Run to the Refuge — Joshua 20–21 (Session 14)

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 20–21, Reasoning Through the Bible examines the cities of refuge and the powerful picture they give of God’s justice, mercy, and protection. These cities were set apart for someone who had killed another person unintentionally, giving them a safe place to flee until their case could be heard fairly.

This session explores how the cities of refuge point to important biblical principles still reflected in legal systems today, including due process, innocent until proven guilty, fair judgment, and protection from vengeance. The study also explains why these cities were connected to the Levites, who were responsible for knowing and applying God’s law.

A major theme in this episode is how the cities of refuge point forward to Jesus Christ. God is our refuge, Jesus is our High Priest, and when our High Priest died, believers were set free from condemnation. The cities were accessible to all, and in the same way, Christ is near and available to all who come to Him by faith.

The episode also addresses Joshua 21 and the question of Israel’s land promises. Did Joshua 21 fulfill all the land promises made to Abraham forever, or is there still a future fulfillment for Israel? The discussion looks at the Abrahamic covenant, the meaning of “forever,” the boundaries promised to Abraham, and why God is not finished with Israel.

Topics in this episode include:

• Joshua 20–21 study
• cities of refuge
• biblical justice
• innocent until proven guilty
• manslaughter and murder
• Jesus as our refuge
• Christ our High Priest
• no condemnation in Christ
• God gave Israel rest
• Israel’s land promises
• Abrahamic covenant
• forever means forever

Reasoning Through the Bible is a verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry committed to careful exposition, biblical context, and faithful application.

Questions in this session:  

• What are the rules around the cities of refuge?
• When someone is offered refuge, how can they get it?
• What is the connection with the high priest? 
• Who can run to refuge in our high priest? 
• What happens to those who do not take refuge?  

Transcript

Cities of Refuge

Speaker 1 0:23

Welcome back to Reasoning Through the Bible Podcast . We've been doing our verse by verse study of the book of Joshua . Today we are in Joshua , chapter 20 , and we get to a topic about what are called the Cities of Refuge . In the Cities of Refuge , we're going to find out a very interesting concept and if we're not careful , as we're just reading through Joshua , we'll miss this , because it's right here in the middle of where it was talking about all these cities that they had conquered and how they divided up the land . But there's a very important point here . So we're going to slow down for just a second in Joshua , chapter 20 and talk about these cities of refuge .

Speaker 1 1:02

Now , this isn't the first time in the Bible that we are introduced to the Cities of Refuge . In the book of Numbers , chapter 35 , they're mentioned , and again in Deuteronomy , chapter 19 , they are mentioned as well . But here they are again . So we're going to deal with these here , and so we have here these cities of refuge . So let me read Joshua , chapter 20 .

Speaker 1 1:24

Then the Lord spoke to Joshua saying Speak to the sons of Israel saying Designate the cities of refuge of which I spoke to you through Moses , that the man slayer who kills any person , unintentionally , without premeditation , may flee there , and they shall become your refuge from the avenger of blood .

Speaker 1 1:42

He shall flee to one of these cities and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and state his case in the hearing of the elders of that city , and they shall take him into the city to them and give him a place so that he may dwell among them . Now , if the avenger of blood pursues him , and when they shall not deliver the man slayer into his hand because he struck his neighbor without premeditation and did not hate him beforehand , he shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation of judgment , until the death of the high priest . In those days , then , the man slayer shall return to his own city , to his own house , the city from which he fled . And then in the next verses it lists off the names of the cities . So from that , steve , what is the purpose of this city and how does it apply ?

Speaker 2 2:32

So these are cities that were set apart for people that had killed somebody , not on purpose . So there's a few things that are here that I mentioned that we might know and hear of today . In the version that you read , it says man slayer , and some other versions that might say manslaughter . There's also used here premeditated that did something . And so in our society today and our nation is built off of Judeo , what we call Judeo Christian values , and this is one of these things that are there in regards to that , in that manslaughter is something that we have and it's a killing of another person , but it's not murder . It's not something that was premeditated , wasn't something done on purpose , it was something that was done accidentally or negligence , and then they are innocent until proven guilty , and so as you go through this , we'll see some of those values that are pointed out here .

