After the Israelites had destroyed thirty-one kings in Canaan, they rested from war, in their camp at Gilgal. Joshua was growing too old to lead them out to battle any more, and there were no enemies near by to harm them. They had not yet destroyed all the wicked people who lived in Canaan, but they had taken much of the beautiful land to call their own.
But ‘God was not pleased to have the Israelites quit fighting while the people of Canaan still lived in the land. He had promised to give all the land of Canaan to the Israelites, not just a part of it. And he was ready to help them drive out all of their enemies. He wanted them to fight until the land should be no longer a home for any people who worshiped idols. So he spoke to Joshua and said, “You are growing too old to fight; but the land is not yet fully taken from your enemies. Now, I want you to divide this country among the twelve tribes of Israel and give each tribe a part to call its home country. Then let the tribes each drive out all the wicked people who live in the part of the country that is given to it.”
Joshua and the high priest, Eleazar, and the old men from each of the tribes divided the land of Canaan as; God told them to do. You remember that two and one half of the tribes had already taken land for their homes on the east side of the Jordan River; so only nine and one half of the tribes took this land of Canaan for their part of the promised land. After this time the land of Canaan was called the land of Israel. But there were still in this land cities where the Canaanite people lived.
One day the rulers of the tribe of Judah came to see Joshua at his tent in Gilgal. With them came an old man named Caleb. You will remember that Caleb was one of the two faithful spies whom Moses sent into Canaan with ten other men more than forty years before this time. Although Caleb was now eighty-five years old, he was as strong and brave as he had been when a young man. And now he came to ask Joshua, for the piece of land that Moses promised should be given to him when the Israelites should enter Canaan to live there.
Joshua was glad to see Caleb. He remembered how faithful and true to God this old soldier had been when the ten spies brought a wrong report from the promised land. He remembered how Caleb had tried to quiet the people when they were crying for fear of the giants who lived in Canaan. And now he was ready to give Caleb any part of Canaan that this faithful old man might ask for.
There were beautiful valleys near Gilgal where the enemies had been driven away, and where green fields and fruit-trees were growing. But Caleb did not look at these places. He remembered the mountain-country where he and the other spies had seen walled cities and tall giants. Those same cities still stood on the mountain-sides, and the sons of those tall giants still lived in them. Caleb said, “Give me the mountain where we saw those giants, and the cities where the giants live. Although I am now an old man, yet if God is with me I shall be able to drive out those giants and take their cities.’ Brave old Caleb!
How happy Joshua felt when he saw the courage and the faith of his old friend! He spoke words of blessing to Caleb and then gave him the mountain-country and the city of Hebron where the giants were then living. And God helped! Caleb to drive those giants out of the city and chase them away to the land of their enemies who lived by the seashore. Afterwards Caleb and his sons and his daughters and others of their relatives went to live in Hebron.
The tabernacle had stood at Gilgal ever since the Israelites had crossed the Jordan River. Now the time came for it to be moved again. This time it was taken to a place called Shiloh, and here it stayed for many long years. This place was nearer to the center of the land of Israel, and all the people of Israel were commanded to come to Shiloh three times every year to worship God at the tabernacle. These three times were the times which God had chosen for the people to keep the feasts. First was the Passover feast, when they were to kill and eat a lamb as their fathers had done before they left Egypt; next was the Feast of Pentecost, fifty days after the Passover feast, when the people were to bring the first ripe fruits from their fields and lay them on the altar; and last was the Feast of Tabernacles, when the people were to gather together at Shiloh and build huts of the boughs of trees and sleep out-of-doors—in these huts, to keep in mind the long years when they lived in tents in the wilderness.
Although the people of the twelve tribes went away to live in different parts of the land of Israel, yet some of the priests and some of the Levites stayed at Shiloh all the time and kept the tabernacle worship just as God had told them to do when he gave them the plan for this holy place.