Joshua 15:20-63 | Episode #1235

July 10, 2026

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

Joshua 15:20-63

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,

well, Joshua chapter 15. We're in Joshua chapter 15.

And we are dealing with the cities of Judah. Now, normally what I do is I would just have this. I had this Bible study and I'd read through.

Well,

I'd read through all the cities of Judah,

and we go into better detail on. On what it. What that means and, and all that, but. But the truth is, is there are a lot of cities. And in fact,

there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 verses, and it literally names the cities of Judah. Every city. And because of my dyslexia, the likelihood of me actually getting a third to half of those cities names.

Right, are almost impossible.

It's.

I mean, it's just almost impossible. And I hate. I hate to. I hate to drop back and pun here, but I'm just going to tell you it's not. There's just no way I could read them.

I mean,

I know for sure I would mispronounce almost all of them. Now,

what is interesting about it is, is that as you read through these cities,

these places,

30, 50% of them, the towns, the villages, all those places which are around Jerusalem, which would be a place where, you know, a bunch of. A bunch of tourists go to all the time.

And so those cities, they exist.

They exist to this day. They're there.

And what's. What's neat about that is archeologically, you go, well, of course they're there. Well, that's not true of a lot of a Lot of religious texts out there that name cities and locations and towns and places.

A lot of those texts are name,

name locations and cities that, that have never been found. And it's not for lack of looking.

They, they, they, they don't exist.

They're not there.

These places not only exist. And then when you go to look for them, because the Bible here, the Joshua, he actually not only tells you about the city, but he tells you about the city in relation to major,

well, major geographic features like mountains and rivers and ensure rivers migrate and move in different directions, but they don't move like a thousand miles to the east, to the west or the north or the south.

They may migrate even 50, 60, 70 miles, but they don't migrate that far. And these city and mountains, I don't know if you notice them, they don't move hardly at all.

Okay. And so the only way a mountain migrates is if the whole continent migrates. And that would carry everything with it. And so we can find these cities. I mean, you know, Goshen and Jezreel and in Gibeah, I'm just reading them just as I just am looking at them.

Gaza, the brook of Egypt, the great sea. I mean, all these places, we know where they are and we know where the cities are and we can define those things.

And so oftentimes when we're studying through scripture, and especially when we're studying through the Bible,

we take it for granted that the Bible is absolutely true.

But you gotta remember the Bible is self authenticating itself. It's self authenticating itself through its geography and its geology and its self authenticating itself in its history and its self authenticating itself in its prophecy.

It is continually over and over and over again saying, hey, look at this.

This proves that. This shows you that I'm telling you exactly the truth. I'm telling you exactly how things are. I'm telling you exactly what's going on.

And that's powerful. That's a powerful message that God's given us. So when we're studying through the Bible, that's really, really cool. Now I tell you all that to get to the very end of the passage.

And at the end of the passage,

God literally gives us a,

you know, a God wink. He literally gives us a,

a understanding that,

that has transcended time all the way up to the 20th century, to the mid-1940s and on into the 1960s and 70s, that an issue that exists even to this day.

And what is that? That is that Israel did not take Jerusalem. They did not take fully Jerusalem until late,

way later than Joshua.

And that failure to take Jerusalem is been carried out in almost a parallel form by Israel today.

It says in verse 33, as the Jebusites,

the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

the children of Judah could not drive them out,

but the Jebusites dwell in the children,

dwell with the children of Judah in Jerusalem to this day.

Now that's very interesting because that's exactly what's going on in Israel today, in Jerusalem. Now Jerusalem has military control over all of Jerusalem, in that they could take whatever they needed to and take control of whatever part of the city they want to.

But the Arabs and the Muslims that control the Temple Mount control it to this day. And by the way, they control it at the consent of the Israelis,

and they control it and they keep Jewish people from actually even going up on the Temple Mount and worshiping. The Jews still have to worship at the Wailing Wall.

And you say, well, why is that a God wing? Well, because God said, I give you everywhere, you take your foot,

I'll give you wherever you go.

And you take control, that's yours. And you know what?

They didn't do it back then.

And 3,000 years later,

when Israel finally fulfills multiple prophecies, and when I say multiple, I'm talking about almost a dozen prophecies in the major minor prophets.