Speaker 1 3:32

Our modern legal system was founded upon British common law , which was , in turn , founded upon these biblical principles that came out of the Bible , and so these concepts that are introduced here are ingrained into our history from a long time back , and so there's some concepts here , as we talk about this , that are very important . And here is what's interesting is here were the rudiments of these . In a time where there was a lot of lawlessness , god introduced a very fair system here . They were to protect someone who had killed somebody . So the rule was if let's say that I had accidentally killed someone , I could run to the city of refuge . And what is this about ? The gate ? Why is there ? Why does it talk about the gate ? The elders in those days would hang around the gate right .

Speaker 1 4:24

And so that's where the center of business was . A lot of times in the cities that we have , at least in the older ones , there's a downtown area right , or the courthouse might be downtown . Well , in those days they didn't have a courthouse downtown , but the center of where everything happened was at the city gates .

Speaker 2 4:44

People coming in , leaving commerce , everything was centered around that gate .

Speaker 1 4:49

And so the elders , the leaders of the city and everyone else for that matter would hang around the gates , because that's where all the activity at , and so someone was fleeing for their lives . Let's say that I had killed someone . I think it was an accident . The family of the person that died , they think I did it on purpose and they're chasing me . Well , I can run to a city of refuge and I can go to the leaders inside the city gate and I can state my case . And then what did it say they were supposed to do with me ? They were supposed to give me a place to stay Right . They were supposed to protect me until what ?

Speaker 2 5:27

The elders could hear the case , could hear the argument and make a determination on whether or not the person was innocent or guilty of the manslaughter .

Speaker 1 5:37

Right . And then we find out back in Numbers , chapter 35, . These cities of refuge were supposed to be given to the Levites and we said the Levites were what was their job .

Speaker 2 5:49

They were to work in the temple or the tabernacle . They were to do the duties of all the worship .

Speaker 1 5:54

They were the priests . They were supposed to really understand the word of God , and so the cities of refuge were the places where the religious leaders were that knew God's law . They weren't involved in commerce , they weren't involved in business trade . They were fair judges . So , as you rightly pointed out , the modern systems of having fair judges that are independent , that are not involved in the case , that are unbiased , that are supposed to protect the innocent until proven guilty , all these concepts are rooted back here in places like Joshua , chapter 20 . And I just find it fascinating that we find these things here . God introduces these things 3000 years ago . So the priests ? They would have known God's laws , it wouldn't have been involved in the business deals , they could be a fair judge . And so the process was supposed to work If the killing was unintentional , the person flees to the city , the elder protects him , and then they could get a fair trial .

God's Law and Our Refuge

Speaker 1 7:01

This was law in a lawless area , and it brings in the ideas like you can't execute until proven guilty , and things like that .

Speaker 2 7:09

And also a trial before your peers , because it says there in verse six that he stands before the congregation for judgment .

Speaker 1 7:19

Now back in Numbers , chapter 35 , there's a concept here that's not here in Joshua , chapter 20 , but it tells us that if the trial Concludes that the person is guilty and is worthy of death , the person that was supposed to actually execute the murderer was the Avenger , the family member right .

Speaker 1 7:42

So , steve , if someone had killed your family member and the fair trial Determines them guilty , you are the one that was supposed to go execute them , not some officer of the state right now . If we were to implement that today , what would that do ? And just think of it in an abstract sense , what would it do to the capital punishment system in a country ? How would the executions be treated differently than they are in our day ? The Family of the person who was murdered Would have a sense of justice , right . They would be able to say we put them to death and they the sense of justice right .

Speaker 1 8:26

And this is what screams out , and a lot of times in our day when people take away capital punishment , we lose . This is that when there are horrible murders , the families have a sense of demanding Justice . That's why we have capital punishment . However , it would also do another thing . If the family members were the ones responsible for executing the murderer and the family said you know , there's been enough killing . I don't like the idea of Capital punishment . I don't want to go kill somebody else , I just want to go home and grieve , right , then the capital punishment wouldn't happen .

