Read Joshua 21:43-45

The Promise Fulfilled

The book of Joshua deals with the Israelites’ many conquests as they took possession of the land promised long ago by God. “As the Lord had commanded Moses His servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses” (Joshua 11:15). It was an enormous task that took many years, but it was accomplished with God’s guidance. “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war” (Joshua 11:23).

After recording the divisions of the land by tribes, as well as the cities of refuge and the cities of the Levites, Joshua 21:43 affirms, “So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it.” No longer was it a promise in prospect; the promise had been fulfilled. Indeed, “Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass” (Joshua 21:45).

Why, then, was Israel taken into captivity many years later? It was no shortcoming of God! It was the failure of the people to fully execute God’s orders! The late brother James Burton Coffman wrote in his commentary on Joshua, “These verses state that God had delivered all their enemies ‘into their hands,’ and of course, He had. Nothing remained for Israel to do, but to apply themselves to the task and do it!”

God did not fail then, and He does not fail today. He has provided for man a conquest over sin. All we have to do is take advantage of it! Take action upon the belief that God sent His Son into this world to offer Himself as a sacrifice for our sin!

There is more to Christianity than reciting a so-called “sinner’s prayer” that is nowhere found in the Bible. We must “obey the gospel” (2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17). How do we do that? By repenting of our sins and reenacting the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord in baptism (Romans 6:3-6), an action which washes away the guilt of past sin (Acts 22:16). Then, as a new creature, we “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7), faithfully obeying all that He has commanded (Matthew 28:20). God will fulfill His promise to save you, contingent upon your obedience.