Joshua Chapter 16:1

There was another group that every time something happened, every time there was a little bit of opposition, they were wanting to go back to Egypt.

They were wanting to moan and complain and whine and talk about the past, talk about where they used to be, the things they used to have. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. If we do any of these things, crumble, grumble, or mumble, we are in danger of becoming a borderline believer. Pastor David discusses the solutions to this as he continues in the book of Joshua chapter 16. But before we join Pastor David, when you're in trouble, where do you turn most often?

Do you look to yourself or the advice of your friends, or do you go straight to God? We want to help you experience the hope that comes from looking to the Lord when your life turns upside down by sending you Pastor David McGee's CD series titled Lessons from the Wilderness. In this encouraging resource, Pastor David looks at one of the most difficult periods of King David's life to show you how you can wait confidently on God, no matter what you're facing. Lessons from the Wilderness is our thank you for your gift this month to share the hope of Christ with others. So please visit crossthebridge.com for your copy of Lessons from the Wilderness.

Now here's David McGee with his teaching, Occupy the Land You Have Been Given. We're going to be in the book of Joshua chapter 16. You know, one of the things that we've learned is that the book of Joshua has a very important name for us as believers. That name we use Joshua in the Hebrew is Yahshua, Ahayahshua, which is the Hebrew. And we know that word, but we're more familiar with the Greek version or form of that word.

See, the Greek form of Yahshua is Jesus. So there's a wonderful picture there that ties into the fact that Moses, the giver of the law, took the people of Israel to the Promised Land but couldn't take them in. See, and what we see there is a picture of the law or the Ten Commandments that takes us to the Promised Land but can't take us in. You see, we have to realize that we have sinned according to God's word. We have fallen short. Romans 3.10, Romans 3.23, For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and there is none righteous, no, not one.

So there we have our problem. We don't have a way to gain entrance into the Promised Land because Moses can't get us into the Promised Land. But here comes Yahshua, which we know better as Jesus, who leads the people into the Promised Land. And it's a beautiful picture of the way the law takes us to that decision to decide to trust Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. But it's Jesus himself who takes us into the Promised Land because the law can never get you into the Promised Land. But Jesus can get you into the Promised Land.

Amen. Joshua chapter 16 verse 1, And the lot fell to the children of Joseph from the Jordan by Jericho, to the waters of Jericho on the east, to the wilderness that goes up from Jericho through the mountains to Bethel, then went out from Bethel to Luz, passed along to the border of the Archites at Adoroth, and went down westward to the boundary of the Jephilites, as far as the boundary of lower Beth-Haran to Gezer, and it ended at the sea. So the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance. So what we're going to see tonight is kind of the laying out of the land of Ephraim and Manasseh and what their response is. And there's a lot to be gained here.

There's a lot to be gained. But you know, let me just stop for a second because I've kind of been holding back on something and I want to kind of let you know some of the stuff that has occurred. You know, in the book of Joshua, we started in Joshua chapter 1. That's kind of an interesting way to start a book, isn't it? And then we skipped to Joshua chapter 2. And then we left a big void and went to Joshua chapter 3. But as we went through there, we heard names of different cities. Now what you need to understand is that we know today, we can prove by archaeological finds that these cities existed.

Not only that, but it gets even more intriguing. Because it's called the Armada tablets. In the Armada tablets that were written to the Pharaoh in Egypt, they discussed the fall of a king of Pella. In the discussion of this fall, and kings only fell one way, they lost a battle. In that tablet that was written so many years ago, there's a two word phrase that we might find interesting.

In regards to those activities, it has two words. It says, ask Joshua about the king of Pella falling. And this is still in existence. We have this in every history book, well in almost every history book even in the world, even secular history books, they discuss Jericho as being one of the oldest cities in the world. They recognize that it was in existence, they recognize that it had huge walls, and they've gone and they found that there was houses on the walls. We remember in Joshua, we're told that Rahab's house was where? It was on the wall.

Well guess what they found? There was houses on the wall, just like the Bible said. Not only that, but when they discovered that the walls had been destroyed, they had done something very peculiar. They had fallen down flat.

Well what does the Bible say about that? It says that the walls fell down flat. So again, an archaeological proof that just like the Bible says. Now they theorize it's an earthquake, but you and I know what really happened, right? And they dated it to 1400 BC by way of pottery and different stuff.

