Mon.’s Devo - Kingdom Multiplication

Read: Joshua 16:1-18:28; Luke 19:1-27; Psalm 87:1-7; Proverbs 13:11 The next land allotted went to Ephraim. Ephraim was Joseph’s oldest son and Manasseh was his youngest. Jacob adopted them as his own and prophesied that Manasseh would be greater than Ephraim. If you look at a map of Manasseh’s land it is the largest area of land other than Judah. Manasseh means “causing to forget” which shows that God really wants us to forget our past so he can bless our future. Ephraim’s land was right in the middle of the promised land surrounded by Manasseh in the north and Dan, and Benjamin to the south which hadn’t received their inheritance yet. They were unable to drive out the Canaanites from the town of Gezer so they made the people their slaves. Manasseh was given land on both sides of the Jordan River. Manasseh had six sons. His fifth son was Hepher which means “pit of shame”. One of his descendants, Zelophehad had no sons, but 5 daughters. His name means “shadow of fear”. Theses five women came to Joshua and wanted land and were granted it. There were five towns the tribe of Manasseh was unable to occupy because the Canaanites were determined to stay there. Interestingly, one of them was the town of Endor which was the only place Saul could find a witch when they had been driven out of the land. She had refused to leave also. The men of Manasseh eventually made them slaves. When the people of Joseph realized they needed more territory than they had been given because they were so many, they asked Joshua for more. Joshua gave them the forests of the hill country and told them to clear out as much land as they wanted. The Perizzites and the Rephaites lived there and the tribes of Joseph complained that they were too strong for them. Joshua told them to drive them out even though they were strong and had iron chariots. Joshua remembered what the Lord had promised them. God had told them that he would help them drive them out even though they were stronger and more in number. Israel met at Shiloh and made it their meeting place for the Tabernacle. There were seven tribes who had not yet taken their land. Joshua reprimanded them and told them to send spies and map out the rest of the land so he could determine borders for the remaining tribes. They did this and the next lot went to Benjamin. His land fell between the tribes of Judah and Joseph. In the land that Benjamin got was a town called Jebus which means “he will be trodden down”. It became Jerusalem. Jesus said the same thing of this city. In Luke, Jesus came to Jericho where the chief tax collector of the region lived. His name was Zacchaeus. His name means “one of my pure ones”. How interesting that the most hated man among men would be one that God saw as pure. God always sees what we are going to become not what we are before Jesus. Zacchaeus had climbed a tree to see Jesus since he was so short. Jesus called him by name out of the tree and was told he would host Him. This flew in the faces of the Pharisees who knew who Zacchaeus was. Zacchaeaus so changed that he wanted to give back 4 times what he had stolen from the people. Jesus proclaimed that salvation had come to his home and Zacchaeus had shown him self to be a true son of Abraham. Jesus gave them a parable to encouraged them to keep working once he was gone. Zacchaeus came to the Lord and lost much in the world’s kingdom to gain much in God’s. Lord may we invest in your kingdom with our time, talents and possessions.