The Bible Recap - Day 087 (Joshua 19-21) - Year 6

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Today we continue looking at the land allotments for the tribes. Remember, they've been waiting 40 years for this. They've been fighting for this, quite literally. These assignments are where they will build their lives and raise their families. If you've ever been in a military family or you've ever waited to find out where your residency is or to see what colleges have accepted you,

Starting point is 00:00:32 you might know a little bit about how this feels. But chances are you weren't waiting 40 years to find out where you'd live. Plus, for the Israelites, this wasn't a temporary placement. This was marked out as the home of the people of their tribe forever, provided they kept up their end of the covenant they made with God. Since many of the ways these places are referred to in Scripture mean nothing to us, I'm going to give a short description of each place we see today.

Starting point is 00:00:58 Imagine you're one of the seven tribes who haven't gotten their land yet, and you're waiting to find out where your family will live. We're also including that general map of the tribal allotments again in today's show notes. Simeon gets the land assigned in the midst of Judah's plot of desert in the south. Pass. Zebulun gets a tiny plot in the north.

Starting point is 00:01:19 It's the smallest plot besides Benjamin's, but it's a lush green area with lots of plants and flowers. By the way, you may have noticed that Zebulun got the city of Bethlehem, but that's a different Bethlehem than the one you're probably most familiar with. There are two Bethlehems in the Promised Land, and this one in Zebulun is further north than the one where Jesus was born. That one is just outside of Jerusalem. Issachar also gets a really small fertile area near the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan

Starting point is 00:01:46 River. Asher gets the Mediterranean coastline to the north, some of which belongs to Lebanon of today. Naphtali gets the mountainous north, including a mountain range that reaches over 9,000 feet high. You can ski there if you visit Israel in the winter. The people from the tribe of Dan get the awesome coastline near a major port city called Joppa.

Starting point is 00:02:08 You may recognize that as the place where Jonah caught a boat to escape going to Nineveh. But Dan loses this land later, and they relocate to part of Naphtali's plot in the north. Stay tuned to find out how and why that happens. Today, the plot of land where they relocated is a gorgeous nature preserve, and when D Group takes trips to Israel, we usually go for a short hike through the forest followed

Starting point is 00:02:30 by some whitewater rafting on the Jordan River. As far as I'm concerned, Dan had good land both times around, but they're kind of a terrible tribe, as we find out later. Since Joshua was one of the two spies who believed God 45 years earlier, he gets to choose where he wants to live. And like a gentleman, he waits until everyone else gets their land first. He chose the hill country of Ephraim, north of Jerusalem, in a somewhat isolated area. He probably wants to be alone and knows his years are drawing to a close and doesn't want to have to yell at a bunch of young Israelites to get off his lawn.

Starting point is 00:03:04 Most people don't realize how diverse this little nation is. It may only be the size of New Jersey, but it covers a wide range of climates and altitudes, from the lowest spot on Earth, the Dead Sea, which is 1,400 feet below sea level, to snow-capped Mount Hermon. And yes, I know in English we probably say Mount Hermon, but the first time I ever heard this said aloud, it was pronounced Hermon, so that's how I say it. Bear with me.

Starting point is 00:03:30 Anyway, the land given to these different tribes is pretty diverse from group to group, which makes it even more of a big deal, which land God assigns to you. After all the land has been distributed to all the tribes, it's time to set up the cities of refuge. Those are the places where a manslayer, someone who accidentally killed someone,

Starting point is 00:03:48 can go to live without fear of retribution from the Avenger of Blood, which is the next of kin of the person who was killed. These cities of refuge are less like prisons and more like safe houses. But the manslayer is never allowed to leave, not until the high priest dies. God spread out these cities of refuge

Starting point is 00:04:06 throughout the territories of the tribes so that any manslayers would have a good chance of getting to one before the Avenger of Blood caught up with him. Don't tell me God didn't think of everything. The last assignments we saw today were for the Levites who had no land allotment of their own. So they were distributed among the tribes

Starting point is 00:04:24 like local pastors of sorts. My God shot was in the last few sentences we read today. I couldn't help but think of all it took to accomplish this for the Israelites. Not just generosity, not just faithfulness, but strength and power and persistent love, forgiveness and grace and mercy. God had ushered them into this land He promised

Starting point is 00:04:45 them long ago despite themselves. I feel a little nervous for them, knowing they'll soon be going their separate ways, apart from the presence of their leader Joshua and their high priest Eliezer, and mostly the manifest presence of God. He has been so good to His people. He has given them everything. But most important of all is himself because he's where the joy is. You might be thinking to yourself, Tara Lee, why would I pay $7 a month for transcripts if I can just buy the book? That's a great question. Lots of people actually do both.

Starting point is 00:05:22 While the appeal of the book is obvious, the appeal of the transcripts may be less obvious, so let me pull back the curtain a little bit. First, when you get transcripts, you get to become a recaptain. I probably don't need to give you more of an answer than that, but I will. Second, when we made the Bible Recap Book, we had to cut out a significant amount of content or the book would have been three times the size and no one would be able to lift it, so the transcripts have the whole content. Third, some people are visual learners and want to both read and listen at the same time, so buying the transcripts lets you do that. I've even seen copies that have been hole-punched, stuffed in a 3-ring binder, and covered in

Starting point is 00:05:55 highlighter and ink. So if you want to make your own giant book of Bible knowledge, check out the Recapitans link at TheBibleRecap.com to sign up for TBR transcripts. This Easter, I've partnered with the world's biggest small group to guide you through the final days of Jesus' life. The Walking with Jesus series will help you understand the significance of each day of Holy Week,

Starting point is 00:06:18 and it'll reveal new things to you about the foundation of our faith. Click the link in the show notes to dig deeper into Easter with me today.

The Bible Recap - Day 087 (Joshua 19-21) - Year 6

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