Then the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image. Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.
There's the smoking gun, that's the evidence against them. They did not have a Levite priest. He's from the tribe of Manasseh.
That's forbidden. And they set up their carved images. The tribe was not blessed.
There was no excuse for this. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Joshua.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Joshua chapter 7. Pastor Rick is teaching through the book of Joshua.
Today, he'll be in chapter 19 and his message called Living with Enemies. So Jabez is Jerusalem. It's there in parentheses and that alerts us to the fact that this was compiled and published long after the days of Joshua over 400 years later because that's how long before David comes along.
It's about 400 years, a little over. And again, no corruption in that. It's just giving us the final document as the Holy Spirit wanted it. In verse 19, chapter 19, now Joshua chapter 19, the second lot came out for Simeon for the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families and their inheritance was within the inheritance of the children of Judah.
We're going to come back to that. Just remember, Simeon's territory is encircled by Judah's territory. In verse 5, its ziklag is mentioned and that is where David will end up roving with his men in the days that Saul was pursuing David and ziklag becomes his base of operations some 400 years after this survey was taken. Now verse 19, the inheritance of the children of Simeon was included in the share of the children of Judah for the share of the children of Judah was too much for them. Therefore, the children of Simeon had their inheritance within the inheritance of that people. So Simeon really doesn't get its own territory.
They do and they don't kind of a deal because it's clearly marked out. No other tribe has this situation with the exception of Levi. There's a connection and so their land is allocated within Judah because Judah has so much territory. We don't have enough people so, you know, take some.
What a blessing. It would not be long before Simeon would lose his individuality as a tribe, sort of fall off the map in the history of the Jewish kingdom. When the kingdom splits in two under Rehoboam after Solomon's death many of the Simeonites make their way up to the northern territory and there they become part of the 10 tribes to the north known as Israel. Judah retains Judah the tribe and Benjamin. So how do you get the 12 tribes? Not counting the Levites. Well, 10 are in the north and to get that 10 Simeon has to move up and Benjamin has to move out and that's if you're really into, you know, you get to these verses and you go, huh, wait a minute.
I read something different over here and you get to chasing them down and you go, oh, there's the answer. And that just tells you that big questions in the Bible that are hard to answer eventually will be answered. What about the numbers of slain folks that we often read about and it seems to be discrepancies. Some of it you can narrow down to poetic license. It was customary of historians to throw these big numbers out in a way that just said, yeah, we just wiped out a whole bunch of them and it sort of embellished the story. That is a very viable thought when you come across, well, did they really kill that many people?
There aren't that many people in the town. And that's what you're getting. Some of this, the historian, you can't say exaggeration because the intent is not to deceive. The intent is sort of to boast. And to this day, the secular kings have their monuments and these archeologists go and they read them and they say, look, this guy is really pumping up the story here.
That's, that's how they did it. It was the custom of their times. And that helps as a Bible student. Well, we're talking about Simeon and her tribes lacking their independent allotment. So if you were in the tribe of Simeon, you know, I'd rather be in Judah. I'm from Judah. If you're talking to someone from Simeon on the bus, for example, and you say, I'm from Judah, your territory is in our territory because we had so much we gave it to you.
And doesn't that make you feel small? And of course that's just goofy, but it makes the point that I am leading to Genesis chapter 49 when Jacob is handing out the blessings and the curses. They were not all blessings. And Simeon and Levi, one of their most egregious crimes was at Shechem when they slaughtered the men in the name of Yahweh for, for violating their sister. They said, well, if you become Jews and you circumcise and we'll go ahead and be friends. And the men of Shechem said, okay. And then while the men were healing, Simeon and Levi with their servants came in and slaughtered them all. Jacob was livid over this for multiple levels. And so when it came time to bless them many years later or curse them, we read the words of Jacob, Simeon and Levi are brothers, instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place.
In other words, your house is a house of horrors. He continues, let not my soul enter their council. Let not my honor be united to their assembly for in their rage they slew a man and in their self will they hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger for it is fierce and their wrath for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. That's scathing.
What do you do with that? If you're Judy, you're standing there listening to this and you know you're next. You don't say much. But the other guys have been down the line to Benjamin, man, he's on a roll.
