Well, we've been making our way through the book of Joshua, and we are up to Joshua chapter 18. The New Testament says Joshua is a type of Christ, and this whole book is for our edification. So we're reading Joshua 18, beginning at verse 11. of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families and the territory of their lot came out between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph. Their border on the north side began at the Jordan and the border went up to the side of Jericho on the north and went up through the mountains westward that ended at the wilderness of Beth-Avon. The border went over from there toward Luz, to the side of Luz, which is Bethel, southward. And the border descended to Atrath Adar, near the hill that lies on the south side of lower Beth Horon. Then the border extended around the west side of the south from the hill that lies before Beth Horon southward, and it ended at Kirjoth Baal, which is Kirjoth Jirem, a city of the children of Judah. This was the west side. The south side began at the end of Kirjoth Jirem, and the border extended on the west and went out to the spring of the waters of Neftoah. Then the border came down to the end of the mountain that lies before the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is in the Valley of the Rephaim on the north, descended to the Valley of Hinnom to the side of the Jebusite city on the south, and descended to Enrogel. And it went around from the north, went out to Enshemesh, and extended toward Geliloth, which is before the ascent of Adumim, and descended to the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben. Then it passed along toward the north side of Arabah and went down to Arabah. And the border passed along to the north side of Bethogla. Then the border ended at the North Bay, at the Salt Sea, at the south end of the Jordan. This was the southern border. The Jordan was its border on the east side. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, according to its boundaries all around, according to their families. Now, the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin, according to their families, were Jericho, Bethogla, Emekeziz, Betharabah, Zemarayim, Bethel, Avim, Parah, Ufrah, Shifar, Ha'amoni, Afne, and Gaba, 12 cities with their villages. Gibeon, Ramah, Be'eroth, Mizpah, Shephira, Mozah, Rakem, Irpil, Tarlah, Zilah, Eleph, Jebus, which is Jerusalem, Gibeoth, and Kirjoth, 14 cities with their villages. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word, and I pray that you would anoint my lips and enable me to faithfully preach it, and each one of us to grow into maturity in you as we look at this as a part of your inspired word. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, the reading of this portion of the word may seem very boring and irrelevant to many of you. And frankly, I don't know of any preacher, and I have scoured the internet, I've scoured my Logos software, every book that I own. I've never seen anybody preach on these chapters. I'm going to try to. And we're going to be seeing that there actually are wonderful truths scattered all through these chapters. 1 Timothy 3.16 assures us that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, and then it lists some of the things that it's profitable for. And so that means that this section we just read is profitable for you. So put your minds into gear, don't turn your minds off now, and let's see if the Lord speaks to you through this chapter. Now, even though Benjamin was one of the smallest of the 12 tribes, in fact, it was called Little Benjamin in Psalm 68, verse 27, It had a very important place in Israelite history. Judges 20, 1 Chronicles 12 are two places where their fierce, their ferocity, their incredible skill as warriors is recorded. That was a place where 20,000 Benjamites absolutely crushed an army of 400,000 men. And then in a later battle, they were willing to almost be exterminated rather than to give up. This just illustrates their kind of character. Down through Israel's history, many Benjamites distinguished themselves as being so fierce that God's prophecy in Genesis about Benjamin being as fierce as a ravenous wolf takes on new meaning. And I just find it so interesting how God uses all kinds of different people and yet makes sure that they all have an essential role to play in his kingdom. We need to value those differences. Please, brothers and sisters, don't write off the Benjamin type Christians that are out there that rub you wrong. You might have to keep them in check sometimes. That's OK, but value them. God has made them the way that they are for a reason. But as to the importance of this tribe, Ehud of Benjamin was one of the early judges of Israel. And many civic leaders down through history came from this little tribe. Jeremiah was a Levite, but he was a Levite who had inherited property within Benjamin, according to Jeremiah 32, 8. Or you can think of Mordecai, the uncle and the advisor to Queen Esther. He was a Benjamite as well. But many leaders in the reigns of Saul and of David and of Solomon came from this tribe, and so I want to spend a little bit of time looking at why the inheritance that Benjamin received really is a very, very important inheritance. It was a rather odd inheritance, but God spends quite a few verses in this chapter on their inheritance, more