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[0:00] We're going to be looking at the book of Joshua, and we're going to be continuing the study that we have been going through for the last several weeks. And if you're one of those types that likes to read ahead so that you know what the message is going to be about, perhaps you read through our passage or you read through our passage, and I assume if you did, you probably fell asleep.

[0:19] Let's face it, I mean, chapter 15 of Joshua, there's 63 verses, and reading through that is pretty tedious reading, isn't it? And so we've gone through the book of Joshua, and we've come across a lot of exciting passages.

[0:32] We've looked at walls that have come down, great battles against the northern coalitions and the southern coalitions, and then now we find ourselves this morning dealing with what we refer to as the allotment of the lands.

[0:44] And things really start to slow down here. And as we look at our passage here today, what we're going to do is we're going to see in verse 1 through 12, again, this is 63 verses in Joshua chapter 15, we're going to see in verse 1 through 12 that Judah gets this large area in which to live.

[1:02] And we're going to read through this, and it's just, we're going to see that it's just one border after another that's labeled for us. And then at the end, the last 43 verses of the chapter is just a list of very obscure cities that are very hard to pronounce.

[1:18] And if you were reading through this beforehand, that's probably the point where you fell asleep. You maybe made it halfway through. I'd say there's about 100 cities, and you probably fell asleep around number 70.

[1:29] But sandwiched in between those first 12 verses and the last verses, sandwiched in between this large area where they get the allotment or they get the land and then where we see the cities, what we see is Caleb.

[1:42] And it's a very short section of verses that tells us, once again, I think, I mean, this is dealing with a large opponent, the sons of Anak, those giants of Hebron.

[1:55] And so we're going to see that sandwiched amongst these many verses. Now, I think when we read verses like this, we get into chapters like this, especially in the Old Testament, we tend to glaze over them.

[2:06] But I can assure you, in Timothy 3.16, it says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction of righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

[2:23] And so we know that there has got to be something in this passage for us that even if you fell asleep reading it, there's got to be something in it that God wants us to get out of this passage as we come together.

[2:37] And as I was going through this text, there were two things I think that stood out to me. And those are a couple of things we're going to focus on. The first thing is this. It might seem dull to you as you read through, as you read through this earlier or as you read through it this morning, but this is exciting stuff for back then because these people, you have to remember, they had been waiting for some 400 years for the promised land.

[3:02] They had been promised for 400 years. They're in captivity. And now they're finally going to get the land. They're going to get to have property. And this is an exciting moment that we've been waiting for for quite a long time because God had promised this for a long time.

[3:20] And God keeps his promises. And what that tells me as I look at this passage is you can know that everything that God has promised, he is going to come through with.

[3:33] And everything that God has promised you and me in scripture, all those promises about heaven and about how glorious it is and how I have not seen or ear have not heard the things that God has prepared for those who love him.

[3:45] All of that is going to come true because God keeps his promises. And these folks see it here. So that's the first thing. The second thing that we're going to see this morning in the passage, and perhaps more importantly, we see how important our choices are in terms of realizing and experiencing those promises.

[4:08] In other words, we can enhance or we can diminish those promises of inheritance that God has for us. We make choices. You know, the inheritance is there for us, but you and I make choices that determine how great that inheritance is.

[4:24] And we can enhance it or we can diminish it. And we're going to see that here this morning. Let's pray. And then we're going to look at the passage and see what God would have for us to see about our own inheritance.

[4:37] Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning for this opportunity to come together. Lord, we thank you for technology, the ability for each one that is here this morning to join with us, Lord, to worship you, to praise you, to thank you, Lord.

[4:51] Just think about the first meeting, Lord, and just the finished work on the cross, Lord, that we come to you this morning not to sacrifice you, Lord. We don't come to simply just confess our sins, Lord, but we know, Lord, we come to thank you for the forgiveness that you've given us in the death of your son, Lord.

[5:12] This morning, Lord, as we look at this passage in Joshua, we ask, Lord, that we would glean from it that which you would have for us. Pray, Lord, that the message would come across clear, Lord, and we pray that you would bless our time together this morning.

