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In Joshua 14
● notice the continuing importance of setting boundaries: as Moses had portioned the land east of the river, so now with threefold authority- Eleazar the priest, Joshua, and the elaborately and cumbersomely named “heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel” (1)- the lands west of the river were “allotted” (5),
● notice, though, that, when the allotting is noted, it is the work of “the people of Israel” (5) doing “as the Lord commanded Moses” (5), which itself closely follows the language found in verse 2,
● understand that this allotting (portioning) “by lot” (2) is a God-ordained, weighted-with- authority process for making boundaries,
● remember perhaps the use of “by lot” in the selection of a twelfth apostle in Acts 1:26,
● nod once again at the rehearsal of the Levite exception (4),
● delight in the narrative rehearsal by Caleb, in the presence of Joshua, of what Moses had said “concerning you and me” (6),
● tally the times that the language of Caleb’s confession that he had “wholly followed the Lord” (8, 9, 14),
● understand that Caleb confesses “I brought him word again as it was in my heart” (7), suggesting that wholly following the Lord involves the heart, the whole heart,
● marvel at Caleb’s boldness as he declares his age (10), his strength (11), and his claim on a certain portion of the land (12),
● appreciate the lack of presumption as Caleb closes with the “it may be” (12) that God will be with him “and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said” (12)- (Turn me loose!), and
● delight in the closing recognition that “the land had rest from war” (15).
Thank you,

Randy Tumlinson