Promises fulfilled

 DEVOTION

JOSHUA

PROMISES FULFILLED 

Josh 21:1-3

21:1 Now the family heads of the Levites approached Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the other tribal families of Israel 2 at Shiloh in Canaan and said to them, "The LORD commanded through Moses that you give us towns to live in, with pasturelands for our livestock." 3 So, as the LORD had commanded, the Israelites gave the Levites the following towns and pasturelands out of their own inheritance:

Josh 21:41-45

41 The towns of the Levites in the territory held by the Israelites were forty-eight in all, together with their pasturelands. 42 Each of these towns had pasturelands surrounding it; this was true for all these towns. 43 So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD handed all their enemies over to them. 45 Not one of all the LORD's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

NIV

This command of God is recorded in the Book of Numbers when God instructed Moses to tell the people the Levites were to have towns to live in and pastureland around those towns. It is recorded they were to measure three thousand feet in all directions around the town which would be the pastureland for the livestock of the Levites. It was the tribe of Levi that carried the ark of the covenant, and all the materials of the Tabernacle whenever the Israelites were led somewhere by God during those forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Now, these family heads of three clans each received cities throughout the land of Canaan. Some from the inheritance of Judah, Simeon, Benjamin, Ephriam, the half-tribe of Manasseh, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, Zebulun, Ruben, Gad and Dan, twelve tribes in all. Without going through all the city names we come to the final phrase that brings the lesson home to us. “Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.” God has never ever, not even once, ever failed to fulfill his promise. To coin a phrase, we can go to the bank on that. We can live completely assured without any doubt whatsoever, that the promise Jesus made to the New Testament church, which means us, will happen. The promise that he will prepare a place for us and that he will come back to get us and take us to that place will happen just as sure as we breathe. Jesus promised that if we take his yoke upon us, he will give our souls rest. When we ponder in our souls finding rest, we think about the time before we took his yoke upon us and learned from him. We were in turmoil, restless within, unsure as to what happens at death. We never found any rest within our soul, even though we might not admit we had a soul, or that it was God who formed us in our mother’s womb. Our uneasiness and restlessness were replaced by a sense of calm and tranquility, as we found that rest for our soul in Jesus. He also promised that even if we face troubles in this world, we can heart, and we can be of great courage, for he has overcome the world. Jesus promised that we would have eternal life and we would never perish. This, of course, agrees with the promise in John 3:16, the difference between eternal life, and perish. We can go through all the promises of Jesus one by one, but the point we take away, the life lesson we learn is that we are in the hands of our Lord, and we live in him and he in us, and his promises are true and we will see them fulfilled, both in this life and the life to come. Therefore, we have no need to get frustrated, disequilibrated, uneasy, or restless in this life, for we live with and in the promises of Jesus, for they will all be fulfilled.