[5:26] Ask this in your name. Amen. Well, if you recall last week, Joshua, and he's a group of, here's a group of individuals, he's a group on the allotment committee, and they are going to talk about the land and how it's going to be divided up.

[5:41] And Caleb comes to the forefront. Remember, he makes his request for the land, and he makes this request because 45 years earlier, God had promised him that he could because he had fully followed the Lord.

[5:53] Twice that's said in chapter 14, and it's a repeat from Deuteronomy chapter 1. Because he had fully obeyed the Lord and he had followed the Lord, he was able to get whatever land he had asked for that his feet had trodden upon.

[6:07] And we saw last week, and now it's time for the allotment committee to start parceling it out. And guess where they start? Well, the very first tribe that we see here is the tribe of Judah.

[6:20] Now, if you look with me at Joshua chapter 15, we're going to, I'm going to move around a little bit, incidentally, this morning between Joshua and Genesis. You don't have to follow along if you don't like, but primarily, if you want a thumb back and forth, that's fine.

[6:33] I'm going to be in Joshua 15 and also in Genesis 49. So if you want to move over to Joshua 15, we're going to look at the borders, because that's what's laid out for us in the first dozen verses.

[6:46] Later on in the chapter, we're going to see the cities, but here we start with the borders. And I'm not going to read the whole passage because I don't want to see you start nodding off. One of the things about Zoom is obviously I can see each of your faces that are on video a little closer.

[7:00] Now, at church, we can see each other and, you know, we can see someone who nods off, but really, you're right there in front of me. So I don't want to, I don't want you nodding off. So I'm not going to read the entire chapter. I'm just going to select a few verses so that you get the flavor.

[7:13] Okay, so we're here in Joshua chapter 15, and we're going to be taking a look. Let's just start in verse 1. It says, Now the lot for the tribe of the sons of Judah, according to their families, reached the border of Edom, southward to the wilderness of Zen and to the extreme south.

[7:30] Their south border was from the lower end of the salt sea, from the bay that turns to the south. Then it proceeded southward to the ascent of Akrabim and continued to Zen, then went up to the south of Kadesh, Bernia, and continued to Hezron, and went up to Adar and turned back to Cachra.

[7:48] It continued to Asmon and proceeded to the brook of Egypt, and the border ended at the sea. This shall be your south border. Okay, let's skip down to verse 8. Interesting stuff, right?

[7:58] It says in verse 8, And the border went up to the valley of Ben-Hinnon and to the slope of the Jebusite on the south, that is Jerusalem. And the border went up to the top of the mountain, which is before the valley of Hinnon and to the west, which is at the end of the valley of Rephium toward the north.

[8:14] Okay, getting all this right. Geography lessons here. From the top of the mountain to the border curved the spring of the waters of Neftoi, Tua, and proceeded to the cities of Mount Ephron, then to the border curved to Baala, that is Kiritu-Jerum.

[8:35] The border turned about from Baala westward to Mount Seir and continued to the slope of Mount Jerum to the north, that is Keslam, and went down to Beth-Shamish and continued through Timnah.

[8:51] The border proceeded to the side of Ekron northward. Okay, you're following this. So we see the borders. And interestingly, the word border, if you've noticed, it shows up 21 times in these 12 verses alone.

[9:08] So 21 times in these 12 verses, the word border, border, border. And in fact, if you were to count up, which I'm sure none of you are necessarily interested in doing, but if you were to count up in the book of Joshua, every time that the word border is used, that would account for 25% of the time that the word border shows up.

[9:27] So 25% of the time on this one tribe. Well, there's a dozen tribes. So what does that tell you? Well, the author is far more interested in the borders of Judah than he is about anybody else.

[9:40] Judah is the first tribe to be described, and yet he is, is he the firstborn? Is he the firstborn? Well, the very first tribe to receive the land, the tribe that's the greatest among the land, it dwarfs everybody else, and the tribe that gets described in the greatest detail, more ink is spilled on Judah than any other tribe that we're going to see in the next handful of weeks.

