This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s
happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his gospel.

Let’s jump in.

Joshua continues to divide up the land and
assigns the rest to the remaining 11 tribes.

Joseph’s tribe is the
next to receive their land.

Back in Genesis, this tribe was split into two, each
named after Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.

Half the tribe of Manasseh, along with Reuben and Gad, had
decided to settle outside Canaan, east of the Jordan River.

But Ephraim and the other half of Manasseh are assigned
their plots and given land near the center of the nation.

Immediately there are problems.

First, Joseph’s tribe did not completely drive out God’s
enemies like they were supposed to. Second, they
complain that their land is too small.

They ask Joshua to give them more
land than God originally allotted.

The problem wasn’t that
their allotment was too small,

but that they were too afraid
to drive out the Canaanites.

If they want the land, they need
to trust God’s power and take it.

[ music]

Though God has led Israel to take over much of the land,
they do not end up trusting him to finish what he started.

The reason for this lack of trust is fear.

Joseph’s descendants were afraid of the
strong Canaanites and their iron chariots.

They didn’t trust that God would lead them
to victory like he had before.

But Joshua tells Ephraim and Manasseh that
they can successfully drive out the Canaanites

despite their numbers, advanced
weaponry, or strategic military positioning.

After all, Israel’s victories had never been a result of
size or strategy, but of God’s power.

Jesus also defeated strong and
well-armed enemies: sin and death.

He did so not by overpowering them with force or numbers,
but by dying and rising again through God’s power.

In the same way, Israel should have looked back on God’s
victory in the past to strengthen their trust in him for the future.

We, too, can look back to
Jesus’ decisive victory over death.

We can trust that not even the strength of death
and the sting of the grave will gain victory over us.

Instead, we will take possession of
the land our enemies try to take from us.

Through faith in Jesus we will inhabit a plentiful
and spacious land in the new heaven and new earth.

It is a land that will be completely pure,
where no outpost or pocket of evil can remain.

May the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the God who is
mighty in battle despite our enemy’s strength or our weakness.

And may you see Jesus as the one who died in weakness
to grant us eternal strength over our greatest enemy.