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It Is Written

Sabbath School 4th Quarter 2025: Lessons of Faith from Joshua

Eric Flickinger

Barna Magyarosi

01 Recipe for Success

02 Surprised by Grace

03 Memorials of Grace

John Bradshaw

Alive From the Dead: The Strange Truth About Baptism

04 The Conflict Behind All Conflicts

05 God Fights for You

06 The Enemy Within

07 Ultimate Loyalty - Worship in a War Zone

08 Giants of Faith: Joshua and Caleb

09 Heirs of Promises, Prisoners of Hope

10 The True Joshua

11 Living in the Land

Eric Walsh

12 God is Faithful!

13 Choose this Day!

Welcome to Sabbath School brought to you by It Is Written.

We are looking at lessons of faith from Joshua.

And this week is lesson number 11, that is living in the land.

We've seen how Joshua and the Israelites have been traveling to the land and getting into it, but now they're living in the land.

What does this look like and what lessons can we learn from it?

We're gonna begin right after we have prayer.

Father, we thank you for being with us and guiding us to this point in our journey through the book of Joshua.

We ask and we anticipate that you are going to bless us as we do so.

We're glad that you're here and we are also glad that the author of this quarter Sabbath school lesson is here, Barna Majurosy.

We've seen the people come into the land.

Now they're starting to kind of get accustomed to it, if we could put it that way.

And there's a first significant challenge that life in the land brings to the Israelites.

So we have come to the end of the period in which Israel secured the land.

And we might remember that when Moses approached the Promised Land from the eastern side of the Jordan, they were attacked by some Canaanites nations such as the kings of Sihon and Og and these people.

And in fact, they were not, they didn't want to fight with them, but they were put in a situation that they were attacked.

And the Lord gave them, these people, into their hands.

And when the tribe of Ruben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, they looked at those lands And they say, we kind of like it here.

So would it be possible for us to have our inheritance on the other side of the Jordan?

And of course, Moses consulted with the Lord and they have arrived to a compromise.

The Lord said, OK, let's see what we can do.

And the Lord said, yes, you can have your inheritance on that side of the Jordan, but you will have to come over and fight alongside the Israelites until the land is secured and then you can return home.

Now there is a discussion on how many of them went and fought and what was their real number.

It is difficult to make up all the numbers, but it seems that the 2 and a half tribes together they, based on the book of Numbers, they counted around 100000 fighting men.

And from the crossing of the Jordan, the Book of Joshua, we learn that these tribes sent about 40, 000 fighting people.

Because of course their wives and their children, they stayed behind and they needed protection because they were still in enemy territory.

So they sent 40 percent of the people who could fight, while the rest, they started to build their cities.

But nowhere in the Bible we find that that would have been a problem or that caused a displeasure on behalf of Joshua our God.

And now the land is secured and they are able to return back to their places, to their wives, to their children, to their secured inheritance.

Problem is that as they go, they on this side of the Jordan, not on their side of the Jordan, on this side of the Jordan, they start building a huge altar.

And that sends signals of, you know, the red flag is up, something is wrong, they have already apostatized.

They are building another altar than we have at Shiloh, And that's not good.

And it is amazing to see that if we read the text, it says, they heard the rumor, or they heard being said.

But all of a sudden, they got to the conclusion that this is an unfaithful act on behalf of the 2 and a half tribes.

So this is a tension between 1 part of Israel and another part of Israel.

Living together in the land is not always smooth, as living together in a church is not always smooth.

So what do we know, there's this rumor that starts spreading around, what do we know about the commitment of the Transjordanian tribes?

The rumor exists and there's some doubt, but what do we know about their commitment?

I think when we look at their fulfillment of their part, up to now, there's no question about their commitment.

There's no real reason to question whether they have already apostatized or not, or they are with the Lord, they keep the principles, nothing, because they have a good track record.

So I don't exactly know how they come to this conclusion that they have already committed a sin, but you know how rumors are.

I have heard that he has heard that she has heard that, and You know, it goes like that, and by the time it reaches you, it could be something completely different.

So, there's every reason to believe that they were still just as faithful as they should be.

I think, and this is important for us because it has implications for our own life, we need to go back again because past history sheds light on what is happening here.

We remember that Balak paid a prophet, Balan, to come and curse Israel and he tries 3 times.

