Joshua 20-21

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Joshua 20:1-9

“The LORD also spake unto Joshua, saying, 2 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for your cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses: 3 that the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither: and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. 4 And when he that doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city unto them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them. 5 And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime. 6 And he shall dwell in that city, until he stand before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days: then shall the slayer return, and come unto his own city, and unto his own house, unto the city from whence he fled. 7 And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. 8 And on the other side of Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh. 9 These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth any person at unawares might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.”

Introduction: Cities Of Refuge, What Are They For?

[Audio version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED626]

“Chapter 20, we have come to now, we’re dividing the land, this is the fourth description of the cities of refuge in the Scripture, in four different books. When you have the cities of refuge described in Exodus, in Numbers, in Deuteronomy and in Joshua, there’s something significant about that. It harks certainly to us of the LORD’s view of the sanctity of life. It has something to say to us, just the idea of refuge, the word refuge tells both a dark tale and a gracious tale. It gives us two sides of one story, one very difficult, and one incredibly gracious. Six cities of refuge set apart in the land of Israel, three on the Canaan site of Jordan, and three on the other (eastern) side of Jordan, no one city to be a day’s journey from anywhere you were. They were established because God had drawn a line between premeditated manslaughter (murder) and involuntary manslaughter. Premeditated murder was forbidden, Thou Shalt Not Kill in the Law was literally Thou Shalt Do No Murder. And there were those whom the LORD sent to war. There’s a difference between involuntary manslaughter, and he’s going to say, and he said in the other portions, if you’re swinging an ax and the head of the ax flies off and kills someone, and you didn’t intend that to happen, there is a city of refuge you can flee to. If, on the other hand, you wait for someone and you ambush them and you kill them, then your life should be taken. Capital punishment was established in Genesis chapter nine, long before Israel and long before the Law [was given in Exodus 20], after the Flood, when Noah and his sons came to rest upon mount Ararat [it was really upon the mountains of Ararat, no particular mountain has been specified], there it said ‘Whoso sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed,’ because it was a desecration of the image of God. Human life is sacred. We wouldn’t know that so much today in so many ways. Human life is sacred, and one human being, Jesus says, is of more value than the entire universe, ‘What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, the whole cosmos, the whole universe, and loses his own soul,’ that a single human soul is more valuable than spotted owls, than the rain forest, than the entire universe, because all of that is going to pass away. The Bible says this creation is going to be rolled up like a garment and done away with. But each human soul will abide eternally, either separated from God or with God [within the greater Body of Christ there is a difference of belief in the area of eternal punishment, to view a few of these see https://unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm]. So, human life, so important to the LORD. Here, in this chapter, we have this fourth description of the cities of refuge, and the fact that it’s in four books (of the Bible) tells us of God’s concern. It says “The LORD also spake unto Joshua, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for you cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses:” I’ve already spoken to you about this,’ “that the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither: and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood.” (verses 1-3) Now look, in that day, there was no police force, in this ancient culture there was the avenger of blood. If someone had killed one of my sons, the oldest son in my family then would have the responsibility to pursue that person that killed his brother and to kill that person. It was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and it was incumbent upon the closest family member to mete out revenge upon a murderer. No police force, it fell to the family. Some of the mentality that we as Americans don’t understand about parts of the Middle East today, is that some of that still lives. In some places in the Middle East, it’s mingled in certainly with radical Islam today and so forth, but there is a mentality that is ancient in its origin, and that is, if you kill someone, it’s the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s, only it goes back 4,0000 years. In somebody’s family, they may wait 20 years to get somebody in your family, but it will come back in your direction. [I just read an example of that, in a New York Times article about Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, the author said, “Mr. Shaar recalled Adib Shishakli, a Syrian politician who was president in the 1950s before being pushed out and fleeing to Brazil, where he was assassinated a decade later by a man who had been orphaned in a battle Mr. Shishakli oversaw.” “the avenger of blood” custom goes very deep into the Arabic mind and culture.] And it’s borne out of a time that’s pre-Law, when there was the avenger of blood, no police force, it fell to the family [and Arabic families take that very seriously, as you just read]. So we have this structure from the LORD, in fact, it’s interesting, in Exodus 21, I’ll read it very quickly, verse 13, “And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.” That’s a very interesting idea, it says that you did not intend to cause someone’s death, but the LORD was the one who delivered that person in that circumstance, that God’s providence sometimes works in a way that’s almost incomprehensible to us, that in an accident, in a difficult situation, if we cause the death of someone else, there is a time to step back. Look, there is always in this world, and I see it over and over again, and even for us as Christians, there is this argument of secondary causes. ‘This person did this thing to my family member,’ or ‘this person abused this child,’ and somehow, somehow and I don’t know how, and I’m not saying it’s easy, but there is ultimately a time we stand back and say ‘Lord allowed, you allowed, if you’re sovereign this could not have happened [without you having allowed it].’ And that is a great stumbling-point, it is a very difficult line for us to deal with. But it says there is a time, here in Exodus, when the LORD delivered this person, it’s time for them to step into eternity. It then says the person who unintentionally caused that death has to have a place to flee. “And when he that doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city unto them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them.” (verse 4) actually give him living quarters, they bring him in. Listen, these six cities, which were cities of refuge, as we go on tonight, they are Levitical cities, that are part of the 48 cities that were given to the Levites on both sides of the Jordan. And 6 of those 48 cities that were cities of the Levites where the cities of refuge. So their job, the Levites then, who know the Law and know the way it should work and know that God is just, will take this person whose guilty of involuntary manslaughter, take him in and give him refuge. “And if the avenger of blood” verse 5 “pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime.” he didn’t do it on purpose. In tradition, it’s very interesting, because in Deuteronomy 19, verse 3, it says there that the way is to be prepared, to the city of refuge, and Jewish tradition took that, and what they said is “The roads to the city of refuge had to be maintained,” because of that verse in Deuteronomy 19, “not only the roads, wherever there was a crossroad, signs had to be posted that said “Refuge, Refuge” twice, “pointing towards the city of refuge, bridges had to be both built and maintained if there was a place that would keep someone from coming to the city of refuge, and not only that, that the closest section of the city of refuge there was actually a runner that would be placed there to encourage that person to finish that run and make it, because they were fleeing to the city of refuge, trying to get there before the avenger of blood would catch them.” And if he caught them outside the city he took their life. As he ran into the gate of the city, he’d make his plea to the Levites and say ‘I was cutting wood, and the head flew off the ax,’ or this or that, and then they’d take him into the city, and when the avenger of blood came they’d say ‘You can’t touch him.’ But of course, the interesting rule was, he had to remain in the city of refuge. If he stepped outside the city of refuge, and the avenger of blood caught him, he could then kill him. He had to stay inside the city of refuge until the death of the high priest, and because it was a Levitical city, they always knew when the death of the high priest had taken place. When the high priest died, of course it’s a picture of Jesus Christ, then this person was set free. Now types will fail, we’ll talk about that as we go through here, but he would run in there, and he would then be safe. But isn’t it interesting, the way is prepared, the signs are there, the bridges are there as it were, you know, so much of that is true for us. When we sin, when we make a mistake, we are to flee to him, we’re to confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us. There are differences, types fall apart, that’s for sure. Because we are in-Christ, so we never have to worry about going outside the city of refuge, we can’t go outside of Christ, we are in-Christ. If we do something deliberately, we’re allowed to flee to him and confess our sins, and he’s faithful and just to forgive us, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So the type fails there. And our High Priest never dies. He died once and for all, he never dies. And he’s always at the right hand of the Father, he makes intercession for us. So, a much better covenant, you and I have. Here’s the problem for you and I, when you sin, when I sin, how much time is there between the sin and our repentance, genuine repentance? There can be different reasons. Some of us are still learning that he in fact is as gracious as he says that he is. And because we have never known someone who has been that gracious or that loving, sometimes we’ve grown up in an environment where everybody we’ve ever trusted has stepped on our heart and crushed it, and it’s very difficult for us to extend that much trust, but we’re learning. How did this person who fled to the city of refuge know that they were safe? Because they felt safe? No, they felt guilty, because their conscience told them they were safe? No, their conscience was guilty, they were guilty of involuntary manslaughter, they did something. But their assurance was the Word of God. It wasn’t their feelings, the assurance that God offered to them was his Word, that if they fled there they’d be safe. The assurance that he’s offered to you and I, is that if we flee to his Son Jesus Christ, we will be safe. The assurance that he’s given us is that if we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Here is the problem, the distance of time between your sin and your repentance, someone who goes on in sin for a month, for a year, for years, something happens in them, then there really needs to be a brokenness that is hard to measure. But if you sin, and you realize you can immediately flee and come there, Spurgeon said the distance between the sin and the repentance, that amount of time betrays the condition of the heart. If your heart is tender and it is broken, you can flee, flee right away, run to him, all of us, for all of us. When you put it off, and put it off, and put it off, your repentance is not real, you’re not being genuine, you’re holding onto something else, some sin is sweeter than the sense of cleansing. It won’t be in the long run, because we come to that point of brokenness [as David did, after a whole year covering up the Bathsheba sin and murder of her husband]. So the types of the city of refuge, it’s beautiful, it reflects so much of Christ, but it’s imperfect, it fails, it doesn’t measure up perfectly. It says here in verse 6, “And he shall dwell in that city, until he stand before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days: then shall the slayer return, and come unto his own city, and unto his own house, unto the city from whence he fled.”

The Six Cities Of Refuge Are Named

Here are the cities of refuge, “And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.” (verse 7) Kedesh, or “kodosh” is “holy,” or “sanctuary,” it’s a sanctuary. Galilee, that’s in the north on the Canaan side, in mount Naphtali, and Shechem, which speaks of shoulder or strength, ah, the government shall be upon his shoulder, that’s in mount Ephraim in the midst of the country, central. And Kirjath-arba, which is the city of Hebron, Hebron means “fellowship,” and that’s in the mountain of Judah in the south on the west side of Jordan. “And on the other side of Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.” (verse 8) On the east side of Jordan, on the other side of Jordan by Jericho eastward they assigned Bezer, which is in the south, that has the idea of a fortified place, upon the plain of the tribe of Reuben. And Ramoth, which is the heights, that’s in the midst of the land on the other side of Jordan, and then Golan up in the north, it’s a bated meaning, many think it has the idea of exultation in Bashan up in the northern territory of the tribe of Manasseh. Now of course the beautiful picture, a picture of Christ that we find sanctuary, and he picks us up on his shoulders like a shepherd, and then he offers to us fellowship, it’s in a fortified place, it’s in the heights, and there, there’s exultation. You know the names of the cities and the way they’re written out are just so magnificent, so beautiful, never by mistake of course. “These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth any person at unawares might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.” (verse 9)

Joshua 21:1-45

“Then came near the heads of the fathers of the Levites unto Eleazar the priest, and unto Joshua the son of Nun, and unto the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel; 2 and they spake unto them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, The LORD commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with the suburbs thereof for our cattle. 3 And the children of Israel gave unto the Levites out of their inheritance, at the commandment of the LORD, these cities and their suburbs. 4 And the lot came out for the families of the Kohathites: and the children of Aaron the priest, which were of the Levites, had by lot out of the tribe of Judah, and out of the tribe of Simeon, and out of the tribe of Benjamin, thirteen cities. 5 And the rest of the children of Kohath had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Ephraim, and out of the tribe of Dan, and out of the half tribe of Manasseh, ten cities. 6 And the children of Gershon had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities. 7 The children of Merari by their families had out of the tribe of Reuben, and out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve cities. 8 And the children of Israel gave by lot unto the Levites these cities with their suburbs, as the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses. 9 And they gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, these cities which are here mentioned by name, 10 which the children of Aaron, being of the families of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Levi, had: for theirs was the first lot. 11 And they gave them the city of Arba the father of Anak, which city is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, with the suburbs thereof round about it. 12 But the fields of the city, and the villages thereof, gave they to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for his possession. 13 Thus they gave to the children of Aaron the priest Hebron with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Libnah with her suburbs, 14 and Jattir with her suburbs, and Eshtemoa with her suburbs, 15 and Holon with her suburbs, and Debir with her suburbs, 16 and Ain with her suburbs, and Juttah with her suburbs, and Bethshemesh with her suburbs; nine cities out of those two tribes. 17 And out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with her suburbs, Geba with her suburbs, 18 Anathoth with her suburbs, and Almon with her suburbs; four cities. 19 All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their suburbs. 20 And the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites which remained of the children of Kohath, even they had the cities of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim. 21 For they gave them Shechem with her suburbs in mount Ephraim, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Gezer with her suburbs, 22 and Kibzaim with her suburbs, and Beth-horon with her suburbs; four cities. 23 And out of the tribe of Dan, Eltekeh with her suburbs, Gibbethon with her suburbs, 24 Aijalon with her suburbs, Gath-rimmon with her suburbs; four cities. 25 And out of the half tribe of Manasseh, Tanach with her suburbs, and Gath-rimmon with her suburbs; two cities. 26 All the cities were ten with their suburbs for the families of the children of Kohath that remained. 27 And unto the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the other half tribe of Manasseh they gave Golan in Bashan with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Beesh-terah with her suburbs; two cities. 28 And out of the tribe of Issachar, Kishon with her suburbs, Dabareh with her suburbs, 29 Jarmuth with her suburbs, Engannim with her suburbs; four cities. 30 And out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with her suburbs, Abdon with her suburbs, 31 Helkath with her suburbs, and Rehob with her suburbs; four cities. 32 And out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Hammathdor with her suburbs; three cities. 33 All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities with their suburbs. 34 And unto the families of the children of Merari, the rest of the Levites, out of the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with her suburbs, and Kartah with her suburbs, 35 Dimnah with her suburbs, Nahalal with her suburbs; four cities. 36 And out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with her suburbs [to be a city of refuge], and Jahazah with her suburbs, 37 Kedemoth with her suburbs, and Mephaath with her suburbs; four cities. 38 And out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Mahanaim with her suburbs, 39 Heshbon with her suburbs, Jazer with her suburbs; four cities in all. 40 So all the cities for the children of Merari by their families, which were remaining of the families of the Levites, were by their lot twelve cities. 41 All the cities of the Levites within the possession of the children of Israel were forty and eight cities with their suburbs. 42 These cities were every one with their suburbs round about them: thus were all these cities. 43 And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. 44 And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. 45 There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.”