than the others. First of all, we have several hints of God's sovereignty in what they inherited. This was not simply the will of man that was at work. Verse 11 says, now the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up. Now we've already talked about what it means for casting of lots in previous sermons. It was a symbol of God's sovereignty, and anytime you see the lot mentioned, it's hinting God's at work. It's His sovereign will at work. Lots were sort of like dice, And as border options were considered, the lots would be cast and would rule out certain portions for one tribe, and it would give other portions to another tribe. And so the world would consider this division of the land to be pure luck, pure chance. But there is no such thing as chance in God's world, right? And Proverbs 16 verse 33 says, the lot is cast into the lap, sort of like the throwing of dice, but it says it's every decision is from the Lord. In other words, it is saying that even what some people consider to be random luck is actually completely controlled by our sovereign Lord. And we'll be looking at some of the beautiful structure and the symmetry in the section that shows God's hand at work, even in the order in which he distributed the land. It really is remarkable. Matthew 10 verse 29 says that not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from the will of the Lord. And then the next verse says at any given moment, he's got the number of hairs on your head all numbered. So for those of you who have been losing your hair, don't complain about it. God's in charge of the loss of your hair, hairiness and baldness. They're all from God, right? And he's a good God. He knows what he's doing. As the Westminster confession words it, God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass. Now, of course, in the past we've seen we've got to balance this out, right? Ordinarily, God wants us to use biblical wisdom when making decision. In fact, he mandates it. He does not want you to use the lot or a dice or flipping of a coin for every decision. In fact, he would rebuke you if you said, There's something you're supposed to use your wisdom for. Which one should I do? Who should I marry? I'm just going to flip a coin. No, no, no, no, no. That's not a good idea. But in this case, it was necessary. Why? Because there would have been endless debates as to which tribe and which family deserved to get better land if they had not just left this 100% in God's sovereign control. And in chapter 15, we looked at the limited situations where God says it is appropriate to cast dice or flip a coin, you know, to decide a situation. And when it's not appropriate to do that, and I'm not gonna repeat what I said back then, but this division of rugged hill country to Benjamin was purely God's sovereign decision, not the will of man. And thus Benjamin could not complain about it. Based on God's sovereignty, let me point out three interesting facts. The first is that even though Jacob sinfully played favorites among his sons, and Jacob favored, you know, Joseph, and when he lost Joseph he favored Benjamin, God did not. God did not. In Genesis 42, when Jacob sent his sons to Egypt, he let the other brothers go into danger, but he protected Benjamin, his remaining favorite, and it's really not good to have favorites among our children like that, but Jacob did, and with disastrous results. Favoritism does not imitate the heart of God. So Genesis 42.4 says, but Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, lest some calamity befall him. Wow, what would that make the other brothers feel about their dad's attitudes toward them? It's almost like Jacob would have been okay if calamity had fallen on them, but not for Benjamin. He later acts grieved over the possibility of losing Benjamin, but doesn't act as grieved over the possibility of losing one of his other sons. So it was favoritism, and yet when God made Jacob prophesy in Genesis 49, verse 27, Jacob had no way of injecting his own desires or his own will into that prophecy. If it had been left up to Jacob, Joseph and Benjamin would have gotten much larger and the best and biggest pieces of property that were out there. But 2 Peter 1 verse 21 says, prophecy never came by the will of man. But holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. And so Jacob was forced to prophesy something that he probably would not have preferred to prophesy. And the point is, all true prophecy is 100% the inspired word of God. And so God made Joseph prophesy truly about Benjamin, saying this, Benjamin, this is all that Jacob prophesies about him. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. Not a fun prophecy to prophesy about your favorite son, but it was the very word of God, and this is exactly what happened. In the early stages of Benjamin's history, what this prophecy labels as the mourning, Benjamin spent enormous energies in violent warfare. Sometimes it was unjust warfare, almost getting exterminated in the process. Many more times it was very just warfare, but many commentators referred to the Benjamites as being some of the fiercest and most warlike of all of the tribes, sometimes being almost cruel in their history. The brutal history of Judges 20 through 21 shows ravenous wolf-like behavior, absolutely despicable, a blot on Benjamin's history, not a history that Jacob would have willingly prophesied. But the evening refers to the latter part of Benjamin's history, and Benjamin's later history was the exact opposite. It was very generous, dividing the spoil generously rather than keeping it for itself. And you can see this good behavior in the glorious battles of Benjamin under Saul, and under David, and under Solomon, and even much, much later, dividing up the spoil of Gog and Magog under Mordecai and Esther, right, who were Benjamites. Or it may include the Apostle Paul's spoiling of Satan's kingdom, his generous self-sacrificing attitudes. And so this means to me, you are not chained down by your ancestors' poor decisions. God can give each of you a new day and a new way by his grace. But the point is, this rugged land was not a portion based on what Jacob would have wanted Benjamin to receive. Jacob would have played unfair in Benjamin's favor. But God gave Benjamin exactly what was needed for their future history. He got a small, rugged lot that helped to prepare Benjamin to play a very vital role in Israel's later history. And by the way, they remained faithful to Judah and to God and eventually played a vital role in maintaining the faith against the apostasy of the northern tribes. Deuteronomy 33, 12 describes this later history in these words. Of Benjamin, he said, The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him who shelters him all the day long and he shall dwell between his shoulders. What does it mean for Benjamin to dwell between his shoulders? Well, it's kind of an image of you carrying your little child on your back, you know, between your shoulders. It's a wonderful prophecy, right? Well, commentators believe it's a reference to the temple being situated in the territory of this tribe. For example, Matthew Henry says, though Zion, the city of David, is supposed to belong to Judah, Yet Mount Moriah, on which the temple was built, was in Benjamin's lot. God is therefore said to dwell between his shoulders. Because the temple stood on that mount, as the head of a man upon his shoulders, and by this means Benjamin was covered all the day long under the protection of the sanctuary, Psalm 125.2, which is often spoken of as a place of refuge, Psalm 27.4 and 5, Nehemiah 6.10. Benjamin, dwelling by the temple of God, dwelt in safety by Him. In any case, in later history, Benjamin would have a very favored and honored position from the time of King Saul all the way through to the exile. So let me make another application of what we've just talked about. We can trust that God knows best when He gives us far less than what we might wish. We can thank Him, and as Pastor Gary said earlier, we can do the best we can with the small stewardship that God has given to us, the best of our ability. Benjamin certainly used their unique territory quite well, even in its early history, but it certainly did so in its later history, and that their territory included some pretty important places that's gonna be seen when we get to the cities. But let's look at another sentence in verse 11, because I think this illustrates God's sovereignty as well. says the territory of their lot came out between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph. Now, in the prophecy of Moses, Benjamin comes right between the prophecies of Judah and Joseph. That's Deuteronomy 33, seven through 17. Likewise, when Benjamin came to Egypt with his brothers, both Judah and Joseph protected and favored Benjamin. It was Benjamin that brought reconciliation between Joseph and Judah. And the same was true of the tribes later on in their history. And though the sons of Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim were rival tribes, Manasseh, Benjamin, and Judah became one country loyal to the Lord. And I just think this illustrates how God had planned all of this long before. Now, if you take a look at your outlines, I've put a chart in there of the order in which all of the tribes had their land distributed. And you can see this is really Very, very cool how God ordered this. It's not by accident. It's laid out in a chiastic form. with Shiloh, the spot where the tabernacle would reside for centuries, being at the heart of the chiasm. So the point of that little V-shaped thing, that's the most important part of that. And that is the tabernacle. Anytime you see the middle point of a chiasm, it's focused on what God is doing. And so where he meets with his people is at the center. I just love that, love that. But God ensured that on either side of the chiasm, the sons of Rachel would receive their land in chiastic order, with Joseph first, and then Benjamin next. And then the sons of Leah forming a parallelism on either side of the sons of Rachel, and then the two sections outlining the allotments given to the Levites, and then discussions of the tribes who got allotments outside of Canaan proper. See, none of that would have been possible apart from God's sovereign distribution by lot. None of this ordering was by chance. God was in sovereign control from start to finish. And as Romans 8, 28 words it, he worked out all of those details for each one's good. Now moving on from evidences of God's sovereignty, we have another important subject that is mentioned four times. All the families within Benjamin are given land. Okay, this is not a state-owned operation. Far from it. In