Maybe, maybe somebody should pull the fire alarm and get us all out of here. So Simeon, we see, you know, their history as a tribe. It really doesn't go well as it does with some of the other tribes. Levi redeems himself as a tribe because of his loyalty to Yahweh and that's picked up for us in Exodus chapter 32. That's of course Moses comes down from the mountain and there they are having a good old time debauchery and sin with the golden calf right while he's holding the tablets of the law. And so Moses begins to clean house. Exodus 32 verse 25. Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained for Aaron had not restrained them to their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp and said, whoever is on Yahweh's side, come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.
There's the redemption. They chose instantly where they belonged and God will bless them for it and continues, and he said to them, thus says Yahweh God of Israel, let every man put on his sword on his side and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.
There's no poetic license in that. Three thousand slain because they were impenitent and they were brazen in their sin and they had no intention. That's why he says they would not restrain themselves. When we get to the book of Acts, we see about three thousand of the Jews get saved.
It's intentionally put there for us. And so as a result of God's favor, he made the Levites servants of the Lord's temple, his house, his dwelling place, his system of sacrifice and offerings, laws, commandments, and statutes. When we get to chapter 21, we'll read that in chapter 20, the cities of refuge that are within the Levitical cities, there are forty-eight of them. So Levi does not get his own territory either.
However, they get this huge ministry and they get grazing land, they get farmland, but they really as a tribe, and it's all educational because on the individual level, it really doesn't matter. If you're a Levite and you've got, you know, a hundred head of oxen or goats or whatever animal you have, you really don't care that Simeon is locked inside of Judah and Dan's got this little piece of territory, you know, God is blessing you as an individual and that is what you're focused on. But to us, we come to these stories and God is speaking to us about how he does business, what he pays attention to, what he is looking for from us, how we get to know him more, that there are consequences and there are opportunities, that it's not all bad, that there is also good, that in the end, if you fight the war, you prevail. These are the lessons that we get. Right now, Elijah is in heaven and he's not thinking about running from Jezebel.
He's not thinking about, I shouldn't have done that. He's so far beyond that, that he's got bigger fish to fry, we would say. And this is what God is trying to encourage his people with. We get it so often in the book of Isaiah, just the first chapter when God is saying, you know, a donkey knows where he lives, why don't you come and reason with me? And all your blood-red sins, I'll wipe them away.
They'll be white as snow. This is what I'll do for you. That's the language that he speaks to them in their language. Of course, when Isaiah pens it, Isaiah was very educated. You read a prophet Isaiah, he's sort of a show-off. He knows where everything is, and he's not a show-off. But he's a very educated man. He's a palace prophet. And that does not mean he's a pushover.
It actually is the other way. He has to deal with the intrigue, and he did it magnificently. Tradition says he was put inside of a hallowed log and sawn in two while alive. We don't know for sure if that happened, but whether it happened or not, he still had to deal with the Assyrians throughout his life.
They were always a problem. So Isaiah, he comes along and he pens what to us is heavy-duty reading much of it, but to the people at that time, it was right what they wanted to hear. He would say, you know, thus says the Lord concerning New Jersey, you've got to clean up your place. Okay, if you're from New York, you like that.
If you're from Jersey, you like... So anyway, it was relative to the people. And what's that, Lord? Yeah, they are a little dense, yes, I know.
The jokes only, only on the jokes, not everything else, they're pretty sharp. Okay, let's go back to this. Verse 10, the third lot came out from the children of Zebulun according to their families, and the border of their inheritance was as far as that Zebulun. We'll just mention. On verse 12, there's really nothing that stands out to me except eastward toward the sunrise.
It's just when reading that. It's like an oasis, you know, you're stumbling through these names and just eastward toward the sunrise. Where I come from, there was a highway, not an interstate, just a road, a big road with lights, but it went all the way out to the Long Island. It was called Sunrise Highway. It is called Sunrise Highway. And I just have fond memories of that.
And the association with the name, there were times I would get up early and I would drive down these, you know, roads towards the rising of the sun just as far as I wanted to drive, especially on my motorcycle. So anyway, I just saw that little oasis there and I don't know if you would appreciate that or not. Verse 17, the fourth lot came to Ishakar, the children of Ishakar according to their families. Now I'm looking forward to getting to the books of Samuel.