[10:04] In fact, we're going to get over 100 cities listed. And we didn't get that for anyone else. Why? Why? What is going on here? Why all the attention given to Judah?

[10:17] Well, if you're familiar with the ancient world, the scripture, you know that it was very important to be the firstborn. And we see that in the scripture.

[10:27] We can read Genesis about the struggle between Jacob and Esau. Remember over the firstborn because he gets a blessing. He gets a greater inheritance. It is a big deal to be the firstborn in the ancient world.

[10:42] So why does Judah get the lion's share? That's the question. Well, let's take a look this morning. I want to see here if I can get this pulled up.

[10:53] So bear with me one sec here. Okay. So hopefully you can see that.

[11:04] Looking at here, this is a map of the allotment of Israel. Okay. And you're going to see down here, if you take a look down here at the map, you'll see Judah.

[11:18] And what I want you to see is see how big it is down here. Look at this, the size. And so there's 12 tribes and it's all going to play out over the next couple of weeks.

[11:29] You see the size here of Judah. Judah gets the lion's share of the land. Now Judah does have, I'm going to pull this off for a minute. Judah does have the greater population, but proportionally it's over the top as far as how much land they get.

[11:46] The committee, he was made, it was made up of Joshua and it was made up of Eleazar, the high priest. And then you have the lot system where God gets to express what he wants through the lots, the drawing of the lots.

[11:58] But there is nothing said in the text here. There is nothing said later that gives any indication as to why Judah, who incidentally is the fourth born, right?

[12:09] You've got Reuben, you've got Simeon, you've got Levi, and then you have Judah who is number four. And we start out, excuse me, of order. And he gets what seems like the lion's share.

[12:21] Now what's up with that? Now those of you know, I'm the youngest of 13. And I've often told people that, you know, you can view that in multiple ways. You can either say that, you know, my parents stopped when they got the one they really wanted.

[12:35] Others might say that they stopped because they didn't go any further. They just were fed up at that point. But I can tell you for sure, if there was an inheritance to be given, if my sister Karen, who was first, Kathy, Kim, Christy, Kevin being the first boy, if everybody was passed over and it came down to 13, there might be a little bit of hurt feelings there.

[12:57] So what's up with that? What's going on here? Why does the allotment begin with Judah? Why is Judah's allotment so large? Why so much information about Judah's allotment and why the lion's share?

[13:08] Well, I think for the answer to this, we have to go all the way back to the book of Genesis. Because in the book of Genesis in chapter 49, if you want to flip over there again, you don't have to. We find out why things turn out the way they do some 400 years later in the time of Joshua.

[13:23] Let's go back to the blessing. You may recall the patriarch Jacob. He realizes death is soon. And so he does the same thing that Isaac did with him when he was younger with Esau.

[13:34] And this is a common thing. You draw the boys together and you hand out blessings. And it's not just a blessing. That's not all that it is. But there's an oracle here.

[13:44] And so he looks at these boys and he looks at their behaviors and he looks at their character traits and he looks ahead as to what the future is going to be. It's prophetic. And that way, it's a little bit scary because he looks ahead and God gives insight.

[14:00] And much of what happens here is based upon what he sees with his boys and what he projects. And then God sees that it happens. So why is Judah, the fourthborn, going to get everything?

[14:14] Well, let's look here at the firstborn. If you look in Genesis chapter 49, starting in verse 1, it says this, Then Jacob summoned his sons and he said, Assemble yourselves that I may tell you what will befall you in the days to come.

[14:30] Gather together and hear, O sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel. You remember, Jacob's name was changed to Israel. Listen to Israel, your father.

[14:41] Verse 3, Reuben. Reuben. So he starts with the oldest because that's the way that you're supposed to start, right? We would expect Reuben to really get some good inheritance, wouldn't we? So continuing on in verse 3, Reuben, you are my firstborn.

[14:55] Look how he starts to build him up. My might and the beginning of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. In other words, you're the first.