The Levites Get Their Promised Allotment Of 48 Cities

“Then came near the heads of the fathers of the Levites unto Eleazar the priest, and unto Joshua the son of Nun, and unto the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel; and they spake unto them at Shiloh” in the center, as we remember, from Gilgal to Shiloh, where the Tabernacle is now, “in the land of Canaan, saying, The LORD commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with the suburbs thereof for our cattle.” (verses 1-2) there’s pastureland around the cities, and places for vineyards. “And the children of Israel gave unto the Levites out of their inheritance, at the commandment of the LORD, these cities and their suburbs.” (verse 3) Now we’re going to have forty eight cities named for us, six of them are the cities of refuge. They are scattered throughout the land, we’re told in the end of the Book of Numbers there were 23,000 Levites numbered. So you’re going to divide 23,000 Levites between forty eight cities, these are significant cities, no doubt [divides out to 479 male Levites into every city]. And they’re scattered throughout the land. Tradition said there was never more than ten miles to a Levitical city anywhere in the land on either side of Jordan. What that means is that the Word of God was scattered throughout the land of Israel [as the Levites within these cities would have had Torah scrolls], it was healthy for the nation of Israel. There was never a time when you had a question about some Biblical truth or about something in God’s Law that you had far to go to come to a Levitical city to sit down with a Levite to ask questions of the Law. They were scattered throughout the land, very interesting that Jacob had prophecied on his deathbed in regards to these things, and said ‘Simeon and Levi are brethren, instruments of cruelty are in their habitations,’ and you remember Simeon and Levi had gone and slaughtered all the men of Shechem because the prince had raped their sister Dinah, and you remember the whole record there in the Book of Genesis, and Jacob on his deathbed, filled with the Holy Spirit, is speaking of that. He says “O my soul, come not into their secret, unto their assembly mine honor, be not thou united, for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel,” now the curse is upon their wrath, very interesting then, it says “I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.” And that is exactly what took place. Simeon has no borders, he’s actually inside, completely inside the area of Judah, where the Lion of the tribe of Judah, where the Saviour would come from. And Levi is scattered throughout the whole land, has no inheritance, ‘I will scatter them in Israel,’ is where they were, scattered throughout the entire land. But because they (the Levites) had stood with Moses, remember when Aaron made the golden calf and there was that worship, and then when they (Joshua and Moses), Moses said ‘Who is on the LORD’s side, come over here,’ and the whole tribe of Levi came over, possibly because Moses was from the tribe of Levi, but then there was a blessing, God’s favorable in a sense. The offspring of Simeon and Levi were not responsible for their father’s sins, Ezekiel 18 tells us that. So God turns that curse into a blessing, and here we have the tribe of Levi scattered throughout all of that land, the Word was not far from anyone, it was available to all of them, and now it tells us by lot how the land is divided, and I won’t take you through all the names [you can read it in the Scripture section in front of this transcript]. Verse 4 says, “And the lot came out for the families of the Kohathites: and the children of Aaron the priest, which were of the Levites, had by lot out of the tribe of Judah, and out of the tribe of Simeon, and out of the tribe of Benjamin, thirteen cities.” you can also see the other areas, Ephraim, Dan and Manasseh. Verse 6 says “And the children of Gershon had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.” Verse 7 says “The children of Merari by their families had out of the tribe of Reuben, and out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve cities.” Verse 9, “And they gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, these cities which are here mentioned by name,” and here you think of Levi, you think of Moses, Aaron and Phineas and Eli and Ezra and John the Baptist, great men and women had come from these tribes. Verse 10 says “which the children of Aaron, being of the families of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Levi, had: for theirs was the first lot.” and it describes how it gave to them Hebron, who the father of Hebron, Kirjath-arba, who was Arba the father of Anak of the giants, and the fields of the city and villages and so forth. Verse 13 says “Thus they gave to the children of Aaron the priest Hebron with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Libnah with her suburbs,” and describes down to verse 19 the cities that were given, I’ll spare you, verse 19 says “All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their suburbs.” So of the 48, 13 given here. Now verse 20 says, “And the families of the children of Kohath, even they had the cities of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim…” and it begins to describe the names of the cities. You’re going to browse through these, but remember, there’s incredible detail given here. And there’s reason for that, as we go through Scripture, all of the detail of God, every single bit of it speaks of his faithfulness, and we’ll see that as we come to the end. It says in verse 26, “All the cities were ten with their suburbs for the families of the children of Kohath that remained.” [“that remained” means the children of Kohath that were not of the Aaronic priesthood, not descended from Aaron, but still descendants of Kohath, the son of Levi.] Verse 27, ‘Now the children of Gershon,’ and it speaks about that, you’ll follow it all the way down to verse 33, “All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities with their suburbs…” and then finally verse 34, “And unto the families of the children of Merari…” and it begins to describe them, and verse 40 says “So all the cities for the children of Merari by their families, which were remaining of the families of the Levites, were by their lot twelve cities.” “All the cities of the Levites within the possession of the children of Israel were forty and eight cities with their suburbs.” (verse 41) again, always within ten miles pf any Israelite, and a fulfillment of God’s Word, “These cities were every one with their suburbs round about them: thus were all these cities.”