In fact, we've got the banner already. It's prophet kings and heroes because that captures the book of Samuel. But when they come to coronate David, there were men of Ishakar, men of understanding. And I think it's very exciting. It's exciting when we're in the Bible and we know what we're reading and where it's going and God is speaking to us. It's not so exciting when we're out there swinging the sword of the Bible and things aren't going the way we want them to go.
That's what it takes. God is not into stats. He's into action. Verse 24, the fifth lot came for the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families. And verse 28, as far as the greater Sidon, verse 29, and the border turned to Ramah and to the fortified city of Tyre. Well, that greater Sidon says that Asher's allotment went up to the Phoenician cities up there on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, west coast.
There we go again. This back to verse 29, the city of Tyre, that fortified city of Tyre that Nebuchadnezzar could not conquer. There was mainland Tyre and then there was Tyre in the sea just about a mile off the shore. There was this big commercial center and all of the shipping routes belong to them. Well, it's no wonder they weren't going to give these up easily to Asher. Even in this day, it was lucrative to possess this territory and all they invested in it and they weren't going to give it up easily.
And that's our flesh. Same way, it has its investments and it's going to fight to keep them. And of course, Tyre falls to Alexander the Great.
He was pretty good, but I wouldn't go so far as great. Anyhow, the Jews were supposed to cast out the Tyrenians and they never did. The rich shipping lanes remained in their possession.
Verse 32, the sixth lot came out to the children of Naphtali or the children of Naphtali according to their families. Verse 33, it says, enclosing the territory from the Terebinth tree. And I just stopped there because trees are commonly used as landmarks and there must have been these impressive specimens. And if you've ever seen an impressive tree, they happen to be impressive. That's why they're impressive. They have so much character. You know, you look at a beach tree and the first thing you notice, it's not at the beach.
Okay? The root system on a beach tree, the flare where it hits, where it's coming out of the ground is very aggressive. Those roots, they just kind of crawl out and some of them are like spooky like they're coming to get you. So that's just a beach tree and it's, you know, the bark space. So these trees, and if so, if you've ever seen a big, big tree, it's like, wow, this thing was once that big.
You could walk around it within your pocket. Now look at it. And when you get to Daniel, there's a vision of a tree taking over the earth. So they were used as landmarks in Genesis. A couple of times, at least, the trees are referenced and throughout the scripture. We now move to verse 40. The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families.
Well, Dan is the last tribe to receive its inheritance and Dan was a problem. Unable to conquer its allotted territory, though they had some, you know, camps and little villages and things, but they never could get the enemy out and eventually, when we get to Judges in chapter 18, we're going to read some of it in a moment, eventually they, many of them moved north and established a settlement and thus the saying from Dan to Beersheba, which means from the northern most city of the Jews to the southern most city of the Jews at the time that statement was being used. Now, of course, it goes up to the Suez Canal to the south. Israel touches three large bodies of water, the Mediterranean, the Dead Sea, and the Red Sea.
The Med, the Dead, and the Red is how they say it. And they've taken that in war and they're not giving it back and wisely so. When Israel trains her troops for war, she trains them to fight, especially her air force, the IDF, the Israeli Defense Force, because she's not attacking anybody.
Israel does not invade, but if you mess with them, they will invade, they will fight over your land if they can, not over their land. And they're very good at it. Now that they have the Iron Dome, they're not getting scuttled or bombed as they used to be. Well, anyway, back to Dan.
What does that have to do with Dan? Well, just the territory. So the settlement that they have to the west in the land, they don't conquer.
A group of them move 90 miles north and take land there eventually. And so this is connected to verse 47, which we now look at. And the border of the children of Dan went beyond these because the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem and took it, and they struck it with the edge of the sword, took possession of it, and dwelt in it.
They called Leshem Dan after the name of Dan their father. So they have allegiance, of course, to the patriarch of their family. But this verse 47, that territory is the one 90 miles to the north.
