The Fruit of Righteousness: Part 3 (Joshua 12aEUR"24)

By Paul Murray

Nowhere in the Bible does God promise an instant fix. Our culture is so insistent on immediate results. We want fast food, quick service, and instant pudding. We hate waiting in line for anything. If our smartphone is 4G, we must have 5G. Everything must be quicker and faster.

It's not that God can't, won't, or never does an instant fix. "Lazarus, come forth" was an instant fix. Lazarus got up and walked out of the tomb. "Tabatha, arise," and the little girl got up off her deathbed. That was an instant fix. "Be still," and the winds and the waves instantly became calm. That's 5G speed!

But instant fix is not the norm in the Christian life. Instant healings are not typical, and it has nothing to do with a lack of faith. A jackpot lotto winning is seldom an excellent financial solution to your problems, and justice is rarely immediate nor swift. That is just the way things are in a broken world.

The same was true for Israel. It took seven long, grueling years to conquer Canaan. Later in the book, we will see why it took so long. The norm for gaining victory over sin and becoming mature in our faith usually takes a lifetime. As someone once said, "We are all men under construction." As long as we are still above ground, God is still working on us.

Israel has now conquered the promised land. There are no more threats from the various Canaanite tribes, and there is peace across the land. Finally, after generations of waiting upon God to receive the promised inheritance, the spoils of the land are about to be divided among the tribes of Judah. But with each inheritance there comes some serious responsibility. Each individual tribe was to finish the job of removing the enemy for the land they inherited.

The mandate was not "live and let live" or "indenture the indigenous" or "settle for coexistence." The remnant of enemy left in the land was to be completely driven out. To fail to do that would threaten Israel's very existence in the promised land.

Were they willing to finish the job? The obstacles loomed large, but God had proven His ability to move mountains. Starting strong does not win any race. The race is won when you cross the finish line. Read on and learn how to finish the race. The Fruit of Righteousness (Joshua 12-14) is the third and final part of the three-part series Pagans, Prostitutes and Other Problems: A Simple Man's Commentary on Joshua.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781639037032

Paul Murray

Paul Murray was born in 1975 in Dublin. He is the author of the novels An Evening of Long Goodbyes, which was short-listed for the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. Skippy Dies (2010) was long-listed for the Booker Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Mark and the Void (2015) was the joint winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize and was named one of Time’s Top 10 Fiction Books of the year.

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The Fruit of Righteousness

Part 3 (Joshua 12aEUR"24)

Paul Murray

ISBN 978-1-63903-702-5 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63903-703-2 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Paul Murray

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

All biblical citations were taken from the New American Standard Version of the Holy Bible unless otherwise indicated.

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Prologue

In The Fruit of Righteousness, we come to the third and final part of our series: Pagans, Prostitutes and Other Problems: A Simple Man’s Commentary on Joshua. In part 1, Preparation Creates Opportunity, we covered Israel’s entrance into Canaan territory in Joshua 1–5. In part 2, More than Conquerors, we investigated Israel’s conquest of the land of Canaan in Joshua 6–11. Here in part 3, we will cover the distribution of the land of Canaan to the tribes of Israel in Joshua 12–24.

God had promised their forefather, Abram, to make of his descendants a great nation, to give them a promised land, and to bless all the nations of the earth through them. For generations, the promises of God had been passed down. The first promise had already been fulfilled. By the time of the exodus from Egypt, Israel had become a great nation. Now the second promise had just recently been fulfilled. God had given them the promised land—the land of Canaan. The third promise would come through the line of Judah centuries later when the Messiah Jesus would walk among them.

But currently, the long seven-to-eight-year war with the tribes of the Canaanites was over. There were still enemies in the land that need to be cleared out, but there was no longer any command and control. As the land of Canaan would be distributed among the various tribes of Israel, it would be their individual responsibility to get rid of the remaining enemy.

There would be no room for compromise, no room for nation building among the remaining people, no room for a live-and-let-live policy, and certainly no room for making them servant-slaves. God knew that if a single one of them were to remain in Canaan, the influence and the practices of their religion and worship would gradually begin to seep its way into Israel’s culture. God would have none of that.

