Joshua 18:11-28 | Episode #1241

July 20, 2026

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

Joshua 18:11-28

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. Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. Moving a little late this morning, but getting the Bible study out, we are in chapter 18 and verses 11 through the end of the chapter 28. You go, well, why so many verses? Well, because it's a lot of geography and a lot of names. And what I mean by that. Well, for the next few Bible studies, we're going to deal with tribes and names and locations. And the reason is, is because the Bible literally describes the. Describes the location of every tribe, where every tribe's land was. And so oftentimes when you go through that, it is very important scripturally, but it may not give you a whole lot of insight, especially if you don't have. If you don't live in Israel, if you don't. If you don't have any connection to, to that place and you've not been on the ground because, because being on the ground would be very helpful. You know why? It'd be very helpful? Because all the places mentioned here in, in these descriptions of their property, really, basically, as an attorney, this for me is a legal description. It's a legal description of the land. And, and today we use metes and bounds. We use, you know, minutes and seconds and, you know, it's this many degrees and that many feet and this many degrees and this many minutes and seconds. And, and before you know it, you've got a. You've got a legal description that you can draw out on a map with a computer. But back then, they didn't do that. They didn't have gps, they didn't have the ability to do that. But they did have the ability to describe the boundaries of the properties by, well, major, major geographical features. And that's exactly a lot what they do as far as describing the tribes of Israel and their locations. And the locations still exist. The locations are there. And so drawing those geographical boundaries are very, very important. But for me, I would like to spend some time with each tribe, understanding that you've got all these legal descriptions, they have a lot of land. And by the way, the best place usually to go is to the cities that are in each tribe. Bethel, Ramah and Beroth, some of these. And by the way, Jerusalem Jebus, which is Jerusalem, are a part of the tribe of Benjamin's territory. And maybe we can give you some spiritual roadmaps about Benjamin that will help you because Benjamin's a very important tribe. Benjamin is the tribe that was next to Judah. Judah and Benjamin are the two tribes in the south that do not give in to the worship of the BAAL gods or the Canaanite gods or the Phoenician gods that the tribes of the north began to worship. And they became a refuge for Jews. Jewish people from other tribes who did not want to worship those gods did not want to. They wanted to be a part of. They want to be part of worshiping Yahweh. And so when those tribes began to worship those other gods, you had an exodus of those tribes to the south. So Benjamin became a place of refuge for those who were trying to get away from pagan worship. And so Benjamin is a very, very important tribe. It's a very, very important tribe in biblical history. It's a very, very important tribe in Jewish history. Even today, some estimates are that maybe even 20%, 25% of the Jewish people that live in the world today draw some major heritage. And I'm talking about people who are pure blood Jewish draw their major heritage from the tribe of Benjamin. Almost all Jewish people from today have some heritage with Benjamin because Benjamin and Judah were the two tribes that took in those people who ran away, got away from the heathen worship. And ultimately, when those tribes were taken into captivity and spread all over the world to places we have no idea by the Assyrians, when those tribes were, quote, unquote lost. The tribes weren't lost, just their land and just the people who worshiped. Well, the BAAL gods were lost, but the tribe remained because some of their people who were faithful went to Benjamin and Judah. They went to Benjamin and Judah. And so there's a lot of lessons that we can learn from this. The first lesson is that who you hang out with is important. And I deal with this a whole lot as a judge. And I try to make that point as many times as I can with young people who are in front of me. Who you hang out with is important. And Benjamin hung out with Judah, and Judah hung out with Benjamin. And they both were very faithful to God. And those two tribes are going. In fact, Judah is the description of the southern kingdom. But Benjamin was just as important, maybe not near as large, but just as important in the process of being faithful. And the faithfulness of Judah and Benjamin is clearly seen in Scripture. The Benjaminites, well, they got a lot of key figures in Scripture. The prophet Samuel, which we're going to deal with very, very soon once we get out of the Book of Judges. The prophet Samuel is a Benjamite. He is the first, I hate to use. He's the first major prophet. He's the first prophet while the kingdom is in the promised land. He's the prophet that arises. He's a priest also, but he's a prophet that rises up and he's the one who kind of shepherds Israel through the kingdom process that they go through, at least to David. And so he's very, very important figure. King Saul is a Benjamite. You're going to see Mordecai in the story of Esther, the Book of Esther. He's a Benjamite. There is a really, really important figure in the New Testament that is a Benjamite, and that is the Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul is tied to Benjamin. And so you can kind of tell that the tribe of Benjamin has some very important, a very important role to play, not only in the life of Israel, but it has a very important role play in the writing of the Bible. The writing of the Bible, 1st and 2nd Samuel is written about a Benjamite. The truth is, Esther is written about a Benjaminite. Because Mordecai is the character. He is the moving character. He's the character that makes the book tick. And then obviously the majority of the New Testament is written by the Apostle Paul. And so when we kind of look at the borders of Benjamin, we understand that in this territory, God was actively moving and continued to actively move even to this day, such that the Benjaminites are. Well, their territory is important territory for the nation of Israel today. It's going to be important from now on till the very end. And God is using the Benjamites even today, all around the world. And so when you come across a Jewish person in your daily life, you're likely to be coming across a person who has some Benjamin Benjamite blood in them. He's. They are. They. They are likely from the tribe of Benjamin. And Benjamin, remember, was the youngest of Jacob's children. He was the one that Jacob got so upset about because Joshua kept him and sent the 10 brothers back to their father. It is, it is a great story. When we read this, and then when you read how detailed, how detailed the Bible gives of the boundaries of Benjamin and how important the cities are, you realize that, you know, when God does these things, when these things are written down, it seems like it's so boring sometimes when we read it. But when you sit down and really kind of think about what God's doing, you realize this is not boring. This is important. You go, well, Pastor, why do you read it? Because I can't read these words. I've already tried to many times. And you go, well, you probably can. I can, but it is just terrible. And I butcher them so bad that I probably not even saying the actual word. You know, studying the Bible doesn't require you to be a genius, and it doesn't require you to be a literary scholar. It requires you to begin to look deep into what's going on. And what's going on here is very important also. Benjamin is a place where the valley of Henan is where our Lord. Well, it's the site of Jerusalem where our Lord was crucified and where he was buried and rose again. And so if you want to really, really get deep, you realize that Benjamin is the place where King Jesus defeated sin and death and gave us life. And really, if I told you just that, Benjamin would be really, really important, wouldn't they? 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 it.