Bible Men: Joshua: Whose Land?

So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war. Jos 11:23 

Crime and Punishment

Adam had no parents. He had no land and he had no home of his. Everything Adam had was given him by God including his wife. God gave him Eden and God took away Eden.

What do you or I have which we didn’t receive?

“Dust to dust and ashes to ashes.” It is a chime we hear every day when “man goeth to his long home”. So Adam came into this world with nothing and he left with nothing.

The story of our beginning is humbling. But our fall sometimes blurs that. Sometimes we imagine we own the world.

It is true no one can diminish the achievements man has made by God’s grace. “Go forth and multiply…and have dominion over everything on earth” said God, and it is a call humanity has excelled in.   

Today the world is a village. And we can hardly keep up with the new inventions appearing on the scene almost daily. We have conquered ignorance, disease and poverty. Everywhere you look you find the imprint of man. We have kept the faith. We have multiplied. And we have dominion over everything. Glory be to God!

The Holy Land as Center of World History

But we are still human, and dark passions sometimes run roughshod over us. We love, but we also kill for love… The Cain heart is still beating in our chests. Abel dies. And he dies because of land.

It is worse in Holy land. The Jews claim it is theirs from God, as the Arabs also do, since they are all descendants of Abraham. But who are the original owners of the land? The Bible calls them Amorites, or the Canaanites tribes. Why did God take their land away from them and give it to others?

The Bible is plain. It’s because of their sins. God gave them time (four hundred years to change) but they didn’t. So God punished them for their crime. He took the land from them and gave it to Abraham’s descendants, according to scripture. God did with them as he did with Adam.

The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Psa 24:1  

But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. Gen 15:16  

Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:  And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.  Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you. Lev 18:24-26 

For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. Deu 7:6  

Of course later God also got angry with Israel for their idolatry and he exiled them to Babylon. But after seventy years of tears Israel returned to her land. She came back to find a mixed lot though. The Assyrians had intermarried with the Jews (who remained) to give birth to Samaritans. The Arabs too were in Jerusalem.

So the story of Middle East is long and bloody. But it had been prophesied. All that history (through Adam) and how after Noah’s flood humankind spread throughout the world to become the tribes that we are today is all in the Bible.

Of course evolutionists too have their say. But it is not a dignified beginning. Moreover their history is forever being revised up to this day.

But it is not so with the history of the God of the Bible. His truths are eternal. He never changes. That’s why we believe him. His testimony is there for all to see. Whom do you believe and why? “And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” (Dan 4:35).  

Children of Faith

But we are here not to understand God to perfection but to believe! That’s why we are children of faith.

We started by listening to our parents and obeying them. Next we moved to school and college and universities. We were obedient and patient so eventually we understood. So is it with the knowledge of God. He wants to reason with you. Will you take up the challenge?  

World History is Shaky and Uncertain

Let us for a moment agree with our ancestors’ logic. Kenya is our land. But history also says that some came from Congo and others up the Nile! So who are the original owners of Kenya? Whose land is the Americas? Or Europe? Or Asia? Or USSR? Where are the great world empires of yester years and their cities? Looks also like God took away from some and gave it to others!

That’s why a man can buy land anywhere in the world today and call it his home from the Lord. “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses” (Jos 1:3). But we are still in the world with its glamour and hostility! So we shall not put down our cross, rather we shall carry it until the end, until Jesus comes back and receives us in his rest.

Land is a blessing, but it’s also a curse. To the extent one increases in possessions in this world to that extent he will never know peace, like Solomon boldly intimated. So don’t let covetousness kill you! Have you a very big land? Be content. Have you a very small land? Be content. Have you no land at all? Be content. Remember your treasure is where your heart is, so Jesus taught. Invest in the “lands” in heaven, he said, “where moth and rust doth not corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.”