[15:07] Okay? He's feeling pretty good, but here comes the negative. In verse 4, uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence. He brings him back down to earth.

[15:20] Because you went up to your father's bed, then you defiled it. He went up to my couch. So he switches to the third person. You all may recall the ugly story.

[15:31] Reuben, remember, he has an affair with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and it infuriates Jacob. And he never says a word until this moment. And it's because of that sinfulness with Bilhah that he loses a vast blessing and inheritance.

[15:48] You know, let me ask you this morning, how many great people can you recall from Reuben? Not one prophet will arise from Reuben. Not one king, not one judge will come from this tribe.

[16:01] Now, does he get an inheritance? Oh, yeah. He still gets an inheritance. Are there people that will come from his tribe? For sure. Is there some prosperity? Certainly.

[16:12] Will you find him on the map? Yeah, you'll see him there. But here's the thing. It's not what it could have been. His inheritance is diminished. It's not enhanced.

[16:27] Now, there's still Simeon. So we have Reuben. And there's Simeon, and then there's Levi. So how does Judah leapfrog these two guys? Well, let's take a look. If you'll look down at verse 5 of chapter 49, it says this.

[16:42] It says, Simeon and Levi are brothers. So these guys are joined at the hip. They're always together. Continuing verse 5. Their sword are implements of violence. Let my soul not enter into their counsel.

[16:53] Let not my glory be united with their assembly, because in their anger they slew men, and in their self will they lame oxen.

[17:04] Cursed will be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. You know, that's a blessing.

[17:19] That's the blessing there. It's an oracle. It's prophetic. These two guys, they were together, and you may remember what happened there. Do you remember in Shechem? It was back in Genesis 34.

[17:31] In Shechem, he's that prince, and he dishonored or he defied or defiled Dina, their sister. And so what these two brothers decide is that we're going to fix the people of Shechem.

[17:43] We're going to take matters into our own hands. And so they go, and by deceit, they make their way into the city, and they slaughter everybody. They kill all the men, and then they take plunder everything else.

[17:54] And it's horrible. It's a vengeful act. It's vengeance out of control. It's the kind of what you might see in the Middle East today. And again, Jacob is absolutely beside himself, but he doesn't do anything about it until this moment, and he scatters them.

[18:14] You know, incidentally, if you were to look at the, let's see if I can pull this up one more time, but if you were to look at the, well, I won't show up, but if you were to look at the map of Israel, you might remember at the bottom you had Judah.

[18:29] And then within that map, let's just see here real quick if I can, well, if you look within that map, you'll see that you can actually, I think I can pull it up here.

[18:50] Okay. You remember here you have Judah, and within that you have Simeon. Okay. So he's, he's landlocked. And so over time though, what we ultimately find out is we see what happens to Simeon.

[19:08] He actually, it actually gets absorbed into Judah. Okay. So here we have, it says that he was scattered. And so you look at Judah and you see all that coastline.

[19:25] You want to have coastline, right? You want to have ports. And then on one side, you have not only the vast Mediterranean, but on the other side, you get the dead sea with all the rich minerals and poor Simeon.

[19:38] He's deadlocked and he's right smack dab in the middle. And as we go through the scripture, we see what happens over time. He gets absorbed. His land gets absorbed into Judah. And that's what you find in time.

[19:50] It slowly gets absorbed. And in fact, some of the cities that are listed for Simeon, they later get absorbed under Judah's control. And the tribe slowly becomes assimilated and absorbed by Judah.

[20:02] And let me ask you this, how many great people come from the tribe of Simeon? How many can you name? Now I could have overlooked, but I think it's zero.

[20:13] In fact, the only famous person that we see is the infamous person by the name of Zimnery, who decides to take his new Midianite wife and march right in front of Moses.

[20:24] And remember, Phineas grabs his spear and he spears him through as well as his wife. And that's the most famous person that we see from the tribe of Simeon. Now, did he get an inheritance? Sure.

[20:35] Can you find him on the map? Yes, to some degree, but guess what? He diminished his inheritance incredibly. So we have the first two.

