Cities Allotted to Judah - Joshua 15:20-63

Well, good morning, beloved. We're continuing again this morning in the book of Joshua.

We find ourselves in Joshua chapter 15 this morning. I invite you to turn there.

This morning we will be looking at the cities allotted to Judah for their inheritance.

We'll be looking specifically this morning at the second half of Joshua chapter 15, starting in verse 20 down to the end of the chapter.

If you haven't been with us here through this study, I'd like to briefly just take a moment to recount where we are in the book.

Joshua is an Old Testament book and that means it was written before the birth of our

Lord Jesus Christ. And the text before us this morning is a text of fulfillment of promise.

A promise that was made far back in the beginning part of the Bible. And we see that in the opening chapters of the

Bible, mankind fell in sin through Adam, through our first father.

Through that we lost communion with God. We're no longer in fellowship with our Maker, but we are at enmity.

We are under his wrath. And nevertheless, God in his great mercy and kindness chose one man,

Abraham, not for any good in him, but because of God's sovereign grace to enter into a covenant with him and to make a promise to him.

A promise of blessing. And that's the context for the book of Joshua this morning. We saw that promise most clearly in Genesis 12 and Genesis 15.

And we won't take the time this morning to review that again because we've looked at it through this study in the book of Joshua.

But God promised to bless Abraham and to make him into a great nation and to bring him into a good and fruitful land.

And through him and through his seed, to bless all the nations or the families of the earth.

If they would live in obedience and submission to his commands, they would enjoy his protection and provision and favor in the land that he was giving to them.

And God would preserve a remnant of this nation in spite of their sins, in spite of their failures, to bring about the

Messiah. The promised seed through whom that blessing to all nations would be manifest.

Abraham's grandson, Jacob, who would be renamed Israel, would have 12 sons.

Lord willing, we'll talk more about this next week, but Reuben, the firstborn, would forfeit his birthright and not receive the kingly promise because he defiled his father's bed.

Similarly, the second and third born sons, Simeon and Levi, would also be passed over and the right to rule the blessing to bear kings would fall to Judah, the fourth born.

Judah himself was not an exemplary man. We have episodes of his life reported in Scripture of great sin, from his role to the evil done to his brother

Joseph, to the sexual immorality and hypocrisy with Tamar. Yet nevertheless,

Judah would bear the kingly line. To Judah would be born

David, the king after God's own heart. And eventually, the

Lord Jesus Christ, the king of kings, who rules over heaven and earth, all things seen and unseen.

He would be born to the tribe of Judah. This privilege, this honor, is reflected here in the fact that of the 12 tribes,

Judah is first, and an entire chapter is devoted to his land inheritance.

To finish establishing the context for us here in Joshua, we're about 400 years after that initial promise was made to Abraham.

The descendants of Jacob multiplied in the land of Egypt and then were delivered out of Egypt, out of slavery, through the ministry of God's servant

Moses. And Moses, due to his own sin, would not enter into the promised land.

He would see it, but he would not be allowed to enter in. That would fall to Joshua, who we have seen throughout this study leading

God's people. After Moses' death, Joshua took on that mantle of the role of the servant of God to lead

God's people into the promised land. And so the book of Joshua began with him being appointed as the leader outside of the borders of Canaan and a restatement of the promise originally made to Abraham.

And then we had 12 chapters of conquest. 12 chapters of Joshua leading the people imperfectly, but leading the people in victory over the

Canaanites that they would enter into and take possession of this land.

And now, here in the second half of the book of Joshua, we have the land being divided up among the tribes of Israel and given to them as their inheritance.

It's a good land. It meets their needs in abundance. And we saw in the last two weeks both the initial borders of Judah established in the first 12 verses of chapter 15, and then a short section addressing

Caleb and his near relative Othniel. And now, here, starting in Joshua chapter 15, verse 20, we have a longer section that lists the cities allotted to the tribe of Judah as their inheritance.

Please bear with me as we read this section. I ask for your patience as I read it.

Some of this is difficult, but we need to have in the forefront of our mind reverence that this is

God's holy word. And so let us read now. Joshua, starting in verse 20, down to the end of the chapter.

This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah, according to their families.

