March 26 - Joshua 12:7-15:19

Good morning everyone,

We begin our reading this morning with a detailed list of the kings and the land Joshua and the Israelites conquered on the west side of the Jordan River. The boundaries are more largely described consisting of plains and springs to water them, forests, and wilderness, the different types of land prove to have something for everyone, a delightful balance beautiful and bountiful. God had kept his promise to the faithful. For the next couple of days in chapters 13-19 we will be reading on the breakdowns of the Promised Land, how that will look to each tribe.

Today we read in chapter 13 that Joshua had grown old, “very old” according to the Lord, and there were still large areas of land to be taken over. Now, you may be remembering from chapter 11:23 where we read that Joshua had taken the whole land and that the land then rested from war, and be thinking … what?! But I assure you, it is not a contradiction. The main battle was over and it was then up to the individual tribes to “clean up”, so to speak, their own areas. It is like when firefighters go in to put out a huge forest fire. While they will contain it, knock all the flames down, completely extinguish it, there can still be what’s known as “hot spots”, embers that have scattered in the process, that need to be addressed or they too can rekindle into another fire and the battle would begin all over. The tribes, by God’s deliverance, had secured victory, now they just needed to clean house of what had scattered in their own individual plots.

Sound familiar? When we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts to be our personal Savior we too have victory in Jesus, 2 Corinthians 5:17 assures us that “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” We have won the war but there are still pockets of resistance in our soul that the enemy searches for. Why? Because he knows we find them comfortable and too often even enjoyable, for some crazy reason, to us humans, sin is appealing. I shake my head at that, but it’s true.  The enemy delights in rekindling these, hot spots into a roaring fires of sin that he hopes to devour me, to devour you, to all of us with. Make no mistake, the devil roams about all of the earth searching for someone to attack then he will greedily gobble up and gorge himself on those who are not sober and alert . (1Peter 5:8 totally paraphrased) How can we protect ourselves? With God’s armor of course. Ephesians 6:10-17 gives us a full description of that armor and how it is used an then we are to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Talk to God, always have an open line of communication with Him. Though we know the end of the story, our prayer is essential in the ongoing warfare with the enemy. 

As I write this I am reminded of an old hymn we sang often at the church I attended in Ridgecrest, CA. I can still see my then pastor, a dear man, with Bible in hand keeping tune to the chorus, “O victory in Jesus, My Savior, forever. He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood; He loved me ere I knew Him And all my love is due Him, He plunged me to victory, Beneath the cleansing flood.” Our God is an awesome God! ~ Amen?!

I pray you have an amazing day, to God be the glory.

God bless you all …