Joshua 14 (Listen)

The Inheritance West of the Jordan

14:1 These are the inheritances that the people of Israel received in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel gave them to inherit. Their inheritance was by lot, just as the LORD had commanded by the hand of Moses for the nine and one-half tribes. For Moses had given an inheritance to the two and one-half tribes beyond the Jordan, but to the Levites he gave no inheritance among them. For the people of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. And no portion was given to the Levites in the land, but only cities to dwell in, with their pasturelands for their livestock and their substance. The people of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses; they allotted the land.

Caleb’s Request and Inheritance

Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’ 10 And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. 11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. 12 So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.”

13 Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. 14 Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel. 15 Now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba.1 (Arba2 was the greatest man among the Anakim.) And the land had rest from war.

Footnotes

[1] 14:15 Kiriath-arba means the city of Arba
[2] 14:15 Hebrew He

(ESV)

OT summary
By lot Eleazar and Joshua gave the land the Lord had provided to all the descendants of the wilderness wanderers “just as the Lord commanded.” Again we are reminded of the two and a half tribes that received their portion beyond the Jordan, and that the Levites were contented to have ministry with the Most High as their inheritance.

Caleb recalled days of old when he was sent by Moses on mission to Kadesh-barnea. As one of two to return with hope in the Lord, he was promised the land upon which he stood. Now, 45 years later, indeed God had proven faithful, delivering the land unto Israel. Joshua gladly gave him Hebron for wholly following the Lord.

Luke 1:57–80 (Listen)

The Birth of John the Baptist

57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” 61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” 62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. 63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. 64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. 65 And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, 66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.

Zechariah’s Prophecy

67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

68   “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
    for he has visited and redeemed his people
69   and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David,
70   as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71   that we should be saved from our enemies
    and from the hand of all who hate us;
72   to show the mercy promised to our fathers
    and to remember his holy covenant,
73   the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74     that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
  might serve him without fear,
75     in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76   And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77   to give knowledge of salvation to his people
    in the forgiveness of their sins,
78   because of the tender mercy of our God,
    whereby the sunrise shall visit us1 from on high
79   to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
    to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

Footnotes

[1] 1:78 Or when the sunrise shall dawn upon us; some manuscripts since the sunrise has visited us

(ESV)

NT summary
Follow the narrative: the Lord shows great mercy, husband and wife are united, faithful declaration is made, a tongue is loosened, praise abounds, fear comes upon the witnesses, the priest prophecies. Father Zechariah proclaims the coming of the Lord and the preparatory role his son, John, will play in going before Him “to give knowledge of salvation in forgiveness of their sin.” The Light of the Lord exposes darkness, guiding feet to peace by the tender mercies of the relentless Deliverer who saves His people to serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness. Q: Have you been saved? A: Do you serve Him in holiness?