Joshua 17:1-13 | Episode #1238

July 15, 2026

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

Joshua 17:1-13

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 today in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Foreign. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Joshua, chapter 17. And this, this. We're hunting for nuggets in. In the distribution of land that is found in Joshua. And there's several chapters in here that, that deal with the distribution of land. And we're hunting for these spiritual understandings that you get from Joshua in this. Now there's two or in. In. In the first part of chapter 17, as we, as we distribute land to the half tribe of Manasseh, there's two of them that are very, very important and, and kind of funny.

Okay.

And one of the things about this is, is they. Both of these hit home for me because they, they're.

They're.

They, they. I just feel like they relate. I relate to them very well. One of them is kind of obvious. It's about a man who didn't have any sons that would relate to me. There's also, well, something. Anyway, something funny that happens in here. And then there's one that I think is important that you kind of see going on. It says there was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph. And namely it says for Makir, the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because he was a man of war, therefore he was given Gileon and Bashan. Then it kind of goes in verse two, goes into all the other tribes that got it. But I want you to notice that it says, namely for Makir, the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead. Because he was a man of war. What it's saying is that he took a lot of land because he was a warrior. He was a warrior that that took a whole lot of the promised land and that they made sure that they made an allotment for him because. Well, because he'd earned it. He'd earned it through battle. Now that's physical battle in the story, but remember, it has spiritual pictures, spiritual understandings. And so he got a special allotment because he was specially contributing. And when we're dealing with the spirit filled Christian life, I want you to hear me. There is special allotment for those who contribute the most. If you contribute to the kingdom and the kingdom work lower than others, you're going to get your special allotment. You're going to, if you take more land, if you live by the promises of God, more you're going to get, God's going to give you a special allotment. And that's not something that's not understandable. It's clearly taught in the teachings of Jesus. Remember, God treats us equally in that he equally loves us all, but he does not treat us with equity, which means the sameness of outcome. He does not do that. And how do we know that? Well, we know that the mother of James and John came to Jesus and asked that her son sit at his right and left hand when he enters his kingdom. And Jesus didn't tell her that that's not a big deal. Everybody's going to be the same in heaven. There's an equity of outcome in heaven. That's not what he said. He said those spots have already been reserved for someone. I can't give them away. They're not for me to give away. They are spots that are earned by people of faith. And that's right. That's exactly right. And then you also have the parable of the, of the talents. One was given five talents, one was given two talents, one was given one talent. That's not equity. Okay, that's that, that's not equity. Now, now when the one with five talents and the one with two talents doubled, doubled their number of talents, they got an equal reward. Okay? And, and that equal reward was that they were going to share their master's happiness and he was going to give them overly and abund abundantly more than they ever had before. That's an equal outcome because they both did right with what God had given them. They had an equal reward. Now the amount that they earned was different because what they were given was different. And God understands that. And then the one who had one talent, who hit it in the ground, that talent was taken from him and given to those who actually produced. So those lessons are in there. And when we produce spiritually and when we make efforts to produce spiritually and when we do the things that are necessary for others, now notice it's for others, it's acts of faith that are born of love, born of love of God and born of love of others that build things that are good for those people. When we do those things well, we reach a equality of outcome. We get equalness before God. And when we don't, you're not going to be a part of that group. You're not going to get your allotment, you're not going to get a special allotment. And when we do, when someone lives a powerful faith filled Christian life, they're going to get what they earn. Their actions of faith are going to reap reward. And that principle is found throughout Scripture that do not be deceived. God is not mocked. That which man so so shall they also reap. So many times we see that as a negative thing, but it's not a negative thing. It's a truth by which God operates. And it's not negative for those who are doing the things that they should do. It's not negative at all. In fact, it's absolutely positive for those folks because why? They get a. They get what they earned, they get a special allotment. And so that truth is a powerful truth. Then you got the other truth that kind of starts out funny. And I'll just. It says, but Zelophehad, what a name. The son of Hepher, not gonna say anything about that. The son of Gilead, the son of Machare, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters. So Zelophe had, who is the son of Heifer, only had daughters. Okay, and like I said, nothing to say, nothing to see here, just let's move on. And they came near, it says they came near Eleazar the priest. Why? Because the daughters are named. These are the names of the daughter, Mahalal, Noah, Haglah, Milkah and Tisra Tirzah. I mean, and they came near before Eliar Elizar the priest, before Joshua, son of Nun, before the rulers, saying, the Lord commanded Moses to give an inheritance among our brothers. Therefore, according to the commandments of the Lord, he gave them inheritance among their father's brothers. Ten shares fell to Manasseh beside the land of Gilead and Bashan. Which are on the other side of the Jordan. Because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance among his sons and the rest of Manasseh's sons had the land of Gilead. Notice, they come and they make a claim on the land. They come and say the Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers. And so they come and make a claim on the land. Now in the pure rules of the way they did things, the land passed through the sun and you were tied to the land. If you were a female, you were tied to the land through your father, your brothers and your husband, and you were tied through the land that way. I want you to hear me that, that is that that system was patriarchal. That system was male oriented. That system forced men to take the leadership role in their families and to, to. To do what was necessary to retain and to grow and to, and to make their land fruitful. That was the plan. Okay? And that idea and that understanding comes from the Old Testament, passes right on through the New Testament. Now why is this important? Well, it's important because, remember, it's not a rule that I would say is the character, full character and nature of God. Because there are exceptions to that rule that you find throughout scripture, okay? And what I mean by that is, is that God uses females in, in, in male roles throughout scripture, okay? You can give an overall rule here for it, but it's not a, it's, it's, it's not a hard. In fact, I wouldn't even call it a rule. What I would call it is, what I say is, it's a principle that we find in scripture that God has given us. That God has placed men in their roles as husbands and fathers to be the head of their families. That is an important idea. And families grow and nurture when they have godly men who love them and who lead them in the way of the Lord. Every family does that. That, that's a truth that's beyond it. And churches, churches tend to grow dynamically and powerfully when there are men who actually take on their rightful and, and, and responsible role of leading the church. Now that being said, that doesn't mean that, that doesn't mean that, that women have no role. Women have a very, very important role in the family. They have very, very important role in marriage and they have very, very important role in, in the church. And when men don't live up to their responsibilities or when men can't live up to their responsibilities, which has happened, there's lots of instances where women led the church when, when all the men were going to war or, or when there was, you know, some weird situation where there were no leaders that were men. That doesn't mean that you can't have women leaders. In fact, they're, they're, they are highly valued. And you see, you're going to see in judges, there's their female judges, you're going to see in the New Testament, they're female deacons. Phoebe's a female deacon. You're going to see. Well, you're going to see throughout Scripture, you're going to see this going on. As we study through the Bible, there's going to be instances of females taking on what would be historically, from a biblical perspective, a male role. Okay. Doesn't mean that they're doing wrong. In fact, they're not doing wrong. Quite clearly, they're honored for what they've done in Scripture. And so even in this inheritance story, God makes sure he carves out a little space here. And you can't run past it too much. If you run past it too much, you begin to begin to be legalistic in how you see the world and how you run things. Okay? And as a pastor, I make sure that I'm not that way. Now, do I make a special, in my mind, a concerted effort to raise up men of leaders that are men who nurture the church, grow the church, provide that stable foundation for the church, provide that structure for the church? Absolutely, I do. Jesus did it. He picked 12 disciples, but he also had several females that were followers of him and that were regularly with him. And so don't, don't, don't, don't miss that. Don't miss that idea. Because if you miss the idea, if you miss that understanding, you're going to miss out on a whole, as a pastor, you're going to miss out on a whole lot of opportunity to do ministry and to do big things in the kingdom, because all you're doing is focusing on the men, okay? And as a leader, you're going to look around and you're going to see that you have females who have powerful spiritual gifts that they need to be utilized and, and sometimes that they need to be placed in a leadership role. Now, does that mean that, that, that we treat them always equally the same? No, because the, each sex has a, is a powerful role to play in the family, in the church, and in relationship with each other. And those roles are in highly, highly important. But don't blow the lines too much to the point where you create a situation where you're missing out on half of the population of your church doing big things in the kingdom. And we do that to our detriment when we place women, say women have no role of leadership and they don't have a voice in the church. That's just foolishness, okay? And it's also just not scriptural, okay? If it were scriptural, God wouldn't give us these. Constantly give us these stories of women taking on very important, powerful roles in the kingdom. And even in this allotment of land, which is a picture of the blessing which by the nature of how it was set up to be, it was set up to be a situation where the land passed through the male lines. Even in this situation, God cards out setting that says, I know this has spiritual implications and spiritual principles behind it. And so I'm going to tell you that these spiritual principles are important, and I'm going to give you those spiritual principles. And I'll tell you that at times women need to play very important, powerful leadership roles in the church. And if. If we. If we miss that, we miss out on a whole, whole lot, okay? And you go, well, you're. You're just a liberal. No, I'm not. I'm just showing you the Bible. God gave these five women, by the way. There's five of them. You do know that, right? Which is the number of God's grace. There's five of them. And they come in and they say, we deserve our inheritance. Moses said we should get it. Remember, Moses is the lawgiver, okay? If Moses said they should get it, then they should get it. And they came in and said, we're going to demand that we get it. And it spells out their territory goes on through here. And I'm not going through the names again. I called out the names of the lemon because I thought it was important to call their names out. But you need to see that the children of Manasseh got their inheritance. And these five women, who were the son of, well, the son of Zelophehad, who is the son of Hepher, who's the son of Gilead, they got the land. They did. And boy, what an important story that is for us to remember and think about. It is a important role that all the people of God play in the church. And helping every one of them find their role is what a pastor does. As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you you. That he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace. Today. In Jesus name.