Every Good Promise Fulfilled

This morning my husband gave me the blessing of a lie-in and I was determined to do some serious catch-up on my Bible reading by finishing the last 14 chapters of the book of Joshua. It ended up taking me a lot less time than I expected.

Truth is, I was skimming.

Once you pass chapter 12, the book of Joshua turns into a book of lists. Who got what towns and which kings were conquered, where the boundaries lay for each tribe and all the designated cities of refuge. There are interruptions with more personal stories, such as Caleb’s inheritance, but for the most part it’s lists of cities and boundary markers.

I didn’t remember it being like that from last year, and it was kind of boring.

Then I hit the following section and had a change of heart:

“So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their fathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. The LORD gave them rest on every side according to all he had sworn to their fathers. None of their enemies were able to stand against them, for the LORD handed over all their enemies to them. None of the good promises the LORD had made to the house of Israel failed. Everything was fulfilled.”

Joshua 21:43-45 CSB

It suddenly came to me, the picture of what this list of lists must have meant to the one who penned it. The whole of scripture to this point is about promises yet unfulfilled. God promised Abraham land and descendants. Isaac waited on this promise. Jacob waited on this promise. The Israelites waited on this promise while slaves in Egypt. Moses waited on this promise. The newly freed nation of Israel waited on this promise while wandering in the desert.

Waiting. Hoping. Wondering. Waiting.

Then, at the appointed time, God swooped in again. He parted the river Jordan so the army could set miraculously dry feet into the land promised to them. God sent word of His power to cow the land’s inhabitants. He stopped the sun, crumbled stone, and pummeled the enemy with hailstones. He filled their bellies with fruit and grain and their eyes with lush green land to settle their families in comfort. And when it was over, when all the fighting ceased and God had given them peace on every side, it was acknowledged with a joyful cry that “none of the good promises the LORD had made to the house of Israel failed.”

What joy must have filled the heart of those who penned the apportioning of the land. Each boundary line contained the memory of miracles and wonders. Each city allotted to its new rulers was a promise of rest and shelter, so different from the wandering and tents of the wilderness.

And for the future, a reminder of the now blessings on this new generation. Then, when they ultimately rebelled against God and the curses warned fell upon Israel, how much those words and remembrance of that good land they lost must have grieved them.

But for those who believed in God, who saw that He kept all this promises, both of blessing and hardship, what must those boundaries have meant but that God would indeed keep His word to return them all to the land of promise. That He would not forsake His own. That His mercy would break through and He would redeem His people from enslavement again to release them into the promised land.

“It will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.'”

Isaiah 25:9 ESV