Joshua 13

v1-6: From this point on the "narrative is not as entertaining or instructive as that of the conquest," but "we are not to skip over these chapters of difficult names as being useless and not worth considering. When God has something to say and write about, we should listen to and read it, and may God give us a heart to learn from what we receive." Joshua was now old, and it was "not right that at his age he should be given all the toil of starting a war again, especially in such distant places." God knows us and "considers what we are like and does not want us to be burdened with work beyond our strength." He does not expect us to do when we are old, what we did when we were younger.

v7-33: Joshua is given the responsibility of allocating the land. "He had seen Moses distribute" the land to the two and a half tribes, and now he is to do it for the other tribes. In this way "he might become a type of Christ, who has not only conquered the gates of hell for us, but has also opened the gates of heaven to us," purchasing "the eternal inheritance for all believers and will in due time give them all possession of it."