The cities at the limits of the tribe of the children of Judah toward the border of Edom, in the south, were

Kebzil, Eder, Jager, Kinnel, Dimna, Aduda, Kedesh, Hazor, Ithnan, Zif, Telim, Biloth, Hazor, Hadatha, Kiroith, Hezron, which is

Hazor, Amam, Shema, Moladah, Hazor, Gada, Heshmon, Bethpelet, Hazor, Shul, Beersheba, Bizjothja, Heshmon, Baal, Ijem, Ezem, Eltolad, Kessel, Hamor, Ziklag, Madmana, Shashana, Leboth, Shilhem, Eyn, Rimin.

All the cities are 29 with their villages. In the lowland, Eshdul, Zorah, Ashnah, Zenoah, Enganim, Tepua, Enam, Jeremath, Adalam, Sukkot, Azka, Shurayim, Adalathayim, Gedara, and Gedarathayim.

14 cities with their villages. Zeynan, Hadasha, Migdal -gad,

Dalim, Mizpah, Jokthil, Lekesh, Bozka, Eglon, Kebon, Lamas, Kithlish, Gedaroth, Bethdagan, Nema, and Makeda.

16 cities with their villages. Libna, Ether, Ashen, Jiphthah, Ashnan, Nezib, Kilith, Axib, and Mersha.

9 cities with their villages. Ekron and its towns and villages, from Ekron to the sea, all that lay near Ashdod with their villages,

Ashdod with its towns and villages, Gaza with its towns and villages, as far as the brook of Egypt, and the great sea with its coastline.

And in the mountain country, Shamir, Jatir, Soko, Dana, Kirjath Sana, which is

Debir, Enab, Eshtemoth, Enam, Goshen, Holon, and Gilo.

11 cities with their villages. Ereb, Duma, Eshan, Janim, Beth, Tapua, Aphek, Hamta, Kirjath Arba, which is

Hebron, and Zor. 9 cities with their villages. Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Judah, Jezreel, Jokdim, Zenoa, Cain, Gibeah, and Timna.

10 cities with their villages. Hawhol, Beth Zur, Gedur, Merath, Beth Anoth, and Elkkan, 6 cities with their villages.

Kirjath Baal, which is Kirjath Jerim, and Rerabath, 2 cities with their villages.

In the wilderness, Beth Arba, Midin, Saqqa, Nibshan, the

City of Salt, and Engedi, 6 cities with their villages. As for the

Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out.

But the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.

Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, we praise you this morning that you have given us your holy word.

You've revealed to us truth that endures, truth that speaks to us and reveals to us your faithfulness and your promises.

I ask, Father, for your help this morning as we consider this text and its implications.

Would you soften our heart to the seed of the gospel that we would look to Christ, that we would look to Christ as our king, as the faithful prophet, priest, and king who rules over all things, who is successful in conquest because of his death and resurrection.

Would he be magnified this morning as we, your people, your sheep, the flock of your pasture are fed from your word.

In Christ's name we pray, amen. This is a difficult section.

If you're reading through the Bible aloud with your family, this might be one of those sections where you'd be inclined to pull up an audio

Bible recording. In your private Bible reading, when you get to the section like this, you might find it somewhat tedious or difficult.

You might be tempted to wonder why God has set this text before us this morning for our instruction.

What are we to glean from this? We must be reminded that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and all of it is profitable.

All of it is profitable. We must be reminded that all scripture points to Christ.

We must look to the Holy Spirit to give us eyes to see and ears to hear the truths before us, that we might be built up in the truth for his purposes, that we might be conformed to the image of Christ because we are his people.

And this morning that means that this text is the meal prepared for us. Let us be thankful to the

Father for what he has supplied. Again, our theme this morning is the faithfulness of the

Lord. This is a reoccurring theme in Joshua and really throughout the whole

Bible, that God is faithful to his promises.

And that is very clear here in this chapter. We have to handle a text like this somewhat differently than we typically do when we exposit a passage.

As we consider God's faithfulness, I want to organize our thoughts and our reflections in this passage around three main observations that we see here.

First, we see this blessing, this assignment, this inheritance that they receive comes with an expectation of stewardship.

An expectation of stewardship, of rightly using the blessings that God has entrusted to his people for his purposes, not our own.

Second, we must see here the provision of cities as an expectation of community, of dwelling in community with others.

And thirdly, and finally, we will look at the physicality of the promises of God.

And so first of all, why does Joshua take this time to enumerate each of the cities and settlements and villages that are being allotted to Judah?

