I have been trying the First Five app on my iPad for my daily readings. I picked Joshua and Judges to start. It’s given me some ideas, some perspectives to consider. I jumped in with a share from Joshua 13 and 14 on Caleb, and I will do so from time to time but most probably not every day.
Joshua 15 sounds like a metes and bounds description of the land God had promised, God had given to the Israelites. The long awaited moments beginning with the years of slavery, the 40 years in the desert, and ending with the fighting in Canaan was here and now.
The inheritance was given.
And Caleb comes up again with generosity commensurate with the needs of his daughter (Joshua 15:16-19):
16 And Caleb said, “I will give my daughter Aksah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher.” 17 Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s brother, took it; so Caleb gave his daughter Aksah to him in marriage.
18 One day when she came to Othniel, she urged him[b] to ask her father for a field. When she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, “What can I do for you?”
19 She replied, “Do me a special favor. Since you have given me land in the Negev,give me also springs of water.” So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.
Caleb was true to form and gave of his that which was needed by others.
And then the chapter ends with —
63 Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah.
I was confused by this ending. Why was the fulfillment of the promise clouded with the vanquished still in their midst? According to the study,
[t]he consensus among many commentaries as to the why is simple unbelief. It would be easy for them to doubt their victory with the Jebusites living in Jersusalem. Though intimidating, it shouldn’t have mattered what they saw; it only mattered Who they believed.
Interesting. Given according to their need.