Joshua 17 Bible study: Not one lot only

Numbers told how five sisters asked Moses, "Give to us a possession among the brothers of our father" (Numbers 27:4), and how the LORD answered, "The daughters of Zelophehad speak right" (Numbers 27:7). Numbers 27 and 36 teach that story. Joshua 17 tells its end. The same five are named, "Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah" (17:3), and they come to the leaders holding them to the word the LORD gave Moses: "They came to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the princes, saying, ‘The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers.’" (17:4). No argument follows. "Therefore according to the commandment of the LORD he gave them an inheritance among the brothers of their father" (17:4) (tap commandment). What they asked for in the wilderness, "among the brothers of our father" (Numbers 27:4), is what they receive in the land. The chapter says it once more: "the daughters of Manasseh had an inheritance among his sons" (17:6).

Joshua 17:17→leads toLuke 12:48

The children of Joseph complain of one lot, "since we are a numerous people, because the LORD has blessed us so far" (17:14). Joshua gives them more, and work with it: "You are a numerous people, and have great power. You shall not have one lot only; but the hill country shall be yours. Although it is a forest, you shall cut it down" (17:17-18). Jesus said, "To whomever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked" (Luke 12:48). Jesus doesn't cite Joshua 17, so setting them side by side is a reading. Some hear the same pattern in both: a people who have been given much are asked for much, and Joshua answers their size and strength with a bigger task. Others keep them apart: Jesus is speaking of servants and what their master finds when he comes (Luke 12:42-47), while Joshua 17 is about sharing out land among the tribes, and Joshua's answer is a gift of more land (17:17-18), not a reckoning.

גּוֹרָלgoralsay go-RAL

Strong's: "properly, a pebble, i.e. a lot (small stones being used for that purpose)". Brown-Driver-Briggs: "lot", including "lot for dividing land". The chapter opens with it and comes back to it near the end. It opens, "This was the lot for the tribe of Manasseh" (17:1). Joseph complains of "just one lot" (17:14), and Joshua answers, "You shall not have one lot only" (17:17). The land was shared "by the lot of their inheritance, as the LORD commanded by Moses" (14:2), and a proverb says who decides it: "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD" (Proverbs 16:33).