"So the Lord gave to Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had solemnly promised their ancestors. None of their enemies could stand against them, for the Lord helped them conquer all their enemies. 45 Not a single one of all the good promises the Lord had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true." ~Joshua 21:43-45 NLT
But then comes along this passage!
It's a beautiful passage near the end of the storyline of Joshua's leadership.
WHY? Because it describes the reality of the God who was then and is still today!
He had promised the people upon their exodus from Egypt the lands that He had promised to their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Even despite their shortcomings and grumblings, and even despite a wandering in the desert lands for 40 years, God still stuck to His promise! For them it was an amazing display of God's loyalty to His chosen people! For us it is a huge reminder that God is with us through whatever comes our way! Maybe we will never find ourselves wandering in a desert land for 40 years but we will find ourselves in situations or circumstances that can cause us to DOUBT this truth! But through it all God is with us, through the slander, the obstacles, and whatever it may be!
God also promised them rest. Rest is vital to our lives and after all that the people had endured through and persevered through, God provided them with rest from all the pressures and problems that could have still been around them in this new land. And as God's people today, we can receive the same kind of rest from all the things that we face and that come against us in this thing called the journey of life and faith. God is for us - with us - never abandoning us and when we fully grasp that a peace that passes all understanding comes our way. And the result of that peace flooding over our lives is we can rest in God's assurances and promises! As the people were settling into the Promised Land, God provided them, just as he does for us today, with the kind of rest that King David describes in one of the most famous psalm of all time:
"The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. 2 He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.3 He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honour to his name." ~Psalm 23:1-3 NLT
Finally God promised them protection in the land He was leading them to and Joshua states in verse 44 that no enemy could stand against them. Even in their times of peace there would have been enemies who would want to take advantage of the calm and attack when it was least expected. But God saw to it that no one would come against His people - He was protecting them through the storms and in the calm! Which is exactly what God desires for our lives still today! The Apostle Paul tried to help us to understand this truth in his amazing letter he wrote to the earliest churches in the city of Rome. Check out his words to them and to us:
"What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us.35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. 38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." ~Romans 8:31-39 NLT
Not a single promise God made was left out, left unfulfilled then and nothing has changed since then! The promises of God for our lives are still just as valid today as they were when the people of Israel settled into the land that He had given to them! Which is "WHY" we must never forget the greatest promise of all that God passes down to us today and always, it's a promise made to us through Paul in his letter to the churches in the ancient city of Philippi:
6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. ~Philippians 1:6 NLT
Rev Trev
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