Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Yesterday the Israelites won a lot of wars and took a lot of land, so today we open with

a summary of what land they've acquired, with lots of boundaries that are probably unfamiliar to you and that seem

unimportant. Rest assured that these boundaries were very important to the people at

the time and not only that but these lists have also served our faith historically and archaeologically.

So hang in there when we're in these dry patches.

Know that they serve a purpose greater than you.

We started out with the land they conquered when Moses was still alive, all the stuff

east of the Jordan River where the 2.5 trans-jordan tribes live, Gad, Ruben, and East Manassa.

Then we crossed the Jordan River heading west into the

Promised land and read about the areas conquered by Joshua. After all this

conquering, Joshua is pretty old, but God says he's not done with him. There's still more land to take, so he's not

allowed to die yet. But God will do the heavy lifting for them and drive out the inhabitants

himself. Then Joshua will give the land to the remaining 9.5 tribes.

And the Levites, of course, have God himself as their inheritance,

and they're divvied up to live among each of the tribes.

One of the problems with the 2.5 trans-jordan tribes to the east

is that they didn't drive out all the people who live there, which is not okay,

according to God. We'll continue to see how this act of disobedience causes them trouble through the years.

Then we have an encounter with Caleb.

He was the other spy who, along with Joshua, believed God 45 years earlier when they spied out this very land.

He's talking to Joshua about what they endured then and what God promised to them.

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