Joshua 16:1-18:10

Truth: did you have difficulty paying attention to the allotments?  I did.  Sometimes I have to focus on the small things to keep myself going in passages of Scripture that might not seem relevant.  Example: Manasseh was granted the city of En-dor.  Importance?  Well, besides sounding like a Star Wars reference, it was at En-dor that Saul sought out the witch to resurrect the spirit of Samuel for consultation.  A decidedly bad idea.  There's also the fact that Manasseh actually could have served as a bridge over the Jordan for those tribes on the east and on the west.  It was easy, being separated as they were, for differences and misunderstandings to arise, and I think we will see that in Judges.  But I would have thought that Manasseh, as a tribe which had to function as a whole among the tribes of Israel, could have provided a way to overcome that division at the river.  I'm not sure if they did.  Focusing on things like that, no matter how little, sometimes helps me to remain interested when I'm tempted to "check out".  What strategies do you use to keep yourself faithful in your reading?

Notice, though, that neither Ephraim nor Manasseh managed to drive out the Canaanites from their territories.  They went to Joshua to complain about their allotment, even complaining when he granted them the hill country, saying that their numbers needed far more land than that.  Joshua had full confidence that they would clear the hill country and find room, but he also believed they would drive out the Canaanites.  It made me wonder: would they have had plenty of room if they had in fact accomplished their command from the Lord, to clear out the inhabiting peoples?  It's a pattern cropping up among the people of Israel: they're not fully driving out these peoples.  Instead, the pagan nations are remaining to entice and snare the Israelites into false religion.  Perhaps if they had fully obeyed that command, seeing as the Lord had promised to drive those people out, they might not have had such difficulty remaining faithful to the Lord.  It's something to watch as we move forward in the Scripture.