Joshua 18:21. "Now the cities of the tribe of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho, Bethhoglah, Emekkeziz, ..." The passage goes on to list twenty-six cities in all, with all of their villages, that were allotted to the tribe of Benjamin, one of which is Jebus, or Jerusalem (Joshua 18:28). 

Whenever I get these "list readings," with names of cities, or people, or tribes I have a hard time pronouncing and spelling listed for one reason or another, I often think "I'll just pick another reading, there is nothing to be gleaned from this in a short journal entry." I'm always wrong, though! When I got this verse today, I actually closed the Bible to "start over" with a new verse, but as I thought about it, something came to me, so I went back to it.

I have begun working on redoing our wills, not because I am changing anything - our children will all share equally in whatever is left after my husband and I both pass, but because the wills are over twenty years old and need some refreshing. One reason I am redoing them is to include, at the advice of an estates attorney, "special needs trust" provisions so that if a beneficiary under the will is receiving government benefits due to a disability, their inheritance will go into a special needs trust rather than directly to them, so as not to jeopardize their benefits. This is what I thought of after I closed the Bible to choose a new passage, and what brought me back to this verse.

The tribe of Benjamin received both Jericho and Jerusalem among the twenty-six cities that made up its inheritance. Jericho was a great city, and Jerusalem will become the greatest of cities. It hardly seems fair that one tribe is blessed with both! But then I think of the special needs trust, and how it is structured for the benefit of the special needs person. Having special needs is not fair - I am sure there are special needs people who occasionally look at their fully capable siblings and question God. Why would He so bless their siblings yet give them this cross? Then, in the context of the will, rather than being able to receive their inheritance like their able-bodied siblings, they have to have it held in trust and only paid out for their "special needs" that are not being provided for by government programs. Again, how seemingly unfair! But the intent of the testator, me in this case, is only to do what is absolutely best for my child. Any money the child received directly would be immediately allocated to their care and could also deprive them of benefits on which they must rely, so that is to be avoided.

Thinking of God as the "testator" in allocating lands to the tribes, and other blessings to all of us, and knowing that He is all good and wants only what is best for us, we can be certain there is some reason He has given what seems like more blessings to some than to others. Perhaps the tribe of Benjamin was to learn from managing the city of Jericho how to eventually manage Jerusalem well. And perhaps they were to hold Jerusalem "in trust" for the rest of us. Perhaps it is like this with all of the things that God has allotted to each of us - we do not hold them for our sakes, but in trust for everyone else!