Joshua 15:1-12 | Episode #1233

July 8, 2026

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Joshua 15:1-12

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for over 25 years. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse-by-verse and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Hope Alive, where we apply God's Word to our daily life. My name is Chad Harrison. I'm first a husband, a father, and a grandfather. I'm also the teaching pastor at Lake Community Church in Dadeville, Alabama, on beautiful Lake Martin.

I've been serving as a pastor for over 30 years. I also serve as the Tallapoosa County District Judge. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word,

verse by verse through the Bible and to find his purpose and will for your daily life. If you would like sponsor this podcast, go to the Show Notes, where there's a link where you can make a donation.

I pray in the name of Jesus that God would open his word to you, allow you to see him and to know him, so that you would know his will and his way for your life, that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today.

Word of God, please speak to the hearers of your voice to today, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Joshua, chapter 15. Joshua, chapter 15.

We're going to deal with verses one through 12 today. And you go, why all the verses? Well,

it's one of those fun days where, you know, the pastor has.

Has to read all these locations that are not English locations.

It's one of those things that.

That is kind of a family.

One of those family things that happened.

I had a. I had a cousin that lived in New Jersey at the same time we did, and he had.

He had three children, and they were very young children, and Kathleen and I would oftentimes go over there and go to church with them.

And just so happened one Sunday morning because of the winter,

and we just couldn't get to the church.

The roads were closed on the way there, so we stopped in a parking lot and they just wanted to read some passages of scripture and they didn't. You know, it was one of those things where the kids just kind of took the Bible and opened it up and they wanted me to read it.

And they opened it up in the Old Testament and they opened it up really kind of in one of these passages. It's got all these.

All these words in it, and I am dyslexic, and I don't know if you know that or not, but I have.

You know, it's not severe dyslexia, but it's pretty.

It's pretty bad in the sense that it took my mother about three years to teach me to read. When I started School, I didn't really read well till the third grade.

And so I had to learn how to read differently. I had to learn how to read when I came across a word that wasn't natural to my eyes.

And all words back then weren't natural. But as my repertoire grew,

when I came across a word, I had to stop and go through the word to make sure I was putting letter by letter in place and not just seeing the word and.

And jumbling up the letters.

And just so happened, they turned to one of those passages and I mean, I fumbled through it so badly, and they laughed and it was a lot of fun.

And then they found out that I was dyslexic from a family member later on when they were talking to somebody in the family anyway,

and they felt, you know,

the wife,

she felt so bad for laughing and making fun of me, but it really wasn't that.

I thought it was hilarious, too, me trying to read through them.

And so when I come to these passages, sometimes I think it hilarious that I would actually do a podcast and do a morning Bible study and subject myself especially to some of these Old Testament passages.

But they are fun.

And the reason God does this, because the truth is that there's many, many cultures throughout the world who read scripture and read Bible.

Christianity is all over the world. And so why would God be so specific about places? Why don't he just say,

like most religious texts, God gave the children of Israel the promised land, and then that would be the end of it?

Well,

I want you to focus on this. First of all, he does want to prove that he's God.

And 2,000 years later, we're finding this. And I've mentioned that before, I mentioned that a couple weeks ago in a Bible study.

But I want you to notice the particularity in which he. He brings up Scripture. I mean. I mean, he brings up places, intimate, small little places.

And.

And that's another aspect of God that is very,

very unique to Christianity and, and the way we understand God to be as he's presented himself.

And how is he presenting himself? Well, he's presenting himself as a very intimate, particular God.

He's presenting himself as a God who's actually intimately involved in the going zone of the world and the going zone of human beings and the things that happen in your life, particularly, he's particularly interested in you.

And that makes him,

first of all,

a God who deserves to be worshiped.

And it makes him a God who deserves to be loved.

And the reason why he is very particular about you is because he particularly loves you.

We know that John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. But that world is not just the world. It's you. Particularly for God so loved you that he gave his only begotten Son.

And so he's particularly in love with you.

He intimately cares about you. And so when we read these passages which seem to be like, why would God put this in here?

It's not helping me on my daily Bible study. And wait till we get to the cities of Judah in two days.

You're going to see that God is really particular about how things work.

What we have is the land of Judah. Here it says so this was the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah, according to their families. The border of Eden to the wilderness of Zin.

By the way, some of these places, if you follow any news and any history,

if you do any listening to news programs,

the wilderness of Zin is mentioned a lot.

It's there right now. We know where it's at. And their southern border began the shores of the Salt Sea. That's the Dead Sea. From the bay the faces southward. Then it went to southern side of the ascent of Akrabin, passed along Kazan, ascended on the south side of Kadesh Barnea.

We know where all these places are. And by the way, they mentioned a lot when we're talking about Israel and some of the issues that happen in Israel. From there it passed toward Asmon and.

And went out to the brook of Egypt. And the border ended at the sea. This shall be your southern border.

The east border was the Salt sea as far as the mouth of the Jordan.

And the border of the northern quarter began. Notice, it's just the Salt sea.

We know where that is. The border went up to Beth Hagla and passed north of Beth Arabah. And. And the builder went up to the stone of Bahan and the son of Reuben.

Then the buller went toward Debir from the valley of Achor. And by the way, the valley of Achor is one of those major valleys during the Six Day War.

And it turned toward Gilgal City, still there, which is before the ascent of Aduman,

which is on the southern side of the valley. The border continued toward the waters of En Shemesh and ended in Enrogel. And the border went up the valley of San Hinnam to the southern slope of the Jebusite city.

The border went up to the top of the mountain that lies before the valley of Hinnom.

Westward, which is at the end of the valley of Rephaim northward. Then the border went around from the top of the hill to the fountain of the water of Nepturah and extended to the cities of Mount Ephraim.

And. And the border went around to Baelah, which is Kirjath Jerome. And by the way, that that actually exists today, too.

Then the border turned westward from Bala to Mount Seir,

passed along the side of Mount Jerim on the north, which is Chisholan.

Kathleen would love that place. Chisholan went down to Beth Shemesh and passed on to Timnah.

And the border went out to the east side of Ekron, northward. Then the border went around to Shikron,

passed along the mount of Baalah and extended to Jabneel. And the border ended at the sea. The west border was the coastline of the great sea, which is the Mediterranean.

And this is the boundary of the children of Judah all around, according to their families.

It's very particular, isn't it?

It's very. I mean, and by the way,

those places exist and God is particular about what he gave them. And, you know, it's one of those things that's really, really kind of, as you're studying through scripture, it's one of those things that you say God cares.

I mean, he has a He. He cares for me. He cares about what's going on in my life. He's particular.

And when you know that about God and when you realize that about God,

you realize that he's intimately involved in what's going on around you.

And even for me,

he particularly about showing me things.

And I know that. So I know that he's particular about showing you things.

And you go, well, you're a pastor.

That's not how it works. That's not how it works. I'm held to a higher standard.

And by the way,

you would think he wouldn't have to show me as much.

Well, he does. He shows me little things. In fact, Wednesday night, I'm going to kind of put an exclamation mark on Sunday sermon about something he showed me last night.

And so I think it is a powerful, powerful thing that God does hear us.

He does interact with us in this world.

And that if you look for him, you'll find him all the time. And if you seek him, he'll manifest himself in your regular life.

And that's because,

well, he's very particular about you.

As you go today. I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you,

that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.