Day 65, or March the 6th. 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 honoured
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 fulfil 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.