Speaker 1 9:08

Right we wouldn't have a state system forcing capital punishment on people that didn't want it . Right and so we have here in God's law a much more fair system when , if the family wants capital punishment , they get a sense of justice . If they don't want capital punishment , the family member wouldn't do it and they would get what they wanted . God's ways are always more fair .

Speaker 2 9:32

And for clarification on what you were saying in regards to if it was in our day and that family member said you know , I don't want capital punishment , I just want to go home and grief , they would still serve time right in prison , they just wouldn't be put to death by the family member right .

Speaker 1 9:50

And then in Joshua , chapter 20 , verse 6 , it gives two conditions to untills . This person that's accused of this crime Would stay in the city of refuge until two things . There were two conditions . What were they ? Do you remember ?

Speaker 2 10:07

Yeah , he had the trial before the congregation Right or until the death of the one who's the high priest in those days .

Speaker 1 10:16

Now think about that for a minute . The fair trials fairly obvious , but this person would be kind of locked in the city for protection Until the high priest died . What would that do ? What would that give as a right to a prisoner ?

Speaker 2 10:33

the ability to go to leave the city and not be under judgment .

Speaker 1 10:38

It would take away life sentences .

Speaker 2 10:40

Yeah .

Speaker 1 10:42

If people were guilty of murder , they would get executed . If for some reason , the avenging family didn't want to have capital punishment , they would stay in the city . Or if something happened and there wasn't a trial , then it gives them an out . We don't have these high sentences that are life sentences for people that don't deserve it . When the high priest died and Usually these were older men , so they were it wasn't going to be 20 , 30 , 40 years . The death of the high priest would come every few years . Then the person is now free and could go back home without fear of punishment . So another question in verse 9 who could go to the city of refuge ? Who does it say can go ?

Speaker 2 11:29

It's for the stranger who travels among them , and whoever kills the person unintentional , that they might not die by the hand of the blood Avenger right .

Speaker 1 11:38

So it's really anyone right can go , not just a ruling class , not just the special people , foreigners , slaves , women , travelers anyone and anyone in the country the soldier was traveling , even the travel , not non-citizens right . Even non-citizens Right that weren't citizens of Israel . You didn't have to be part of a special blood heritage or anything like that .

Speaker 2 12:03

Right anyone .

Speaker 1 12:04

So , again , these concepts of a fair trial and laws that apply equally and fairly to everybody Are rooted right back here in in Joshua , and so , as in most cases here , there's a spiritual application to this . Who or what in the New Testament is our refuge ?

Speaker 2 12:23

Well , god , is our refuge . God is our refuge and our strength .

Speaker 1 12:26

Right , we are told right who is our high priest .

Speaker 2 12:30

Jesus , jesus , christ .

Speaker 1 12:31

Jesus , were told very clearly , he was he was a priest in the order of Melchizedek , right . And when our high priest died , when the high priest died , mm-hmm , we were set free . Yes , we were set free . From what death ? And a sentence of death , right , because of our sin . And so there's a great , great application here in the book of Joshua , the great parallel between what happens to us . Hebrews 618 says that God is our , our safe haven . Jesus is our safe haven and any who can come to Christ , anyone , anyone can come to Christ . Is God's grace available to everybody ? Yes , not just a special class of people . It's travelers , foreigners , non-citizens , anyone can come to Christ , right , if someone is in Christ , are they protected from condemnation ?

Speaker 2 13:20

Yes .

Speaker 1 13:21

Romans 8 1 . No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus . Do people in the cities of refuge ? Did they automatically get refuge or did they have to actually go to the city ?

Speaker 2 13:33

of refuge . They had to go to the city . They had to go in and through the gates , they had to dwell in the city .

Speaker 1 13:39

Can't just sit at home in the house and claim something . You had to actually take advantage of the city of refuge . Right , and if the cities were listed there , if you look at them on a map , they were actually scattered out throughout the country so that there was no place where people were far away from a city . They were accessible . They were accessible . It was on the each side of the Jordan River . The cities of refuge were accessible to everyone , and so the spiritual application here is just profound Is our refuge close to us or do we have to go a long way to get to Jesus ?