God Keeps His Word, Fulfills All Of His Promises

That leads us up to these last three verses here, which are phenomenal in regards to now this division of the land, listen to what it says in verse 43, and let me read the three verses, because I want you to take note, you have the word “all” five times here, “And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers;” that was to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob “and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.” (verses 43-45) Every one of those Levitical cities that we skipped reading through come under this heading, “all came to pass.” We have a remarkable picture. By the way, when you study through the promises of God in regards to land, we know they haven’t taken it all, because it says from the Euphrates River [to the Nile, and some like me want to believe, all the way down to the Nile’s headwaters, and then extending eastward across Somalia to Aden in Yemen, and then extending to all of Saudi Arabia up to the mouth of the Euphrates river, and then extending all the way up to the headwaters of the Euphrates inside Turkey 😊], that’s not a popular promise in the Muslim world today. But God promised from the “Euphrates River, in both Genesis 15, Joshua 1, from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean [and Asher, the tribe of Asher was supposed to own all the way into Lebanon beyond the city of Tyre, which Asher was supposed to own], it’s going to be ultimately in the Kingdom Age the Land of Israel [all 13 tribes, including Levi here with probably more than 48 cities]. Things will be spread out a little bit more there. It says that God gave all that he sware, so God keeps covenant. That’s important for you and I, because we are within the terms of a better covenant, and that is in the covenant of the blood of Jesus Christ, and it is important for you and I, look, to mark that down. Sometimes we may not feel that, sometimes we may struggle with that, sometimes we may doubt that, but the truth is, he’s the same yesterday, today and forever, and one thing we see here that’s applicable to our lives is, First, God keeps covenant. Secondly, verse 44, “the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand.” The Lord gives victory, and there’s no rest without victory. The LORD gave them rest all about, and twice he says, ‘he dealt with all,’ not some of their enemies, ‘all of their enemies.’ God give victory, that’s the God that we serve. We wrestle, and wrestle and wrestle and wrestle, I do too. Look, again, I hear that sometimes, ‘I’m wrestling with this, I’m wrestling with that…I can’t get victory…’ I’m telling ya, if a nuclear bomb goes off in Chicago, everybody’s gonna get victory within ten minutes, ‘Lord, I’m serious now,’ because all of this is going to come upon us, our world is changing quickly, and we’ve yet to see what the Lord has done, the freedom we’ve had to be here week after week after week, in my own life, in your life, to have the Word of God sown into our hearts, how important that’s going to be in the time between now and when Jesus comes [and based on prophecy and history, look at what’s coming, see https://unityinchrist.com/prophecies/2ndcoming_4.htm]. We’re going to see that, very important. God gives victory, and in verse 45 he says this, “There failed not ought of any good thing which LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.” The Lord keeps his promises, then and now. That’s important, because he said to me, ‘now unto him who is able to present you faultless before his throne, with exceeding joy, with the only wise God,’ that’s an important promise to me. Because I don’t see all of that going on when I look in the mirror. Listen, we have a covenant keeping God, who keeps covenant, he gives victory, and he keeps his promises. All of that, we are recipients of, God’s covenant, God’s power, God’s promises. We are recipients of that, God’s covenant through the blood of his Son, much clearer than Israel understood the covenant, much clearer. God’s power, the power of his Holy Spirit given to us, the victory that he’s promised to us, God’s promises, again, inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, fades not away. Look, there are times we struggle with that, there are times we doubt that. This generation, right here that’s listening to Joshua on this day, and right now they’re in the middle of all God said he’d give them, right there they were standing