fact, if you study these two chapters in detail, you will see that the only thing that the states owned was borders. That's it. They owned their borders. That was it. The families themselves owned the land. And so this speaks against socialism. And by the way, you don't really own your land at all if the government can tax it. Because they can take it away from you if you don't pay your taxes. You know, this taxation of the land is an absolutely wicked scheme that our founding fathers would have shuddered over. And we should do everything we can to oppose it. It is absolute wickedness. And if the epic tax gets through, whatever its deficiencies, at least you will own your land without being threatened with taking it away if you don't pay your taxes. Notice that verse 11 says, now the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families. Second sentence in verse 20 says, this was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, according to its boundaries all around, according to their families. So God made sure that all the families of Benjamin got their allotments. Families were very important to God, not just the individuals. Some of the families received parcels of land within cities and districts outside of cities, and some got farmland. Verse 21 says, now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin, according to their families, were, and then it lists some cities, last sentence in verse 28, this was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, according to their families. Now we'll have more to say about this when we look at the other tribes in the next chapter. But God cares for extended families and He cares for nuclear families. Indeed, the family is the second most important government of all of the four governments that God has established. And let me outline those four governments for you once again. By far the most important government, and we shouldn't allow our love of the family to make us miss this, by far the most important government that God established was self-government. individual government, and sometimes we can miss out on that and fail to help our kids to gain this self-government to a maximum degree. So when did God establish that? Well, when God made Adam all by himself, nobody else around, He gave a whole bunch of responsibilities and he gave a whole bunch of liberties to Adam. And so that was the first government. And you can see in the chiasm that there were two examples of land given to individual humans, property given to Caleb in chapter 14, property given to Joshua in chapter 19. Next most important government that God established in Eden was the family government. He established that when he created Eve and he married her off to Adam. And so those first two governments, individual and family, are governed by the freedom principle, where they have all liberties not expressly limited by God's commands and prohibitions. So Adam and Eve didn't have to ask. Hey, can I eat from a banana tree? God says, I already said you can do anything you want, just don't eat from this tree. Well, what about the apple tree? Stop asking. You know, you've got total liberty to do anything that I've not expressly prohibited. What about church and state? Well, chapters 14 through 22 outline the boundaries given to the next two governments, church government exemplified by the synagogues established by the Levites who were scattered in absolutely every community in Israel, and then state government outlined by the cities, districts, and states described in these chapters. And whereas individuals and families have maximum freedom, synagogues and states were hugely restricted by what reformed people have historically called the regulative principle of government. That's a big mouthful there, but the regulative principle of government means It's the exact opposite of individuals and family. They got liberty to do anything they want unless it's prohibited or it's not taking care of their responsibilities. Church and state may only do what God has explicitly authorized them to do. They are very limited in what they can do. And why is this regulative principle of government so important? is because commodity is a limited, excuse me, power is a limited commodity, and if church or state grow in power, where are they gonna get that power from? They're going to be robbing it from either the individual or from the family, right? And so this is an important principle that many of our founding fathers were willing to die for. They fought for this principle. So anyway, God is very explicit in the Bible about what the church and state may do. And sadly, churches have become almost as bloated and overgrown as states have, and it needs to stop. And so we should take to heart the external and the internal boundaries that God gives to the latter two governments. In modern times, the state has grown to such huge proportions that it has severely limited the powers of the church, the family, and the individual. And so even though you may find the idea of boundaries to be a bit boring and unimportant, those boundaries illustrate the critical importance of the regulative principle of government. And if we want to protect the boundaries and rights given to individuals and families, we must keep civil government from expanding their borders and their responsibilities, and we must hem them in