Wilderness or Inheritance…which one describes your life?

As we finish up the book of Judges we will continue to see the bizarre behavior sin brings into the minds of those that follow it. Many miss the incredible lessons at the end of this book. However, I have found it to be quite a schooling on the way sin perverts our thoughts…not only trying to rationalize what we know is wrong, but justify our actions.

Just to review, in Chapter 17 we have the story of Micah, his idolatry and the story of how he “hired” a Levite to be his personal priest! Sounds like a Jewish fable, because any God fearing Jew would never justify such behavior. Sadly, this is where sin had taken the nation of Israel. Now a whole tribe is going to get into this mix and we can learn many lessons if we are open to them.

Judges 18:1-2 In those days there was no king of Israel; and in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for themselves to live in, for until that day an inheritance had not been allotted to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel. So the sons of Dan sent from their family five men out of their whole number, valiant men from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it; and they said to them, “Go, search the land.” And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.

In this small section of Scripture a great lesson about faith is seen. Scripture states that the Danites were still “seeking” their inheritance. For some reason this tribe had not understood that God never said that any of Israel had to seek or earn their inheritance. This is a real problem for we fallen humans. I heard a man say recently, “we spend too much time living in the wilderness, instead of enjoying our inheritance!”

I understand that life will include trials and troubles, but his point is a well founded one. Whatever God has promised we need to by faith live in that promise. First, let’s understand Dan’s dilemma then we will look at possible applications for ourselves. Two Scriptures shed a good deal of light on this matter.

Joshua 19:40–47 The seventh allotment of land went to the clans of the tribe of Dan. The land allocated as their homeland included the following towns: Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir-shemesh, Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Ithlah, Elon, Timnah, Ekron, Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath, Jehud, Bene-berak, Gath-rimmon, Me-jarkon, Rakkon, and the territory across from Joppa. But the tribe of Dan had trouble taking possession of their land, so they attacked the town of Laish. They captured it, slaughtered its people, and settled there. They renamed the town Dan after their ancestor.

It is important to remember several issues here: First, God made it clear that He was using Israel to judge the countries in this region that did all kinds of unspeakable evil. Second, God gave them the land, He told them it was theirs and to just go get it. He did not say it would be without effort. However, it belonged to Israel! 

Why did Dan have trouble? I don’t know, perhaps God was trying to produce perseverance of Character, or maybe Dan continued to live in sin, which impacts our faith. The point here is that instead of believing and trusting in God’s word for the land He gave them, they quit and took over a land that was not their inheritance. Also from another Scripture we see this:

Judges 1:34 The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain.

God stated emphatically that if Israel would just trust Him no army would be able to stand against them. However in Judges 1 we see a list of tribes that failed to obey all the way, one of those was the Tribe of Dan. A very important component of faith is obedience. What we see in Judges 1 is the end of their faith…which results in “no power.”

It gets worse as we will see and we dig deeper into this chapter, but let’s stop here and consider our own walk. God has promised all those that enter into a relationship with Him many things, but I wonder how many enjoy that inheritance or how many find themselves constantly in the wilderness?

For example: God has promised that in the end we will experience victory, and that He will work everything in our life for good. Yet, so many children of God fret over so many things in this life. From not having the latest technology, to worrying about money, future job, family, etc. 

I have met so many that are so anxious about health insurance that they insure themselves of bad health! Yes, our journey will require faith and dealing with the unknown, but when we know in the end we will all be with God, the enemy will be gone and time won’t matter anymore because we have moved into eternity, that reality should always bring the balance of our inheritance into the wilderness we are in at the moment.

Meditation: Is the majority of your life full of the joy of having God’s peace and the assurance of His presence, or are you drowning in fear over finances, medical concerns, political upheavals, etc.? Learn to rest in Him, He wants you to enjoy your journey to Him!