Joseph's Inheritance

There is a contrast that takes place in this passage of Scripture. On one hand, you have the daughters of Zelophedad, and on the other hand…the rest of the sons of Joseph. The bulk of information is devoted to Ephraim and Manasseh as a whole, and only 17:3-6 discuss the daughters. Now if you’re wondering where these ladies come from, it goes back to an episode in Numbers 27 where Zelophedad died without any male heirs. His daughters petitioned Moses, and YHWH promised through Moses to give the inheritance to the daughters. Here we are, decades later, and just like Caleb, these daughters have held on to that promise and are here to claim what was promised to them.

Their faith, much like Caleb’s, can be commended to us. They cling to God’s promise and are here to take what God said is theirs. Davis makes a great point about God’s promises. Consider you walk in to a store, collecting the items you need…steak, potatoes…yeah, that’s it. As you make your way to the counter, you don’t see a cashier, only a sign next to a bell that says “Ring for Service.” Sadly, for a host of reasons, you don’t ring it. Maybe it’ll be too loud. Maybe you fear being seen as impatient. Maybe you’ll irritate the clerk. Maybe you just leave your stuff on the counter because “you don’t have time for this.” But what you fail to realize in that moment is that the store clerk made a provision…a promise…that you refused to take advantage of. Well, the daughters see the sign and ring the bell. And they claim the promise. That’s our example to follow. But the rest of the chapter is devoted to the contrast — the failure of Joseph’s tribe. And from this, we can be warned with this: disobedience will creep in if we compromise, complain, and become complacent.

When God’s People Compromise

First, we read about Ephraim’s inheritance. This in and of itself is a reminder of God’s grace. Ephraim was the second-born son, but he is given the place of honor as we learn about his inheritance first. This is typical of God. His ways are often strange to us. He prefers Abel’s offering over Cain’s. He loves Jacob but hates Esau. Abraham’s first-born was Ishmael, but he was not the son of promise. Saul was the people’s champion, at least for a while, but David was the man after God’s own heart. And Jesus chose twelve nobodies to be His disciples. We remembered this a week or so ago. But aren’t you thankful that God doesn’t work according to man’s conventional wisdom. Aren’t you thankful that YHWH is never a prisoner to what we deem as normal. If we demanded God operate according to human logic, then would we know grace and mercy? Would we not be damned to the depths of the devil’s hell?!

So grace provides, but what do we see out of Ephraim? Compromise. Josh.16:10 “However, they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. So the Canaanites still live in Ephraim today, but they are forced laborers.” Instead of driving the Canaanites out of the city of Gezer, they settle for their subservience instead. One scholar notes that Ephraim seems motivated here by a materialistic attitude that sees the Canaanites as an avenue for additional wealth.

Think about this for a moment now. What would you do? You could drive the Canaanites out…or, and hear me out, we could force them to be laborers for us and make even more money! Hey, which option seems better. We still own it, and we’re actually being wise because we’re making more money in the process. But again, it’s that slow fade, that foothold, that failure to follow God completely, that compromise that will one day flip the script on Ephraim, for we find out in judges that the Canaanites will rise up and enslave Israel.

When God’s people compromise, they find themselves on the slippery slope of a sinful slide.

When God’s People Are Complacent

Next, we get the record of West Manasseh’s inheritance. And, once again, we see their failure to follow through with God’s plan. The Canaanites are “determined” to stay in the land, and even “when the Israelites grew stronger,” they didn’t drive them out. Instead of living with genuine spiritual conviction, instead of obediently persevering, they take the easy way out. They decide instead to make them forced laborers.

But one might say, “Well, it was okay to make the Gibeonites forced laborers. Why not these Canaanites?” It fails to reckon with Exod.23:33 “They must not remain in your land, or else they will make you sin against me. If you serve their gods, it will be a snare for you.”

If you are wounded and the splinter/shrapnel/rock/etc. is left in the skin, you need to remove every bit of foreign substance to prevent infection to set in and face possible/likely death. If there was a surgeon that went in and said, “Well, I got 75-80% of it,” what would you say? Get in there and get the rest, doc! It’s dangerous for that to stay in my body!

On this passage of Scripture John Calvin notes “another crime still less pardonable was committed when, having it in their power to easily destroy all, they not only were slothful in executing the command of God, but, induced by filthy lucre (money, especially when obtained in a distasteful and dishonorable way), they preserved those alive whom God had doomed to destruction.”

And make no mistake about it, much like shrapnel left in the body would cause deadly infection, failure to rid the land of the Canaanite influence proved spiritually deadly to Israel.

When God’s people are complacent, deadly sin is left to infect and fester in our lives.

When God’s People Complain

Well, add to “Joseph’s” compromise and complacency now a complaint against God’s good gift. Discontentment led them to complain against the lot given to them, arguing that their land just wasn’t quite big enough. So Joshua tells them to clear the forest land. Still their worried about the Canaanites and their iron chariots. In essence, they’re begging for something free…something they don’t have to work for. There was a story about Lord Congleton who once overheard a servant say, “If only I had five pounds, I would be perfectly content.” So, he gave her the five pounds. As she walked away, he heard her say, “Why didn’t I ask for ten pound?”

Now the absurdity of the descendants of Joseph complaining is just crazy to me. They’re Joseph’s sons, not Jacob’s sons. They’re given an inheritance among their uncles. And now, this measure of grace isn’t enough. They have the audacity to complain about what they’ve received! It would be as if Mephibosheth, lame and carried to King David’s table, started complaining about his place in the royal palace, frustrated that he didn’t have nicer furbishments and that the King’s food was lacking at best.

As we read this, it’s very easy to point the fingers at Joseph’s descendants, but we would do much better to focus on the plank in our own eyes.

Experience: