God Assigns Our Inheritance

Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're at Joshua chapter 14, verses 1 through 5. Just quick five verses. We're going to be talking about the introduction to the left side. What left side? We'll find out. I don't have coffee. I'm out.
So let's just pray and we'll get into God's word. God, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. We pray that you would please help us as we read your word, that your Holy Spirit work in us. Lord, I confess to you that even this morning my heart is Overwhelmed with all the stuff that needs to get done today, Lord, we thank you for the blessing it is that we get to stop, remember what's important, spend time in your word together. So Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would please help us to read, to understand, and that your Spirit would apply it to our lives. Thank you for giving us breaks in the day to remember what's really important and to spend time with you. So help us, Lord, we pray, by your Spirit, in Jesus's name, amen. All right, Joshua chapter 14, verses one through five. I'll let you read.
These are the areas which the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eliezer the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel distributed as inheritance to them. Their inheritance was by law, as the Lord has commanded by the hand of Moses.
Nine tribes and... For the nine tribes and the half-tribe. And the half-tribe. For Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the Levites he had given... And the half-tribe on the other side of the Jordan. But to the Levites he had given no inheritance among... Among them.
Good. For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. You want to keep going? No, you can read this. Okay. And they gave no part to the Levites in the land, except cities to dwell in, with their common lands for their livestock and their property, as the Lord had commanded Moses. So the children of Israel did, and they divided the land. All right. Well, we got three questions to ask ourselves. A, what's this? About. B, what's the? Best for us to survive. And C? What are we called to do? What are we called to do? Okay, I'm going to pull this up here. so this is what's going on so uh... this is just a free map i got from uh... online so it's i can't verify that Yeah, the specifics. Some things I'm a little bit meh about.
Anyways, so last time in the last chapter we talked about Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. We talked about from south to north the lands that Moses had given the two and a half tribes. You'll notice Manasseh crosses east to west because half of them are on the Right-hand side of the Jordan the other half that's on the left hand side right and so Yeah, so Manassas in this map gets quite a big chunk now It's possible that GAD gets all the way up to the Sea of Chinereth possible, but anyways Now it's talking about the land given on the West side of the Jordan River on the other side and how is this land? So there's nine and a half tribes, right? So you have Judah Simeon Ephraim Benjamin Dan Ephraim Manasseh Issachar Zebulun Asher Naphtali and Dan Yeah, and so how are these different lands distributed So, how are these different lands distributed?
Olivia just walked in so she's gonna go around the other door Yeah, they do it by lot so who is giving the land Well, but I thought they were doing it by lot Sometimes the easiest way to resolve it is with what I decided to Yeah, right, so instead of somebody picking favorites...
Whatever got decided. whatever the Lord decides, right? Yeah, good. So this is, so that's the whole point, right? It's what the Lord decides who's getting the different plots of land. That's what's going on here. It's not just the, uh, it's, it's not just like, you know, uh, Joshua playing favorites, right? But no, the Lord's giving them their inheritance. Uh, why wouldn't, I think there's a, there's another part here with the lot though, in the distributing the land, because whose land ultimately is it? It's God's land right and so God's the Covenant King And so this is inheritance right is something that somebody is passing down to someone else So I think this is God himself giving each tribe Their perfect allotment right so that's what this is about so that land on the other side of the river is The two and a half, or the nine and a half tribes over on the left side are getting their land from the king, from God himself.
So I want to talk about calling. We're just going to skip over B for now because I want to talk to you just for a moment about this with the law. You mentioned a word, providence. Oh yeah, there's a giant book by John Piper on my shelf on the idea of providence, but the psalmist even talks about, right? The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Does everybody get the same lot in life? Is that even, where do you think that phrase even came from? Lot in life. There used to be like lots Okay There's still lots but like your place your chance in life.
Okay, so So we believe in chance luck good things may be possibly happening to you that are outside of everybody's control Just It's almost like it He pre-written. Just think of it like, it's helpful for me to just think of it like a giant, almost like a movie film.
Always pre-written. And so, God wrote that script. He can still change that script, but God's not inside the script. He doesn't have to, oh well, he's at this time, so he can't change something back here. Okay, so God changes according to circumstances? God changes it according to what he wants. So God is changing his will depending on circumstances? No, God has already pre-written it. So this isn't going to change no matter what. In the next hundred years. So God doesn't change things? Nope.
So he doesn't know what he's doing or he does know what he's doing? He knows what he's doing. He has from the beginning of time. He's changing or he's unchanging? Unchanging. So everything's absolutely deterministic? We're just like puppets in a play? Nope. How's that?
God created us with our own will. And a will we can, if we had a will, we would create some character in the script and that character would be our will that gets to play out and God can choose how I will not just it's not how I will if God wanted to he could. So does he do violence to our wills? He could. That seems pretty tyrannical. He's also a magician so he knows everything how it should walk out Hmm and what's best if he's a talent, what would happen? Oh, what's that kidding? To be got Yeah, right.
So what you just stumbled upon is one of the hardest theological questions in existence, right? The sovereignty of God and the will of man. And so we don't hold to a hard determinism, right? That we're just some type of puppets in a play, but that we believe that there is an omniscient and sovereign God who is, what the theological word is, immutable, right?
He's unchanging. He doesn't learn and change and, you know, mess around with his will because, oh, now Nathan's doing this, and I didn't know that Nathan was doing that, so I'm going to do this instead. No, he knows what he's doing. He knows it beginning from the end, and he's accomplishing all according to his holy will, and yet he does so without doing violence against our wills.
And so this is one of those difficult areas that we have to have a lot of humility in. And I would rather have a high view of God than a high view of man with this one. But for those of us who not just focus on the will of God, but what aspect other than the will of God with it just being the lot, right?
He's the one choosing. What other aspect of God's character do you see in him assigning them their lots? What are they getting with their lots? What's that called? I said it earlier, it started with an I. Inheritance. Inheritance. But what's God treating them like? Yeah. Yeah, like children, right? God treats us with his fatherly love and care. And so, wherever the lots fall to us, wherever the lines come to us in our lives, we can know. This is for my good. My God loves me. He knows the beginning from the end. He knows what's good for me. He's got a plan for this. That's why Paul will say in Romans chapter eight that all things work together for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purposes, right?
We will say this is hard, right? We were saying Psalm 42 last night. I just finished reading through the book of Job. Not everything's easy, right? But yet what can we hope in? Yeah, hope in God. He's got a plan. He's got a purpose. He's got promises, so we trust in him. Yeah, let's go ahead and pray.
God, thank you so much for this day. Lord, we know that sometimes our souls are downcast. We know even that people can say evil and wrong things. Father, we pray that you would please help us even in hard providences. Lord, we pray that we would trust in you, for we know that the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places, because you have given us an inheritance in Jesus Christ, which is kept secure for us in heaven.
And so, Father, please help us in our walk in this life as sojourners and pilgrims, looking forward to a better kingdom and a better age. In Jesus' name, amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ, and we'll see you next time. Say adios. Bye. Bye.