Joshua, Eleazar, and the tribal elders cast lost for the allotments of land for the remaining tribes. 🎲🎲
Judah’s portion was so big that Simeon was given 17 cities, (and the villages around them), within Judah’s territory.
Judah’s inheritance was so great that they needed a partner to help take possession of it. That is what ya call “a good problem to have.”
You may want to sit and ponder that a moment. 🤔
Did you know that a single Belgian draft horse can pull 3,000-5,000 of weight? (More if it’s on wheels.) You’d think that if you harnessed 2 of them together that they could pull 6,000-10,000lbs. But they often do 11-13k! And after they have been trained to work together that number increases even more. 🐴🐴
Check out this champion team pulling 18,000 pounds of dead weight. 😲 And note the size of the tractor used to position the sled.
We used to sing a song in Sunday school “When we all pull together how happy we’ll be” There is power in agreement. That’s why we should be VERY careful what we come into agreement with in our hearts and minds.
Do you agree with any of these thoughts?
- It’s not going to get better.
- I have to take care of it or it won’t get done.
- I doubt anything good is going to happen.
- It doesn’t matter what I do.
- Nobody cares.
- If I just had what I wanted, life would be good.
Some of these may or may not be conditionally true. (That is, they may be true under certain conditions). But we need to examine our thoughts so we’re not agreeing with falsehoods. And if we have, renounce them and come out of agreement with them.
That last one #6 is a real stinker. It’s like seeing an oasis 🏝️ on the horizon in a desert. You just KNOW that if you could get there, everything will be alright. And so you sweat and grind and maybe mistreat people around you cuz – gosh darn it – “don’t they realize that their lives will be better too if I get to the oasis?!” 😠
But it’s like the classic Donald Duck cartoon, Crazy with the Heat from 1947. ☀️🥵 Donald and Goofy are lost in the desert and run out of water. And he sees on the horizon just the thing…
But just as he reaches it – there’s nothing but sand. 🏜️🌵
That’s what it’s like to come into agreement with a deceptive idea. It has the power to determine what life choices you will make. Be very VERY careful.
But there is an upside to agreement. 🤝
“Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”
Matthew 18:19 ESV
The Lord teams up Simeon with Judah and they work together to settle the land which neither one of them could have conquered alone.
Zebulun and Naphtali inherit the lands that will become Jesus’ home base.
By the way – the “Bethlehem” listed in the inheritance of Zebulun is not to be confused with the Bethlehem where Jesus was born.
😧 Wait…. There are TWO Bethlehems?!
🙂 Yeah. I didn’t know that either. Cool huh?
🤯 As in, two separate towns in Israel, in the Bible- both called Bethlehem?
🙂 Yes. One is in the territory of Zebulun, and the one where Jesus was born was in the territory of Judah. There’s no mix-up. There had to be two.
😱 Gasp! My whole life has been a lie! What if I’ve been singing about the WRONG little town of Bethlehem all this time?! I could’ve RUINED Christmas! Ruined it, I tell you!🎄
😑
🫨 Gasp! What if the Wisemen had gone to the WRONG Bethlehem!?! Have you ever thought of THAT!?
😐
☝🏼🤨 Christmas as we know it would cease to exist! No more “Star of Bethlehem.” Cuz ya know why?! Cuz there WASN’T a Star 🌟 over the OTHER Bethlehem!
🤔
😳 I am shooketh.
🙄 Calm down there, Drama Queen. I’m pretty sure the Lord will make all things work together for good. Here they are.
Remember that these lands were given by casting lots – kinda like drawing straws. And as I said last week, the Lord determines how the lot falls. Of course He already knew the future of the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali. Nazareth is in the land of Zebulun. Capernaum – which was the base of Jesus’ Galilean ministry – was in the land of Naphtali. Cana, where Jesus did His first miracle of turning water to wine was in Naphtali right next to where it bordered Zebulun.
“But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”
Isaiah 9:1-2 ESV
In this chapter, we get the explanation of why the territory of Dan and the city of Dan were in 2 separate places.
The Danites couldn’t quite get the Canaanites out of their territory. But instead of following the example of Simeon and Judah’s partnership; instead of asking another tribe or two for help, they sadly abdicate the land allotted to them by Yahweh 🏳️ and go find one little city to conquer. Laish was way up north within the territory of Naphtali. The tribe of Dan wipes out the inhabitants and settle in the city and rename it Dan.
The city of Joppa – where Peter would see the vision of the animals in the sheet – that was in the territory of Dan. It’s where the modern city of Tel-Aviv is today.
Dan seems to have settled for one town at the base of Mount Hermon when Yahweh wanted to give them some of the best oceanfront property in the nation. 🏖️
If you‘re finding it too much to drive the enemy out of your life, don’t be like Dan and just abandon that valuable territory to the Kingdom of Darkness. Instead, be like Simeon and partner with someone spiritually bigger and stronger than you who has already conquered some territory. Get a prayer partner. Get cha some Bible study friends. Get some accountability. Get in agreement with some folks who are conquering territory for the Lord. It’s humbling, yes. We don’t typically preach sermons about the “great” tribe of Simeon like we do about Judah. But, by the end of the OT, we’re not even going to be sure if much of the tribe of Dan even exists. It’s better to humble yourself and survive than cling to your pride and not make it at all.
One last thing…
Now that the tribes are settled, they give their faithful, courageous leader Joshua, the pick of the land. He can have ANY town he wants. And what town does our OT Jesus choose? He chooses (and I’ll name it in English): The City of the Sun in the hills of Double Fruitfulness. Nice. Sounds like a vacation in Tuscany.
Or perhaps a bit New Jerusalem-ish. ☀️
But… the name Timnath-Serah literally translates to something like Portion Potshard/Scrape; which is admittedly weird. (I have spent quite a while trying to tease out how they get “City of the Sun” out of 2 words that mean “portion” and “scrape” (like Job scraped himself with a potshard), but alas to no avail. Serah isn’t the Hebrew word for sun. That would be shemesh. The city of Beth-Shemesh means House of the Sun. Serah not only means “scrape” but it also means “itch” (see Deut. 28:27) because I guess a broken bit of pottery was the ancient equivalent of this:
The Heavenly Joshua (Jesus) will scrape out His portion (the earth). He will scrape it clean of evil. He will eventually “scratch the itch” of the skin irritated by sin. He could have any spot of the Universe He wants, but He will choose to scrape out a portion for Himself among humans on earth. And He will make it into the City of Light in the Hills of Double Fruitfulness.
Eternity as a vacation in Tuscany?
☀️🌳🌳🌳
Yes, please.
To The Reader 