God in the Details: The Wilderness Inheritance Text: Joshua 15:61-62
Introduction: The Divine Inventory
We live in an age that disdains particulars. We prefer grand, sweeping abstractions and sentimental generalities. We like the idea of a God of love, but we grow impatient with a God who keeps meticulous records. And so, when we come to a passage like this one in the book of Joshua, our eyes tend to glaze over. We read a list of strange, unpronounceable names, Beth-arabah, Middin, Secacah, and we are tempted to skip ahead to the more "exciting" parts, the battles or the soaring speeches. We treat it like the "begats" in Matthew, a genealogical mountain range we must climb over to get to the good stuff.
But this is a profound mistake. It is a mistake born of a modern, therapeutic view of God, and not the robust, sovereign God of the Scriptures. The Bible is not a collection of inspirational quotes. It is the very Word of God, and it is reliable in every detail. If we believe that God spoke the universe into existence, then we must also believe He is capable of inspiring an accurate inventory of the inheritance He gives to His people. These lists are not biblical filler. They are not the fine print of the covenant; they are the covenant made tangible, concrete, and geographical. They are gold, if we have the patience to mine for it.
Every name in this list is a nail driven into the board of history. God is not promising His people a vague, spiritual feeling of belonging. He is giving them dirt. He is giving them real estate. He is giving them specific cities with specific names in a specific location: the wilderness. This is God grounding His covenant promises in the grittiness of the real world. He is the God of the big picture, the grand sweep of redemptive history, but He is also the God of Beth-arabah. He is the Lord of lords, and He is the Lord of Middin and Secacah. To neglect these details is to neglect the very nature of the God who gives them.
Furthermore, these lists are a profound polemic against the pagan gods of the Canaanites. The gods of the nations were territorial spirits, tied to particular mountains or streams. But Yahweh, the God of Israel, is the Creator of all things. He is not a local deity; He is the sovereign landlord of the entire earth. And in this chapter, He is serving an eviction notice on the squatters and handing the keys to His children. This detailed allotment is an act of cosmic dominion. It is God saying, "All this is Mine, and I am giving it to whom I please." And in these two verses, we see a particular kind of inheritance, one that is crucial for understanding our own place in the world as Christians.
The Text
In the wilderness: Beth-arabah, Middin and Secacah, and Nibshan and the City of Salt and Engedi; six cities with their villages.
(Joshua 15:61-62 LSB)
The Inheritance in the Wilderness (v. 61)
The first thing we must notice is the location of this inheritance.
"In the wilderness: Beth-arabah, Middin and Secacah..." (Joshua 15:61)
The tribe of Judah is receiving its allotment, and part of that allotment is explicitly "in the wilderness." This should immediately arrest our attention. The wilderness, throughout Scripture, is a place of testing, of trial, of dependence, and of judgment. It was in the wilderness that Israel wandered for forty years because of their unbelief. It is a place of scorpions and serpents, of thirst and death. And yet, it is here that God plants a portion of His people. He gives them cities in the very place of their former failure.
This is a picture of grace. God does not just give us the lush, easy places. He redeems the very places of our rebellion and turns them into our inheritance. The ground that was cursed by their sin is now consecrated by His gift. This is what God does. He takes the wasteland of our lives, the years wasted in rebellion, the barrenness of our sin, and He builds cities there. He grants an inheritance in what was once only a place of judgment.
The names themselves, while obscure to us, would have been freighted with meaning. Beth-arabah means "house of the desert plain." It's right there in the name. God is making a home for His people in the dry places. Middin likely means "place of judgment" or "strife." Secacah may relate to a word for "enclosure." God is enclosing His people, protecting them, in the very place of judgment. He is carving out a sanctuary in the midst of the desolation. This is not just geography; it is theology written on the land.
This points us directly to the work of Christ. John the Baptist was the voice of one crying "in the wilderness," preparing the way for the Lord. Jesus was driven into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and He triumphed where Israel failed. He is the one who turns the wilderness of our fallen humanity into a garden. He takes our places of testing and failure and makes them the ground of our victory and inheritance.
Cities of Salt and Springs (v. 62)
The list continues, providing even richer theological texture.
"and Nibshan and the City of Salt and Engedi; six cities with their villages." (Joshua 15:62 LSB)
Here we have two starkly contrasting images placed side by side: the City of Salt and Engedi. The City of Salt is located near the Dead Sea, a place of profound barrenness and death. It is a standing monument to God's judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. It is a saline wasteland where nothing can grow. And God gives His people a city there. Why? Because they are to be a preserving influence, a people of the covenant, in a world under the curse of death. Jesus tells us, "You are the salt of the earth" (Matthew 5:13). The people of Judah are being given a commission to be a salty people right next to the salt sea of God's judgment. They are to be a reminder of both the severity and the grace of God.
But right next to the City of Salt, they are given Engedi. Engedi means "spring of the kid" or "fountain of the goat." It was, and is, a lush oasis, a place of freshwater springs, waterfalls, and abundant life, right on the edge of the Dead Sea. It is a picture of life bursting forth in the midst of death. It was at Engedi that David hid from Saul, finding refuge by the springs in the wilderness (1 Samuel 23:29). It is a type of Christ, who is the fountain of living water in the desolate wilderness of this world.
Do you see the gospel in this geography? God gives His people an inheritance that encompasses both the City of Salt and the springs of Engedi. He is teaching them, and us, that our inheritance in this life is lived out between judgment and grace, between the barrenness of the curse and the life-giving fountain of the Spirit. We are called to be a salty, preserving people in a world that is spiritually dead, a world like the Dead Sea. But we can only do so because we have been given access to Engedi, the fountain of life that flows from the Rock, who is Christ.
The text concludes by reminding us that these were not just abstract locations, but "six cities with their villages." This was a real, functioning inheritance. This was a place for families to live, for children to be born, for the covenant to be passed down. God's promises are not ethereal; they are designed for the rough and tumble of everyday life, for villages and families and work.
Our Wilderness Inheritance
So what does this ancient property list have to do with us? Everything. The book of Joshua is a type, a pattern, for the Christian life. The conquest of Canaan was the type; our evangelism and discipleship of the nations is the antitype. Joshua, whose name is the Hebrew form of Jesus, led the people into a physical inheritance. Our Jesus leads us into a spiritual inheritance that is laying claim to the entire physical world.
Like Judah, our inheritance is "in the wilderness." We are pilgrims and sojourners in this world. This present age is a place of testing and trial. We should not be surprised when we find ourselves in dry and weary lands. But it is precisely here, in the wilderness of a fallen world, that God has given us our commission. He has planted us here as His people.
We are citizens of the City of Salt. We are called to be a preservative against the corruption and decay of the world. Our lives, our families, our churches are to be outposts of God's covenantal faithfulness in a culture that is dead in trespasses and sins. We are to speak God's law, which is a ministry of death to the proud but a schoolmaster to the humble, leading them to Christ. We are to be salty, distinct, and uncompromising.
And we are citizens of Engedi. We have been given the life-giving water of the Holy Spirit. In the midst of the cultural wasteland, the church is to be an oasis. It is the place where the thirsty can come and drink freely from the grace of God. Our worship, our fellowship, our tables are to be springs in the desert for a world that is dying of thirst. We offer the world not just a moral preservative, but a life-giving fountain.
This is our inheritance. It is not an easy one. It is in the wilderness. It requires us to live with the tension of being a City of Salt next to the Dead Sea, while also cultivating the gardens of Engedi. But it is a glorious inheritance, because it is the very place where our Lord Jesus won His victory. He is the true Joshua who leads us in. He does not just give us six cities; He gives us the whole world. "Blessed are the meek," He said, "for they shall inherit the earth." Let us, therefore, be faithful to take possession of the land He has given us, even when, and especially when, it is in the wilderness.