Scripture References: Joshua 21:43-45; Act 13:26-33

The issue is one of trust. Can we trust God? We live in a world that makes us ask that question, and asking it does not brand us as either disobedient or sinful. In fact, we probably ought to ask it now and then. In the asking, especially before God, we have our affirmation.

We are taught to put our lives into God’s hands, but there is much about God that even the most devout fail to understand. Infrequently we, many of us anyway, are driven to ask whether or not God is trustworthy. Our question may be silent, but we ask it nonetheless.

There are a variety of places to look for evidences of God’s trustworthiness. Our Old Testament writer preferred to look to God’s promises—to see if they had been kept. The result is a story of the promised land in retrospect.

The biblical books which we classify as the “Former Prophets” such as Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings, offer a theological/historical look at the Israelites in Palestine, from the death of Moses until the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. The Book of Joshua, the first in the set, tells the story of the Israelites under the leadership, obviously, of Joshua, Moses’ immediate successor. Focusing largely on the conquest of the people in the land of Canaan and how the land came to be divided among the Israelites, it is a “bloody” book, detailing battle after battle. Such war, however, is defended as the will of God. That is, there was war because the Israelites were trying to take the land God had promised them. Again, Israel’s view on the matter was grounded in what she took to be God’s promise and was tied in the idea of covenant relationship with God. Simply put, a covenant was an agreement in which two parties made certain commitments to each other and in so doing obligated themselves to specified actions.

It all went back to Abram’s call:

“Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you’ ” (Genesis 12:1).

Abram, later called Abraham, did just that. He took his wife, nephew, followers, and possessions and went to the land of Canaan. At a place called Shechem in Canaan, God appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7). God made a promise.

The promise was repeated on several occasions. For example, the free but frustrated Israelites who were delivered under the leadership of Moses out of Egypt in what turned out to be desert wanderings, God promised:

“Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’ “ (Deuteronomy 11:8-9).

At the beginning of the Book of Joshua, we hear the promise again. The Lord is speaking to Joshua with these instructions:

“Arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses” (Joshua 1:2-3).

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.