[20:48] Reuben, now we have Levi. What happens with Levi? So we have three times already in the book, heard the statement, Levi gets no allotment. Levi will be scattered all over the place and he will have cities all over the place, but there's no land of Levi.

[21:04] You can't find it just like was prophesied 400 years prior. He will be scattered all over. Now the saving blessing for Levi is fortunately, they gang up with Moses at Mount Sinai.

[21:14] And so there is a blessing. And eventually they become the priestly tribe. And they do salvage blessing there, but it's not the allotment. Those, these two guys here, they were joined at the hip and guess what?

[21:25] They both got scattered. Because of the, their bad news for each other. So they became scattered all over the place. Now that's the three older brothers, the three older brothers and each one of them have lost their preeminence or have been scattered.

[21:41] Reuben loses preeminence. Simeon is scattered. Levi is scattered. And so now we come to Judah and naturally he's the next in line. These other guys have basically diminished their position.

[21:54] And so now we come to Judah and Judah is going to get the lion's share. You've already seen the land that Judah is able to get. Why? Well, let's look at this statement, the Oracle and the blessing that was given back 400 years prior to Judah.

[22:09] Again, we're back in Genesis 49 verse eight. Here's what it says. Judah, your brothers shall praise you. By the way, Judah means praise.

[22:21] That's what his name means. Judah, your brother shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's son shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion's wealth.

[22:33] In other words, that means that he's like a cub. Judah's like a little cub. From my prey, my son, you have gone up.

[22:44] He couches, he lies down as a lion. And one day Judah goes from not just a little cub, but to a monstrous lion. And, and as a lion, who dares rouse him up?

[22:56] The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes. Until that ruler comes one day that owns the place.

[23:08] In other words, Judah, unlike all the others that, unlike all the others is told that he is going to be praised and that leadership is going to be in his tribe. And he's a lion.

[23:19] Now ask yourself, what did Judah do to deserve this? Well, if you recall back to the story, back in Genesis, excuse me, you may, um, if you remember a little, Joseph is sold into slavery.

[23:33] And when the brothers go down there for grain into Egypt, because there's a famine, the land, Joseph is down there and he's testing his brothers. Who sinned against them all these years ago.

[23:44] And it turns out that he wants to have Benjamin brought to him. And you may remember the story. Jacob is beside himself. Don't take Benjamin, Simeon. He's already in prison in Egypt.

[23:56] And I've already lost. My son. I've lost Joseph. And now go, I'm going to lose Benjamin. Well, finally we see because Judah takes him, talks him into it.

[24:09] Judah is the one that says, father, I will take him to Egypt. My life will be a surety for him. My life will be a surety for a little Benjamin. And you recall, they got to Egypt and remember what happens.

[24:22] Joseph had a service, put a silver cup in the backpack, had a backpack of Benjamin. And sure enough, he frames them. And when that happens, of course, Joseph gets all upset. And Judah comes to the forefront and he says, stop, stop, stop.

[24:37] Don't take Benjamin. Don't punish him. Take me. You found out our sin. We've sinned. He has remorse for sinfulness. And he repents.

[24:49] We have sinned. Take my life. Leave Benjamin alone. You're not going to break my dad's heart. Please don't break him. His heart again. He's already been broken. Don't do that.

[24:59] Do what you will with me. And so Judah takes leadership. Everyone else is sitting there with their mouth shut. And it's Judah that takes leadership.

[25:10] And so what does he get as his inheritance? You will be the leader. The kings will come from your tribe. His inheritance is enhanced because of what he did.

[25:22] Him because of the result of what others had done that were older than him. You know, as a side note, you might naturally ask, well, what about Joseph? Joseph was actually the favorite and he was the most godly of all the brothers.

[25:36] Well, what he gets, he gets a double portion because we're going to see Manasseh and Ephraim, his two sons, his sons, they get properties, don't they? So he gets a double portion. But when it comes to the huge blessing here, in the first part of Genesis chapter of Joshua chapter 15, it's Judah.