Speaker 2 14:13

No , it's close and and as the scripture says , today is the day of salvation .

Speaker 1 14:18

Now there is a few passages here in the bible that come to mind that just Speak to me . In regards to the , psalm 46 says God is our refuge and our strength , a very present help in time of trouble . Hebrews , chapter 6 , verse 18 . We who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us . We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul , a hope that enters into the inner place , beyond the curtain , where Jesus has gone as a forerunner in our behalf , having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek . John , chapter 8 , verse 31 if you abide in my word , you are my disciples indeed , and you shall know the truth , and the truth shall make you free . John , chapter 15 abide in me , and I and you , as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself . So these are all great passages that talk about abiding in Christ . He is our refuge , just like these cities of refuge . If we just go and run to him , we will have safe haven and we will have fair protection .

Land Promises to Israel

Speaker 1 15:27

Now there's also a story where this comes to play over .

Speaker 1 15:30

In 2nd Samuel , chapter 3 , there's a story of two men . There's a man named Abner , and Abner killed Joab's brother . In Second Samuel , chapter 2 , verse 23 , abner killed Joab's brother . So Abner , in the story of Second Samuel , abner then goes to Hebron . Well , in the story it doesn't explain the whole city of refuge thing . You just have to know that way back here in Joshua , hebron was one of the cities of refuge , right . So Abner kills Joab's brother .

Speaker 1 16:06

Abner goes to Hebron , one of the cities of refuge . Joab chases them there and Goes to the gate . And Joab calls to Abner and says hey , come over here outside the gate , I want to tell you something , come here . I got to tell you something in private and Abner was very foolish . He had safety right there inside the gate of the city of refuge of Hebron , right . But he chose to go outside the city gate and in doing so Joab pulled out a knife and killed him . So how foolish could he be to be right there ? The protection was right there , all he had to do was take advantage of it . But he foolishly left his protection , didn't take advantage of it and because of that was killed . Now , you and I , we'd never avoid taking advantage of our protection , would we know ?

Speaker 2 17:11

and you know he well , he knew all well , what I'm saying is is that he knew the protocols Right and knew what they were . So when he got lured out , it's the question of why , as to your point , why would he do that ? Why would he allow himself to be lured out ? And so when I say no , we wouldn't do that , we do do that quite often because we are lured out and we know the protocol . We know that our our refuge is in God and our safe haven is there . We know that Christ has died for us and that we have sin , but yet we still let the world lure us out away from that safe refuge , and Most of the time when that happens , it doesn't turn out very well for us .

Speaker 1 18:03

Right , and if we just realize where we are , we're so close to Christ , right , and he is so close to us , he's not far away . All right , if we just take advantage of what he's offered and take advantage , our refuge is in Jesus and he protects us from eternal death . And so I just find these , these Old Testament stories , are so rich , it's so wonderful to hear these things . And so then , in chapter 21 , joshua , chapter 21 , verse 44 says God gave them rest on every side , just like he promised . Can we rest in God ? Yes , absolutely . They had been fighting for a while . They get to this point and God gives them rest . God can rest us , and I think in our busy , tired societies a lot of times , what we just need is some rest , and True rest can be found in the Lord Jesus Christ .

Speaker 1 18:55

One person that had asked this , and what I'm going to try to do is to do my best to present the question as the person that I heard it from .

Speaker 1 19:03

Okay , and so it has to do with the Old Testament , land promises that were made to Israel .

Speaker 1 19:11

Right , and as the Person that I heard this from goes , you know , there were some land promises made to Abraham and to Isaac and Jacob . And so then , after time , joshua goes in to conquer the land , and at the end of the book of Joshua , joshua Joshua , chapter 21 , starting in verse 43 , it says this so the Lord gave Israel all the land which he had sworn to give to their fathers , mm-hmm . And they possessed it and lived in it , mm-hmm . And the Lord gave them rest on every side , according to all that he had sworn to their fathers , and no one of their enemies stood before them . The Lord gave all their enemies into their hand . Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed . All Came to pass , yeah , and so the again . I'm gonna try hard to present this as the Person I heard this from . Okay , the claim here is that it says very clearly several times all of the promises that God had promised to Israel came to pass and .