God had proven Himself faithful over and over again throughout the conquest. As they trusted in the Lord, God had given them the strength and wisdom to defeat every foe. The only time life was lost was when they took matters into their own hands in the battle of Ai. Other than that, victory was complete.

Would they now take that lesson to heart and trust in the Lord as individual tribes in clearing out their own inheritance? That was the issue before them. The huge lesson that develops through these pages is that with God’s blessings comes huge responsibility. The twists and turns in how God decides who gets what piece of real estate and how they would do in their responsibility to clear the land of the enemy is extraordinary. Jump in and come along with us. The journey will surprise you.

Chapter 1

A Historical Recap

(Joshua 12:1–24)

With chapter 12, we begin the third and final section of the book of Joshua. This is the longest of the three sections. We called the first section Preparation Creates Opportunity, and it covered chapters 1–5. This section included the preparations God took Israel through in getting the nation ready to occupy the promised land.

We called the second section More than Conquerors, and it covered chapters 6–11. That section was broken down into three parts. Part 1 was the central campaign with the defeat of Jericho, Ai, and Bethel. It also included the ceremony in the Valley of Shechem in chapters 6–8. Part 2 was the southern campaign in chapters 9–10. Then part 3 was the northern campaign in chapter 11.

We will call this final section, chapters 12–24, The Fruit of Righteousness. Here in these chapters are recorded the apportioning of the land to the various tribes of Israel. Finally, the promise that God had given their father, Abraham, generations earlier is fulfilled. Way back in chapter 1 verse 3, God had promised Israel all the land of Canaan, but there was a condition. They had to, by faith and obedience, walk on it and claim it as their own. Every place their foot trod that would be their land. Now, seven plus years later, the fruit of their righteous acts is about to be realized.

No Instant Fix

Here are just three brief observations. First, nowhere in the Bible does God promise an instant fix. Our culture is so insistent on immediate results. We want fast food, quick service, and instant pudding. We hate waiting in line for anything. If our smartphone is 4G, we must have 5G. Everything has to be quicker and faster.

It’s not that God can’t, won’t, or never does an instant fix. Lazarus, come forth was a pretty instant fix as Lazarus got up and walked out of the tomb. Tabatha, arise, and the little girl got up off her deathbed. That was a pretty instant fix. Be still, and the winds and the waves instantly became calm. That’s 5G speed!

I tried calming the winds once when I was fly-fishing. The wind was blowing so hard I could hardly get my line fifteen feet in front of me. Jesus calming the wind and the waves came to my mind. So I thought, I’ll try this. First, I looked around to make sure no one was within hearing distance or a mile, whichever was greater. Then I hollered, Wind and waves, be still! It didn’t work.

But instant fix is not the norm in the Christian life. Instant healings are not typical, and it has nothing to do with a lack of faith. A jackpot lotto winning is seldom an excellent financial solution to your problems, and justice is rarely immediate nor swift. That’s just the way things are in a broken world.

The same was true for Israel. It took seven long, grueling years to conquer Canaan. Later in the book, we will see why it took so long. The norm for gaining victory over sin and becoming mature in our faith usually takes a lifetime. As someone once said, We are all men under construction. As long as we are still above ground, God is still working on us.

I think it is fair to ask why God doesn’t provide quicker results. God said that His Spirit within us is greater than he (the devil and his dominions) who is in the world. If that is true, then why do we have to endure all the trials, the agony, and the attacks the enemy throws our way? If God is greater, why can’t we claim that power over disease or calamity? Why isn’t there an instant victory over the attacks of the enemy?

From my simple perspective, the answer is contained in two words: education and character. Has Israel learned any lessons in the seven-year struggle? Have they learned anything about the character of God, the nature of the enemy and their own character? Have they learned anything about faith and obedience? Have they learned anything about getting counsel with God before acting, to mention just a few things?

Yes to everything. The extreme value of not having the instant fix is the lessons to be learned in the process. Is this not what the apostle Paul says in Romans 5:3–5?