We have that recorded in the book of Numbers chapters 22 through 24.

And we realize that all that comes out of the mouth of this hired prophet is blessing and not curse.

But, and we think that, wow, this was nice, and nothing happens.

But the same prophet, Baal, gives a very dangerous advice.

And what happens there is that what they couldn't achieve through curse or through warfare, they achieve it by inciting the Israelites to sexual immorality, idolatry, and worshipping pagan gods.

And what happens there is that It happens so quickly that a major part of Israel gets involved and it is Phinehas who goes and puts an end to this debauchery by killing the prince, of the leading prince with another pagan lady in a tent.

And it is amazing to see that now the person that is chosen to lead the delegation that is going to investigate the situation.

So he has this track record of being faithful, but being also very quick to act in a decisive way, and if it requires, through violence.

So that sends also red flags, because uh-oh, what is going to happen now?

So soon are we going to have a civil war in Israel?

So we've got some interesting things happening in this first half of this section.

Let's move into some of the accusations that the Cisjordanian tribes make.

To what extent were some of these accusations well founded, and to what extent were they not so well-founded?

Now first of all I think what is crucial and it is important, they do not send an army.

They send a delegation to clarify things.

And this is good, because they communicate.

First, they want to understand the motivations of the 2 and a half tribes.

I mean we can call them Cis and Transjordanian tribes but makes it difficult.

We can call them Eastern tribes and Western tribes.

But what happens is that the way they describe here the accusation is that you built this altar in rebellion against the Lord.

And they think that this, of course, the law of Moses stipulates that there's only 1 place of worship and that has to be the central place, the central altar where they are supposed to bring their sacrifices.

So by seeing a kind of a structure that looks like an altar they think wow they are already worshipping other gods because if you want to worship the Lord this is the place So perhaps this is the way they come to the conclusion that they have already rebelled against the Lord because then they in verse 17 they say, Have we not had enough of the sin of Peor from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves?

And that you too must turn away this day from following the Lord.

And it's amazing to see the attitude of the Western tribes.

They say if the land that you have is not good enough, we are willing to give up part of our inheritance and welcome you on this side of the Jordan, but please do not turn your backs on the Lord.

So it sounds like they desired something positive to come from it, willing to make some sort of an offer to avoid things, so positive certainly.

We talk about it each episode, there's more in there, and we wanna encourage people to pick that up so that they can get the most that they can out of this lesson.

What's in the companion book that someone might be interested in that would make them want to pick that up and dig more?

In the companion book, of course, I deal with this chapter, but I try to apply it to a church setting.

How we solve our conflicts, how are we communicating with each other, gossiping, things like that applied more to our own setting in the church today.

So if you know of a church, not saying it's yours, but if you know of a church that maybe has some factions that aren't getting along and maybe the communication isn't as good as it could be, make sure you pick up this companion book to this quarter Sabbath school lesson.

There is a lesson in there that might benefit whatever church that is that you're thinking about.

Pick that up easily by going to itiswritten.shop.

You'll find the companion book to this quarter's Sabbath school lesson there.

We're going to come right back in just a moment as we continue studying together in the book of Joshua here on Sabbath School brought to you by It Is Written.

Series

Sabbath School 4th Quarter 2025: Lessons of Faith from Joshua

11 Living in the Land

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Sabbath School 4th Quarter 2025: Lessons of Faith from Joshua

04 The Conflict Behind All Conflicts

28m

Sabbath School 4th Quarter 2024: Themes in the Gospel of John

08 Fulfilling Old Testament Prophecies

28m

InVerse 4th Quarter 2025: The Book of Joshua

10 A Place of Refuge

28m

Hebrews 11- Faith

07 The Faith of Isaac

40m

Understanding Difficult Topics

5. The United States in Bible Prophecy

1h 14m

A Man After Gods Own Heart: King David

09 Living Above Retaliation

43m

The Tides of Change Part 1

53m

All the World Marveled

All the World Marveled

1h 8m

InVerse 4th Quarter 2025: The Book of Joshua

11 Recommitment

28m

Sabbath School 3rd Quarter 2025: Exodus

11 Apostasy and Intercession

28m

Jesus On Prophecy

Satan on Prophecy vs. Jesus on Prophecy

57m

God Keep Our Land

29m

Sound Doctrine