Joshua 13:1-7 – A Sufficient Promise

Probably even the most enthusiastic reader of Joshua will find the going tough as we move into chapters 13-21. Watching war movies tends to be more exciting than taking part in land surveys! Chasing a Canaanite out of the hill country certainly seems more thrilling than plodding through his former land counting villages and tracing borders! But our problem is that we are too far removed from this. We need to try to see the land distribution as Israel saw it. Just like some of our possessions have special value to us (but probably to no-one else!) because we inherited it or were given it, we need to see these chapters as describing Israel’s inheritance. What’s dull about that? The LORD had promised Abraham “To your offspring I will give this land” and now his offspring were walking through the valleys and counting the towns that made up the precise details of that promise.

Here, in verses 1-7, God gives His people a sufficient promise. Joshua was old but there was still much land to occupy. But the LORD’s power would be enough for the task ahead. Joshua only had to allocate to the tribes their particular inheritances for them to clean out and claim. With God’s help they had already made massive in-roads into Canaan. Their dominance was substantial, but it wasn’t total. It was now time to allocate the land to tribes who would follow up and extend the conquest.

The tribes could not attempt to do this in their own stamina. They stood under the assurance of the LORD’s promise: “I myself will drive them out before the people of Israel”. In light of Joshua’s ageing, the verse emphasises that it will be God: “I myself …” In chapter 1, God’s great promise had come in the light of Moses’ death; now it comes in the light of Joshua’s age. Joshua may be nearing retirement but the LORD will continue to be adequate for Israel. The ageing and weakness of His servants never handicaps the everlasting God!