Joshua 19 - Cities of Refuge | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church

In this video listen to Joshua 19 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer.In Joshua 19 the remaining six tribes are allotted. God gives an inheritance to all of his people. The first of these was for Simeon. This assignment was the mercy of God because Simeon was the smallest and weakest of the tribes after the second census. They rebelled at Baal Peor and twenty-two thousand of them were put to death, greatly reducing their size.Consequently they received a small inheritance. But the Lord mercifully assigned them a place with Judah, which strangely enough meant that part of this tribe was preserved inside the future nation of Judah even though ten tribes split away. This also was a mercy. The Lord is so thoughtful!! Beersheba was a city allocated to Simeon. Beersheba is the place Jacob had just left when he had his dream of the stairway going up to Heaven, and the Lord spoke to him in Genesis 28.It is also the place where the Australian Light Horse soldiers broke through the Turkish lines in the Great War putting the territory of Palestine under British control for the first time. The Modern nation of Israel might not have existed without that moment at Beer-Sheba. The tribal boundaries hold little significance to most of us today. Interestingly Jesus grew up in Nazareth most likely in the tribal boundary of Zebulun.Jesus ministered much in Capernaum in the tribal region of Naphtali. Finally Joshua is given a special inheritance. God also gives people an individual inheritance. When someone serves the Lord, he does not forget. Note also that Joshua is a type of Christ here, and there is an inheritance that is Christ’s. Psalm 2:8 says “Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.” People are God’s inheritance - his redeeming love has worked to take us for himself.Yet there are also parts of God’s inheritance that remain unclaimed, and we are to work with Christ to claim them for his own.