This is the land that yet remaineth all the districts of the Philistines and all the Geshurites,
God's word to Joshua starts with what Israel had not taken. The Philistine coast and the country of the Geshurites head a long list of ground still in enemy hands. Why would God name territory His people had never walked on, and hand it out as their inheritance anyway?
One writer contrasts two ways of measuring the same country:
We miss the full force of the Lord's words, "There remains yet very much land to be possessed," unless we take His standpoint. From there we see the whole length and breadth of the possession. In the things of God, Christians tend to measure their Christianity by the state of their own village or city. They do not measure it by God's standpoint, that all spiritual blessings are ours in Christ. So Israel judged the land of promise by what they had captured of it, and not by its actual length and breadth. But the Lord looked north and south, toward the sunrise and toward the country of the Sidonians. He saw possessions He had given to Israel still untrodden, and cities and villages that no one held or lived in.
The list is not a record of defeat. It is a spur — and the promise behind it still holds:
What remains is now set out carefully, to stir them up to reach it. Reach it they never did, though David later ruled over much of it; but they never possessed it. It is theirs still, however, in the promise of God, along with much else, to be fulfilled in a day now very near at hand.
God told Joshua to divide the very districts named here, while their enemies still held them:
So the Lord commands Joshua to divide by lot even what was not yet taken from the hands of the inhabitants. What an encouragement to advance without fear! Is not the Lord worthy of trust? Yet He will have His people fight for Canaan. They fight not for redemption from Egypt, but for their inheritance in the promised land. They fight as those who are dead and risen with Christ, blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Him.
These enemies had reached Canaan by an easier road than Israel:
The first land not yet taken is "all the regions of the Philistines" (v. 2). The Philistines came from Egypt by way of the north, and they never had to cross the Red Sea. So they are a picture of those who have come into Christian profession without facing the truth of the death of Christ for them — not redeemed, but religious. Their name means "wallowers," for they wallow in the mire of empty forms and ceremonies, and they have always been a thorn in Israel's side.
Another writer weighs that easy road:
Exodus marks the "way of the Philistines" as the "near" way out of Egypt to the land. It was as easy as it was near. There was no Red Sea to cross and no Jordan. The Sihor named here was a boundary line in name only, not a barrier. So the Philistines are natural men who have come into spiritual things, not by the power of God, but in a natural way.
The Geshurites come next, and one writer reads them from the meaning of their name:
Their name means "proud beholders." It speaks of those who take the place of spectators only. They are well able to criticize, and proud of their ability to say what others should do. But they never take part in the work of the Lord at all.
By chapter 13 the enemy has changed. It is no longer the walled city:
When we open the thirteenth chapter of this book, the air is different from the air of its opening exhortations. We are face to face with new difficulties. The enemy is not the iron chariots of the Canaanites, not the cities walled up to heaven, not the giants of the mountains. These foes are harder to overcome: laziness and love of ease in the army of the Lord.
Kelly points to the same failure in Israel:
The Israelites had been slothful; they were slow to act on the full grant of the Lord. They would have rested once they had gained enough to keep themselves. But that is not the mind of God for us, any more than it was for them.
One writer points past the leader to God Himself:
Joshua may lose strength, great leaders may grow weak, but the Lord remains always the same. If the saints looked to God and not to leaders, they would prosper even when death took such men from them.
- Given: God promised the Philistine and Geshurite lands to Israel before Israel drew a single sword there.
- Granted: Joshua allotted ground that enemies still held. The deed comes first, the fighting after.
- Gauged: measure your portion by God's description of it, not by how much of it you now enjoy.
- Guarded: the Philistines picture people who are religious but not redeemed. The Geshurites picture the proud onlooker who comments but never fights.
