For the last few days, my Bible-reading plan has taken me through some of the most boring chapters I could have ever imagined in the entire Bible: Joshua 15 through 19 or so. The book of Joshua, up to this point, has been recounting the military exploits of the people of Israel under the leadership of Joshua as they conquer the land of Canaan. The stories are full of intrigue, blood, drama, and interesting characters. But, at chapter 15, the narrative begins to describe how they divided up the land between the different tribes and groups of the Israelites. It is, without a doubt, one of the most tedious sections of scripture I have ever had the privilege to read. The specificity with which the geographical locations are named is tough to follow, much less understand.
Here is a brief snippet for you. Please try to stay awake all the way through:
The territory of the people of Ephraim by their clans was as follows: the boundary of their inheritance on the east was Ataroth-addar as far as Upper Beth-horon, and the boundary goes from there to the sea. On the north is Michmethath. Then on the east the boundary turns around toward Taanath-shiloh and passes along beyond it on the east to Janoah, then it goes down from Janoah to Ataroth and to Naarah, and touches Jericho, ending at the Jordan. (Joshua 16:5-7 ESV)
I hold to the view of scripture known as "Verbal Plenary Inspiration." Inspiration means that the Bible does not come from mere men, but that God himself spoke His Word through them (2 Peter 1:21). Verbal means that the specific words of the scripture are given to us by God (Matthew 5:18). Plenary means that the ENTIRE Bible was given to us by God and is for our good, even the seemingly irrelevant sections (2 Timothy 3:16). It is easy to appreciate the exciting stories in the Torah or the practical teaching from Paul's writings; it is often more difficult to appreciate the genealogies or the long descriptions of Levitical priestly practice or these long geographical descriptions. However, something happened recently that spoke volumes to me about these chapters in Joshua.
Two Sundays ago, a doctor from my church did a presentation on a medical mission that he is a part of in the Sudan. For those who don't know, the Sudan has been decimated by decades of civil war, ethnic strife, and genocide. It is undoubtedly one of the poorest regions in the entire world and in desperate need for God's people to step in and intervene. Dr. Jack was talking to my friend Rich about the fighting in the region and he said something very interesting. One of the major contributing factors to the fighting between people groups in Sudan is the lack of geographical boundary lines for their territories. The boundary lines were drawn up by government people looking at a map, not at the actual land. Dr. Jack said that if they were to have rivers and mountains dividing the people instead of imaginary lines, it would go a long way to easing the tensions.
Have you ever wondered why some of our United States are so weirdly shaped? It's because many of their borders follow the natural geography of the region. Only someone on drugs would think to draw a state shaped like West Virginia if they were handed a map and a marker. Only further out west, when the U.S. took control over huge regions of land, did we get boring, theoretical state shapes like Utah and Colorado. There is tremendous wisdom, sociologically speaking, in having people's boundaries marked by the natural divisions we see in nature.
Now, when I read Joshua 15 and such, I am thankful to God for His tremendous wisdom in giving the people of Israel the land according to natural markers. In fact, only 300 short years after the events in Joshua, the people of Israel became so divided that they actually split into 2 autonomous nations. Could you imagine if they hadn't had natural divisions? They might not have made it 50 years!! Once again, we see the hand of God at work in providing His people with the best possible chance for success as a nation. These potentially boring chapters can now, with a little understanding, open up our eyes to a greater measure of God's manifold wisdom and give us an opportunity to worship Him.
p.s. For those who may be interested, here's the website for the Alaska Sudan Medical Project: www.AlaskaSudan.org
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