Day 86 —  Now that we’ve passed Day 66, we have established a “habit.” So, CELEBRATE our habit of daily Bible reading! We are in the third month so far! Praise God!

   Day 86 – Joshua 16 – 18 (Ephraim & Manasseh, Complaints, Benjamin)

In Chapters 16 & 17, Joshua and the men continue to divide up the land of Canaan for each tribe, small or super large. Joseph’s tribe is split into Ephraim and Manasseh. Half of the Manasseh tribe had already inherited land on the EAST side of the Jordan, but on the WEST, the other half was lumped together with Ephraim. They did not like that.  Joshua let these tribes figure it out between themselves. And so the WEST half-tribe seems to have gotten a very large area, running from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Sadly, all the Canaanite people were NOT driven out for both Ephraim and the two halves of Manasseh. (These Canaanites were very strong and had iron chariots.)  They remained a source of pagan influence, even though the tribes forced them to do forced labor.

In Chapter 18, Joshua and Israel set up the Tabernacle at Shiloh before the remaining land was allotted.  Joshua was annoyed with the remaining tribes. “How long will you put off going in to take possession of the Land, which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?”  He told them to take three men from each tribe and spy out the remaining land. Joshua would then allot those places to the remaining seven tribes.

So the men went “up and down in the land” and wrote descriptions.  Then they returned, and Joshua used the “lot” to determine who should go where. Benjamin was between Judah (in the South) and Ephraim/Manasseh in the North, bordering on the North side of Jerusalem. (Judah had the South side.)

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(We will see tomorrow that Simeon—a very small tribe—was also allotted their portion within Judah, whose allotment was too large for them, at that time.)

Much later in Israel’s history, we will see these tribes facing off against each other in a kind of Civil War when Solomon’s son tore the kingdom in two. (The 9 in the North were called Ephraim or Israel, and the 3 in the South were called Judah.)