³ And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;

⁴ and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;

⁵ and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Do you want the love of God to be poured out within your heart through the Holy Spirit? I sure do! That is exactly what God will do for you and me as we face the calamities of life in the strength of His might, by faith. God’s love is not poured out in our hearts through instant healings. It’s poured out through patient trust in difficult situations. God’s love enables us to face difficulties.

Peter sees it the same way in 2 Peter 1:5–8.

⁵ Now for this very reason (to become a partaker of the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world) applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge;

⁶ and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness;

⁷ and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

⁸ For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge (that’s education) of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It seems simple to me. The only way love can increase as a part of your character is by the process of dealing with heartache and difficulty. Instant fixes would bypass all this, and we’d be the worst for it.

James would concur with both Paul and Peter in James 1:2–5.

² Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,

³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

⁴ And let endurance have its perfect results, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

⁵ But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Do you see the value and the necessity of going through the muck of life? It builds character, it builds your faith, and it is the fertilizer of maturity.

Diligent Work

There is a second observation I’d like to make. Let me pose it as a question. Why is this promised gift (the promised land) so much work? Hundreds of years earlier, God promised to give Abram’s descendants this land as a gift. The descendants of Abram now stand on the very soil God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They have fought, scrapped, bled, toiled for every acre, every square inch. Yet the text has been unequivocal. God is giving this land. God is giving the enemies into their hands. God is granting them victory, and without Him, they would possess nothing.

So what is the real deal here? Have they worked hard and earned this inheritance, or is it a gift of God? Works or grace? Which is it?

Is this not one of the conundrums of the Christian life? The Hebrews writer says, "Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest (apparently it takes diligent effort and hard work to achieve God’s rest) lest we fall through following the same example of disobedience. It is interesting that disobedience—not laziness—is the enemy of rest. Paul writes to the Philippian church in Philippians 2:12, My beloved…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Jesus says in Luke 13:24, Strive to enter by the narrow gate."

It seems quite clear that all this diligence, work, and striving is part and parcel of the Christian experience. Is this a formula for how to earn favor with God, one of hard, diligent work as we strive to please Him? Absolutely not! Yet this is how so many Christians seek to please God. These passages are not aimed at our work ethic; they are all aimed at our faith ethic. They are aimed at our willingness to trust and depend on God.

The reality of the scriptures is that, trusting God, taking Him at His word, depending upon Him amid a crisis, believing what He says is right, and doing it when all society thinks we are nuts takes diligence, courage, and hard work. The reason is that our own instincts are counterintuitive. It is hard work because doing what’s natural is so much easier. It is difficult because the world thinks we are crazy, if not bigoted, when we take God at His word.

Faith is countercultural. It is revolutionary. Faith often requires swimming against the current, and the enemy does everything in his power to cause us to question God’s wisdom. He wants us to doubt God’s word and to second guess God’s will. That is the battle we fight daily. That is what is pictured in these seven long years of struggle and toil. It is nothing more than a picture of the average daily Christian experience. It is the spiritual warfare that we engage in daily.

Digging Deeper

One final observation. We are now halfway through the book of Joshua. There are twenty-four chapters in this book. We are picking it up in chapter 12. However, when most people read through the book of Joshua, they stop at the end of chapter 11. Let me illustrate. One of the best commentaries I have ever read on Joshua was written by Arthur W. Pink (died in 1952) called Gleanings in Joshua. It was kind of hard for me to read because it had a lot of twenty-five-cent words. I had to keep the dictionary handy, but it is a brilliant work. He devoted 334 pages to the first eleven chapters, but only 96 pages to the last 13 chapters!

Jenson’s Every Man’s Bible Commentary is another good study. I figured I was included as part of every man, so I read it. He had some good insights. He devotes ninety-three pages to the first eleven chapters, but only thirty-three pages to the last thirteen chapters. Then there is Francis Schaeffer’s commentary (of Libre Fellowship fame) on Joshua. This guy was a real contemporary intellect. I’ve met Francis Schaeffer and have had dinner with him. He died forty-some years ago. He devoted 154 pages of his commentary on Joshua’s first 11 chapters and only 61 pages to the last 13 chapters.

