Then the whole congregation of the sons of Israel assembled themselves at Shiloh, and set up the tent of meeting there; and the land was subdued before them.This story begins with the Jewish Nation moving their base of operations from Gilgal, which was located on the outskirts of Jericho, approximately 20 miles to Shiloh, which was more centrally located in the Promised Land. And just as we saw last week, while the Promised Land was controlled by the Jewish people, it had not yet been fully occupied and settled by the people. Moving their base of operations was designed to assist in maintaining a sense of unity and community amongst the tribes as they branched out to settle the land that God had promised them. After the move, the Jewish nation gathered together to address a problem that had arisen in their midst. We see this problem exposed and another timeless principle that is necessary to restart our lives revealed for us, beginning in Joshua 18:2:
There remained among the sons of Israel seven tribes who had not divided their inheritance. So Joshua said to the sons of Israel, "How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?As the Jewish nation gathered together for a congregational meeting, Joshua exposes to the nation the reality that seven of the twelve tribes that formed the Jewish people had failed to begin the process of occupying and settling in the land that God had promised and provided for them. Unlike the tribes of Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh, these seven tribes failed to send representative to the tabernacle to meet with Joshua and his leadership team in order to receive their portion of the territory that God has promised and provided them.
Joshua responds to this situation with a question: “How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers has given you”? What is so interesting is that the phrase put off literally means to sink or relax. Instead of responding to God’s gracious gift of territory in the land that He had promised them, these tribes were sunk back in their lazy boys relaxing. Instead of confidently trusting God and following God’s command to occupy and settle in the land, theses tribes were procrastinating and showing a lack of gratitude for all that God that done to give them the land.
And it is in this situation that we see God reveal for us another timeless principle that is necessary when it comes to restarting our lives. And that timeless principle is this: to restart requires resisting the temptation toward procrastination. Instead of faithfully moving forward by doing what God had commanded them to do when it came to restarting their lives, the Jewish people were procrastinating. And this morning, if we are brutally honest, don’t we all have a tendency to be tempted to do the exact same thing when it comes to restarting our lives? “Yeah, I know I need to lose weight and work out more. I’ll start tomorrow. Yeah, I know I need to stop smoking, I’ll stop tomorrow. I know I need to stop watching pornography; I’ll get the filter for my Internet tomorrow. Yeah, I know I need to go to church and read my Bible more. I’ll start next week. I know that I should join a small group to help me grow in my relationship with God and develop relationships that encourage and support me. I think I’ll try one next week”.
But here’s the thing: tomorrow or next week never comes, does it? So we end up walking through life singing the song “tomorrow, tomorrow, there’s always tomorrow, tomorrow’s just a day away” while wondering why our lives are filled with hurt, pain, disappointment, and failure when it comes to changing and restarting our lives. I mean if we are brutally honest, in the vast majority of cases, it is not as though we do not know what the problem is. The problem isn’t the problem. And usually the problem isn’t that we do not know what the solution to the problem is. Usually, the problem is that we do not act on the solution to the problem-we procrastinate. And this is exactly what these seven tribes were doing when it came to following God’s command to occupy and settle the land that God had promised them. We see this revealed as the story continues in Joshua 18:4:
"Provide for yourselves three men from each tribe that I may send them, and that they may arise and walk through the land and write a description of it according to their inheritance; then they shall return to me. "They shall divide it into seven portions; Judah shall stay in its territory on the south, and the house of Joseph shall stay in their territory on the north. "You shall describe the land in seven divisions, and bring the description here to me. I will cast lots for you here before the LORD our God. "For the Levites have no portion among you, because the priesthood of the LORD is their inheritance. Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh also have received their inheritance eastward beyond the Jordan, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave them."Here we see Joshua respond to the seven tribe’s problem of procrastination by commanding them to get off the lazy boy that they had sunk into and fulfill their responsibility to follow the commands that God had previously given them when it came to occupying and settling the land. These seven tribes were to form a committee of 21 members, three from each tribe, who were to walk through the parts of the Promised Land that had not yet been settled and occupied.
This committee was to divide the land that had not been occupied and settled into seven parts or pieces of territory. This committee was also to write out a comprehensive description of each of these seven pieces of territory that were to be divided amongst the remaining tribes. Joshua also commanded the tribes of Ephraim, Judah, and the ½ tribe of Manasseh, who had already participated in the process and received their territory, to remain where they were at. Once this committee returned with a comprehensive description of the land that they had surveyed and divided, lots would be cast to determine which tribe would receive with piece of territory that remained.
As we talked about earlier, casting lots was a process that would be similar to picking names out of a hat. A representative from each of the tribes would pick from two urns. One urn had the name of the tribe, while a second urn had the land that was to be given to that tribe to possess. These lots were drawn simultaneously drawn and would determine which land each tribe would be given to occupy and settle. This process, however, was not simply a random act of chance. Since the Jewish people were without the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence and the Bibles guidance, casting lots was a way that God used to guide and direct the decisions of the Jewish people to determine the distribution of the land to the twelve tribes that formed the Jewish people. And as the story continues, we see recorded for us the response that the tribes who had procrastinated had to Joshua’s strong rebuke:
Then the men arose and went, and Joshua commanded those who went to describe the land, saying, "Go and walk through the land and describe it, and return to me; then I will cast lots for you here before the LORD in Shiloh." So the men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities in seven divisions in a book; and they came to Joshua to the camp at Shiloh. And Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the LORD, and there Joshua divided the land to the sons of Israel according to their divisions.The committee that represented the seven procrastinating tribes responded by compiling a comprehensive description of remaining territory that had not been occupied and settled. And in the rest of chapter eighteen and nineteen, we see how God distributed the remainder of the Promised Land to these seven procrastinating tribes. And in these two chapters, we see several timeless consequences that can occur when we fail to resist the temptation toward procrastination. We will spend the rest of this week looking at those consequences.
So where do you find yourself failing to resist the temptation toward procrastination?
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