In Chapter 12 Joshua is about to begin giving the details of the inheritances to each tribe. One thing worth noticing is that this is the largest portion of the book of Joshua and certainly the most time-consuming. They prepared for 5 chapters, they fought for 6 chapters but they discovered their inheritance for 11 chapters. The preparations and war were over within a year or 2, but inheriting the land was a matter of a lifetime. I grew up on a farm in Alabama it was 400 acres and I spent the better part of 28 years walking the land, hunting the land, fishing the land, and building on the land and there are still parts of that 400 acres I don't know very well. On the other hand, my grandfather has spent the last 78 years in the land and he knows it better than any of us. What I am saying is getting to know your inheritance is lifetime work.
So it is with our inheritance in Christ. We can get so caught up in warring that we think that's all this life here on earth is. There is more to this life than warfare, we need to walk the pages of his word getting to know the boundless inheritance that we have received In Christ. This is not the work of a month, a year, or even a decade. It is the work of a lifetime. For the better part of 15 years, I have been reading the Bible, searching it and it searching me, every day another promise is overturned, and every day some fresh light is given and what I've seen is that the more I get to know about our inheritance the larger it gets.
The Bible says what I am trying to express much better than I can in Ephesians 3:18-19 "May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Did you see what he said? Paul prayed that they would "Know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge." To know something that goes beyond our ability to know! That is what our promised land is, it has no boundaries, we inherited the infinite Jesus, his love, his mercy, his grace, his strength. We got Jesus and all his graces and attributes are infinite because he is infinite! If we could give every waking moment to the discovery of his goodness we would never even scratch the surface of the breadth, length, depth, or height of who he is and what he has done. Nor will eternity be long enough to discover how great he is. Just think how all of the heavenly hosts worship him day and night, yet the endless ages of eternity have not eroded his glory in the least. What a God! What a Savior! What an inheritance! Put on your boots this morning a strike out into his promises and tomorrow there will be fresh light, fresh bread, fresh burdens, and the next day and the next!
Something about the inheritances that we should notice is that they aren't all the same. The promised land was a big place and they all received it but our verse today shows us the diversity in the promised land. All received the promised land but some of their plots were mountainous, like Caleb. Some of theirs were plains, some of theirs were valleys, others wilderness and even deserts, that is what the words south country mean, desert. Imagine you make it into the promised land, "A land flowing with milk and honey," a land that you have fought for and spent your whole life anticipating and your portion was a desert land. How will you grow crops? How will you raise a family? How will you have cattle? A desert seems altogether useless and the total opposite of what we should expect from the promised land, but even in God's promised land there are deserts. This was the lot that fell to Acsah, Caleb's Daughter. Jos 15:19 "Who answered, Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs, and the nether springs."
This verse was a particular blessing to me a few years ago. We had moved to Africa and although I knew we were where God wanted us I felt like it was a desert, physically, mentally, and worst of all spiritually. Acsah's words struck through my heart like an arrow. "Thou hast given me a south land." She didn't choose this lot, her father had given it to her. "Give me also springs of water." Father give me what I have to have to live in this desert! She wasn't asking for luxuries but necessities and her father did not hesitate, the very next phrase is "And he gave her the upper springs and the nether springs." He gives her a double portion of what she had asked for! As soon as I had read this I fell on my knees and called on my heavenly father with these exact words, "Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water!" Friend, I can testify that he has turned my desert into an oasis, He has given heavenly blessings that I liken to those upper springs. Many of the people we were preaching to have been saved, and are growing in the Lord. He has given us earthly blessings that I liken to those lower springs, I have to admit that he has given a double portion more than I could "ask or think."
Are you in the south land in your Christian experience today? Why don't you cry to your father, "Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water."
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