I began to ask myself, Why do commentators devote three times more effort to the first half of this book than they do to the last half? If you asked the average person who has read the book of Joshua, they would probably say chapters 1–11 are interesting, but chapters 12–24 tend to be boring. In the last half of the book, there are far too many names of places and people whose names you can’t even pronounce. There is too much geography that you can’t identify. There is too much repetition of terms and way too much genealogy. I mean, endless genealogies that you can’t even trace, and for many, there is not much value there.

But wait a minute. All of that may be true about the repetition, names, and places; but herein lies a great danger about which we must be cautious. Did God inspire Joshua to write this stuff or not? Was God’s intention with inspiring Joshua to write chapters 12–24 just to fill up space so the Bible would be a bigger book?

Or is there purpose and significance to what’s recorded there? Maybe this is written to challenge us to dig a little deeper. Don’t misunderstand me here. I’m not saying the above authors didn’t dig deep. They certainly did. I’m saying most of us don’t bother with it because it seems too hard and we give up too quickly.

Doesn’t the apostle Paul tell Timothy that "all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, correction, reproof, and training in right conduct?" He does. Therefore, we need to ask God to reveal to us what is in these difficult chapters that would be profitable for us to chew on, what is here that is relevant for us today! So let’s turn to the text and take a look.

Chapter 12 is a recap of Israel’s conquests. In verses 1–6, we have a summary of their victories over the kings east of the Jordan under Moses. In verses 7–24, there is a record of the victories west of the Jordan under Joshua. We begin with a recap of the victories east of the Jordan. We start with chapter 12 verses 1 to 6.

¹ Now these are the kings of the land whom the sons of Israel defeated, and whose land they possessed beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, from the valley of the Arnon as far as Mount Hermon, and all the Arabah to the east;

² Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, both the middle of the valley and half of Gilead, even as far as the brook Jabbok, the border of the sons of Ammon;

³ and the Arabah as far as the Sea of Chinneroth toward the east, and as far as the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, eastward toward Beth-jeshimoth, and on the south, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah;

⁴ and the territory of Og king of Bashan, one of the remnants of Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,

⁵ and ruled over Mount Hermon and Salecah and all Bashan, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and half of Gilead, as far as the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.

⁶ Moses the servant of the Lord and the sons of Israel defeated them; and Moses the servant of the Lord gave it to the Reubenites and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh as a possession.

Victory East of the Jordan

It is evident from the term "beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise" that Joshua refers to the land east of the Jordan River. So here is a summary of all the land that was conquered east of the Jordan River. The first boundary given is from the "valley of the Arnon." Arnon is to the south, so this identifies the southern border in what is described as a general property description.

The next boundary is "as far as Mt. Hermon. Since Mt. Hermon is in the far north of the land, this is the northern boundary limit. The next boundary given is all the Arabah to the east." Arabah is a Hebrew word that means desert. So simply speaking, all the desert to the east. No eastern boundary is given, just desert as far as the eye can see and camel can go!

The only other boundary that is missing is the western boundary, but that one is covered in the phrase "beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise. That phrase makes the western boundary the Jordan River, with the land referred to as the land toward the sunrise," meaning the land to the east. So the western boundary is the Jordan River as it extends geographically north and south.

This is a vast territory that was ruled by the two kings: Sihon and Og. It is as big, if not bigger, than all the land of Canaan. Moses had defeated these two great kingdoms and these powerful kings: Sihon, who lived in Heshbon to the south, and Og, who lived in Bashan to the north.

It is interesting to note that the entire east side of the River Jordan, which was equal in size to the west side, was ruled by only two kings. By comparison, if you were to glance down through verses 10–24, you can count all the kings that ruled west of the Jordan, in the land of Canaan. Verse 24 sums up all of them. Thirty-one kings ruled west of the Jordan compared to two kings that ruled east of the Jordan, in a land as big as Canaan or bigger. This gives you some idea of the power and the strength of the two kingdoms on the east side of the Jordan River.