Speaker 1 20:24

That none of them failed and it says in verse 43 , they possessed it , which means the land and lived in it right , and that none of their enemies stood before them . And so the idea here is that all the land promises that were made to any of the fathers , including Abraham , was fulfilled Right here in Joshua , chapter 21 , and so therefore , we should not be looking for a future fulfillment . And if we take this literally , yeah , it says all the land which he had sworn to give them . They lived in it , they possessed it , none of the enemies stood before them . And it says in 45 not one of the good promises the Lord had made failed . Every one of them came to pass .

Speaker 1 21:13

Now I've also heard , related to this , that During Solomon's day . I've heard people claim that during Solomon's day , solomon , of course , married a lot of foreign wives and in doing so , gained control over vast Quantities of land , and I've heard people say that , well , in Solomon's day was a fulfillment of these land promises Right that God made to Abraham , and so the conclusion from these is that , therefore , the land promises made to Abraham seem to be fulfilled in these cases and since Israel sinned , god cut off Israel .

Speaker 1 21:55

In Romans , chapter 11 , it talks about cutting off Israel because of their disobedience and grafting in the church right , and so the concept there is that because they fulfilled the land promises , it says all of the land was lived in and no enemies were there . In Joshua , or At least in Solomon's day , they possessed all this land . But because Israel disobeyed , right , god cut them off from the land , and that we shouldn't be looking for any future Fulfillments of the land promises in the Abrahamic covenant . So that's the claim .

Speaker 2 22:28

Okay , let me , let me take a couple of stabs at this . One of the things , as I read through this , that I see is that it's depicting that the Lord has given to them the land that he promised to Abraham , that he had sworn to them , and I think that's all true . He brought them back , or brought them into from Egypt and he gave them the land he told them go into it . I'm going to drive the enemies out before you and I will be your God and you go possess it . Now , the Israelites didn't do that . We read over in Judges , which is the second part of the conquering of the Israelites living in the land and conquering the people that were there . They didn't drive everybody out . We had the example of Dan . Dan had their possession down in the kind of the southern part of the nation of Israel and they had to move up into the northern part because they couldn't drive the Philistines out and the Philistines kept harassing them . That's just one example . So because they didn't drive them out and they didn't do what they were supposed to do with God , doesn't mean that the Lord , that God , did not give them the land . That would be one way for me to look at this as far as it's coming to it .

Speaker 2 24:02

Another thing is that , okay , so they disobeyed , they were taken into captivity by the Babylonians . We saw Daniel Daniel was reading Jeremiah and he realized that , hey , we're only going to be here 70 years that they were taken into captivity by the Babylonians as punishment because they weren't observing the lay the ground fallow every seven years , and they didn't do it for 490 years . And so the Lord said okay , because you haven't obeyed this law , I'm going to have let you be taken into captivity for a force 70 years . So we see throughout the hit and there's other times we see throughout the history of Israel that , as God , as they don't do what they've been told to do and they go off and worship other idols or whatever it might be that God does bring about punishment on them for that , but he always brings them back into the land . And so just if we were to take this one and grant that says , okay , it was fulfilled by Abraham , all the promises , okay , that doesn't mean that they're not going to possess it forever . I mean that's another thing that he told them that they're going to have this land forever . So the fact that they were taken out of it because of judgment that God brought to them and then they were brought back to the land again . We have that historical context as well .

Speaker 2 25:33

So I wouldn't take if I accepted the simple fact that this is speaking of all the land . Promises were promised to Abraham , fulfilled , therefore , don't look for it anymore . Well , to me , everlasting means everlasting , and I don't think it's just a one point in time that you look at . We also have other points that we're going to have the messianic kingdom when Jesus comes back and we're going to have the judgment of the Gentile nations . That's depicted in Joel , chapter three , verses one through three . It also speaks about it at the end of chapter 25 of Matthew , where the Gentile nations are going to be judged based upon how they've treated the Jewish people and the Jewish Christians as well , I mean .

