Joshua 14:1-15.  Sorry for the late posting of this, my internet was down all day today.  Yesterday I mentioned that Chapters 13-21 of Joshua describe the division of the promised land.  Chapter 13 remineded us that Moses had given land to 2½ tribes on the East side of the Jordan River.  If you followed chapter 13 closely you might have noticed that twice we were told that the tribe of Levi did not get any land (Joshua 13:14,33).  Those verses also explained why, God was their provider, they were to get a part of the offerings to God (See also “The Twelve?”).  Numbers often have symbolic meaning to different people.  The Jewish people seem to favor the number twelve as a number of human completeness.  Therefore they tried to keep things in lists of twelve.  To compensate for Levi not getting a piece of the land Joseph was divided into two parts, Manasseh and Ephraim.  This was by their grand-father, Jacob (Israel, see “What’s In A Name?”).  At that time he also blessed them both but he gave a greater blessing to the younger brother Ephraim (Genesis 48:1-20).  Jacob then went on the tell Joseph that one day he would return to the promised land and would receive the a double portion.  Of course that would happen over 400 years later though his descendants.

After blessing Joseph, Jacob turned to his other children and made prophetic statements about each of them (Genesis 49:1-27).  In Genesis 49:28 these statements are called blessings.  In Genesis 49:5-7 Levi and Simeon receive their “blessing” together.  It seems more like a curse though when Jacob tells them that their inheritance is to be scattered and disbursed in the land.  As we have seen Levi did not receive a territory.  Later we will see more detail about how this worked out.  Also Jacob’s blessing for Judah was generous (Genesis 49:8-12).  Overall many of the “blessings” given by Jacob find at least part of their fulfillment in the distribution of the land.  These divisions were not equal but they did seem to fit the particular families or tribes that received them.

As we will see Judah will be favored in the division of the land.  They will also be first to receive their part with a special member of the tribe, Caleb, receiving his first.  Today’s reading is about Caleb’s portion and he didn’t wait around for Joshua to get to him.  Caleb was one of two people from his generation allowed to enter the promised land, the other was Joshua.  They were tow of twelve spies went into the promised land when the Israelites first arrived 45 years earlier.   The other ten spies scared the people about taking the land.  Caleb and Joshua encouraged the people to take the land promised by God.  The people listened to the tem and got banished from the land.  In Numbers 14:24 God praised Caleb and promised the land to his descendants.  Moses also mentioned Caleb’s faithfulness in Deuteronomy 1:36 using almost the same words.  Finally here in Joshua 14:8 Caleb, using the same words, describes his faithfulness.  In verse 9 he adds the information that Moses had made a solemn promise to him about receiving the very land he had walked on.  We also find out at least part of why he is in such a hurry in verse 7, he was forty back in the day when he spied out the land, now it was forty-five years later.  That’s a long time to wait for a promise.  But he had remained fit both spiritually and physically (Joshua 14:11) and was ready to fight.  So he was given a city in the hill country of south central Israel.  Later in the book we will see that the city included surrounding villages and land.  The interesting part about this city was it’s name.  It was renamed Hebron when Caleb took it over  but it had benn called Kiriath-arba.  Kiraith means “city of” and Arba was the name of the greatest of the people known as Anakim.  As we saw in an earlier post these people were great and powerful and Anak was the best, but he was now match for a revved up Caleb especially with God behind him, and evidently Caleb always made sure God had his back.

It’s interesting that different people received different promises, different blessings, and as we will see different allotments.  But the blessings of Jacob seemed to fit who the people were.  And Caleb received a special promise because he was faithful.  It’s nice to know that God notices and that He cares.  It’s also cool that Caleb had conviction that God would reward his faithfulness.  God help me be faithful to you.  Help me stick up for you.  Help me be patient, waiting for your timing.  Let me be ready when you open the door.  Let me be like Caleb.