With the start of Joshua 15, we begin to really dig into the details of how the land was divided among the tribes – and even clans – of Israel, starting with the tribe of Judah. It made sense to start with Judah since it was at the south end of the promise land and we already saw a member of Judah, Caleb, receive his inheritance in chapter 14.
So we start out with the overall boundaries of the land of Judah, which is marked by the Dead Sea on the east, the Gulf of Aqaba on the southern tip, the Mediterranean on the west, and a mountain on the north. It is interesting to note that, while this represented the largest single tribe’s inheritance, a good deal of this territory was rugged and mountainous, and also rather dry as the climate shifted toward desert on the southern end. Also, the tribe of Simeon was to be later carved out of its middle. And then, of course, we have the fact that most of this area had not yet been conquered.
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So basically, Judah was given the task of pushing southward, driving the current inhabitants out before them, and establishing themselves as the southern guard for the nation. It was a tall task, to be certain. But Judah was also one of the largest tribes, so it should have been entirely doable. And so Joshua proceeded to divide up all the cities and villages in the region, assigning each clan to a section of the land.
And then, as we come to the end of the chapter, we have an abrupt and curious caveat to the entire thing: verse 63.
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To be honest, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked through this passage and essentially skimmed right past the revelation that Judah was unable to dislodge the Jebusites who inhabited the city of Jerusalem. I mean, I’ve known since I was a kid that Jerusalem wasn’t finally captured until David came to power, but I guess I’ve never really thought about it all that much. Today, though, as I consider this discovery anew, I am compelled to realize a couple of things.
The first is the wording of the verse: “Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites.” I believe this is a critical point. Indeed, in the previous 14 chapters, we see time and again that God could do anything! In 3:15-16, we discover, “As soon as the priests who carried the ark [of the covenant]” – which represented the very presence of God with Israel – “reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing.” God stopped the Jordan from running, even at flood stage. Again, in 6:16, as Israel finished its seventh lap about Jericho, Joshua cried, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!” And it was so. In 7:1, “the Lord’s anger burned against Israel,” and later in the chapter, they failed to take Ai. In 8:1, though, after they had dealt with Achan and his sin, God said, “I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land.” And that’s exactly what He did. In 11:8, we read, “The Lord gave them into the hand of Israel.” In 11:20, we see, “It was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally.” In 13:6, God vowed, “I myself will drive them out before the Israelites.” In 14:10, Caleb asserted, “Just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years.” And in 14:12, he declared, “The Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.” God could do anything! And 15:63 aims to make absolutely clear that this truth was not at all in doubt! But Judah, when they failed to rely on God to help them… Judah, all by themselves, couldn’t dislodge the Jebusites from Jerusalem.
A second thing that catches my eye here is how long the Jebusites were permitted to stick around in Jerusalem. The verse says, “to this day the Jebusites live there.” Now, we need to understand that Jerusalem was a fortified city. It had a wall around it to protect it from invaders who wanted to get in. And I’m sure the Jebusite army, weakened as it was back in chapter 11, nevertheless rallied at least a small force of absolutely determined defenders to man those walls. Even so, history shows that the city was far from impregnable. Even after the Israelites took over and did some serious upgrades to the defenses, it was susceptible to siege. In fact, on at least a couple of occasions through the Kings and Chronicles, Jerusalem was on the brink of defeat when foreign armies showed up and started blockading the place. They relied on food and water from outside the wall to survive! So the question is, why didn’t Judah just set a siege and wait them out? The Jebusites would have starved in a matter of months. They certainly wouldn’t have been around “to this day.” So we must conclude that the people of Judah allowed them to stick around.
And that brings us to the third thing that I realized today. The writer concludes the chapter with perhaps the most shocking statement of all: “the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah.” Did you catch the preposition there? Notice that we don’t read, “The Jebusites lived there in spite of…” And we don’t read, “The Jebusites lived there against…” We don’t see that they stayed in Jerusalem beside, in the midst of, or even around. Rather, we read, “The Jebusites live there with the people of Judah.” This word is as significant as it is subtle. You see, it carries with it the idea that the people of Judah actually allowed the Jebusites to remain. The people of Judah mingled with the Jebusites. The people of Judah actually liked having them around.
All of a sudden, the picture of what was happening here in vs 63 is radically different. We don’t just have a simple failure on the part of the Judah-ites. Rather, we have a deliberate compromise.
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The people of Judah knew what God had commanded about the inhabitants of the land. And yet, for whatever reason, they decided to allow the Jebusites to remain. And the crazy thing is, they didn’t even compel the Jebusites to become their servants or slaves, as they had the Gibeonites back in chapter 11. No, the people of Judah allowed the Jebusites to live there with them.
It’s shocking. Appalling. Maybe outrageous. And as I think about it even now, I find myself angered by the entire notion. What were they thinking? And then, all of a sudden, I realize that we do exactly the same thing.
We all have a tendency to press forward with God’s plan until we decide we’ve done enough or, maybe even more often, we run across a friend/temptation/sin that we just have too much fun with. And then we stop.
Of course, when someone confronts us about it and asks why we’re allowing that inconsistency in our testimony to remain, we have a great excuse ready to roll: “We couldn’t dislodge that from our lives.” It sounds well and good, even gives the impression that we tried, and at least on the surface, at least aims to lay the blame for the problem back at God’s feet, as though He somehow failed. And yet, when all is said and done, the fact remains that it is we who have allowed that sin to live there with us to this very day.
So, what sin are you allowing to remain a part of your life? And whose fault is it really? Maybe it’s time to repent and expel that problem once and for all.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHY
