A Bright, Morning Star
Joshua 19:10, 13a &15a
The third lot came up for the people of Zebulon, according to their clans. And the territory of their inheritance reached as far as Sarid. … From there it passes along on the east toward the sunrise … and Kattah, Nahalal, Shimron, Idalah, and Bethlehem.
Oh how meek and unassuming this directional hint toward our coming Messiah! A hint that, like the common visage Christ bore throughout His earthly ministry, doesn’t come through majestic poetic verve. That is, it doesn’t stand out for any genius of meter or form. Rather, like that heavenly sheen that sparkled in our LORD’s eyes for those who looked deep enough, and like that resonation of divine power that rumbled under his vocal cords as He spoke for those who listened with their hearts, this directional phrase ‘toward the sunrise’ bids us to look beyond the trappings of time and space and the confines of language itself, to a humble, meek, and mild pastureland where Almighty God will condense Himself, empty Himself, and be born in our likeness.
If memory serves me correctly, the last time we encountered this phrase ‘toward the sunrise’ was in Numbers 2, where all twelve tribes gathered in a circle around the tabernacle, each bearing their distinct flags and standards, but all unified in the fellowship of faith. There, the Spirit impressed on Moses to add this extra description of the tribe of Judah, that they stood ‘toward the sunrise’—a subtle but exquisite clue that the chosen Messiah, called by Isaiah the bright Morning Star, would come through that chosen tribe. No wonder, then, that when Joshua resurrects this description here in Joshua 19, he does so, whether he knows it or not, because one cannot utter the name ‘Bethlehem’ without moving nearer to the Sunrise.
How majestic to think that Almighty God really did place the sun, moon, and stars in the sky as signs of something far greater, giving us physical pictures of spiritual wonders, placing the tribe of Judah and the town of Bethlehem in the geographic direction of the very star around which our world spins. To speak poetically, perhaps those Eastern Magi didn’t need an extra celestial light to guide them to Bethlehem after all. Maybe they just kept following the sunrise till it led them at last to earth’s true Light.