Joshua 14:1-5

good morning good morning good morning welcome to coffee and devotions this morning we're at Joshua chap 14 veres 1-5 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 uh 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 and 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 14 veres 1-5 I'll let you read these are the areas which the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan which Alazar the priest Joshua the son of N and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel distributed as inherent inheritance to them their inheritance was by lot 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 but 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 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 of 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 the um yeah the specific some some things I'm a little bit me 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 Manassa crosses east to west because half of them are on the right right hand side of the Jordan the other half that's on the left hand side right and so Manassa is really big yeah so Manassa in this map gets quite a big chunk now it's possible that Gad gets all the way up to the Sea of chth possible uh but anyways uh 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 9 and half tribes right so you have Judah Simeon eph or Benjamin Dan Ephraim Manasseh isachar zebulun Asher Neftali and Dan on zebulun yeah and so how are these different lands distributed uh so how are these different lands distributed Olivia just walked in so she's going to go around the other door uh they do it by lot yeah they do it by lot so who is giving the land yeah well but I thought they were doing it by lot kind of whatever God's Prov was at the time that's what just going to go by cuz Okay good sometimes the easiest way to resolve it is with what God decided yeah right so instead of instead of somebody picking favorites just whatever God 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 would I think there's there's another part here with the lot though in distributing the land because whose land ultimately is it um Gods 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 all right so that's what this is about so that land on the other side of the river uh the two and a half or the nine and a half tribes over on the left side are get their land from the king from God himself so uh 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 with the lot um you mentioned a word Providence that that's what what where's the book oh yeah there's a there's a giant book by John Piper on my shelf on on the idea of Providence but um 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 what where do you think that phrase even came from lot in life they used to be like lots okay so there's still Lots but like your place your chance in life okay so so we believe in chance luck good things may possibly happening to you that are outside of everybody's control well one thing it's it's not really just it's almost like a tape pre written it's just think of it like it's helpful for me to just think of it like a giant almost like like a movie film all 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's God has all it so this isn't going to change no matter what the next 100 years so God God doesn't change things so he doesn't know what he's doing or he doesn't know what he's doing knows what he's doing he has from beginning 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 just 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 a will not just it's not how I will if God wanted to he could so does so does he do violence to our Wheels good that seems pretty TI anal he's also obtient so he knows everything how should walk out and what's best and if he's a tant what would happen it would that get to be God 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 omnis and Sovereign God who is uh what the word theological word is immutable right he's unchanging he doesn't learn and change and you know uh 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 like no he knows what he's doing he knows the 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 uh 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 uh 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 LW 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 start with an i inheritance inheritance what's God treating them like Sons 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 right 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 8 that all things work together for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purposes right we able to say this is hard right we've been we 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 God 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 lons 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's 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 Miss see adios bye bye