“Unsettled Land”
Joshua 1:1 – 9; 1 Peter 1:3, 4
On the Border of the Land of Promise
There they were, standing on the border of Canaan, with only the Jordan River separating them from the land God had promised centuries before to their ancestors: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and later to Moses. Hundreds and hundreds of years of anticipation and expectation, of hope and even discouragement, had led to this moment in their history. And Joshua, Moses’ successor, was to lead them.
Lying before them was an unsettled land – unsettled at least as the promise land. Lying before them was both bloodshed and temptation. The taking of this land would not be easy. It would involve violent encounters with the native inhabitants and alluring enticements to become captive to their religious practices. There would be both conflict and the temptation to idolatry.
But their entry was not to be made alone, for they were about to enter God’s Promised Land. Their entrance would be accompanied by the power and presence of God Himself, for He alone would be their strength and victory. That God would be with them in their taking of the land was as much a trustworthy promise as the land itself; indeed, perhaps more so.
As we look at our passage in Joshua today we see four things of crucial importance.
First, God was fulfilling a promise. What does this mean? To say that here God is fulfilling a promise means that God keeps His promises. When God makes a promise, He does not break it. He says this to Joshua in v. 3: “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses.” And of course the promise of land went back to the time of Abraham, the very first patriarch. To know that God keeps His promises speaks of His eternal trustworthiness as our Lord and God. We can trust God to keep His promise because the promise is rooted in His character. God had proven His faithfulness to the Israelites time and time again, most significantly in rescuing them from Egypt, but also throughout all the generations of wandering since. We talk about taking people at their word – well, we can definitely take God at His Word! Faith in the Lord and promise go together. As the old Puritan Thomas Watson once said in a sermon, “Faith lives in the promises, as the fish lives in the water.”
Second, God places a condition on this promise. If you look carefully at what the Lord tells Joshua you notice quickly that half of the address concerns this condition, a condition that if not met, meant the promise would become null and void. So what is this condition? The condition is that the people of Israel remain faithful to the Lord by following the Law they had received through Moses. The people of Israel were being instructed through Joshua to obey and follow and meditate upon the revelation they had received through Moses. We read in vv. 7 and 8: “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful.”
It is clear that obedience to the Word of God equals success for the people of God; and the opposite is also true. God will be faithful to His promise, yes, but we also have to be obedient and faithful in return. One scholar comments that “the inheritance of the land is a sign of God’s faithfulness in fulfilling his promises and a reminder of Israel’s duties toward him as the true owner of the land.” And this is why being faithful to the Word of God is a condition to the fulfilling of the promise of God: to learn how to be faithful people of God and what our duties are toward the Lord as the true owner of the land, we must immerse ourselves in the Word of God.
Three, God can be trusted to help us fulfill our part of the promise. Two verses in our passage remind us of this: “No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you” (v. 5). Later in v. 9, the Lord says to Joshua, “I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Fourth, God’s fulfilling of His promise is gift of grace, not payment for obedience. So you can say in some respects that blessing follows obedience, but is not earned by it. Even in light of obedience, blessing and the fulfillment of a divine promise is always an act of grace, of divine favour undeserved by us.
Unfortunately, as we know, Israel did not really receive the inheritance promised, at least not fully. Forgetting the command of the Lord, they prostituted themselves with other gods and committed idolatry. Eventually, the people of Israel were taken into exile. The Promised Land given to them by God was taken away. The promise remained unfulfilled.
Crossing into the Promised Land through Jesus
So how does God fulfill that promise? Has it been fulfilled? Can we say that the promise the Lord made to Abraham has been kept? Or has the promise been broken? Haven’t we already said that God never breaks His promises? Hasn’t God been faithful? And if God is going to fulfill this promise, what form will it take?
Read 1 Peter 1: 3, 4 and Eph. 1: 11a:
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you.
11In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance.
In these verses we see four points that correspond to the ones already mentioned above in relation to our passage from Joshua.
First, God’s promise has been fulfilled in Christ. God has kept His promise and has done so through His Son Jesus. The promise that was made to Joshua, and before him to Moses and the great patriarchs of Israel, is fulfilled in Christ. This is why Paul refers to believers in Jesus as the true descendants of Abraham. In Gal. 3: 19 Paul says that “in Chris Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles,” and in v. 29 of the same chapter he says, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”
Theologian Robert W. Jenson says that the “gospel is promise.” This speaks volumes. The gospel of Jesus Christ – the need for repentance, the offer of forgiveness, and the hope of everlasting life – is a sure promise of God.
No longer do we look toward a stretch of land in the Middle-East. No, we look toward a “heavenly country,” as it says in Hebrews 11:16. The promise, once defined and understood in an earthly sense as land by the people of Israel is now defined as a heavenly inheritance that we have on account of Jesus Christ. In the NT, the land of Canaan is exchanged for a “new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21: 1).