One answer is that God is being very explicit with them where they are to dwell.

But where there's an implication here is that the particular settlements that they are inheriting are then their responsibility.

When God gives us something, he expects us to steward it well. He expects us to be obedient with what he has given us.

Think of the parable of the talents in the Gospel of Matthew. We covered this back in Matthew chapter 25.

There, our Lord teaches us by way of a parable that when God entrusts us with a blessing, he expects us to steward it in accordance with his will.

We are servants in this context. We are blessed with abundance, but we are to serve him with the blessings that he has given us.

We are to use the blessings for his pleasure. Matthew chapter 25 says this,

For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance.

But from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away, and cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness.

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For the tribe of Judah, that meant that there are responsibilities to possess this land, to drive out the remaining

Canaanites, and to fill the land with the true worship of the one true

God. They're to work the land. They're to make it fruitful for his purposes.

Here in this land, Judah was to be obedient to the laws and commandments and ordinances that was given by Moses.

They were given an abundance. I didn't count them myself, but Matthew Henry says there are 114 cities here allotted to Judah, more than any of the other tribes.

It includes cities in the lowlands, which included the Philistine regions near Gaza, Ekron, and Ashdod.

We mentioned it already, but this is where the descendants of the Anakim retreated to, as was mentioned earlier in the book.

And then he also details the mountainous regions and the wilderness regions.

The land given to Judah is a diverse and broad and spacious land.

Even the great city of Jerusalem, the city that would be the center of the

Old Testament kingdom of Israel, is given to them, to Judah. And yet, as our text here says, at the time of Joshua writing these things down,

Judah had yet failed to drive out the Jebusites and take possession of Jerusalem.

We'll come back to that point. But the point I want to make here now is that when

God blesses us, it is his kindness and it is his mercy to us to give us abundance, to fill us with joy.

But it comes with an expectation of stewardship, a responsibility. Consider the great blessing that they have in receiving this generational land.

This is a concept that we have largely lost in Western culture, and it's to our shame.

When the tribe of Judah inherited this land, they saw this as not just blessing for them, but for their children and their children's children.

This is an overwhelming abundance. Think about the richness of the mercy of God in not just giving them a place to dwell, but security for generations, for their offspring to dwell in this land.

We should long for this, for God's blessings in this way that we can hand off to our children and our grandchildren, blessings and privileges.

Beloved, consider your own life. What has God blessed you with? Family, parents, siblings, a spouse, children, even material possessions are from the

Lord. Our daily bread, the food that he gives us, our housing, a job, all of these are blessings from the

Lord, and they come with an expectation of stewardship. Like Judah, we don't have these because we're better or more deserving than others, but because God is gracious.

And in his sovereignty, he has chosen to bless you in various distinct ways.

One lesson from a text like this is be aware of what he's given to you. And thank him for it.

Take ownership of it and use it for his glory.

He's given you all that you have. Consider how you are stewarding the blessings that he has entrusted to you.

Are you striving in all of these things to be found faithful? Will it be said of you, well done, good and faithful servant.

You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things.

Enter into the joy of the Lord. Very practically, this means consider how you speak to your family.

Consider how you show honor to your parents. Consider how you love your siblings.

How do you care for your own body? How are you striving to train up those entrusted to your care?

Those under your authority, your children. How do you spend your money? How do you love your wife or your husband?

How do you labor in your job? How do you spend your time? If you have the tremendous privilege this morning of being a student, how do you think about your studies and your work as a student?

Do you steward that privilege well? Or do you just do the bare minimum to skate by?

The relationships that God has brought into your life, are you availing them to the best of your ability?

Showing yourself to be faithful with them, to bring yourself closer to Christ and to point others to Christ, to build his kingdom.

Are you being faithful in what he has entrusted you to do?

Two, we want our lives to be lives of repentance and reform.

We want to hear those words, well done, good and faithful servant. We want to be faithful, not the unprofitable servant described by our

Lord. Secondly, I think there's a lesson for us here in the fact that God didn't give a sparse and barren land, but a land with established cities in it to the tribe of Judah.

Cities that they were to take possession of and dwell in. They were to dwell in these cities.

This reflects, I believe, a universal truth about mankind and the way that God has made us.

From the very beginning of the human race in the garden, God made

Adam and he said it is not good for man to be alone. And so he made a helper fit for him.

He made for Adam a wife. This pattern continues throughout scripture and all of human history that mankind is meant to be with others, to live in society.

Even in secular economics, we talk about the division of labor being one of the keys to the flourishing and betterment of the human condition.

The truth is we need others. We need others and we need to dwell with them and trade with them.

We need to share with them and support one another in times of hardship and difficulty.

Here in this text, we see the Lord's provision in the way that God has given them cities to take possession of and dwell in with one another.

And he's given them laws, laws that regulate how they're to live together and dwell together in community in order that they might live in a society together peacefully.

This is a sign of God's good provision because it is needed.

It's needed. But there's an application for us that goes beyond the lesson of civil society and economics for we see this fleshed out even more fully in the

New Testament. In the New Covenant, God saves individuals and calls them into individual communities called churches.

This is for our good. Our material need for society and community is reflected in our spiritual need for the church.

Now the men of our church have been working through a book together on the spiritual disciplines of the

Christian lived out within the context of the local church. We've been discussing the necessity of Christian fellowship, the necessity of communal prayer and corporate singing, and many other disciplines that are essential to the

Christian life. Things that we cannot do in isolation on our own.

They are meant for the context of the local church. I've said it before. The local church isn't just something that we came up with out of convenience because we want to be together.

It's something that Christ instituted. Christ decreed that we would live together,

Christians would live together in the local church and depend on one another and support one another and love one another and admonish one another and teach one another and commune with one another.

Christ died to redeem for himself a bride, the church.

But not merely in a broad and spiritualized manner. He calls us to assemble together weekly on the

Lord's day into local communities where our immediate spiritual needs are met.

Our need for teaching and fellowship and communion and correction and all these others that we discuss.

Beloved, there is no way to be a healthy and thriving

Christian obedient to Christ's commands outside of the local church.

You must, must pursue the local church and be vitally connected to it with real relationships with those around you.

We can't do this in isolation. And God knows that. And God has given us the church.

God gives believers gifts that are meant to be exercised in the context of the local church.

And texts like ours this morning should remind us of the blessing that it is and the necessity of being vitally connected to the local church.

Now we here at Hill City have a church covenant that we require all of our members to affirm that enumerates our commitments one to another.

And even that if in God's timing, he calls us away from this local church that we will endeavor to find another local church to join ourselves to.

That we may continue to be obedient, to be faithful to his design for the

Christian life. Just a couple passages that teach us this in the

New Testament. Ephesians 2, sorry, Acts 2, 42 says, they continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

This is talking about Christians gathering together for church. Ephesians 2 says, now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being joined together grows into a holy temple in the

Lord. In whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place in God, of God in the spirit.

This is speaking of something that we do here weekly. When we gather together in fellowship and in communion, we are fellow citizens and saints together and we are being built up as a temple to the

Holy Spirit. For he is in our midst when we gather together in his name.

In 1 Timothy 3, Paul calls the church, the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

My point here is that God expects us to live in community for our own good and for his glory.

Commit yourself to that. I know for some of you, for some of us, this is difficult.

Maybe you're an introvert. I don't know, but it doesn't matter. Ultimately, God has called you to be connected to the church, not isolated.

It's easy to slip in here and then slip out and go about your week. But let me be clear.

If that is your habit, you are in sin. Christ expects you to be vitally connected to the church and you need it.

It's for your good. Thirdly, and finally, we need to recognize the significance of the physicality of God's promises.

One commentator had this to say, God's word is seldom about some bare, purely spiritual inner abstraction.

The God of the Bible tends to be concrete, his gifts tangible and visible.

The inheritance that he bequeaths is not an idea, but boundaries.

Not thoughts, but towns. In a word, real estate. It's very physical for the tribe of Judah.

Let us not try to be more pious than God. He wants us to taste and see his goodness.

And so he gives us physical blessings, tangible things that we can see.

Psalm 27 says this, I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the

Lord in the land of the living. The psalmist is saying here, our promises and blessings that we put our hope in are not just some future distant spiritual reality.

God's goodness is manifest to us in the land of the living, in the here and now.

Beloved, this is his kindness to you. Recognize it.

400 years prior, what God gave to Abraham was a mere promise, and yet he did not at that point possess any of the land that God said he would give to him and his offspring.

