These were the inheritances which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of
(Jos 19:51)
The dividing was finished, but the work was far from done. They had entered the land, conquered parts of the land, and divided the land… but much of the land still need to be possessed. The land was theirs, it had been given to them by the Lord, now they needed to move into it, to settle down in it, to build their homes and establish themselves.
As Christians we are told in 2 Peter 1:3 that “His divine power has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness”. Like the children of
Like a blank check that was never cashed, much of the Promised Land was never possessed or settled. Canaanites were left in the land as servants, others were never even attacked; the land was the Israelites by divine right, but that right was never made a reality. I don’t want this to be our testimony; I want us to take advantage of all that God has given us, to be able to say like the apostle Paul that we accomplished ALL the work the Lord had given us to do. The Lord want’s to use us; He just needs us to make ourselves available to Him.
I leave you this morning with one of my favorite passages in scripture… “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.”
(Php 2:12-16)
2 comments:
I love that part of scriputre too. I am getting kinda confused here, so God promised the Isrialites that they would own a certin amount of land. They owned the land but they never used it, and they kept the people the conqured as thier sevents And even to this day they don't own all the land God promised them. Right?
God promised a bunch of land to the Israelites, they only ever took possession of a small amount of it. In one sense they "owned" it all because GOD (the creator of the world) gave it to them. In another sense, it still belong to the people living in it, because Israel had done nothing to take it. What we call "Israel" today is only a fraction of the land God gave to the Jews... one day it will all be theirs.
Within the land that the Israelites DID possess, they didn't finish the job the way that had been commanded. In some of those places, they made the other nations their servants, some they made pay taxes and tribute... Others ended up terrorizing the Israelites because the Jews never went and drove them out.
Following God's command only partially rather than completely created real problems for the Israelites.
It's a good lesson for us about the importance of COMPLETE OBEDIENCE.
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