[25:54] Why? Because Judah obeyed God like a lion. And he stood up to Joseph, not knowing who Joseph was in Egypt. And he offered himself as a sacrifice for his brother.

[26:04] He took leadership. He took responsibility. I'll ask you the same question I asked about, about Reuben and Simeon. How many famous people come from his tribe?

[26:16] How many famous people come from the tribe of Judah? You know, really all good things come from this tribe. David, lion killer, David, giant killer. David is from the tribe of Judah, Solomon, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Jopham.

[26:32] If you were a godly king, you were from David. You were from Judah's loins. You were from this tribe. Isaiah, Daniel, they're from the tribe of Judah. And you know who else is from the tribe of Judah?

[26:45] There's another lion. That we are looking at. We saw in the book of Revelation that we're studying on Wednesday. Says, so I went much because no one had found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it.

[27:00] But the one, but one of the elders said to me, do not weep. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to lose its seven seals.

[27:15] Judah gets the lion's share because he was lion-like, and just as David will be, as Jesus will be when he comes the second time, not as a lamb, as he did the first time, but rather as a lion when he returns.

[27:28] You know, I think you see our choices, I think, create the future blessings. What degree we are going to experience. Yes, you get an inheritance.

[27:42] All of these boys, they received an inheritance, but some of them, they diminished it and others, they were able to enhance it. In fact, there's a lot of attention given here because there is so, it is so impressive what Judah leaves to his family, that we get all this mentioning of all the borders, and we get all the listing of the hundred cities later in the chapter.

[28:02] And beside that, we're not going to read this morning, those, those cities, because you can look down at them. If you want to look at them later this week, certainly you can, but you'll see that what Judah has dwarfs anything else.

[28:16] So what's the point here? Well, the point of listing all these cities, the point of listing all this detail about the borders and showing what Judah has, what a tremendous inheritance Judah has.

[28:30] What a tremendous inheritance and how it dwarfs everyone else here. You know, consider what actions, what caused it. We'll go back and look at Genesis. He takes leadership, doesn't he?

[28:42] He seeks to save his brother. He confesses his sins. He deals with issues. He's the one who takes responsibility. And so then we have to ask ourselves the question, what kind of inheritance are we storing up for ourselves and our future family?

[29:01] You and I, what inheritance are you storing up for your kids? I think you all would agree that, you know, as a parent, you have an influence, on what happens to them spiritually.

[29:13] We can blow off God, we'll blow off church, blow off scripture. And guess what you would expect from that? What a result probably? For them, blow it all off.

[29:25] Why? Because you've modeled it so perfectly, because I've modeled it so perfectly. Or, you can knock yourself out and serve God.

[29:36] And then you can set for them a model. And you model it for those grandkids and those next grandkids. And it goes on, it goes on, it goes on. It doesn't mean that every one of your children is guaranteed salvation.

[29:50] Okay. We know the quote, God has no grandchildren, but it's a model for them to look upon. And many of you here this morning are here because you came just as I did from godly homes.

[30:02] My dad is a godly man. My grandmother was a godly woman. She shared the gospel with him. The gospel was shared with me.

[30:12] I came from a godly home. And many, I would say this morning here probably did, or you had godly grandparents or a godly uncle. There is something likely there in most homes.

[30:24] And we pass it on. Well, here we come this morning. We're sandwiched between the borders and between this list of 100 cities. And what you have here is this, the only bit of action in this entire passage really.

[30:38] And all it does is reiterate what we've seen before. And this is the confrontation once again with those big guys down in Hebron. So let's look just briefly at verses 13 through 19.

[30:50] So if you flip back to chapter 15 of Joshua, verse 13, it says, Now he gave Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, a portion among the sons of Judah, according to the command of the Lord to Joshua, namely, create that, create Arba, Arba being the father of Anak.

[31:07] That is Hebron. So here we go again, a third time in this book, and it's repeated again in Judges chapter one, verse 14, Caleb drove out from there, the three sons of Anak, Shishai and Ammon and Tomai, the children of Anak, that huge guy.

