Joshua 18:1-10: Taking Steps
Sunday, September 24, 2023
How much longer will you put off taking steps to possess the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?
When the Hebrew people make their exodus from Egypt they are going back to the land that has been promised them by Yahweh. In today’s reading we arrive at the part in that story where several tribes have yet to realize their inheritance. Archaeologists have not found traces of the enormous migration described in scripture but what they do see is evidence of cultures merging and reshaping as the peoples in the region struggle to survive through periods of famine and drought. The peoples sometimes unite against invaders. They sometimes strike out on their own to take over city-states and their surrounding territory.
Today we read about the precision and care the Israelites take in acquiring the land promised to them through the covenant established between Abraham and Yahweh. We also read about the care they take to include God’s influence and authority in their own plans. We might learn a good deal from this as we practice how to not put off taking steps to possess that which the Lord God has already given us.
We are given the gift of freedom; yet we sometimes allow ourselves to become trapped by the shackles we insist on acquiring.
We are given the gift of faith; yet we sometimes respond more to fear than reliance on God.
We are given the gift of hope; yet we sometimes sabotage our own possibilities of realizing potential.
We are given the gift of love; yet we sometimes hide this gift for fear of losing it.
We are given the gift of life everlasting; yet we sometimes cling more to life temporal in this world.
How much longer will you put off taking steps to possess the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?
The Lord has promised us God’s care, God has assured us that we are the Lord’s, and God has already given us our inheritance. Do we abide with God in confident expectation? Do we take steps to explore and inhabit the land which God has promised? How much longer will we put off the taking of these steps?
A Favorite from September 26, 2009.
Image from: http://www.keyway.ca/htm2014/20140214.htm
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