The Amorites

These two kings were both Amorites. The Amorites were large in stature. In fact, verse 4 says, "Og king of Bashan, one of the remnants of Rephaim… The Rephaim were the giants that lived in the land of Canaan. Remember when the twelve spies came in from spying out the land? After seeing these giants in the land of Canaan, they came back to Moses and said, We appeared as grasshoppers in their sight." They felt dwarfed in size by these people.

The Philistine from Gath, Goliath, was a descendant of these people. He stood ten feet tall! These men stood anywhere from ten to twelve feet tall, huge people who were fierce, warlike, and nomadic. The Amorites became synonymous among the Canaanites as a general term that described all the enemies of God.

Their defeat by Moses was a signal defeat that is mentioned several times throughout the Old Testament as an example of the power of God over His enemies. God says through the prophet Amos in Amos 2:9, "Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorites before Israel, though his height was like the height of cedars and he was strong as the oaks; I even destroyed his fruit above and his root beneath."

What a fabulous statement. "It was I…, God says. Not Israel, not Moses, but I that destroyed the Amorites. Even though the enemy was as tall as the cedars and as strong as the oak tree, it was I… No human effort could accomplish that defeat, only God could. Not only did God destroy the kingdoms of Sihon and Og, but He destroyed his fruit above and the root beneath." Here is a description of total and complete destruction.

So the Amorites came to symbolize the power of the flesh that only the power of God could destroy, from its fruit above to its root beneath. That is exactly the extent that God will destroy the sinful nature in us as we place our faith entirely in Him. On the cross, Jesus cleanses us from the fruit to the root of sin. Praise God!

Once the land of Canaan was conquered, the land that Moses had defeated was given to Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh as their inheritance, at their insistence.

What is the lesson in the defeat of Sihon and Og by Moses east of the Jordan? It is a lesson that weaves its way through the entire book of Joshua. It’s the lesson that only the power of God can defeat the giants we face in our lives. No amount of education, cleverness, giftedness, human wisdom, effort, dedication, money, tenacity, or grit will free us from our own personal Sihon or Og. The enemy we face daily is greater than you or I, or you and I collectively.

Our enemy was defeated, not with the cruel death on the Cross of Calvary but through the resurrection from the dead. Through His death and resurrection from the dead, our debt of sin was paid in full. Only as we place our complete trust in the resurrected life of Jesus Christ will we ever find personal victory over our unique Sihon or Og today.

Victory West of the Jordan

The next section, verses 7–24, recaps the defeat of the kingdoms west of the Jordan River. We read this in verses 7 and 8:

⁷ Now these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the sons of Israel defeated beyond the Jordan toward the west, from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon even as far as Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir; and Joshua gave it to the tribes of Israel as a possession according to their divisions,

⁸ in the hill country, in the lowland, in the Arabah, on the slopes, and in the wilderness, and in the Negev; the Hittite, the Amorite and the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite.

Baal-gad references an extreme northern point, not on most Bible maps, but stretching up as far as Mt. Hermon. It was apparently a city in the valley of Lebanon. Mt. Halak (Halak means bald, so perhaps it was Mt. Baldy?) references an extreme southern boundary in the Arabah (desert). I think the contrast is interesting in the phrase, "From Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon even as far as Mount Halak."

Lebanon was the mountainous area where the dense cedar forests of Lebanon were located. Mt. Halak was a bald mountain in the desert regions to the far south. The contrast is that the promised land has everything from lush mountains to barren deserts and everything else in between. Everything else in between is described in verse 8. The writer then enumerates all thirty-one of the kings that occupied the west side of the Jordan River. That listing of kings is pretty much the order in which Joshua defeated them.

There are a couple of observations worth making at this point. If you compare verse 8 here with verse 4 of chapter 1, you find that God has been faithful to His promise to give this land. God had promised to provide them with the hill country, the lowlands, the wilderness, and the Negev, and to give them the land of the Hittites, the Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites! God had promised all of that.

Now, seven years later, they are standing in possession of what God had said He would give them. The point is this: the promises of God are true and