[31:26] Then he went up from there against the inhabitants of Debir. Now the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath, Sapphar. And Caleb said, the one who attacks Kiriath, and captures it, I will give him Aksa, my daughter as a wife.

[31:43] Ophelia, the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb captured it. So he gave him Aksa, his daughter as a wife. It came about that when she came to him. Now notice what's going on here.

[31:54] It came about that when she came to him, and that would be Ophelia, her fiance, who she's married, who she's pledged to be married to, says she persuaded him to ask her father for a field.

[32:06] So she's aligned, excuse me, aligned from her, the donkey. And Caleb said to her, what do you want? So we're going to see that she talks to her husband, but then she asks her dad.

[32:19] Verse 19, then she said, give me a blessing since you have given me the land of Negev. Give me also springs of water. So she gave her the, so he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

[32:32] You know, the biggest difference I mentioned, this passage is shared earlier in the, in the book. The biggest difference here really is that we, with this passage versus the others is we are going to get the guy's name.

[32:44] We get the names of these big fellows and that get dropped. That's the first thing. But with the second thing we see here is how he does it. We see how, how, how Caleb does it. He, he takes Hebron, but when it comes to Devere, he says, Hey, whichever of you takes Devere, I'll give you my daughter.

[33:01] And this reminds us incidentally of another giant killer that we see later in the name of David, because David will say, whoever takes Jerusalem, he gets to be my general. And that was Joab, a relative.

[33:12] And that's exactly what happens here. Whoever takes Devere gets my daughter. And another relative from the tribe of Judah is a champion. And just like David will do years later.

[33:22] The interesting thing about this is David, like Caleb here, both from the tribe of Judah, Caleb is the kind of guy, you know, if I can't do the job, I'll make sure that I'll get the right guy to get the job done.

[33:36] And that's how David was. If David was facing something, if Caleb faces something, if he can't do it, I'll find the guy who will get it done. He's not going to come up and say, you know, what, you know, I'm taking on these giants.

[33:50] We'll just have to let Devere go. I've got, I've got other things I'm preoccupied with. And David, he didn't say, I'm going to take the whole place, but, but Jerusalem, those Jebusites, they're a tough group. I'm going to let them go.

[34:01] I'm going to let it go. Just going to leave it be. You know, he's going to get someone that will make it work. And he motivates people to get it done. He wants all the inheritance. And the second thing I want you to see here is this.

[34:13] Caleb, who was like a lion, his attitude, it sure rubs off on his daughter, doesn't it? You know, what she does. And she tells her husband, you know what? You're the hero. You deserve more land.

[34:23] Ask for more land. And get in there and talk to dad and get some more land. And then what we read is the next statement. She approaches her dad and she jumps off the donkey. And she says, Hey dad, I want some more land.

[34:35] I want some more water. I want more inheritance. That's what she does. She's like Caleb. She wants all the inheritance she can get. She wants it all. The Negev is dry area. I want some really good springs to go to.

[34:46] I want some lakeside property. And that's what she wants. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, like father, like daughter. Now this is included here because you are supposed to look at Caleb and you are supposed to look at his daughter and think that's the way that I ought to be.

[35:04] They are champions of the greatest tribe. The legacy keeps getting passed on. Doesn't it? And we should want the same thing. We should say, God, I want every bit of you that I can get.

[35:18] And I want great inheritance. And I want your blessing, which is a sign of obedience. And I want that for my kids. And I want that for my grandkids. And I want it to go on. Now, every person that's trusting in Christ instantly, if you believe it, that Jesus Christ died for your sins and that he rose from the dead and that you who at one time were alienated with, uh, from God, that now have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ and the blood that he shed on the cross.

[35:48] You are now a believer. And guess what? You have an inheritance that you cannot lose. Say a quick, a quick look here. Ephesians chapter one, it says in him, you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him with the Holy spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance.

[36:11] You know, as rascally as those boys were of Jacob's, as many mistakes as they had made, every one of them got their inheritance and they didn't lose it. And as a Christian, you have an inheritance that you cannot lose reserved for you, but you can sure choose to enhance it or diminish it.

