Settling In

Settling In

Q: What was being divided in the second half of the book of Joshua?

• a. land
• b. the Red Sea
• c. money

If you’ve ever moved to a new house, you probably walked through the house to see how big it was. Your family decided what would go in each room, and you may have gotten to choose which bedroom would be yours. Once you moved your things into the room, it started to feel like home.

When the Israelites reached their destination, the tribes each received a piece of land to make their homes. Joshua had the job of assigning land to the tribes, except to the Levites, who lived among the other tribes and served as priests. God chose where each tribe would live, and then Joshua told the people.

God told the Israelites to drive out all the enemies still living in the land because those people worshiped idols. God didn’t want his people to be tempted to worship idols too. Unfortunately, the Israelites failed to rid their new home of the enemies, and this caused a lot of problems, which you’ll read about later.

Just as God wanted his people to drive out idol worshipers from the land, he wants us to rid our lives of any sin. When we fail to do this, it causes problems for us, just as the enemies caused problems for the Israelites.

For You

Ask God to search your heart and help you get rid of any sin you find. Then you can be victorious in your Christian life.

Answer: a

Joshua took control of the entire land, just as the LORD had instructed Moses. He gave it to the people of Israel as their special possession, dividing the land among the tribes. So the land finally had rest from war.   Joshua 11:23

(The Whole Story: Joshua 13–22 talks about the division of the land.)