In Joshua 23, Joshua gives his final words to God’s people, reminding them of God’s grace, His promises, and the consequences of not upholding their covenant with Him. He points to a better covenant through Jesus Christ, filled with joy, grace, and eternal hope through Jesus’ faithful obedience.
God is faithful and fulfills His promises. In Joshua 21, He gave His people land, rest, and victory, foreshadowing greater promises through Jesus Christ: the Kingdom of Heaven, eternal rest, and victory over sin and death. God’s faithfulness brings joy, grace, and enduring hope.
In Joshua 20, God’s people establish cities of refuge as commanded by God through Moses. These cities provided safety and protection for those who had done something wrong. They symbolize God’s desire to be our refuge and caution against seeking false sources of safety and protection.
In Joshua 18, God’s people were hesitant to claim the inheritance God had given them, becoming content with their current lives. Similarly, we often fail to embrace the fullness of our inheritance in Christ, settling for less when Jesus calls us to a new life of freedom. All we need to do is claim what God has graciously provided.
Joshua 17 shows that the people of Manasseh couldn’t drive out the Canaanites. They focused on their inabilities and forgot God’s promise. We all fail to obey God, but through Jesus Christ, we can trust in the future He has secured for us. With this Gospel of Grace, we are free to risk what we “cannot do” in faithful obedience to God.
God’s Law demands complete and total obedience, yet we tend to believe that being mostly obedient to God will be enough. Joshua 16 teaches us that anything short of total obedience brings nothing but the anger and wrath of God in our lives. Joshua 16 points us to the hope of the Gospel because God sent His one and only Son into this world to save us from our lives of partial obedience.
Who doesn’t love good gifts? The greatest gift of all is a fulfilled life. A life that is full of hope, joy, love, security, comfort, and peace. These are the things we all want most of all. Jesus teaches us that our Father in heaven wants to give those good gifts to those who ask him. Seems easy enough, but most often the hardest thing in the world is to find to humility to ask and the faith to believe that what God gives is the good that we so earnestly desire.
Caleb was a man who patiently waited 45 years for the fulfillment of Gods promise. The central convictions that gave him the motivation to trust God was his knowledge that the Lord delighted in him and was always with him. Through faith in Jesus we can share the same convictions of Caleb and enjoy the delight of the Lord forever.
God promises us rest and peace in faithful obedience to His Word. The challenge of the human heart is trust in those promises. We tend to think that we can find rest and fulfilment by doing the things we want to do and fear following God will bring us heartache and disappointment. How can we come to a place of trusting in the promises of God? Only through the goodness of God in the perfect obedience of His Son Jesus Christ.
No matter how much we like to think differently, we are insecure people. We are always worried about being forgotten or abandoned. This is true of all our relationships including God. We worry that God will not show up to help us and save us in our times of need. Joshua 10 tells us of a grace filled God who helps and saves even the most unworthy sinners just like us.