to exactly the limited authority that God has given to them. Hey, if we are even limited as allowed the government to be limited by the Constitution, we would be doing pretty good. But even that's not perfect, right? It's not 100% biblical. But the Bible limits the state even more. So, boundaries are an important protection and Satan keeps trying to erase those boundaries. Now, let's take a look at these boundaries. Benjamin's allotment was rather small. Are there any reasons for this? Well, one reason may well be because Benjamin was the most fierce and war-loving of all of the tribes. Now, that could be a good thing when his warrior mentality is harnessed to protecting God-given boundaries of tribe and nation, something that actually did happen in their later history. But a warrior mentality must always be harnessed by God's law. And the book of Judges shows the blessings of the state when that harnessing happens and the curses of the state when that harnessing does not happen. And so what were the boundaries given to Benjamin? It occupied an incredibly tiny strip of land between Mount Ephraim and the Judean hills. Southern border was the Valley of Hinnom, immediately south of Jerusalem to the point north of the Dead Sea. Eastern limit was the Jordan River. Its northern boundary was Ephraim, and it ran from the Jordan River to Bethel, just south of lower Beth Horon. You can see that on your maps. And this means it was only 28 miles wide. west to east, and only 12 miles from north to south. Okay, it's a pretty small territory, but it was also an incredibly important territory. It occupied hilly country that strategically controlled key passes, and also had fertile hill basins. So this made the hardy warrior clans of Benjamin the perfect clans to protect Judah from invasion. God knew what he was doing when he placed the Benjamites there. He really knew what he was doing. The Benjamites were rough and rugged Highlanders who acted very similarly to the Highlanders of Scotland, if you've ever done any study of Scottish history. Leaders of this tribe who protected Israel included people like Ehud, Deborah, powerful leaders of 1 Chronicles 27-21, mighty captains of Saul's army in 2 Samuel 4-2, David's army in 2 Samuel 23-29, skilled archers of 1 Chronicles 8-40, et cetera. These highlanders used their skill, sometimes for evil, Judges 20-21, but yet many, many more times that, they used their skill for good. And I believe it may be because of the glorious history of Benjamin that Paul can twice call himself a Benjamite, once in Romans 11.1, once in Philippians 3.5, where he says, if he wanted to boast, he could boast about being a Benjamite. Here's what he said, but he's not gonna boast, but he says, he was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel at the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. And so the point is, he had a pretty cool ancestry. Now we're gonna end with the cities listed, which is one kind of civil government. Verses 21 through 24 mention 12 cities in the eastern portion of the state. Verses 25 through 28 mention 14 cities in the western portion. And notice that verses 20 and 28 both mention that these cities with their villages are specifically said to be their inheritance, their inheritance. There are some people who think that cities are evil, they need to be shunned, and only the countryside is good. Let me assure you, people take their evil hearts wherever they live, even out to the countryside. And there's some pretty significant evil that happens in the countryside, right? In any case, God treats both cities and villages as being a gift of God. We must not despise His inheritance. Yes, it is true that cities can produce concentrated evil. That's why the Canaanites were being judged. But cities can also produce concentrated good. Wherever there is a concentration of people like that, there could be a synergy of efforts that works for good or for evil. And it's important that cities be captured for God and used for God. That's not going to happen until more and more scripture-saturated Christians get elected to city, county, and state office. Anyway, moving on, Benjen preferred not to capture some of those cities. They let the Canaanites remain in charge, just like Christians today let the Canaanites, the unbelievers, rule in civic. That's not a cool thing. If you abandon the city, then you have only yourselves to blame if the city becomes more and more evil. That's what it amounts to. We must be salt and light in the city. When Benjamin refused to capture those cities, the Canaanites continued to be concentrated centers of evil for quite some time. By the way, Jerusalem was not captured and turned into a Christian nation for 400 years. That's incredible. 