It is finally time to enter the Promised Land.  The book and life of Joshua is about “Receiving God’s Promises”. Maybe you too have stood on some particular promise of God for a season of time.  Praise the Lord the day eventually comes (if you have remained faithful to those promises) when God’s word comes to pass.

Joshua was chosen by both God and Moses to complete the work of leading Israel into the Promised Land. God had made a promise over 400 years earlier to Abraham that his descendants would receive the land Abraham lived in for an inheritance, as a homeland.

Time had gone by for Joshua and Caleb but in forty years they never stopped believing the promise God made them.  They both said 40 years earlier, “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.”(Numbers 13:30).

Can you imagine their ups and downs in all those years?   They spent forty years waiting and waiting on the fulfillment of God’s word.  They continually saw their neighbors die in the desert, not receiving the promise.  Each day these two men discovered fresh again the faithfulness of God. God could be counted on to fulfill His word.

You may remember the old hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness”.  The chorus goes like this:

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided –

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!

This great Hymn of the church was written by Thomas Chisholm. He did not write this hymn because of some great or miraculous event.  Rather, he wrote it because he looked back over his life and was reminded of the great faithfulness of God throughout the years. He penned the song when he was 75 years old.  Wow!

The same is true for the children of Israel.  Their entrance into the Promised Land is not about anything the Jews did or didn’t do.  This story is all about what God did and continues to do.  Why?  He is faithful.

Moses had just passed away.  Even though Moses had died, it did not mean that the plans of God were dead as well. Joshua was raised up to continue the work of God.

 On one of the monuments commemorating the life and death of John Wesley at Westminster Abby is carved these words: “God buries His workmen, but His work goes on.”

Someone has to pick-up, hold, and believe the promises of God for this generation.  If you are still alive and kicking, that person is you!  What promises are you believing God to bring to pass today?  It is not too late.

Blessings,

Pastor