Speaker 2 26:19

So there's other verses throughout scripture that talk about Israel possessing the land . It's theirs for God's , for him to give . He's given it to them for possession . Last thing would be that if , prior to 1948 , you might be able to have a good case that hey , it was fulfilled and God's retribution on them and therefore it's been taken away from them , but 1948 , they came back as a nation and they are a nation today and they're slowly rebuilding that nation out today . So to me it's very clear that there still is a place for Israel and that the promises of God are everlasting . And I believe that they will occupy all of those borders at some point in time , and it's still yet to happen .

Speaker 1 27:14

So here would be my response and I've heard this from some people that really should know better and so I think it's probably good to take a couple of minutes and kind of walk through what the promises were , and so then we can evaluate this Joshua 21 passage , because , yes , it says right there in black and white God gave it to them , they possessed it , they lived in it and all the promises were fulfilled and none of the enemies were left . But we have to look at what that means in relation to the claim which was is this the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant ? And before we can answer that question , let's take a quick minute to look at the Abrahamic covenant , and then we can come back to Joshua and see what it means . So God promised Abraham to give him land Genesis 12 , 7, . He repeats it in 15 , 7 . God promised Abraham the land forever in Genesis 13 , verses 14 and 15 .

Speaker 1 28:15

Read this the Lord said to Abraham after Lot had separated from him now lift up your eyes and look , from the place where you are , northward and southward , and eastward and westward , for all the land which you see , I will give it to you and your descendants forever . So how long was it , steve ? Forever , forever . And not only that , he gets very specific about exactly where the borders were . In Genesis 15 , 18 , he says that the land that he was giving him was from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates River . Now there's some discussion on what the river of Egypt , whether that was the Nile or there's another river that's on the border between Israel and Egypt . That could have been the river of Egypt , but nevertheless it's , at a minimum , from the border of Egypt all the way over to the Euphrates River , which is a huge tract of land . And so that was . It's not some general fuzzy border . It's from Egypt to the Euphrates River . And how long was it again , steve , that they possessed it ? Forever .

Israel's Covenant and Promised Land

Speaker 1 29:34

They said it very specifically God repeats the land promised to Isaac , that the land would be given to him and his descendants Genesis 26 , verses 3 and 4 . God repeats the land promised to Jacob in 28 , verses 13 and 14 . And in all of these places , this is God promising . I will do this . Nowhere , nowhere is the Abrahamic covenant conditioned on Israel's obedience . Everywhere it is God saying I will do these things , I will give this to you . Nowhere is there an if-then statement . If you obey , then this If you look at the end of the book of Deuteronomy , with the Mosaic covenant , the law of Moses , there's some if-thens , there's some conditions . If you obey you'll get these blessings . If you disobey , you'll get these cursings . Abrahamic covenant wasn't like that . God says I will do this and your descendants will own this land forever , all the way to the Euphrates River . So nowhere is it conditioned . And we can see multiple times . We don't have time to turn there now .

Speaker 1 30:53

But Ezekiel 36 . Israel does nothing but disobey . They do nothing but disobey . And God judges them in Ezekiel 36 . And he says I'm going to send you out of the land . In fact he says I have sent you out of the land as punishment . And when you got into the land of the Gentiles , you defamed my name and you continued to disobey . And so God's complaint against Israel in Ezekiel 36 is that they were entirely utterly in disobedience . But because of my name I will bring you back to the land . I will cause you to keep my statutes , I will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh . It's not dependent on Israel's obedience . God's saying I will do this because of my name . So at nowhere was Israel thrown out of the land by God because of their disobedience forever . He would take them out and would allow enemies to come in because of their disobedience . But the Abrahamic covenant was how long was it against him ?

Speaker 2 32:11

Forever , Forever .

Speaker 1 32:13

How many times do we got to say so ? Even if it were true that in Joshua 21 or in Solomon's day that they were in possession of all the land which they weren't we'll get to that in just a second they would still own it , correct ? Just because Israel was cut off in Romans chapter 11 does not mean that the Abrahamic covenant is done away with , because how long was it against him ? Forever , forever so . And he repeated it , and it was not conditioned on obedience , correct . And so that's the Abrahamic covenant . Now we can look at Joshua , chapter 21 , verse 34 . Does indeed say God gave them this land and they possessed it .

