak about himself in third person. It isn't reserved just for bedtime. Why Jude need to go to

school? Why Jude needs socks? When I tell him to finish his dinner, he says, why mama? When I tell him to use gentle hands with his sister, why mama? Now, some whys are easier than others to answer. You need socks because it's 11 degrees outside and your feet will freeze and your toes might fall off if you don't wear them. So you want toes, don't you? No comments on my parenting, please. You need to sleep so that your body can recharge for the next day and have energy to race around the kitchen. You need to eat food so that your body can grow big and strong. But otherwise, well, they're trickier. Why does Jude need to listen to Mama? It's hard for him to understand my answer because he would have to be able to wrap his mind around the fact that Mama might know more than him, might understand the way

the world works, and might just have wisdom that he can't comprehend in his little three-year-old brain. But that's hard for him to understand. I think we're a lot like Jude when it comes to God. We ask a lot of whys when it comes to what God asks of us, and some of our wise have clear answers. Like, why can't I murder? Well, every person is made in the image of God, and we have no right to harm or take away the life of someone whom God loves and created. Then there are messier questions. Why can't I marry who I want to marry? Why can't I sleep with who I want to sleep with? Why can't I use my money the way I want to? Why can't I spend my time doing, saying, watching, wearing, eating, drinking, smoking what I want when I want to? Shouldn't I have the autonomy over my life to make

these decisions? Shouldn't I be able to trust myself, my intuition on these questions? Why, God? At the center of all these whys is the one why that I always have the hardest with when Jude asked me, why do I have to obey you? Why do we have to obey you, God? And just like my three-year-old, we have a hard time believing that maybe, just maybe, God knows better than us, that God. The God is wiser, that he created us for a way of life that is actually good, no, best for us. That obedience to God is the only way to a flourishing life. See, we don't believe that he loves us, but that he just wants to control us. We don't believe that he's showing us the way to life, but the way to restriction and control.

In Joshua 14 through 19, we see the division of the promised land west of the Jordan River, Joshua casts lots and divides up the land as an inheritance to the remaining nine and a half tribes of Israel. And within this long list of boundaries and borders and names of cities and tribes, we find a few narratives sprinkled in. And it's within those few narratives that I want to trace a common thread, the thread of God's faithfulness to his promises for those who follow him in obedience. Now the first narrative focuses on Caleb. Now Caleb was one of the original spies sent by Moses to scout out the promised land, and one of only two who had the faith and confidence in God's promises to deliver the promised land into their hands. And so, in chapter 14 verses 6 through 15,

we learn about the inheritance that Caleb was given. And specifically, in verses 13 and 14, we read this. Then Joshua blessed Caleb, son of Jeffina, and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. So Hebron has belonged to Caleb, son of Jeffina, the Kenizite, ever since. because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel wholeheartedly. Because of Caleb's faithfulness, because he followed and obeyed God, he is rewarded with an inheritance. Now the second narrative we're going to look at centers on the daughters of Zilo Fahad. Mala, Noah, Hagla, Milka, and Terza. Now, all the way back in Numbers 26, we meet these women.

They approach Moses before the people of Israel enter the promised land and make their case before him. Their father had died in the wilderness and he had no sons, and in that day and age, an inheritance would have passed down only to sons. Women didn't inherit. They would have just been passed over and the inheritance given to a male relative. But they ask Moses to give them their father's inheritance so that his name would not end with his death. And from their request, God makes a law for all of his people that in the case of a man having no sons, upon his death, his inheritance, would pass to his daughters first. The only stipulation was that the daughters would need to marry within their tribe

so that no part of the inheritance for their people would be given over to another tribe in their marriage. And in Numbers 36, we read that these daughters did as they were commanded. They married within their tribe. They obeyed the Lord's law and instruction, and so in Joshua 17, they approached Joshua and are given their inheritance. The third narrative is the final verses of chapter 19. It's when Joshua is given his portion of the inheritance for his faithfulness as a spy like Caleb was. He singled out amongst the people and given his own piece of land.

Now the two narratives of the faithful spies, Caleb and Joshua, receiving their special inheritance, bookend this section of scripture. Now, before we make any conclusions from these three narratives, I want to point out a few other times in this chapter where we deviate from merely talking about land and borders and boundaries. We find it with the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Manasseh. In Judah's case, we read in chapter 15, verse 63, Judah could not dislodge the Jebysites who were living in Jerusalem. To this day, the Jebysites live there with the people of Judah. And in chapter 17, verse 12, we read that the people of Manasseh could not take possession of those cities, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in the land. Now, Moses had warned the people that allowing the Canaanites to well among them would lead them into disobedience against God, would cause them to stray, and so

these statements of the people remaining, they're ominous. Not only that, but these recollections could have us questioning God's strength. Like, why couldn't they drive out the people? Hadn't God told Joshua that he would have complete victory over his enemies? Why is that not happening here? Why can't they drive out their enemies and possess the land fully? Now we get a hint in the following verses. Here, the people of Manasseh, they're complaining to Joshua, saying that he's given them an inheritance that's not enough for their numbers. The Canaanites had strong chariots, and they persisted in living there, and so they took up a portion of their land. So Joshua responds, saying this, you are numerous and very powerful. You will have not only one allotment, but the

forested hill country as well. Clear it, and its farthest limits will be yours. Though the Canaanites have chariots fitted with iron, and though they are strong, you can drive them out. So Joshua reminds them that with God, they are strong enough. They have to be obedient to him to cast out the Canaanites, and they too will have a beautiful inheritance. What we're seeing here is not that God is not powerful enough. It isn't really that the people couldn't because God wasn't able. They couldn't because they were not willing to put their faith in him. They didn't try. trust that he was able. They didn't obey, and because of it, their inheritance was tainted. And as we learned throughout the rest of the Old Testament, Moses' warning was for good reason.

They fall away from obedience to God, and with it comes disaster. So what do we learn? What do we learn from all of these narratives in the middle of a long list of land allotments? Well, we see the thread of God's faithfulness to his promises, God providing an inheritance for his people, being faithful to Caleb and Joshua and Mala and Noah and Hogla and Milka and Turza. Their faith in God kept them close to him, faithfully following and obedience to him, and because of it, they were able to take up their inheritance with confidence and with God's blessing. God's commandments and laws, the ways that he calls his people to follow him, have purpose. If the people had been faithful like Caleb and Joshua, they would have inherited the promised land

40 years earlier. They wouldn't have wandered in the wilderness. The lies of those who are faithful are blessed because they live in communion with the God who loves them, who strengthens them, and who provides for them. They're blessed because they live in the ways they were created to live, ways laid out by a good God. We have an inheritance promise to us as well. That inheritance comes with a calling to live faithful lives. It isn't about works. It isn't about being good enough so that God will bless you. It's about faith. Belief that God is good, belief that God is trustworthy, belief that he knows what is good and right and true, belief that his ways are better than yours. When you believe that, your faith will be sure. And when your faith is sure,

the question of, why? Why should I obey God? Finds its answer. We, we have. We will follow God wholeheartedly because we know that he is good, that he is wise, that he has laid out a way of living that leads to a beautiful inheritance. Obedience is the outpouring of a faithful heart. Now, I want to close today with his passage from 1st Peter 1 as a reminder that faithfully following Jesus, giving our lives and surrender to his ways, will lead to an inheritance that far outweighs anything else we could ever gain in his life. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His great mercy, he has given us new birth

into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all of this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith, of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and even though you do

not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Amen.