So guess what? When you count backwards from Jesus, we drive, and you may have it written in your Bible somewhere, we're at about 1400 BC where we are. And so again, archaeological proofs have shown that about this time frame, Jericho's walls fell flat and it was destroyed in a fire, just like the Bible says.

Now that's really good stuff, but there's also more stuff. Bethel and Ai, remember those places? We discussed those places. Bethel and Ai, guess what? They discovered that they were destroyed, you want to guess what time?

About 1400 BC. That's kind of interesting, isn't it? And guess what happened? After it got destroyed, it was burned in a fire.

Wow, that's kind of interesting, isn't it? Oh, back to Jericho for a second. What they also discovered is that the storehouses of food, they were left. They weren't taken in the battle, just like the Bible says. Remember God said, leave that stuff alone.

This is, you know, this is first fruits unto God. There's no reason. You're in the desert and there's bags of grain there. There's not very many reasons why you would leave those bags of grain there. Well, we know why those bags of grain were left there because God said, leave the bags of grain there. They determined there was a little bit of silver and gold missing and they found out, no, they didn't.

But you remember Achan took part of that and it really went sour there for a little while. But they discovered Ai and Bethel were destroyed about 1400 BC and guess what happened in those cities? They were burned with fire, just like the Bible says. Not only that, but they've also discovered that Deir, that it talks about, D-E-B-I-R, was destroyed.

You want to guess what time? About 1400 BC. You guys are archeologists, isn't it? And guess what they found when that place was destroyed? They found fire. It was burned, just like the Bible says.

Another city. So there's Bethel, there's Ai, there's Jericho, there's D-E-B-I-R. And also in D-E-B-I-R, what they discovered is that everything below the burnt level was Canaanite. Everything above the burnt level was Israelite. So they know that that city changed hands at that time, 1400 BC. And interestingly enough, all these cities about the same time were destroyed and then burned, just like the Bible says.

And Leshish, they found the city burned. The artifacts, the culture would seem to indicate 1400 BC. And also after the city was destroyed, it was burned, just like the Bible said.

Hazar. You want to guess what time it was destroyed? 1400 BC. Guess what happened after it was destroyed? It was burned with fire. Complete the phrase. Just like the Bible says.

Guys, this is amazing stuff. Do you realize how many people have been crawling around the desert over there to disprove this book? Do you realize how many have ever done it?

None. In the thousands and thousands of archaeological discoveries that have taken place in the Middle East, not one has ever disproven a word of this book. That's miraculous.

That is miraculous. So let's read on. Verse 5. The border of the children of Ephraim, according to their families, was left. The border of their inheritance on the east side was Adaroth, Adar, as far as Upper Beth-Haram. And the border went out towards the sea on the north side of Mishmanathath. Then the border went around eastward to Tanath, Shiloh, and passed by it on the east of Jenoah. Then it went down from Jenoah to Adaroth and Nairah, reached to Jericho, and came out at the Jordan.

The border went out from Tapua westward to the Bruk-kana, and it ended at the sea. This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim, according to their families. The separate cities, verse 9, the separate cities for the children of Ephraim were among the inheritance of the children of Manasseh.

All the cities were their villages. And they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer. But the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day, and have become forced laborers.

So here we're laying out the borders, and I want you to take a mental note. Verse 10, it says they did not drive out the Canaanites. That's going to become even more important in the next chapter. Chapter 17, verse 1 says, there was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph, namely for Meshur, the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because he was a man of war, therefore he was given Gilead and Bashan. And there was a lot for the rest of the children of Manasseh, according to their families. For the children of Abazar, the children of Helak, the children of Asriel, the children of Shechem, the children of Hafer, the children of Shemitah, these were the male children of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, according to their family. You know, it's interesting, it talks about Ephraim first, before Manasseh. Ephraim was not the firstborn son, Manasseh was. That's just kind of interesting because we kind of attribute a lot to the oldest born, but you know, God doesn't always do that. You understand Moses was the younger brother of Aaron?

And there's other places you get into that Esau thing and that whole thing. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge. He'll be back with more powerful insight from God's Word in just a moment. But first, no matter how wise you are, listening to your own advice when you should be trusting God is dangerous. That's why we want to send you Pastor David McGee's CD series called Lessons from the Wilderness. Journey through one of the darkest times in King David's life and discover how you can wait confidently on God no matter what struggles you're facing because his plans are perfect and he always comes through for you. Lessons from the Wilderness is our thank you for your gift this month to share the hope of Christ with others. So please, visit CrossTheBridge.com for your copy of Lessons from the Wilderness.

