Completing His Job

 Reading about the victories in Canaan, one gets the sense that this all happened very rapidly.   Living in our modern world with modern means of transportation we forget how long it took to move their armies from one city to the next and how they were forced to take the availability of water into account in every move.  While they had been able to rapidly defeat the large alliances in the north and south, conquering the individual cities required several years. 

 

Joshua was about eighty when he assumed leadership of Israel. I         f he was to divide the land and enable the people to settle it, he could not wait until the occupation was complete.  God directed him to focus on dividing the land and let future leaders complete the conquest, in Joshua 13:1-6.  “Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.  This is the land that yet remaineth: all the borders of the Philistines, and all Geshuri, From Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite: five lords of the Philistines; the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avites: From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that is beside the Sidonians unto Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites: And the land of the Giblites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrising, from Baalgad under mount Hermon unto the entering into Hamath.  All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon unto Misrephothmaim, and all the Sidonians, them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee.”

 

While they had only conquered a small part of what God had promised them, they had more than enough to meet their present needs, and God told them to focus on utilizing what they had.  He had promised to expand their landholdings as they needed them, in Exodus 23:28-30.  “And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.  I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.  By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.” 

 

A common mistake in Christian circles is to hold off starting until we have all the funds raised or all the pieces are in place as a way of being sure we have God’s blessing on the project.  God was directing Israel to go ahead even though everything was not in place and trust him to bring it in when needed.  He had given them assurance of his approval by fulfilling the promise in Exodus 23:27, “I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.”  They could trust him to keep the rest of the promise, and if we were really following God’s leadership, we can trust him to enable us to accomplish the next step when it is needed.  We don’t need to keep asking for additional signs. 

 

Israel never occupied all the land God promised them, but that was not Joshua’s problem.  He had done what God wanted him to do in leading them into the land and dividing it up.  Their failure to complete the occupation would be future generations’ fault, not Joshua’s.  God may give us a vision of what he intends so that we know how to start, but he may intend for someone else to finish it.  We can concentrate on doing what is needed right now and trust him to take care of the next stage.