400 years the Canaanites lived there. Their failure to do their duty meant that the Canaanites continued to influence them for generations. How sad. Now let's move on to some of the other cities. Interestingly, Beth Arba is a city shared by two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, just as we see cities straddling two states today sometimes. So half of the city is under one jurisdiction, half under another city's jurisdiction. It can work. Moving on, liberals like to claim that Joshua doesn't know what he's talking about because the same cities are listed under more than one state. But Ophrah is a totally different city than the Ophrah in Manasseh. Ramah in verse 25 is totally different than the Rapha in Naphtali or Ramah in Simeon. As one commentator says, Ramah means height. So it's not surprising that several places should be so named. Likewise, it's not surprising that Mizpah, Gibeah, Kiriath are similar names of cities in quite different tribes. Ten of the cities mentioned here are not mentioned anywhere else in scripture, but they're mentioned here to illustrate that cities themselves have limited jurisdictions, even if urban sprawl occurs. Now I'm going to wait till next time. to look at the relationship of villages to cities and urban sprawl and related things. We don't have time for that today, but since the same issue is mentioned in the next chapter, I'll just deal with it there. I do find that subject very interesting though. But I will briefly mention that there are three cities in our text where Levites lived. Remember that the tribe of Levi did not have its own state. God scattered them into every hamlet of Israel so that there would be pastors, they were the pastors, pastors ready to teach all of the tribes of Israel in every locale. But in addition to those Levites that were scattered, there were Levitical cities where other Levites could dwell. Some of these Levites were scholars who lived there permanently, while others were just there. priests or other workers in the temple who would take shifts and they would work their land for a while and then they would go to the temple for a while and when we get to chapter 21 we'll look at that. But God blessed Benjamin with three cities full of clergy and scholars and those would prove to be a powerful influence for good. Now the last point in your outline mentions that two of the cities listed here, Bethel and Jerusalem, are the two most mentioned cities in the Bible, and they are here assigned to Benjamin. So even though Benjamin might have felt that in some ways it got shortchanged on size and nature of the land, it would be the location of Israel's future capital and temple, and Bethel itself would be the place where a lot of prophetic activity would take place. Now some people are troubled by what seems like a contradiction with respect to Jerusalem, and I do feel that I need to answer this. It's a slanderous charge against the Bible. These unbelievers point out first that Joshua killed the king of Jerusalem in chapter 10. So they say, so why do they claim that there's a king of Jerusalem around today, right? Second, they point out that Judah tried to dislodge the Jebusites from Jerusalem in chapter 15, verse 63, and they were unsuccessful. So they mistakenly think that means Jerusalem was in the tribe of Judah in that chapter, and yet this chapter clearly places Jerusalem within the borders of Benjamin. And so they claim these are blatant contradictions, the Bible has error, throw out the Bible. I mean, they're always trying to look for fake contradictions. But if you examine the text of each passage closely, it's actually a fairly simple explanation. First, in chapter 10, Joshua was fighting the armies of five kings in the open field. There was no evidence whatsoever that they were anywhere near Jerusalem. What happened is that five kings from various cities took their armies to Israel out in the field out there. And yes, the king of Jerusalem was executed, but the Jebusites just made another, perhaps another son of the king in Jerusalem after his death. So don't be too quick to accept the supposed contradictions that unbelieving commentaries claim. By the way, a lot of commentaries on Lagos, don't trust them. They're written by unbelievers who hate the Bible. And you wonder, why on earth would unbelievers even be motivated to write commentaries on things they don't even believe? I think they're motivated by Satan to undermine the Bible. That's the bottom line. OK, second. It makes sense that Judah would try to fight against Jerusalem in chapter 15, because the walls of that city are right on Judah's borders, and to fail to dislodge the Jebusites would pose a constant threat to Judah. Benjamin wasn't doing its job, so Judah tried to fight against Jerusalem. Some conservative commentators try to reconcile this by saying that the fortress of Jerusalem was in Judah and the rest of the city was... No, I don't think there's evidence for that. I don't think that's a good explanation. Judah's fighting against Jerusalem no more proves that Jerusalem was within Judah than that other tribes helping to conquer other areas shows that they expanded their borders. They didn't. They were just helping out. Judah had a vested interest in fighting since Jerusalem posed a constant threat right on their border. Jebusites, you know, they'd be leaving that city. And the Judahites and the Benjamites let them. They've just traveled through their borders. This shows that they were lax at times. And so anyway, Judah was unsuccessful in conquering the city. Now in our chapter, it clearly says that the city as a whole was the inheritance of Benjamin, and thus the city as a whole was within Benjamin, not just the walls of the city. As far as I'm concerned, verse 28 settles the question. Jerusalem was a Benjamite city, was their inheritance, and they were derelict. in their duty of conquering it. Now, interestingly, in Judges 1, verse 8, Judah's pretty upset