Promise Parasites & Partitions Series

PromiseLand

Pt. 3 - Promise Parasites & Partitions

I. Introduction

430 years of slavery has been left behind in a miraculous exodus punctuated by Pharaoh and his armies being wiped out at the Red Sea. The promise is next. Except it wasn't. Doubt and the residue of slave mentality has caused a straight path to become a snake path instead. An eleven-day journey has now evolved into a forty year march of death. In fact, only two of the original spies that caught a glimpse of the promise remain . . . Caleb and the Israelites new leader Joshua. Joshua moves the people across the flooded Jordan and after purification, that is the path to the power they will need, our lesson today is discovered.

But let's back up one second and reflect on the promise once again because it gives us a glimpse of what is about to happen.

Text: Exodus 3:7-8 (ESV)

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Before the Israelites entered the promised land, Moses told them,

Deuteronomy 9:1 (NIV)

Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. 'You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky'

And now we see Joshua and the people poised to possess and we come to . . .

Joshua 6:1-2 (ESV)

Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.

The promise included the prophecy regarding this lesson before they even arrived. Jericho is the fulfillment of that prophecy. I don't have time to deal deeply with the way Jericho was destroyed. You most likely know the account. Many of you could even sing a song, complete with motions, about the battle . . . "Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho. Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down." We are enthralled by the impossible battle strategy and the intervention of God. This grabs our attention and we literally miss the lesson that we should have grasped when we read the promise.

There are two major obstacles to experiencing the promise that we must address right from the beginning.

Promises are almost always accompanied by parasites.

You can call them parasites. You could also call them squatters. Unlawful residents that skim, steal and settle on land that doesn't lawfully belong to them. They siphon off and claim ownership to territory that has already been given to someone else. Squatters claim rights over the spaces they have settled on by virtue of occupation, rather than ownership. They have no legal authority to be there. No claim other than the fact that they have been there.

Israel's first task upon entering the land promised is to unseat and remove these parasites. They should have known it because the promise informed them there would be resistance. But here they are less than a few miles into the promise and they come face to face with squatters who occupy what is not theirs. They have history but no authority.

I have discovered that my promises almost always accompanied by parasites! I have found that there will always be people that try to attach themselves to my promises. They have no right there. They will try to reap the benefit of the promise that was intended for me. They will use up my blessings. They like to use the collective "we" in an attempt to be included in the benefits of what I fought for and sacrificed for. Surely you recognize the people who hang around your promise that steal your joy, your peace and your provision. Surely you recognize that there are certain people who are using up what was meant for you. Their history with you causes them to act like they should be granted access into what is not theirs! They have history but no authority. They fortify with the word forever. I have always been with you. I have always been a part. I am a forever friend. You can spot these squatters because they will try to make withdraws where they have made no deposits!