10/26/2009 8:15 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: More inheritances described
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Joshua 16:1-10
Message of the verses: “1 ¶
Then the lot for the sons of Joseph went from the Jordan at Jericho
to the waters of Jericho on the east into the
wilderness, going up from Jericho through the
hill country to Bethel.
2 It went from Bethel to Luz, and continued to the border of
the Archites at Ataroth. 3 It went down
westward to the territory of the Japhletites, as far as the territory of lower
Beth-horon even to Gezer,
and it ended at the sea. 4 The sons of
Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, received their inheritance.
“5 ¶
Now this was the territory of the sons of Ephraim according to their
families: the border of their inheritance eastward was Ataroth-addar, as far as
upper Beth-horon. 6 Then the border went
westward at Michmethath on the north, and the border turned about eastward to
Taanath-shiloh and continued beyond it to the east of Janoah. 7 It went down from Janoah to Ataroth and to
Naarah, then reached Jericho and came out at the
Jordan.
8 From Tappuah the border continued
westward to the brook of Kanah, and it ended at the sea. This is the
inheritance of the tribe of the sons of Ephraim according to their families,
9 together with the cities which were
set apart for the sons of Ephraim in the midst of the inheritance of the sons
of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages. 10 But they did not drive out the Canaanites who
lived in Gezer,
so the Canaanites live in the midst of Ephraim to this day, and they became
forced laborers.”
I
must admit that this section of Joshua, as it describes the inheritance of the
tribes and where they are located does not have a lot of spiritual meaning for
me other than the fact that God had promised this land to them and now He was
fulfilling His promise to them. There is
one other thing that I can take out of this and that comes from verse ten, and
there are other verses like it in this section of Joshua, and that is that
Ephraim and Manasseh did not drive out all of the Canaanites from the midst of
their land and this was unlike what Caleb did, for Caleb believed the Word of
the Lord and by faith he drove out the Canaanites from his inheritance.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It seems like a long time ago that while
reading through the Bible that when I got to the book of Joshua that the Lord
gave me wisdom to understand and apply some of it that came from this section
of the book, where the tribes received their inheritance. It took faith to enter the land, which they
had, and although this is not really a picture of being saved, as it is a
picture of a Christian claiming what they have in Christ, as mostly seen in
Ephesians 1-3, I want to just look at it from the application of being saved to
make this point. If the picture of
coming into the land is being saved then the picture of driving out all of the
Canaanites is a picture of all of the remaining struggles with sin and then
claiming by faith the ability to conquer these remaining sins.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
- Trust the Lord to see me through this day without a lot of IBS issues.
- Trust the Lord to give me the grace to conquer the temptations that come my way today.
- Trust the Lord to guide my path today.
- Put on the Spiritual armor for the battle today.
- Give myself to the Lord for worship and service for today.
10/26/2009 8:35 AM
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