Joshua 23:3-5
And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you. Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, just as the Lord your God promised you.
Tag: God does the work as we lean into Him in Faith
Perhaps the most difficult aspect of our faith is given up and giving into to allowing God to direct all aspects of our faith. Three times in the Bible the words, “The Just shall LIVE by faith,” are written (Habakkuk; Galatians; Hebrews). Not only are we saved by faith, but we are to live and conquer life by faith. In the above passage Joshua is giving the final instructions to the nation of Israel as thy enter and conquer the promise land. The “promise land” is both a real land (where Israel is today) AND a picture for the life of the believer. Our lives, as believers, mirror the story of Israel. We have been saved by God’s power out of Egypt (a picture of our live of sin and God’s redeeming us). The nation of Israel needed to believe that God would take them out of Egypt ... by faith. They past through the Red Sea on dry ground, by faith (A picture of being baptized “through” the water). We are being lead into a promise land (victorious living), also by faith. In the above passage Joshua reminds the nation that their victory is NOT going to be because of their own efforts, but through faith in God. God would use their hands to fight, yes, but even that was with God’s strength, as He enabled them to fight. We are saved BY FAITH and we are to live BY FAITH. Our own strength is useless against the enemy. God is the ONLY one who can defeat the foe. Faith is that shield that quenches all the arrows of the enemy:
Ephesians 6:16
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
Faith is the victory that overcomes the evil one and gives us victory to live in the promise land. In Hebrews we read what happened to some of these Israelites who, refused to follow in belief:
Hebrews 3:16-19
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
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