Joshua 19:49–51

When they had made an end of dividing the land as an inheritance according to their borders, the children of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua the son of Nun. According to the word of the LORD they gave him the city which he asked for, Timnath Serah in the mountains of Ephraim; and he built the city and dwelt in it.

These were the inheritances which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel divided as an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. So they made an end of dividing the country.

When all is said and done, the Israelites give Joshua the city he wants. Seems reasonable given all he has done, but we aren’t told how this was decided or by whom. This one was not done by lot.

The remarkable thing here is that none of the dividing of the land was done through any kind of power struggle. The tribes simply let Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel cast lots to decide who gets what.

The leaders just stood there and watched the lots decide their fate. There was some complaining from the sons of Joseph (in Joshua 17:14) but that got them nowhere and they let it drop.

Then, at the end, someone just decided that Joshua could have this city he wanted and everyone was fine with that. This gets back to the theme of everyone trusting the process—and all seems amazingly friendly and unified. Something special is going on. They have something we don’t normally see.

Actually, it’s not something special they have; it’s something they don’t have—suspicion. Everyone trusts the allotment and the people making it. If we tried to do something important with a process like this, there’d be a riot. Everyone would smell a rat and wouldn’t put up with this for a minute.

But somehow this is different. Instead of being power-centered (“me centered,” really), the whole thing is God-centered. The casting lots is a method for discerning the LORD’s will. Everyone is trusting the LORD to give them the right allocation.

The Israelis are showing some serious faith here.

“The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self” by Carl Trueman, explains how we got to our extraordinary level of “me centeredness.” It’s a must read.

He explains this in terms of mimesis and poiesis. These two terms distinguish who controls our destiny. Mimesis is like a farmer who plants seed and then prays for rain. Poiesis is like a farmer who irrigates.

Trueman’s point is that our poiesis has reached totality. This is poisonous. For example, while modern medicine is great, and praise the Lord for that, God is still in charge. We’ve lost that point of view.

Denying God’s sovereignty (or fighting it at every step, which we tend to do) is the worst possible error.

These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Weekend DEEPs are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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The weekly study guides, which include the Monday–Friday devotionals plus related questions for discussion or meditation, are available for download here:

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.