Judges 1

This opening chapter to the book of Judges seems to recap some of the end of the previous book, as it tells of the continued conquering of the promised land (some of which went well, and much of which seems to have gone amiss). We also get the story of Caleb retold, in almost identical wording to how it was presented before - which makes me wonder if that happened before or after Joshua died, since here is seems to have occurred after. Perhaps it was just being relayed along with the other successes his people had.

There is also a neat story of the defeat of Bethel, which is very reminiscent of Rahab and Jericho. Israelite spies convince a man to betray the city, but in turn spare him and his family. It almost seems odd to request and then reward what would normally be considered trickery and deceit, but perhaps to some degree the ends justify the means. It certainly turned out well for that man, who goes unnamed.

What worries me is that many of the tribes seem to have failed in their God-given orders to destroy the peoples living there before them. I wonder if this is going to come back to bite them.

Joshua 15

Wow, my head is spinning after the reading today. The first half of the chapter was not too bad - a description of Judah's tribal lands border, and a couple of small stories about Caleb. From there, though, it goes into a list of all the cities in the lands controlled by Judah... and that was too much for me. I read through it all, but trying to pronounce some of those town names in my head was quite difficult. The only interesting things I can take from it are 1) that there were a lot of cities and towns for such a (relatively) small area and 2) the men of Judah had not managed to take Jerusalem from the native inhabitants, which was surprising. I wonder how long they tolerated that presence in their midst, given God's command to wipe out the locals.

Joshua 14

Todays chapter was short, but very memorable. I was wondering if we would hear about Caleb again, the other spy - along with Joshua - who stayed loyal to God among those that Moses sent out to scout the promised land. It turns out that he was forty at the time of that mission, and now is eighty five (which basically answers my question about how long the conquest of the promised land took: at most five years). Not only has he lived to a ripe old age, but he is still as hale as he was before - we are told he can still fight and tend to his duties. God obviously blessed him for his steadfastness, and now he is rewarded with the choice lands that he had spied out nearly half a century before.

Numbers 13

Today's chapter covers a classic story - the spies being sent in to scout out the Promised Land. Unfortunately, the majority of them were cowards and reported that the land would be too hard to take; so far we've only heard that Caleb spoke out in favor of going in and claiming the land God was giving to them. If I'm not mistaken we will see that Joshua, one of the other spies, will also side with Caleb (and God); but that is for a future chapter.

One of the reasons given by the rest of the spies for not invading was that descendants of the Nephilim were there - presumably giants, from the description they gave. That, in tandem with another reference in Genesis, has always interested me; furthermore, they are called here the "sons of Anak". I think later books will tie this name in again with Goliath, which fits with the idea that they were giants (as he was). If they were accurate in their description of these as real Nephilim, then it indicates that that race existed both before and after the flood - again fitting with the lines in Genesis 6.