God's Promises Stand

You can't see do you need some glasses? No, you need old man glasses. No, okay Oh, you can't see with the glasses. Okay. Well, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions this morning We are at Joshua chapter 16 gonna talk about the tribe of Judah No, nope Ephraim and West Manasseh. All right Ephraim and West Manasseh. All right, let's have some coffee We'll pray and we'll find out what the Lord gives them Do you want some coffee? Oh, don't you spit in my coffee, don't you?
All right, let's pray. God, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you for time in your word. Thank you for time together. Lord, we pray that we would love you, that we would learn, and we would follow after you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, here we go. Joshua chapter 16.
I'll let you read verses 1 through 4, and then I'll read 5 through 10. The lot fell to the children of Joseph from the Jordan by Jericho to the waters of Jericho on the east to the wilderness that goes up from Jericho through the land, through the mountains to Bethel, then went out from Bethel to Luz, passed along to the border of Archites at Atorath and went down westward to the boundary of the Japhelites, as far as the boundary of lower Beth-haran to Gezer, and it ended at the sea. So the children of Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim took their inheritance. Okay, so there's Joseph and Manasseh take their inheritance. I'm going to pull open the map here. It's Manasseh and Ephraim. Yeah, Manasseh and Ephraim.
But it's right because Joseph has how many sons? Two. Two sons. And what does Jacob do with Joseph's two sons? He adopts them. He adopts them at the end of his life, right? So they become two tribes. So Joseph, even though he's one brother, ends up with two tribes. And so this area here is what it's talking about. So this whole area is what it was describing. I can't see my cursor. There it is. So kind of this whole big area is what it was describing. And then Ephraim is down here.
Wait, wasn't Ephraim the younger brother who got the first I always get those confused and backwards right so you're right the the younger gets blessed before the older that'd be an interesting thing to look at the end of Genesis to see this if Ephraim is the younger son then shouldn't he have the bigger portion Well, we can go all the way back in our Bibles to the book of Genesis where Jacob is blessing, or where Jacob blesses Joseph's sons. So that's Genesis chapter 48. So here we go, then Israel saw Joseph's sons and he said, who are these?
These are my sons whom God has given me in this place. Please bring them to me and I will bless them. And he was so old he couldn't see. He kissed them and embraced them. And he said, I didn't think I'd see your face, but in fact, God has shown me your offspring. And so he brings his two boys beside his knees, and he bowed down to the earth.
And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right hand, and toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand towards Israel's right hand, and brought them near him. Then Israel stretched out his right hand and put it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head. guiding his hands knowingly from Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph, he blesses the dad, and he says the blessing over them. And at the middle, it says in verse 17, Joseph sees his father's hands are switched, and he's like, oh no, no, dad, that's not right.
And he says, I know, I know, my son, verse 19. And he says that both by you Israel will, sorry, he says, he shall also become a great people and he shall be great, but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations. So it's interesting that Ephraim gets the blessing. But he's got the smaller portion. That's interesting. Hey, that was a fun rabbit trail. All right, let's pull up.
So that was all of Ephraim and West Manasseh, right? So together, now we're going to get to verses five through 10, talking specifically about Ephraim and its cities and borders. The border of the children of Ephraim, according to their families, was thus. The border of their inheritance on the east side was Atharoth, Adar, as far as upper Bethhoron. And the border went out toward the sea on the north side of Mekmeththath. Then the border went around eastward to Tanath Shiloh and passed by it on the east of Johanna. Then it went down from Jonaha to Ataroth and Nara'a, reached to Jericho, and came out at the Jordan. The border went out to Tapua westward to the brook Kanah, and from it ended at the sea. This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim, according to their families. The separate cities for the children of Ephraim were among the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the children with their villages. And they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer. But the Canaanites dwell among the children of Ephraimites to this day, and have become forced laborers Okay, so hey, what's this about you said and the children with their villages?
Didn't mess it up. Yeah. Oh, sorry all right the cities with their villages What's this about? This is about how large ethium is Okay, so I think it's more about the land that's given to them. It's the inheritance that's given to them. So all throughout this section from chapter 14 through a few chapters, we're talking about the division of the land, getting it by lots, right? God is determining which tribes get which lots, right? Their inheritance.
So which tribe are we talking about? Ephraim. Yeah, largely Ephraim, right? So it talks about all Joseph, but now it's talking about Ephraim. In the next chapter, we'll pick up the other tribe, Manasseh. And so Ephraim's inheritance. So Joseph's divided into two, so Ephraim's inheritance. Now, what interesting thing came up at the very end, though?
The Canaanites became slaves. Yeah, but they didn't drive out, and they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer. But the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites. So when Daniel and I were reading last time, it said in verse 22, or verse 63, 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. And now we're at Ephraim, and Ephraim doesn't drive out the Canaanites. But at least Ephraim makes them slaves instead of just letting them. Yeah, but I mean this is like, hold on, they were supposed to drive all these people out or else they would become snares and traps.
Right? They would tempt them with their gods. The conquest isn't as complete as what we thought, is it? No, we get hints throughout here that God was faithful. He's given them the promised land, but it seems like they're, the people are kind of taking shortcuts or maybe, uh, Maybe, right, if you go to work for someone and you're supposed to work from 9 to 5, maybe they're getting off work at 4.30 instead of 5. Right, they're not finishing the job. So, yeah, it's going to cause problems later, won't it? Yeah, the Israelites will get snared by all their different Canaanite gods later on. So, there's much to be warned about here. Okay, so let's put it into our context. How does this apply to us?
Do you think God's not able to keep his promises? No. I mean he gave him this inheritance. He gave him this land. So is God not strong enough? Is he not big enough? To actually give him the land to drive out all the Canaanites? No. He gave them the land.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Sometimes do we stop short of our work? Yeah. So do we get an inheritance in Canaan now? Should we go there and kick out all these ites? No. No? But I mean, it just said that, right? Shouldn't we? Yeah, let's go kick out those Canaanites.
Get the promised land back and establish the covenant. The Lord promised it to the children of Israel. Aren't you a child of Israel by faith? So shouldn't you go to the promised land? Let's go have another crusades, girl. The promised land is... that was the old promised land. Now there's a new heaven and a new earth. Oh, we're looking for a better inheritance now, aren't we? Yeah, a kingdom not of this world. But our inheritance is kept safe for us in heaven. Is that inheritance going to come?
How do you know? Because the Lord promised it. That's right. Can we trust his promises? Boom, shakalaka. All right, let's pray. God, we thank you so much for giving us a promise and an inheritance incorruptible, unfading. Lord, we thank you that's based upon the excellence of the character of our Savior who conquered sin and death. all the nations have been given over to Him. And so, Father, we look forward to His kingdom advancing and the kingdom of glory coming. In Jesus' name, amen. May God bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus. And we'll see you next time. Bye. Adios.