Joshua 13 Commentary
This is interesting. You should be very old when the LORD says so. Your race should be concluded. For Joshua, yes, but not for Israel. Huge chunks of land lay unconquered. The battle continues but who takes it up? The LORD is silent. Joshua is also silent. Very strange.
The silence is partly answered by verse 6. The LORD himself will do it. Israel was meant to be a kingdom of priests, everyone. So far all engagements have been at national level. From this point onwards, individuals or individual communities must take their care of their own destiny. We shall shortly see how Caleb defeats and takes over the city of Hebron. The famous Zelophehad’s daughters also get their share of land. The LORD is clearly working on the decentralization of victory. Fortunately or unfortunately, failure is also decentralized.
So Israelites succeed as individuals or fail as individuals. Under the new dispensation, it is the soul that sins that dies. Equally, it is the soul that decides for Jesus that that lives.
In the meantime, Joshua is instructed to assign land to the remaining peoples. The land that they get is promissory. Only victory will actualize the ownership. At the moment the owners of land do not possess it. It is a frustrating reality that saints own so much but possess so little. You don’t enjoy what you cannot possess.
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