Now, back to today's message. Verse 3. Now, Zelophehad, the son of Haphor, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons but only daughters.

And these are the names of his daughters, Melah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Terzah. Verse 4. And they came near before Eliezer the priest, before Joshua, the son of Nun.

I know it looks like Nun, but it's actually pronounced Nun. And before the rulers saying, the Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers. Therefore, according to the commandment of the Lord, he gave them an inheritance among their father's brothers. Ten shearers fell to Manasseh besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which were on the other side of the Jordan. Because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance among his sons and the rest of Manasseh's sons had the land of Gilead.

Your attention, please. What I find very interesting, and understand, these daughters were simply reminding Joshua of what Moses had promised them a long time ago. And they said, hey, remember when we asked Moses and Moses, the Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance. So they're reminding Joshua of this promise.

And to me, understand, there's kind of a neat thing going on here. In the sense that the men weren't there to have the inheritance. And understand, this was a very patriarchal society. This was a very male-dominated society at this time. And so women didn't receive inheritances.

And for them to have the boldness to say, you know, we'd like to have our inheritance is an incredible thing. Because why? Because the men were missing. The men were missing.

The present day application is probably kind of apparent. One of the things that pains me is to see the situation in a marriage or a family where the man is not taking the leadership role. I mean, he's in the house, but he's not the spiritual leader that he's supposed to be. Because here's what happens. Everybody suffers. The children suffer.

The wife suffers. And then what has to happen, has to happen is something that's very hard. Because what happens is, because of the vacuum of the man not being the spiritual leader, the woman has to step into a role of being that spiritual leader. Which is difficult. It's difficult for the man to accept that. It's difficult for the woman to walk into that. And you know what?

Let me say this. Those ladies that are in that position, you have our prayers and our support. And let me tell you what will never happen at this church. You will never feel, let me change that.

If you ever feel, like anybody treats you like a second class Christian, you need to let me know. Because that will be dealt with. Because you've been placed in a position because of the lack of spiritual leadership of the man.

That's a very difficult position. We don't want to beat you up for that. We want to support you in that.

We want to be praying for you. Let's face it. There is the tendency in Christendom to look at a lady and go, Well, where's your husband? Be careful with that, guys. Be careful with that, beloved. Because you know what? Look and pray and have compassion. Because you know what?

There's battles going on you have no idea about. And what we don't want to do is judge that situation without knowing the details, but be in prayer for that person. Because I've seen the pain, I've seen the tears of people that have that struggle in their home.

And you know what? If you're a man and you're listening right now, be the spiritual leader. Be the spiritual encourager.

Be the man that God has called you to be to lead the family, lead your wife. Let me tell you what that is not. Being the spiritual leader doesn't mean you always get to hold the remote.

Okay? Now it in part may mean that a little bit. But it means you're a real leader.

What does a real leader mean? That means that at times you will lead in repentance. You will be the first one to say, I'm sorry, I was wrong. Because you know what I found? When you're arguing, you know the easiest way to end the argument? Is just to look at them and say, you know what, I'm sorry, I was wrong.

And you know what happens in that argument? Well now, if it's really built a good head of steam up, it may continue for like another 30 seconds. You know, I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that. You're right, you shouldn't have done that.

I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. But sooner or later that person is going to hopefully run out of steam. And that argument at that point is going to be over. And what you've done as the spiritual leader is you have shown what that's supposed to look like. See, it doesn't necessarily just mean you walk in the church first and everybody walks single file behind you. I've seen some really weird versions in Christianity of the man being the spiritual leader that are not biblical.

And the world has watched them and thought, yeah, it doesn't look right. But you know what? Men, we are to be leaders as we follow Jesus. How did Jesus lead us? By serving us, by dying for us.

That's the way we're supposed to be leaders. By serving others, including those in our household, and dying for them. That's not a stretch. That's not a stretch because in Ephesians 5 we're told that husbands are to love their wives even as Christ loved the church. What did Christ, how did Christ love the church? What was his great act of love for the church? His death. His dying.

Let me ask you, how does that conform to you getting your way? Yeah, I know, it's hurting me too. But you know, he's telling me to tell you, so I'm telling you, what can I say? It's on tape.

