At the end of the chapter, the war is over for now. No, they didn't take all of the lands, but God told them not to take more than they needed at the time, and Joshua is doing as God commanded. Joshua is doing all God commanded, but now the tribes are to do the rest of the work, clearing their own territories. This reminds me of what Jesus does for us. Jesus clears the sin problem and gives us what we need to do the rest with the power of the Spirit. The Scriptures even encourage us to seek God for help when we struggle and help from others in the family of God. Jesus has broken the back of the enemy, and now it’s our job to finish up, not so that we can earn our salvation but so that we can mature in Him and be all He wants us to be. The problem will be if we don’t do our work, and then we see what happens when we look at Israel.
We begin to see an issue here. We see now that there are some towns the tribes aren't burning down. I note this because what starts as small matters tends to lead to greater ones. This will be true for Israel, and it's true in our lives when we allow disobedience to come in, even in small areas, we will find they grow.
Photo by Finn Hackshaw on Unsplash
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