Joshua 15:1-12

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. That camera's a little crooked. I'll fix that next time. This morning we're at Joshua chapter 15, verses 1 through 12. We're going to talk about the land of Judah. So what did they get? Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. And Father, we pray that as we read your word that you would please help us. Lord, we pray that we would love you, follow after you. Lord, we pray that you would please give us wisdom, insight, understanding into your word.
In Jesus' name, amen. All right, Joshua chapter 15. verses 1 through 12. Actually, I'm going to, let's go ahead and put the map up. While I read, then we'll be, you can look for different places for the map online. So on the video. So here we go. So we are looking at the land of Judah. I need to bring that down a little bit so you can see that. Okay, let's see that might be well. I mean it doesn't really have much There we go all right there we go So this was a lot of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families.
The border of Edom at the wilderness of Zin, southward, was the extreme southern boundary. And their southern border began at the shore of the Salt Sea from the bay that faces southward, then it went out to the southern side of the Ascent of Akrabim. passed along to Zin, ascended on the south side of Kadesh-Birnea, passed along to Hezron, went up to Adar, and went around to Karka.
From there it passed toward Asman, and went out to the brook of Egypt, and the border ended at the sea. This shall be your southern border." The east border was the Salt Sea from the mouth of the Jordan, and the border on the northern quarter began at the bay of the sea of the mouth of the Jordan.
The border went up to Beth-Hogla, and passed north to Beth-Araba. And the border went up to the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben. The border went up toward Debir, from the valley of Achor, and turned northward toward Gilgal, which is before the ascent of Adumim, which is on the south side of the valley. The border continued toward the waters of In Shemesh and ended at In Rogel.
And the border went up by the valley of the sun of Hinnom to the southern slope of the Jebusite city, which is Jerusalem. The border went up to the top of the mountain that lies before the valley of Hinnom, westward, which is at the end of the valley of Rephaim, northward. Then the border went around from the top of the hill to the fountain of the water of Netoa, and extended to the cities of Mount Ephron. And the border went around to Bala, which is Kirjath-Jerim. Then the border turned westward from Bala to Mount Sir, passed along to the side of Mount Jerim, on the north, which is Chesilon. went down to Beth Shemesh, and passed on to Timnah. And the border went out to the side of Ekron northward. Then the border went around to Shikron, passed along to Mount Bala, and extended to Jabneel, and the border ended at the sea.
The west border was the coastline of the great sea. This is the boundary of the children of Judah all around according to their families." So, a few things to point out with A, what is this about? As you'll notice, it spoke of the southernmost border here, the wilderness of Zin. Alright, this is the border with Edom.
And so it went all the way down here by Kedesh. So all the way down there. It went up the side of the Red Sea to the mouth of the Jordan. And then it kept saying it goes up and up and up even. And so when it's speaking that it's going up because this is up in terrain. So this is not a topographical map. This is more of a political type map.
But the point being is that if it was going up, it's because it's going kind of up and around ridges and valleys and up these different crests so notice Jerusalem is going to be in Benjamin's territory it's going to so Judah's going to touch that but it doesn't encompass Jerusalem that's going to come from Benjamin and we'll later associate the Jerusalem, specifically with the tribe of Judah, because this whole area is going to be later Judea, but it's not actually Judah's inheritance.
It's going to be the city of the kings later, but not right now. Actually, the first king later is going to be Saul. And Saul is not of Judah, Saul is of the tribe of Benjamin. And so we'll kind of get there later. But anyway, so you're able to kind of see the general region here that it's saying is the land given to Judah. Now, point out on the map here, Philistia is not colored here and right there's a lot of fighting even right now in the Gaza but the if you were to look at different maps of this again I'm just using the free one that I found because I don't want to do copyright infringement earlier it was to the great sea and so it seems like this is Israel's land also that is a heavily disputed claim I'm making there. But it seems to be the case that from the Great Sea to the Euphrates, that's what the whole area in between God had originally said that was supposed to be the whole area. Now they do not conquer that whole area. And indeed, there's going to be continuous warfare and fighting between Israel and the Philistines. So modern day Palestine, because of this.
So, okay, let's go ahead and keep on going. So that's what this is about. I just wanted you to see it with your eyes. We're gonna do this. I hope that's helpful to you. You can let me know down in the comments. If you're on YouTube or Sermon Audio or something, Facebook, you can let me know down in the comments if this is helpful seeing the map. I think it's helpful for me to get my eyes on what exactly was this talking about with these territories.
So that's what this is talking about. It's this area of Judah in the south. So they're one of the southernmost tribes. So, what's the best verse for this? Well, I think either verse 1 or verse 12 would be just fine to underline. So, the West border was the coastline of the great sea. This is the boundary of the children of Israel all around according to their families. That's verse 12 in my Bible. So, what's this calling us to do, right?
Well, again and again as we go through this, this was God graciously giving His people His covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They didn't own a bunch of land in this area, and yet God was giving them this land. Not because they were greater, not because they were more righteous, not because they were stronger, not because they were more numerous, but because He was a good covenant-keeping God. He keeps His promises. He makes good on His covenant. And so I think we can trust Him with His promises, His goodness, and His covenant faithfulness.
Even today, from generation to generation, it had been over 400 years since the patriarchs, by the time we're at this story, But God is not slow as we think of slow with keeping his promises. So we wait for him. We wait now even for our return of Jesus because he's promised he's going to come again.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the joy it is to know that you are a covenant-keeping God. We thank you for this historical account, for the giving of Judah by lot his inheritance. Father, we pray that you would please help us to be content with the lot that you've given us. and that we would look forward to the promises that you have for us in store in the new heavens and the new earth. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. I'll see you next time.