Joshua 21 records the distribution of cities and pasturelands to the Levites. According to Moses’ instruction, the Levites didn’t receive a territory in the Promised Land along with the other tribes. Instead, they received cities and pasturelands in each of the territories of the other tribes. The strategic value of this distribution is obvious: Levites would live throughout the entire land of Israel. They would be able to help guide their relatives to carry out the practices of worshiping God faithfully. At the end of the chapter we read:
45Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. Joshua 21:45 (ESV) While not surprising, the statement is so powerful. God is always good, and His good promises to us always come to pass, not one of them has ever failed or will ever fail. We can stand on that solid rock in our lives, regardless of what we might be enduring at any given moment.
Joshua 22 tells us of the return of the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh to their homes on the eastern side of the Jordan River. They had fulfilled their commitment to help their kinsmen take the Promised Land, and now Joshua sent them back with His blessing. As these two-and-a-half tribes returned home they built an altar, which nearly caused a war. The remaining Israelites thought the altar was to offer sacrifices to pagan gods, but the Reubenites, Gadites and half-tribe of Manasseh explained the altar was for their children. They want their children to remember they were part of Israel. Living apart from the rest of the tribes, they foresaw a day when their children might forget that. The altar would remind them. With that explanation all were satisfied and the situation ended peacefully.
Joshua 23-24 record the final words and instructions of Joshua to the Israelites. He reminded them of how good God had been to them, and how God had fulfilled His promises and blessings to them. He also told them if they forgot to follow the LORD in the future, they would receive His curses. Joshua’s message was plain and clear: follow the LORD and be blessed; abandon Him and be cursed. Finally, Joshua spoke a brief history of the Israelites and all the LORD had done for them. Then he offered the famous statement: 15And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15 (ESV) Notice Joshua offered three choices to the Israelites: 1) They could serve the gods of their slavery, their past in Egypt; 2) They could serve the gods of the Amorites in whose land they lived at the moment; or 3) they could serve the LORD, who had been with them in the past, was with them in that moment, and would be with them forever. So often, we look to our past and hold onto something from it with the kind of intensity that is to be reserved only for the LORD. Sometimes we look around and grab onto something of this world in which we live, with an intensity that is to be reserved only for the LORD. The best action is to grab onto the LORD with that kind of intensity today, tomorrow and forever.
As we return to John 11, we return to the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Every time I read this chapter, I’m reminded of the absolute power Jesus has over life and death. He waited until Lazarus died to return to do something about Lazarus’ sickness. The mourners who gathered at the tomb murmured the same thing many of us have murmured as we have watched a loved one grow sicker and sicker and eventually die: “If He were here, our brother (friend, mom, child…) wouldn’t have died.” We see the short-term value of having our loved one with us. Jesus sees the eternal value of where all of us are going. The difference is Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus died and came back to life. All my loved ones who have died, have stayed dead…but that is only from my perspective, from a physical perspective. One day each of us will die to this life, unless Jesus returns first. That means each of us will be in the tomb and hear what Lazarus heard: Arise! Wow! In the short-term it must have been such an amazing blessing for Mary and Martha to have their brother back. In the long-term, the eternal-term, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus will always be together with Jesus. That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote, “We don’t grieve as the rest of people who have no hope…” We grieve, and while our loved ones are sick we pray for their healing so we don’t have to grieve. But always, always, always–we have hope, because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, as we believe in Him we have the promise that we will never die.