- Given up: Israel stopped when they had enough to live on. The rest of the land stayed in enemy hands.
from the Shihor, which [floweth] before Egypt, as far as the borders of Ekron northward, [and which] is counted to the Canaanite; five lordships of the Philistines of Gazah, and of Ashdod, of Eshkalon, of Gath, and of Ekron; also the Avvites;
Chapter 12 listed the kings Israel had beaten; chapter 13 opens with God showing an aged Joshua how much land was still unclaimed. This verse maps the first piece of it — the coast from Shihor to Ekron — and raises a question: why does God name enemies who were never Canaanites?
The book turns here on the difference between a land taken and a land held:
Chapter 12 closes the first part of the book, which says that Israel had taken the whole land. But Joshua 13 opens by saying there remained "yet very much land to be possessed." In one sense they had taken all from north to south, so they could divide the land among the tribes. But they had not destroyed all their enemies, and they did not really hold all the land promised to Abraham. This is a picture of the Christian who has all things, and yet fails to enter into his full heavenly position.
Israel judged the size of their possession by what they had already captured. God measured it by what He had given.
You will only feel the full force of the Lord's words, "There remains yet very much land to be possessed," by taking His standpoint and looking from there at the length and breadth of the possession. In the things of God, Christians tend to measure their Christianity by the state of their own village or city. They do not measure it by God's standpoint, that all spiritual blessings are ours in Christ. The Lord was not willing that His people should lose the enjoyment of their blessings, so He promised them His support again, and gave Israel His emphatic "I will drive them out."
Shihor marks the southern end of the survey; older translations spell it "Sihor." Writers differ on which waterway the name means:
This refers to the river Nile. In Joshua 13:3 it is "Sihor which is before Egypt." In 1 Chronicles 13:5 the name is spelled SHIHOR, and marks the south-west boundary of Palestine. Some think both verses refer to the Wady el Arish, which was also called 'the river of Egypt.'
The phrase is unusual, because the people named in this verse did not descend from Canaan:
In the south are the lands of the Philistines, and with them the Geshurites and the Avvites. Neither the Philistines nor the Geshurites were Canaanites. Their land is still "counted to the Canaanites," and no doubt originally belonged to them.
How the Philistines entered the land shapes what they picture:
Their way in was as easy as it was near. There was no Red Sea to cross, and no Jordan. The Shihor named here was only a line on a map, not a barrier. So the Philistines are natural men who have come into spiritual things, not by the power of God, but in a natural way.
Their name points the same way:
The Philistines are a picture of those who have come into Christian profession without facing the truth of the death of Christ for them — not redeemed, but religious. Their name means "wallowers," because they wallow in the mire of empty forms and ceremonies. They have always been a thorn in Israel's side.
The verse names five rulers over five cities, and each name has a meaning:
Gaza (strong); Ashdod (I will spoil); Ashkelon (the fire of infamy); Gath (winepress, a type of wrath); Ekron (uprooting). These names describe the character of these powerful enemies of Israel.
Commentators differ on how to apply this. One writer sees the five lords in modern religion:
Five lords ruled the Philistines (Joshua 13:3; Judges 3:3), and five lords rule this modern religion too, for the five senses govern it. Its followers are controlled by what is natural, and they more or less deny everything outside the range of the senses.
The verse ends with the Avvim, a people someone else had already destroyed:
The "Avvites," or "Avvim," mean "perverters" or "overturners." God used the Caphtorim to destroy a people more evil than themselves. Yet the Avvim seem not to have been wiped out. They mixed with their conquerors, who may have learned their ways. A corrupted Christianity has certainly done the same. It has overcome forms of heathenism and then become like them, so that what was destroyed in one sense survived in another.
- Given — God gave the whole land, and God states its true size. A believer can hold all things in Christ and still live far inside the borders.
- Gap — this verse maps what God gave and Israel never took. They subdued the land without holding it.
- Guests — the Philistines came in by the easy road, crossing neither Red Sea nor Jordan: religious, but not redeemed.
- Governors — five rulers hold five cities: strong, I will spoil, fire of infamy, winepress and uprooting. The names describe the enemy's character.
- Ghosts — the Avvim were destroyed, then lived on by mixing with their conquerors. Corruption can survive by blending into what defeated it.