He didn't even have children at that point. And somehow, I think for many of us, had we been in Abraham's situation, we would have had a strong temptation to reinterpret this promise in some abstract, metaphorical, distant, and spiritual way, making excuses for this and that, to reduce

God's promise to just something abstract. But praise be to God that he gave

Abraham a faith that actually believed the promise as given, as stated, knowing that God would give him the land of Canaan, that God would give him offspring, and God would give him this legacy of faith that you and I can be joined into if we share the faith of Abraham, the faith in Christ's promises.

This is why Hebrews 11 tells us, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance.

And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.

For he waited for a city which has foundations whose builder and maker is

God. This isn't just speaking of some ethereal heavenly existence.

This is speaking of a promise of a real city, a tangible place where God's people will dwell forever.

Even the promise made to Judah that the royal scepter would not depart from him.

We have to recognize that this wasn't merely a metaphor that there would be a real king, a real living and breathing king born to Judah.

Of course, we see this in the Old Testament in the life of David, who would eventually drive out the

Jebusites from Jerusalem and that would become the center of the

Old Testament kingdom, the visible representation of Christ's kingdom on earth.

And that wouldn't happen until 2 Samuel 5, which shows that God's people needed a better king.

But even David was just a mere shadow of what was to come. Even the physicality of the promised king must be marveled at.

For at the appointed time, the eternal God, the second person of the

Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ took on flesh and was born physically born in Bethlehem.

The fulfillment of the promise is real and tangible. Jesus didn't just apparate in the appearance of man, he took on flesh and blood and he walked among us.

He was seen, he was touched, and he died a bloody death on a cross.

And he did this to purchase our salvation, to secure it.

And this salvation that he purchased is a real and tangible salvation that we will one day see with our eyes.

Yes, we are, if we are in Christ, declared righteous in his sight in a spiritual sense.

We are justified and pardoned from our guilt. But the promise goes beyond that, beloved.

We who are united to Christ by grace through faith will one day be loosed from the presence of sin and death, really and truly.

And beloved, on that last day, the risen Lord Jesus Christ in his resurrected and glorified body will descend upon the earth physically with real flesh and blood.

He will descend and he will stand on the earth and he will reign. The dead in Christ will be bodily raised and we will dwell with him in the new creation, in the new heavens and earth forevermore.

All things will be made new. We will dwell body and soul with him in the new earth.

This is a truth that most western Christians have brushed aside for far too long.

Christ didn't die and rise again to deliver us out of our bodies, to float in some spiritual ether for all eternity.

But he is making all things new. All things new.

This is the fullness of the salvation that he accomplished and secured for us.

That we will be redeemed from the curse of sin and death and dwell with him forever.

Beloved, Israel's concrete and tangible inheritance in Canaan is a foreshadowing of our own.

The New Testament calls us with full faith in the bodily resurrected Christ to fix our eyes on the fullness of salvation that he has secured for us, the redemption of our bodies on the resurrection day at the glorious return of our

Lord. Our ultimate end state is a resurrected state where death is no more.

Dear one, if you are not united to Christ, truly united to Christ, that can only happen by faith.

That doesn't happen through communion. That doesn't happen through church membership. It happens by grace through faith.

If you are not united to Christ by faith, then none of these blessings that we have discussed this morning are yours today.

Like the rich man, you've had your good in this life only to find judgment and wrath on the last day.

Eternity separated from God. This is why the gospel is so important.

This is why Christ's death and resurrection is an imperative that we must preach every single day.

When we stand in this pulpit, that is what we preach. The gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ dying and rising again that we might be united to him through faith unto salvation.

I'll close with the warning and the promise given to us by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3.

Brethren, join in following my example and note those who so walk as you have for a pattern.

For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose

God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things.

For our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the savior, the

Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself.

Beloved, this is the great salvation of Jesus Christ and there is none other.

Remember, remember beloved that with his blessings comes responsibility.

Steward them well. Remember, beloved, that he saves us into community, that we might be vitally connected to the church for our good and his glory.

And remember, beloved, that the promises of God are real and tangible and we will one day see him face to face.

Let us long for that glorious day. Our Father in heaven and throne on high, we praise you this morning for your faithfulness, your promise made in ages past but accomplished by Christ your son.

Would we strive to be a people found faithful in your sight not by our own strength but by the working of your spirit, by the grace at work within us that we would be built up, that we would be that bride adorned for her wedding day eagerly waiting for the return of our bridegroom.