Day 65, or March 6. God has kept all His promises. Our thought today is rooted in Joshua 21 verse
43. So the LORD gave Israel all the land He had sworn to give their ancestors, and they
took possession of it and settled there.
First the big picture surrounding this verse. Joshua now puts the brilliant concept of refuge
cities into operation. They were originally an idea that God put into the mind of Moses
in Numbers chapter 35. They were to be places of refuge and safety, to be administered by
the Levites. They were designated as cities of refuge to which people could flee if they
killed someone accidentally, in a world where a killer could be hounded by friends and relatives
of the one murdered, until he was found and executed. This was an idea that could only
come from a loving and forgiving God. The fact that they were manned by Levitical priests,
whose role it was to serve God in the tabernacle, confirmed that this was close to God's heart.
A new era was dawning for the children of Israel.
And now our action step. God told Moses and Joshua what was expected of the people, and
in return what they could expect from Him. He honored all His promises, and the people
now found themselves settled in a fertile land. However, a covenant only works when
both sides keep it. The people said that they would keep it, but they didn't. God said
that He would keep it, and He did. It was now lopsided and was destined to fracture.
When God speaks to you and me and we respond with promises, if we fail to fulfill them,
the covenant is broken, but God never gives up on us. He constantly forgives and reinstates
the covenant which was ultimately fulfilled in Christ. Are you struggling today because
you've broken your side of your covenant with God? It could be something major or relatively
minor, but a break is a break. Repairing your covenant with God is the only way to peace
and productivity in Christ. All the alternatives are dry cul-de-sacs.