God Will Fight for You


Joshua 23:1-16
1A long time afterward, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, 2 Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years. 3 And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you. 4 Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. 5 The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, just as the Lord your God promised you. 6 Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, 7 that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, 8 but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day. 9 For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day. 10 One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, just as he promised you. 11 Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. 12 For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, 13 know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you. 14 “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed. 15 But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you, 16 if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”

As Joshua’s story begins to draw to a close, he takes the time to tell his people once again about the goodness of God and His abundant provision for them. The Lord has given “rest to the land” as His people settle into their new lives. They have experience His strength and power as He has secured the land for them. They must never believe that they are responsible for their own success. All of that rests in God’s power, not theirs and it is important for them to remember that. Joshua also issues strong warning about appropriating the lifestyles and worship lives of the people they have failed to evict from the land. Ultimately, that will become their greatest downfall, and Joshua warns them to beware of that danger.

I love reading the words the Lord your God who has fought for you. We are an independent people. And on the one hand, that’s a good thing. No one wants to be the person who lives in their mother’s basement playing video games all day long. We need to be independent and take care of our lives. But we go to far in the extreme opposite direction and believe that God is our “assistant” rather than our Master. For many, God is someone to call on when you’re out of other options. That is simply not how the faith is supposed to work. Instead, we start with God and then follow where He takes us. He at the head of our forces. That belief makes like far easier and fulfilling. But it oh so easy to be the one who is in control.

So, today I will try and think about letting God fight for me; go before me rather than trailing behind as I forge my own way. This entire book has lead us to this place of surrendering our control over to God and following Him into a better land.

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