In terms of the major theme we’ll be dealing with from this point onward in the Scriptures, here’s what you’ve got to know.
Joshua’s failure to fully conquer the Promised Land is the reason why Israel will suffer problems throughout all of their history.
And this is a problem that will extend all the way to our present times.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
We wouldn’t have a Middle East crisis today if Joshua had fully done what God commanded him to do.
So this is the correct perspective we need to take as we enter the latter half of the book of Joshua.
From this point forward, we will be dealing with the consequences Israel will suffer that are DIRECTLY CAUSED by Joshua’s incomplete victory until Yeshua returns to finish the job.
Or here’s another way to look at it.
Had Joshua completely conquered Canaan as he was supposed to, Joshua would have been the last book in our Bibles.
There would have been no need for Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel and so on or heck even the New Testament for that matter.
But alas, that was not to be.
Paul spoke about this in his letter to the Corinthians.
“For, brothers, I don’t want you to miss the significance of what happened to our fathers. All of them were guided by the pillar of cloud, and they all passed through the sea, and in connection with the cloud and with the sea they all immersed themselves into Moshe, also they all ate the same food from the Spirit, and they all drank the same drink from the Spirit — for they drank from a Spirit-sent Rock which followed them, and that Rock was the Messiah. Yet with the majority of them God was not pleased, so their bodies were strewn across the desert.”-1 Corinthians 1-5
These Paul then goes on to say…
“These things happened to them as prefigurative historical events, and they were written down as a warning to us who are living in the acharit-hayamim.”-1 Corinthians 1:11 (acharit-haymim means “the last days”).
I find this interesting because Paul is pretty much saying that the believers in his generation are living out the consequences of the sins and failures of those who came before them.
He’s also saying the struggles Israel faced in taking their Promised Land are the same struggles we will face in our walk with the Lord.
Just as Israel wasn’t able to fully and completely conquer all of the land of Canaan, in our lives, we too will be unable to live a perfect and sinless life.
I’m sure you’ve noticed in your walk with the Lord, there seems to always be this ever-present and maddening tension between wanting to do the right thing but not being able to or constantly being pulled in the opposite direction towards sin.
Unfortunately, as long as we live in these bodies of fleshly corruption, there may be no solution.
But hey, isn’t that why we need a savior?
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