In the original language, the Hebrew sentence structure suggests that a large amount of time had passed since the first 5 tribes had settled in their territories. These remaining 7 tribes had grown complacent and were satisfied with their life on the western bank of the Jordan River. Why did they stay there and not go take all that God had for them? Remember that these people had not lived in permanent dwellings for a generation. They were afraid of anything new, even if it was ultimately for their good. They lacked the faith and courage to go where God wanted to take them. So they found themselves living in disobedience to such a degree that Joshua finally had to confront them and tell them to step up and follow the Lord.<\/p>\n
Many of us today and no doubt many believers down through the ages have found ourselves in similar situations. We become satisfied with the status quo and grow tired of the battle. We must carefully guard against letting complacency creep into our spiritual lives, sapping our strength and vision. Proverbs 29:18 reminds us that without a vision, people perish. Joshua did the work of an encourager, reminding them of the vision God had given and prodding them into obedient action. We all need mature believers in our lives who love us enough to confront us in our times of spiritual apathy. Is God calling you to a change of location? Seek Him again. God waits for us to call on Him for His strength and vision.<\/p>\n
“LORD, please guide us this day as we follow You.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joshua 18 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them. 2<\/sup>\u00a0And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes, which had not yet received their inheritance.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>ye slack to go to possess the land, which the\u00a0LORD\u00a0God of your fathers hath given you?\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0Give out from among you three men for\u00a0each\u00a0<\/em>tribe: and I will send them, and they shall rise, and go through the land, and describe it according to the inheritance of them; and they shall come\u00a0again\u00a0<\/em>to me.\u00a05<\/sup>And they shall divide it into seven parts: Judah shall abide in their coast on the south, and the house of Joseph shall abide in their coasts on the north.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0Ye shall therefore describe the land\u00a0into\u00a0<\/em>seven parts, and bring\u00a0the description\u00a0<\/em>hither to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the\u00a0LORD\u00a0our God.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0But the Levites have no part among you; for the priesthood of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0is<\/em>their inheritance: and Gad, and Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh, have received their inheritance beyond Jordan on the east, which Moses the servant of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0gave them. 8<\/sup>\u00a0And the men arose, and went away: and Joshua charged them that went to describe the land, saying, Go and walk through the land, and describe it, and come again to me, that I may here cast lots for you before the\u00a0LORD\u00a0in Shiloh.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0And the men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities into seven parts in a book, and came\u00a0again\u00a0<\/em>to Joshua to the host at Shiloh. 10<\/sup> And Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the\u00a0LORD: and there Joshua divided the land unto the children of Israel according to their divisions. 11<\/sup>\u00a0And the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families: and the coast of their lot came forth between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph.\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0And their border on the north side was from Jordan; and the border went up to the side of Jericho on the north side, and went up through the mountains westward; and the goings out thereof were at the wilderness of Beth-aven.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And the border went over from thence toward Luz, to the side of Luz, which\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>Beth-el, southward; and the border descended to Ataroth-adar, near the hill that\u00a0lieth\u00a0<\/em>on the south side of the nether Beth-horon.\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0And the border was drawn\u00a0thence\u00a0<\/em>, and compassed the corner of the sea southward, from the hill that\u00a0lieth\u00a0<\/em>before Beth-horon southward; and the goings out thereof were at Kirjath-baal, which\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>Kirjath-jearim, a city of the children of Judah: this\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>the west quarter.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0And the south quarter\u00a0was<\/em>from the end of Kirjath-jearim, and the border went out on the west, and went out to the well of waters of Nephtoah:\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0And the border came down to the end of the mountain that\u00a0lieth<\/em>before the valley of the son of Hinnom,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>which\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>in the valley of the giants on the north, and descended to the valley of Hinnom, to the side of Jebusi on the south, and descended to En-rogel,\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0And was drawn from the north, and went forth to En-shemesh, and went forth toward Geliloth, which\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>over against the going up of Adummim, and descended to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben,\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0And passed along toward the side over against Arabah northward, and went down unto Arabah:\u00a0\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0And the border passed along to the side of Beth-hoglah northward: and the outgoings of the border were at the north bay of the salt sea at the south end of Jordan: this\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>the south coast.\u00a0\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0And Jordan was the border of it on the east side. This\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, by the coasts thereof round about, according to their families.\u00a021<\/sup>\u00a0Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho, and Beth-hoglah, and the valley of Keziz,\u00a022<\/sup>And Beth-arabah, and Zemaraim, and Beth-el,\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0And Avim, and Parah, and Ophrah,\u00a024<\/sup>\u00a0And Chephar-haammonai, and Ophni, and Gaba; twelve cities with their villages:\u00a025<\/sup>\u00a0Gibeon, and Ramah, and Beeroth,\u00a026<\/sup>\u00a0And Mizpeh, and Chephirah, and Mozah,\u00a027<\/sup>\u00a0And Rekem, and Irpeel, and Taralah,\u00a028<\/sup>\u00a0And Zelah, Eleph, and Jebusi, which\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>Jerusalem, Gibeath,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Kirjath; fourteen cities with their villages. This\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the original language, the Hebrew sentence structure suggests that a large amount of time had passed since the first 5 tribes had settled in their territories. These remaining 7 tribes had grown complacent and were satisfied with their life on the western bank of the Jordan River. Why did they stay there and not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6204"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16066,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6204\/revisions\/16066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}