My wife's in the front row, so I'm right with you, right? She's taking notes. A lot.

A lot of notes. That doesn't have anything to do with you getting your way. Let's repeat verse 6. Because the daughters of Manasseh received inheritance among his sons, and the rest of Manasseh's sons had the land of Gilead. Some of you have maps in the back of your Bible.

You may want to flip back there and see if you do have maps. If you look at where the tribes are divided, Ephraim was on the west side of the Jordan. Manasseh, half of them were on the east side, and half of them were on the west side with Gad and Reuben. So there was two and a half tribes that were on the east side of Jordan. There were nine and a half tribes that were on the west side of Jordan. The west side was where God had told them to resign. Okay, so there was two and a half tribes that are really, for all intents and purposes, they're on the wrong side. They're on the wrong side.

And this is interesting to me. Because what we see modeled here is that when they got to this place, two and a half tribes didn't go in. They didn't go in. Nine and a half tribes went in.

Those that stayed out had a lot of trouble. And you know what I refer to them as? Borderline believers.

Because here's what happened. And we can see that in the children of Israel as they went through the desert. Because as they went through the desert, there was two groups to the children of Israel. There was one group that was convinced that God had spoken, and they were hearing from God, and they were going into this promised land. There was a group that believed that. There was another group that every time something happened, every time there's a little bit of opposition, they were willing to go back to Egypt.

They were wanting to moan and complain and whine and talk about the past, talk about where they used to be, the things they used to have. I used to as a young Christian and reading about the children of Israel, I used to get so mad at them and think, my goodness, God did this and God did that and God showed you all these things and delivered you out of these plagues and did all this and look at you whining and moaning and crying and complaining. The older I've gotten in the Lord, now every time I read it, I get convicted and I think, you know what, man, that's me sometimes. That is me getting set free out of Egypt, being promised a beautiful land and whining about it as I'm walking there.

I know none of you struggle in any of those areas, but just sympathize with me for a moment, if you will. That's convicting to me. And because what happened eventually is they went to Kadesh Bar-Nim, you probably remember the story.

We talked about it before. They sent the 12 spies in. Two of them came back out and said, oh, it's a great land, got big grapes, man, God is awesome, we'll go in, we'll take them. Ten of them said, they're so big and they're scary.

And they probably were talking like that too, you know, we're so scared. And what happened is the people believed the 10 spies. Keep in mind, the trip from Egypt to Israel was not that long.

What do you think? Well, okay, it took them 40 years. It didn't take them 40 years because the length of the time, it took them 40 years.

Well, it's like this. In a matter of months, God was able to get the children of Israel out of Egypt. In a matter of months, God was able to get the children of Israel out of Egypt. But it took them about 40 years to get Egypt out of the children of Israel. And that's what was going on as they wandered around the desert.

They were being purified. And remember, in Joshua, when they got back to this point, they were reminded, hey guys, remember, we've been here before and we messed up last time. This time, let's do it right. You know, one of the cool things about God is he almost always gives you another chance. He almost always brings you back to that same place and says, okay, let's try this again. Let's try this again.

That's encouraging, isn't it? Why? Because every one of us blows it sometimes. Every one of us has been to a Kadesh Barnea and said, there's no way. Can't do it. They're too big.

Giants. Every one of us has one of those moments in our life. And you know what? That can be, even in your failure, can be a defining moment. Because when God brings you back around to that Kadesh Barnea again, you say, you know what? Last time I didn't believe God and I wandered the stinking desert for 40 years. This time I'm going to believe God.

I'm going in. And I'm not saying in some twisted way, beat yourself up, remember your failures. But I am suggesting that we learn from them. Because that's something that we all have, like it or not. I know it's tough, but we all fail from time to time. And we either let that beat us down, as the enemy would love to do, or we learn from those things. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him.

And He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can call us toll-free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

So many people look to their friends or within their own thoughts when faced with a problem. Even King David struggled with listening to his heart and not trusting in God's promises. Pastor David McGee wants to encourage you to wait confidently on God through whatever trial you're facing by sending you his CD series, Lessons from the Wilderness. Lessons from the Wilderness is our thank you for your gift this month to share the hope of Christ with others. So please visit CrossTheBridge.com now for your copy of Lessons from the Wilderness. And be sure to join us next time on Cross the Bridge as we continue in the book of Joshua. We'll see you then.