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Day 65, or March 6. God has kept all His promises. Our thought today is rooted in Joshua 21 verse

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43. So the LORD gave Israel all the land He had sworn to give their ancestors, and they

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took possession of it and settled there.

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First the big picture surrounding this verse. Joshua now puts the brilliant concept of refuge

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cities into operation. They were originally an idea that God put into the mind of Moses

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in Numbers chapter 35. They were to be places of refuge and safety, to be administered by

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the Levites. They were designated as cities of refuge to which people could flee if they

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killed someone accidentally, in a world where a killer could be hounded by friends and relatives

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of the one murdered, until he was found and executed. This was an idea that could only

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come from a loving and forgiving God. The fact that they were manned by Levitical priests,

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whose role it was to serve God in the tabernacle, confirmed that this was close to God's heart.

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A new era was dawning for the children of Israel.

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And now our action step. God told Moses and Joshua what was expected of the people, and

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in return what they could expect from Him. He honored all His promises, and the people

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now found themselves settled in a fertile land. However, a covenant only works when

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both sides keep it. The people said that they would keep it, but they didn't. God said

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that He would keep it, and He did. It was now lopsided and was destined to fracture.

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When God speaks to you and me and we respond with promises, if we fail to fulfill them,

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the covenant is broken, but God never gives up on us. He constantly forgives and reinstates

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the covenant which was ultimately fulfilled in Christ. Are you struggling today because

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you've broken your side of your covenant with God? It could be something major or relatively

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minor, but a break is a break. Repairing your covenant with God is the only way to peace

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and productivity in Christ. All the alternatives are dry cul-de-sacs.