I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 15-17.

    I struggle to know what to make of today’s passage. It is primarily a list of the territory given to some of the tribes. This is useful information for later when we read about the Philistines in Ekron and Ashdod, cities which were part of the land given to the tribe of Judah. There is also the story of how Caleb offered his daughter in marriage to the man who led the attack against one of the towns in his territory(the story gives us no idea of her age at the time, but it seems likely that Caleb was no longer young when she was born). The final item of note is that the tribes of Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh were unable to completely drive the people out of the land they were given. Every time I read this I wonder if perhaps the Israelites should have conquered only the land they could fully control and then pushed the other people out over time as they expanded, rather than conquering as much of the total territory as they could leaving pockets of foreigners (foreign to the Israelites) which were too strong for them to overcome.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 12-14.

    The passage describes the Israelite conquest of Canaan and mentions that Joshua was an old man at this time (considering that he was, at the youngest, not much younger than 20 when he left Egypt, he would have been at least 60 by this point). However, the thing that always strikes me was Caleb asking for his land. First Caleb recounts that he was one of those who had scouted the land over 40 years earlier and reminds Joshua that he was one of those who at that time believed that Israel could conquer the land. Despite being 85 years old, Caleb was ready to take the land which had been promised him, land which was inhabited by the people of whom the Israelites had been so frightened 45 years older that they resisted entering the Promised Land at that time. He was confident that with God on his side he would be able to take possession of the land, even at 85 years of age. At 85 years of age, Caleb was still a fighter for the Lord, will I be? Will you be?