March 16

March 16

Joshua 19–21

Scripture Text: Joshua 19:1–21:45

Series: Read the Bible in a Year

As the Lord had sworn in the wilderness, the promised land now lay subdued before the people. It was theirs to possess and settle. But some of the tribes (seven tribes) were yet to receive their inheritance, their apportioned lands. These remaining seven — Simeon, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, Dan, and Joshua — were apportioned their land in today’s reading. Joshua and the elders distributed the lands by lot at the tent of meeting in Shiloh, according to the descriptions brought back by the surveyors in yesterday’s reading. 

After Joshua allocates land to all the tribes, the people of Israel gift Joshua with a city in Ephraim for his inheritance. 

Of all the tribes, Levi is given no territory because the priesthood is their inheritance. “To the tribe of Levi alone Moses and Joshia gave no inheritance. The offerings by fire to the LORD God of Israel are their inheritance, as he said to him” (Joshua 13:14). However, the six cities of refuge scattered throughout Israel are under Levitical jurisdiction. People may flee there when they are accused of murder or even kill someone unintentionally. Though the tribe of Levi was not given a large tract of land, the people of Israel gave the Levites certain cities to live in among them, as well as pastureland for cattle. Of the named cities in chapter 20 were the cities of refuge for the manslayers. The accused would live in those cities under the protection of the Levites until the death of the high priest, at which point the accused were freed. When the high priest died, the person who had fled to a city of refuge was released freely. 

This foreshadows our great High Priest, Christ Jesus, to whom we flee for mercy and by whose death we are liberated from the sin that accuses us, and the penalty of death. We confess prayerfully: “Almighty God, our Maker and Redeemer, we poor sinners confess unto thee, that we are by nature sinful and unclean, and that we have sinned against thee by thought, word, and deed. Wherefore we flee for refuge to thine infinite mercy, seeking and imploring thy grace, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Service Book and Hymnal, Augsburg, 1958, p. 1). By God’s grace, Christ Jesus is our city of refuge, our inheritance, and our freedom. 

Everything God had promised in the wilderness had come to pass — and anticipates our life in Christ today, as well as the “promised land” we still await. 

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