Speaker 1 33:01

However keep reading . What does he say in the following passages ? He , joshua , in the last couple of chapters is saying there's nations that still remain . Now this is after chapter 21 . Right , he's saying do you have the reference there , steve ?

Speaker 2 33:21

Yeah , In verse 4 , 22 . Verse 4 , joshua tells them and now the Lord , your God , has given rest to your brothers , as he spoke to them . Therefore , turn , now go to your tents , to the land of your possession which Moses , the servant of the Lord , gave you beyond the Jordan and I think that's what you're getting to . Is that , back over in numbers , as they were coming out of Egypt , moses gave them a set of boundaries of land , of how they were going to divide it up by their tribes , and that description is not all the way to the Euphrates River or all the way down to the river of Egypt . It's more in the center part of that possession of land that God had described to Abraham , isaac and Jacob .

Speaker 1 34:10

In Joshua there are lengthy , tedious tedious to the point of boring lists of cities that they took and where they went . It's so tedious that it's really boring . And when we taught this Steve , we pointed that out is that there's these long list of cities they took . And then there's this passage that our friend quoted at the end of 21 .

Speaker 1 34:38

Nowhere in that list of cities did they go all the way to the Euphrates River , correct ? It's not listed there . On top of that , keep reading in Joshua , chapter 23 , verse 4 . This is Joshua saying , and this is after the chapter 21 passage See , I have a portion to you , these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes , with all the nations which I have cut off from the Jordan even to the great sea , towards the setting of the sun that still didn't get them from Egypt to the Euphrates , first five . The Lord , your God , he will thrust them out from before you future tense verb and drive them before you , drive them from before you , and you will , you will future tense possess their land , just as the Lord , your God , promised you . So here we are . It's not done yet . And not only that . Keep reading .

Speaker 1 35:34

The book of Judges is a continuation at the end of Joshua , and there's vast quantities of land that are still to be taken , with the Canaanites that are still there , and so nowhere was they ever get to the Euphrates River . There's still Canaanites living there , in the same book what our friend just quoted . And so what do we do with this passage ? Because it does clearly say that they possessed all that God had promised them . So I submit that what they're probably talking about there is not the Abrahamic covenant boundaries , but the boundaries that were given just before they entered the land , just before they crossed the Jordan River into the promised land to start the campaigns , was Numbers chapter 34 . And if we read Numbers chapter 34 , the Lord God is giving a smaller set of boundaries than was what was given in the Abrahamic covenant , and that was the one they fulfilled .

Speaker 2 36:46

Yeah and again

God's Promise to Israel

Speaker 2 36:48

. Forever means forever , and so we're taking the whole context of Scripture as well . There's a danger in taking one verse or a set of verses and building something around it .

Speaker 2 37:04

You always have to take the context of all of Scripture as well in order to balance it out , because you can make up some , and people have come up with some pretty good theology that seems logical just by taking certain verses , but if you don't , if you take the context and bring it back , then that theology falls apart . Right , and that's part of what this is as well . God gave him the land , the promise of the land forever to him and his descendants . The descendants , specifically , were Isaac and Jacob .

Speaker 1 37:38

And it was forever To the Euphrates River .

Speaker 2 37:42

God's whole plan works around the nation of Israel and he's forever going to be a part of their lives and a part of their nation , and forever means forever , and so God's not done with them . Paul points that out , that he's not done with the nation of Israel , and there's still a lot of things to take place and they still have a lot of the area of the land that they will possess . I believe in that messianic kingdom , and so several times .

Speaker 1 38:13

God has allowed the enemies to drive them out of the land ? Yeah , but he always brought them back Again . Ezekiel 36 , because of my name , says the Lord God .

Speaker 2 38:22

Right .

Speaker 1 38:24

And so that's the end of our podcast today , and we'll be picking up again with chapter 22 , next time on Reasoning Through the Bible .