It is because they couldn't cast out the enemy, and they couldn't live amongst the enemy, not well. And so a group of them created this settlement. This shows that Joshua's, again, writing was edited and compiled into its final form after his death because the Danites succumbed to idolatry very quickly, and Joshua would not have put up with any of that.
And we'll again get that in the book of Judges. They were forced out of their territory in the south, move up to the north. Judges chapter 1 verse 34, and the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountains, for they would not allow them to come down to the valley, and the Amorites were determined to dwell where they were determined to dwell.
Yet, when the strength of the house of Joseph became greater, they were put under tribute. And so what happens is the Danites could not withstand the Amorites, but when Ephraim and Manasseh grew stronger, they began to deal with the Amorites and put them in check. But by that time, Dan was fragmented and these Canaanites were an uncooperative bunch, just insisting on holding on to their territory.
Another unique thing about Dan amongst the tribes is that it's the only one that actually forsook its inheritance, and they left there. We're going to settle over here instead. God gave us this, but we can't take it, so we're going to move up here. And as a result, idolatry just got hold of them. We read this in Judges 18. So they took the things Micah had made, I know I'm not going to explain some of this too much time, and the priest who had belonged to him, he's not a Levite, so this is a problem, and went to Laish to a people quiet and secure. And they struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire. There was no deliverer because it was far from Sidon, and they had no ties with anyone.
It was in the valley that belongs to Beth-reab, so they built the city and dwelt there. So this is what happened. Dan finds a little village, a place, this fragment of Dan to the north, and they said, these people are peaceful, they're not warlike, and they're just having a good old time, let's go kill them and take their land. And they're too far away from getting, you know, sounding alarm, sending for help, this is easy. And that's what they do.
And they take it. And it continues the story. They called the city Dan after the father, who was born to Israel.
However, the name of the city formerly was Laish. Then the children of Dan set up for themselves the carved image, and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. There's the smoking gun, that's the evidence against them. They did not have a Levite priest, he's from the tribe of Manasseh.
That's forbidden. And they set up their carved images. The tribe was not blessed.
There was no excuse for this. They should have stayed and fought and got other tribes involved, but they did not. So it says Dan went up to fight against Leshem and took it, that's to the north, that northern settlement, but they did not stay where God put them, and they sank into idolatry. Verse 49, when they had made an end of dividing the land as an inheritance according to the borders, the children of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua the son of Nun. Joshua, from the tribe of Ephraim, is now getting his territory, and it is after the major conquest of the promised land. This great man of God waits till everybody else gets theirs, and then he says, I would like this here.
And of course he gets it. Caleb wasn't rushing or anything, he says, listen, nobody wants to fight the giants, I'll take them, I like that land, and he goes and takes it earlier, but Joshua just waits. A different personality than Caleb.
No less, no less a man of God, a child of God is different in personality. It's just a beautiful passage. When they had made an end of dividing the land as an inheritance according to their borders, the children of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua the son of Nun.
Verse 50, according to the word of Yahweh, they gave him the city which he asked for, Timnath-sirah, in the mountains of Ephraim, and he built the city and dwelt in it, and he will be buried there. The name means the piece of the gift. It's kind of okay, but I'm about done, so I have to finish. You know, every year Christmas time comes along, I would never want to be Santa Claus, but I wouldn't mind being Sample Claus, where I just gave you samples of toys, samples of gifts, your swath, you know, three pieces of a Lego set, just Sample Claus, a piece of the gift. Now, I've been carrying that around a long time, but it just never, you know, at Christmas time, nothing gave just now, I would have been forcing it. But it just so happens that God said, Rick, Timnath-sirah means piece of the gift. You've always wanted to be Sample Claus. Sample Claus is coming to town, and he irritates everybody.
So, it's wonderful being me sometimes. Okay, verse 51. Now, we've been talking about judges, and for those of you who were here last time we did judges, I will be under complete control when we get there about the bagging the women. Verse 51, these were the inheritances of Eliezer the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel, divided as an inheritance by a lot in Shiloh before Yahweh at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, so they made an end to the dividing of the country. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Joshua. Cross Reference is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you're interested in more information about this ministry, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Joshua, right here on Cross Reference Radio.
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