Joshua 19 Devotional

The Leader Received Last

“as the LORD had commanded. They gave him the city of Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, as he requested. He rebuilt the city and settled in it.”Joshua 19:50 (BSB)

The last six lots fall in this chapter. Simeon's towns sit inside Judah's territory because Judah's share was too large for them (19:1, 9). Then come Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan, each lot followed by its borders and towns (19:10-48).

Only after every tribe is settled does Joshua receive anything. The Israelites give him the town he asked for, Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, as the LORD had commanded, and he rebuilds it and lives there (19:49-50). The man who led the conquest takes his portion last, and he receives it as a gift. Then the chapter closes: the land was distributed by lot before the LORD at Shiloh, and the division was finished (19:51). Every tribe received its place from God's hand. One psalm calls the LORD himself the singer's chosen share and the one who keeps his lot secure (Psalm 16:5). Whatever place you have been given, it came from the same hand, and it is held there safely.

To think about: How might you see your present circumstances differently if you received them as a place assigned by God's hand?