Imagine
So the LORD gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give
to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The LORD gave
them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And
not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the LORD delivered all their
enemies into their hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had
spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass. (Josh. 21:43-45)
For seven years
they were virtually untouchable. Seven nations conquered. At least thirty-one
kings defeated. Approximately ten thousand square miles of choice property
claimed. Seven years of unbridled success. They were outnumbered but not out-powered;
they were underequipped but not overwhelmed. They were the unlikely but
unquestionable conquerors of some of the most barbaric armies in history. Had
the campaign been a prizefight, the referee would have called it in the first
round. The Hebrew people were unstoppable. But that wasn’t always the case.
The Bible
doesn't gloss over the checkered history of God's chosen people. Abraham had
too many wives. Jacob told too many lies. Esau sold his birthright. Joseph's
brothers sold Joseph. Four centuries of Egyptian bondage were followed by forty
years of wilderness wandering. Then later, seventy years of Babylonian
detention. The Hebrew people built two temples only to lose them both. They
were given the Ark of the Covenant only to lose it, too. Babylonia built her
cities. Greece flexed her muscles. Rome stretched her empire. And Israel? Well,
in the schoolroom of ancient nations, Israel was the kid with the black eye, all
bullied and beaten up in the corner. Except for those seven years.
Their
accomplishments were so complete the historian wrote: “So the LORD gave to
Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they
took possession of it and dwelt in it. The LORD gave them rest all around,
according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their
enemies stood against them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their
hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the
house of Israel. All came to pass.” (Josh. 21:43-45)
Those are some pretty
sweeping statements: "The LORD gave . . . all the land;" "The
LORD gave them rest;" "Not a man of all their enemies stood against
them;" "All came to pass." Winter chill gave way to springtime
thaw, and a new season had been born. Maybe you could use a new season, too.
You don't need to cross the Jordan River, but you need to get through the week.
You aren't facing Jericho, but you’re facing rejection or heartache. Canaanites
don't stalk you, but disease, discouragement, and danger do. And you wonder if
you have what it takes to face tomorrow.
Sometimes the
challenge is just too much. You want to keep up. You try. It's not that you
don't. You just run out of fight. Life has a way of taking the life out of us.
The book of Joshua is in the Bible for those seasons. It dares us to believe that
our best days are ahead of us. The Promised Land was the third stop on the
Hebrews' iconic itinerary. Their pilgrimage began in Egypt, continued through
the wilderness, and concluded in Canaan. Each land represents a different
condition of life. Kind of like geography as theology. In Egypt the Hebrews
were enslaved to Pharaoh. In the wilderness they were free from Pharaoh but
still enslaved to fear. They refused to enter the Promised Land and languished
in the desert. Only in Canaan did they discover victory.
We’ve all
traveled that itinerary. Egypt represents our days before salvation. We were in
bondage to sin. We wore the leg irons of guilt and death. But then came our
Deliverer, Jesus Christ. By his grace, and in his power, we crossed the Red
Sea. He liberated us from the old life and offered us a brand-new life in
Canaan. Our promised land isn't a physical territory; it’s a spiritual reality.
It's not real estate but a real state of the heart and mind. A promised land
life in which "we are more than conquerors through [Christ] who loved us."
(Rom. 8:37) A life in which "we do not lose heart." (2 Cor. 4:16) A
life in which "[Christ's] love has the first and last word in everything
we do." (2 Cor. 5:14) A life in which we are "exceedingly joyful in
all our tribulation." (2 Cor. 7:4) A life in which we are "anxious
for nothing" (Phil. 4:6), in which we are "praying always" (Eph.
6:18), and a life in which we "do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through Him." (Col. 3:17)
Canaan is a life
defined by grace, refined by challenge and aligned with a heavenly call. In
God's plan, in God's land, we win
more often than we lose, forgive as quickly as we’re offended, and give as
abundantly as we receive. We serve out of our giftedness, and delight in our
assignments. We may stumble, but we don’t collapse. We may struggle, but we don’t
despair. We boast only in Christ, trust only in God, lean wholly on his power.
We enjoy abundant fruit and increasing faith. Canaan symbolizes the victory we
can have today. Heaven will have no enemies; Canaan had at least seven enemy
nations. Heaven will have no battles; Joshua and his men fought at least
thirty-one. (Josh. 12:9-24) Heaven will be free of stumbles and struggles;
Joshua's men weren't. They stumbled and struggled, but their victories far
outnumbered their defeats. Canaan, then, does not represent the life to come.