with Benjamin, that Benjamin has still not dislodged any of these inhabitants of Jerusalem. So Judah once again goes to battle against Jerusalem. This time they're successful and they burn the city down. Okay? They conquer the city. And they were doing that to protect their own turf. So Jerusalem was conquered in Judges 1, 8. And here's another black eye to Benjamin. As it turns out, Benjamin was so lax that even though the city had been conquered by their neighboring tribe, Judah, the Benjamites failed to keep the city and the Jebusites once again occupied it. If we Christians don't fill the gap of the cities, the pagans will. Okay? Ours is not the first generation to be so lazy that we allow the enemy to occupy territory that was once claimed for Christ. And I praise the Lord that Christians are once again getting involved in county politics here in Douglas County and in state politics in Nebraska. Praise God. I'm praying that the Church of Jesus Christ across this nation would once again wake up and not miss the opportunities that God is giving to us to be salt and light. Now let me end by reiterating some of the applications we've already made. I'm not gonna repeat all of the applications, but let me just very, very quickly summarize for you 11 applications that I think just spring right out of this text. First, the fact that God has given you a small inheritance, so to speak, does not mean you cannot play a critical role in God's kingdom. You can. Anytime that Benjamin had faith in God, it was able to accomplish great things despite its smallness. Second, Trust that God's sovereign distributions are for your good. There is no such thing as bad luck or chance or anything else outside of God's control. We can trust him. God is good. He's always good. And he is sovereign in his good distributions. Third, we should not play favorites with our children like Jacob did. This chapter illustrates God does not play favorites. Fourth, contrary to what many people teach, we saw that true prophecy has always been 100% without error. It was always moved 100% by the Holy Spirit, and thus prophets often revealed embarrassing, sometimes painful things about themselves through prophecy. Praise God. And by the way, I believe that prophecy ended in AD 70, in case you're wondering. I think the scripture clearly teaches that. Fifth, if you're not chained, and you are not, you're not chained by your ancestors' poor decisions, it means you can break out of that pattern like the later Benjamites did. Sixth, God limited statism through borders and by giving property ownership to individuals, not the state. Owning your own land without government interference is a worthy goal, a goal that the epic tax could at least help with. Seventh, understanding the differences between self-government, family government, church government, and civil government, I think, is critical to liberty. God puts most responsibilities upon the individual. The next most upon the family, the next upon the church, and the least, believe it or not, responsibilities are given to the state in the government. America has completely reversed that order. Anyway, we saw that both physical and jurisdictional boundaries can help to protect everyone's liberties. Eighth, we looked at how geography can influence families. The rough and tough geography that Benjamin occupied forced the people themselves to be much more rough and tough. But there are so many other strategic purposes God had for placing them exactly where they were. So don't get frustrated with God when he gives you difficulties. Ask God to help you thrive despite your difficulties and your obstacles. Ninth, we can recognize that not everyone was made for cities and not everyone was made for farms. We need to value each other, not make people feel bad when they gravitate to the one more than the other. In fact, where are the farms going to sell their produce? They're going to sell them to the cities, right? We need each other. Both have value. Tenth, failure to take on our responsibilities, like Benjamin's failure to conquer Jerusalem, can have long-term consequences in our lives. Seek to be the most responsible steward of what God has given you that you can be. Be salt and light where God has placed you. Eleventh, God forced the clergy to be near the people so that they could mix it up with the people and the people could mix it up with them. Whether you realize it or not, you need the church body And the church needs you, and you need the leadership, and the leadership needs you. This is why we elders try to mentor our members every week. We're mentoring other members in the church. Many of the Levites provided that role. So let's thank God for this chapter and the lessons that he has taught us in it. Father, I thank you that even this portion of your Word has much that it can teach us, and I pray that we would grow in our appreciation for the comprehensiveness of your Word, even as Pastor Duff's message dealt with even physical things are important to you. May we be good stewards of our gifts, of our talents, of our energy, of our health, of our boundaries that you have given, of strength, of property, whatever it is that you have given, may we be good stewards that receive your well done, thou good and faithful steward when we get to heaven. And I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.