[36:28] Just like those boys did. You have that option. Some of them, I mean, most of them diminished it. Judah, he enhanced it incredibly.

[36:40] And we can see this by the way, if we look at the gospel of Mark, Jesus tells us a famous parable. It's a parable of the sower and the seed. Uh, and it says this, and excuse me, and those who are the ones who, whom seed was sown on the good soil, they hear the word and accept it.

[36:59] And they bear its fruit 30, 60, and a hundred fold. In other words, some folks bear a small amount. Some folks bear more amount. And others bear a basket that is overflowing.

[37:12] Some bear a whole lot. And a few verses down in verse 25, for whoever has to him, more shall be given. And to whoever does not have, even with, even what he has shall be taken away from him.

[37:27] You know, you're not going to lose your inheritance and salvation, but you can sure find your inheritance managed or, excuse me, diminished or enhanced.

[37:38] In fact, in the parable here, what happens? The one who has a little, because he did little, it goes to the one that has much. And that's exactly what happened with Judah. What did he get? Levi, Simeon, Reuben.

[37:50] He got all of what they gave up. For whoever has to him, more shall be given. And to whoever does not have, even what he has, shall be taken away from him.

[38:04] You know, I asked this question in closing. You want to have a good, a great inheritance. And understand again, your inheritance is not property. It's people. Caleb followed the Lord fully and God gave him a great inheritance.

[38:19] Judah turned to God and looked responsibility, took responsibility and leadership. And God gave him a great inheritance. And that's what God wants for you.

[38:29] And for me, that's what God wants. He doesn't want you to simply have inheritance. Yeah, I've got a spot in heaven. I'm good to go coast until the end.

[38:41] He wants you to have a really wonderful inheritance. Because what that means is you served him fully here. And God is a God who rewards those that seek and love him.

[38:53] We have an incredible privilege in this life to have inheritance, to have inheritance of heaven. And we have an incredible responsibility here to either diminish it or to enhance it.

[39:03] And you enhance it by fully following the Lord, fully using your gifts and your abilities for the kingdom, finding your niche, your place to serve, your area where you can make a difference for the kingdom, following him fully.

[39:20] And that's the way that you see your inheritance enhanced. That's the way that God is glorified. And that's the way that he will then in turn, as he will want to do to reward his servants, to reward those who serve him faithfully.

[39:38] Let's pray this morning. Heavenly father, we thank you for this passage, Lord. On the surface, Lord, we look at these verses and we tend to gloss over them.

[39:49] We say, there's a bunch of cities, there's a bunch of borders and Lord yet there in the middle, we see, we see how your promises, they play out to Judah 400 years later, Lord.

[40:03] And those promises that you've made to us, Lord, we can rest assured that you are God and you are faithful. And Lord, I ask that each one of us in our short time here on earth, Lord, that we would want to make an impact for you, Lord, that we would want to enhance our inheritance, Lord, that we would want to ultimately bring glory and honor to you, Lord.

[40:27] Or as we saw with Judah, with your son, the first time he came, Lord, he came as a lamb, he came unblemished. He gave his life on the cross for sinners, Lord, and he'll come back.

[40:43] But the second time he comes back, he's going to come back, as it said in Judah, as a lion, Lord, he's going to come back and he's going to restore what is rightfully his, Lord.

[40:54] And I thank you that, Lord, you've allowed us to share in the kingdom, Lord. I thank you that you've offered that inheritance. And I thank you for the book of Joshua, Lord. Thank you for each one that are here, Lord. Lord, we just thank you for your gift of salvation, Lord.

[41:07] We thank you for these things. And Lord, as we go out this week, we just ask that you would, that you would watch over us. We ask Lord that you would, that you would just, Lord, bless us as we, as we spend our week.

[41:23] And just Lord, help us look for opportunities to serve you and to, to bring glory to your name. Lord, we ask all this in your son's precious name.

[41:34]  Amen. Amen.