Joshua 16 Devotional

A Blessing Spoken in Egypt

“So Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, received their inheritance.”Joshua 16:4 (BSB)

Joshua 16 is short and mostly borders, tracing the land of Ephraim from the Jordan at Jericho to the sea (16:1-8). It is easy to pass over. But one line says that Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons of Joseph, received their inheritance (16:4), and that sentence reaches back a long way. In Egypt, an aging Jacob claimed Joseph's two sons as his own, counting them as fully his as Reuben and Simeon (Genesis 48:5). A blessing spoken by an old man in a foreign land becomes ground under the feet of his descendants.

The chapter ends on a sober note. Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites of Gezer but kept them as forced laborers instead (16:10). God's people received what he gave, yet they also settled for less than he had commanded. Both are often true of us as well. Still, the stronger line in the chapter is God's. What he promises, even across many generations, he brings about, and your place in his family rests on that same kind of word.

To think about: Where might you be settling for less than God has called you to, and how does his faithfulness invite you further?