in complete victory over all of their enemies, right then Joshua is saying ‘Look around, there has not failed one of all of the promises that God made to you,’ and he stood there that day, they looked around and all of that was true, but for months on end, and sometimes years on end before that, they doubted. They were hot, they were thirsty, they said ‘You brought us out here to die,’ they were hungry, they said ‘You brought us into the wilderness to kill us,’ they were worn from battle, they were longing for Egypt, they were looking back over their shoulders and said ‘All the leeks and garlic and fleshpots, O that we were back in Egypt,’ your memory becomes selective, you don’t remember the taskmaster’s whip and your sons being thrown into the Nile, you remember garlic, that’s how insane we are. And in all of our lives, my life included, and I’m a wimp too, I don’t like to suffer, I don’t like hard things. But I have God’s covenant, and I have God’s power, and I have God’s promises, and just like the children of Israel, there are times I doubt, there are times I struggle, there are times I’m worn from battle, there are times I’m thirsty for his presence, and I don’t sense it. There are times I’m hungry for his Word to speak out loud to me, and it seems dry. But that doesn’t negate the reality of any of those things, those are the times when you say “Heaven and earth are going to pass away, but the Word of God will last forever.” But you say, ‘But I don’t know where your love is, you said you’d love me with an everlasting love, that your mercies are new every morning, but I am doubting, I’m dependent upon your power, reach down and strengthen me, I need you so desperately, I’m so weak without you.’ And he’s tender, and he doesn’t break a bruised reed, he doesn’t quench a smoking flax, when you get to the other side of those difficult things, he says ‘Now, look around, there isn’t anything that’s failed of the promises I made to your fathers, there is no enemy that’s standing before you that I have not taken out, and of all of the things I promised to you, there has not one good thing failed, all came to pass, and all will come to pass.’ What is it going to be like? You know, we feel like we’re victorious, he’s filled us with his Holy Spirit, I get up and have joy, I know Lord it’s going to be a day of victory, and then we get a flat tire on the way to work and we say ‘How could you do this to me? You say you love me,’ you know, more air goes out of our spiritual life than goes out of our tire. There’s going to be bigger trials than that, that are going to come our way. But one day we will stand in our inheritance, like they’re standing in theirs, and God will say ‘All that I’ve sworn, you’re in possession of it now. All of your enemies are crushed under your heels, and of all the things I’ve told you, not one thing has failed, all has come to pass,’ and he’ll wipe away the tears from our eyes, no death, no sorrow, no pain, no disease,’ those are our promises in our journey. They await us, they beckon us, they cry out loud to us, even in our most difficult days. Same God, incredible picture as we are in our journey. [Comment: Here is the breakdown by the three subdivisions of Levi, who had three sons, each becoming a division of Levi into three parts. Levi had three sons, Gershon, Kohath and Merari…one of the sons of Kohath was Amram, whose two sons were Moses and Aaron, so the Aaronic priesthood came from Kohath, 1^st Chronicles 6:1-3. So in dividing the 48 cities between these three subdivisions of the tribe of Levi broke out this way, to the Kohathites that were of Aaronic descent went 13 cities taken from Judah, Simeon, Benjamin, 13 cities in all (verse 4), and to the rest of the children of Kohath (that were not Aaronic priests, from the line of Aaron) went 10 cities, taken out of the tribes of Ephraim, Dan and half the tribe of Manasseh. To the children of Gershon went 13 cities, out of the tribes of Issachar, Asher and Naphtali (verse 6). And to the children of Merari went 12 cities, taken out of the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Zebulun. 13+10+13+12=48 cities. So can you see the exquisite detail in which God worked all this out, from the children of Levi, probably starting from when Levi was still living with his brothers in Canaan with Jacob, before they all moved to Egypt to be with Joseph. God is into the fine details of our lives, just as he was back then.]