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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.
Benjamin's Allotment
Series Joshua
| Sermon ID | 42524120157413 |
| Duration | 41:56 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Joshua 18:11-28 |
| Language | English |
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