When Israel fulfills those prophecies and comes back to the promised land like God said that they would, when, when that happened,

like God said that they would,

they still don't control Jerusalem.

They, they, they came back in as a Nation in, in 1948 and they won a six day war in 19,

I think 67,

I may be wrong about those dates,

but in that six day world they took control, they took military,

took over and surrounded Jerusalem and took control of Jerusalem.

And that happened in 1967 or 68. And we're literally 60 years later and they still don't control the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

And just as Joshua and the children of Israel or Judah itself,

the kingly tribe,

just as Judah itself did not take Jerusalem, so the Jews have it today almost in parallel.

Almost like God allowed it to happen back then to show us today that his promises and the things that he says are yes and amen all the time and they never change.

And so sure.

Do the Jews eventually take and drive the Jebusites out?

Yeah,

kinda. Okay,

do I think that the Jews will eventually possess part of the Temple Mount?

Yeah, because it's running parallel with what happened with the Jebusites in Jerusalem. 3,000 years ago.

Do I think,

do I think that this is, is, is a anomaly? It's something that, you know,

that's, that's not really an issue.

No, I think it's a major issue. I think it's, I think it's God reaching out through space and time and saying, I said something and I live up to it, and I live up to it 3,000 years later.

And when you think about God that way,

then his, his promises to us individually that we receive from His Word by the revelation of the specific revelation of Jesus Christ in His Word and by the revelation of the Holy Spirit from that Word.

Those promises are, yes and amen, true for us too.

And those things that we, on the positive side that we take and that we trust God for, and that we expect God for, those things that we intentionally go about preparing to glorify God with,

those things remain and they have eternal power and they have eternal impact, meaning they impact throughout space and time. They impact throughout history.

And so if it's true that a few,

a small tribe could control Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and God allowed that to happen so that it would parallel what's happening today, if that's true, what is it that you're doing,

what is it that you're doing personally in your own life that God is going to use and it's going to carry out and have impact for years and decades and maybe even centuries to come?

What is it that you're doing that God is going to use in a powerful, powerful way and that you're going to be a part of?

Well,

I want Christians to first experience God, experience God actually at work in their life.

I want them to begin to trust in God.

As a pastor, that's one of my jobs, is to teach people to trust in God once He begins to reveal Himself in their heart and in their life. Meaning he reveals Himself to you in your consciousness and he reveals Himself in time and space in the actual living of your life out in the world.

He starts doing that,

then you begin to really push out further than that and you allow God to be Lord of your life and you begin to do things that have long term impact.

And what ultimately a pastor should be doing is trying to lead his people to do things that have long term impact.

Not for the moment, but not for the Sunday morning or the Wednesday night or the week of the month or the season that we live in,

but to do things that have eternal impact for generations and times to come, lives to come in ways that are powerful and unchanging And I believe that that's a process.

I believe that it starts with your first revelation from God that He loves you and that he's calling you and that that he's given his life for you.

And that call leads you to repentance and a conversion experience.

And that conversion experience leads you to a walk of faith.

And that walk of faith eventually leads you to a abiding trust and an abiding power in the Lord.

And as you walk through that process,

eventually you begin to do things that have long term, eternal impact.

And I want to see the people that I pastor, the people that do Bible study with me online or through a podcast,

I want to see that for you and I want you to hear me. Just because I want to see it for you doesn't really mean a whole lot. But God wants to see that for you.

God wants you to do things that give him glory for generations to come.

And I think that is the utmost importance, that we be a part of that and do that. And so as. As you're. As you're thinking through these things, as you're studying, as you're considering these things,

I would say to you,

expect big things. Expect God things.

Look for God not only in the moment, not only in the peril of the situation,

but look for God in the future, in the big things that can be down the road and begin to engage your life in those.

Because it will give you peace, it'll give you power,

it'll give you protection,

and it'll give you kingdom purpose,

and it will make life.

Well, it just make life seem like it is what it's supposed to be,

eternal.

And that's the life that Jesus gave us,

eternal life.

Not just temporal,

physical, biological life,

but eternal life which is life with Him.

And I pray that, that over time you'll begin to invest yourself in those things and you'll begin to see those things as really, really critical for who you are and how you live.

I pray that that'll be the case for 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.