I like what our passage from 1 Peter tells us: our inheritance in Christ is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” No matter how fully Canaan had been conquered, no matter how successful the Israelites were, the inheritance of land was perishable, temporary, and earthly. It would never last. It could never last forever. Only our inheritance in Christ can ever last for an eternity. The people Peter was writing to were experiencing trials and suffering and he knew the only words of comfort, lasting comfort, he could offer were the words of hope only possible through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This a sobering reminder of where we should store our treasures – here on earth or in heaven? What good are riches and even a vast earthly inheritance, should we ever receive one, if they will only fade away with time? Sometimes it’s so funny how we treat and behave toward money, as if it was the answer to this or that problem. I think that even the best Christians can on occasion inadvertently treat money with undeserved reverence. But we can only have one Master and there is only place worthy of storing our treasures – and that is where our hearts should be.
Second, God promises to help us gain our inheritance. Yes, the “gospel is promise.” But while God promises a safe landing, we cannot be guaranteed of safe passage along the way. Joshua and the people of Israel weren’t going to be able to walk into Canaan and easily and politely ask the Canaanites to leave so that they could have their Promised Land. There was going to be a battle.
The same is true of the Christian life. There are struggles and there are trials – seemingly insurmountable circumstances that are only possible to live through because of God’s help. There are also principalities and powers, forces with which we have to reckon. Scripture says that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6: 12). Just as God promised Joshua that He would be with him and the people of Israel – and called them to be strong and courageous – Christ also promises, through his Holy Spirit, to be our strength as we “fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called” (1 Tim. 6:12).
Third, as recipients of His promise, God commands us to be faithful to His Word. Just as the Law of Moses was a set of instructions to understand their relationship with God and neighbour and would guide the Israelites in how to live in the Promised Land, so the Bible is our means of understanding how we are to live while we await our final inheritance. If the Spirit is our help and Counsellor as we live the Christian life, then the Scriptures are “the sword of the Spirit” while we fight this fight (Eph. 6:17). Baptist theologian, Millard J. Erickson says that “the Word of God guides our feet and provides us protection as we engage in spiritual warfare.”
Believers are required to be steeped in and obedient to the Word of God. God’s presence and power are contingent upon our trusting in Him and His Word. It is in Scripture that we learn how to fight the fight of faith. It is in reading Scripture that we are prepared and taught how to lay hold of our heavenly inheritance in Jesus Christ. Hebrews says something similar to this: “Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.” We are called to participate and press on toward the goal through lives of faithful and obedience to God.
Fourth, while we do fight to lay hold of the heavenly inheritance we have through Christ, it is a gift of grace, not something we can deserve. It’s important to say that while we do fight this fight, we cannot earn our inheritance through fighting the good fight of faith. But it is also true that according to the Scriptures it is questionable whether we have received even the promise of the inheritance in faith if we are not fighting this good fight.
Conclusion: The Unsettled Land of Our Hearts
If we think of our lives right now as analogous to the Promised Land – once rank with sin and idolatry (like the Canaanites), but land that God calls us to conquer through Him and for Him – we have to ask ourselves, is there still unsettled territory in our lives, areas that are left untouched by God? What are those areas? Where in our own lives have we not allowed God to have lordship? In this life there will always be unsettled land – we will not be perfected in Christ in this life. We are looking toward a heavenly inheritance that has long since been settled through Christ Jesus death and resurrection, an inheritance that is ours as we fight the fight of faith in this life.
But Hebrews 4:12, 13 says that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.” Through our prayerful, meditative study of Scripture God will reveal to us areas of our life that need to change and submit to Him either more fully or for the first time.
Each of us needs to ask ourselves: Am I reading the Bible regularly? Am I meditating upon it? Am I obeying its commands? Am I in a Bible study at the present time? Am I listening to God speaking to me through Scripture? Some people say they struggle with the parts of the Bible they don’t understand – a more wise man once said that he struggles with the parts that he does understand!
We need to exercise trust in God that He is and will always be with us as we fight the good fight of faith. This doesn’t mean that we necessarily have to have the gift of faith – but we need to willingly exercise faith.
We need to realize that we have an active role as we “press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul talks about pressing on. He talks about straining. He tells Timothy to fight the good fight of faith and to “take hold of the eternal life.” The Christian life is a battle, a fight, and by being steeped in the Word of God we can know how to fight this battle. And for those of us who strive, who press onward and forward, forgetting what was behind, God is our power, acting with us and for us, as the true source of our victory in attaining our eternal inheritance in Christ.
I want to end with this poem:
POSSESSING THE PROMISED LAND
Do you want to possess all your land?
The land the Lord has for you?
Are you willing to pay the full price?
Or do you just want to view?
To claim the land there’s a price to pay
To have what God has in store
So hear the call and begin today
And you’ll discover much more
God means what He says, so claim the prize
Eyes firmly fixed on the goal
Let courage be deep within your heart
Claim not a part but the whole
There must be communion with the Lord
As in the land you proceed
Talk with Him and listen for His voice
Ensure you take great heed
Follow with care the way that He leads
And victory will ensue
The promise He made is yours to possess
The decision lies with you