Canaan represents the life we can have – now.
God invites us
to enter Canaan. There’s only one condition, however. We must turn our backs on
the wilderness. Just as Canaan represents the victorious Christian life, the
wilderness represents the defeated Christian
life. In the desert the Hebrew people were liberated from Egyptian bondage, but
you wouldn't have known it by listening to them. Just three days into their
freedom "the people complained against Moses, saying, 'What shall we
drink?'" (Ex. 15:24) A few more days passed, and "the children of
Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness . . . 'Oh, that we
had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt . . . For you have
brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.'"
(16:2-3) "The people contended with Moses" (17:2), and "the
people complained against Moses." (v. 3) They inhaled anxiety like oxygen.
They bellyached to the point that Moses prayed, "’What shall I do with
this people? They are almost ready to stone me!’" (v. 4)
How did the
Hebrews go from carefree to the Dead Sea? It wasn't due to a lack of miracles.
They saw God's power in high definition. They watched locusts gobble crops,
boils devour skin, and flies buzz through Pharaoh's court. God turned the
chest-thumping Egyptians into shark bait right before their eyes. But when God
called them to cross over into Canaan, the twelve spies returned and all but
two said the mission was impossible. The giants were too big for them. "We
were like grasshoppers," they said. (Num. 13:33) So God gave them time to
think it over. He put the entire nation in a time-out for nearly forty years.
They walked in circles. They ate the same food every day. Life was an endless
routine of the same rocks, lizards and snakes. Victories were scarce. Progress
was slow. They were saved but not strong. Redeemed but not released. Saved from
Pharaoh but stuck in the desert. Redeemed but locked in a routine. Monotonous.
Dull. Ho-hum. Humdrum. Four decades of tedium. Sounds miserable. Sound familiar?
The REVEAL
Research Project went looking for Joshua’s. Back in 2007 they began surveying the
members of more than a thousand churches. They wanted to determine the
percentage of churchgoers who were actually propelled by their faith to love
God and love others with their whole hearts. How many Christians would describe
their days as being their best days? The answer? Eleven percent. Nearly nine
out of ten believers were languishing in the wilderness. Saved? Yes. Empowered?
No. They waste away in the worst of ways – in the Land of In-Between. Out of
Egypt but not yet in Canaan. What if a high school graduated only 11 percent of
its students, or a hospital healed only 11 percent of its patients, or a
baseball team won only 11 percent of its games? Wouldn't it be time for a change?
Do you sense a
disconnect between the promises of the Bible and the reality of your life?
Jesus offers abundant joy. Yet you live with oppressive grief. The Epistles
speak of grace. Yet you shoulder immense guilt. We are "more than
conquerors" (Rom. 8:37), yet we’re commonly conquered by temptations or
weaknesses. Caught in the land between Egypt and Canaan. Think about the
Christian you want to be. What qualities do you want to have? More compassion?
More conviction? More courage? And what attitudes do you want to discontinue?
Greed? Guilt? Endless negativity? Here’s the good news. You can. With God's
help you can close the gap between the person you are and the person you want
to be, and the person God made you to be – living "from glory to glory."
(2 Cor. 3:18)
The walls of
Jericho are already condemned. The giants are already on the run. The deed to
your new life in Canaan has already been signed. It just falls to you to
possess the land. Joshua and his men did it. They went from dry land to the Promised
Land, from manna to feasts, from arid deserts to fertile fields. They inherited
their inheritance. So, personalize the promise in Joshua 21. Put your name in
the blanks: “The Lord gave to (you) all the life he had sworn to give. And (you)
took possession of it and dwelt in it. The Lord gave (you) rest all around and
not an enemy stood. Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had
spoken to (you). All came to pass.” That’s God's vision for your life.
Imagine. You at
full throttle. You as you were intended. You as victor over the Jericho’s and
giants. It’s yours for the taking. Expect to be challenged, of course – the enemy
won't go down without a fight. But expect great progress. Life is different on
the west side of the Jordan. Breakthroughs outnumber breakdowns. God's promises
outweigh personal problems. Victory becomes, dare we imagine, a way of life.
Isn't it time for you to change your mailing address from the wilderness to the
Promised Land? Your inheritance awaits you.
So, get
marching.
Grace,
Randy
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