Promises Made – Promises Kept

When you are fully devoted to the Lord your God, you will not be able to contain the favor that God pours out upon your life. And along the journey, at each step you take, you will enjoy God’s protection, power, provision and presence. You will have to accept that by faith now, but over time, that will be the testimony of your life as well. With God, a promise made is a promise kept.

The Journey// Focus: Joshua 23:2-5, 14

Joshua said to the Israelites, “I am now a very old man. You have seen everything the Lord your God has done for you during my lifetime. The Lord has fought for you against your enemies. I have allotted to you as your homeland all the land of the nations yet unconquered, as well as the land of those we have already conquered—from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. This land will be yours, for the Lord your God will himself drive out all the people living there now. You will take possession of their land, just as the Lord promised you….Soon I will die, going the way of everything on earth. Deep in your hearts you know that every promise of the Lord your God has come true. Not a single one has failed!”

The book of Joshua is bookended by promises made and promises kept. Which, by the way, is the story of God. He is a promise making and promise keeping God. Of course, his promises are conditioned upon our obedience. For every promise made, God gives a corresponding warning, which is the case here as well:

But just as all the good things the Lord your God has promised you have come to you, so he will bring on you all the evil things he has threatened, until the Lord your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you. If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you. (Joshua 23:15-16)

While some may see these warnings in scripture as dark and threatening, I see them as God’s unrelenting desire to bless his people. He so longs to fulfill his promises to Israel, and to us—“Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.” (Joshua 23:14)—that he is continually clear about what will hinder his abundant goodness in our lives.

In Joshua 1, God generously makes Israel’s new leader, General Joshua, promise after promise: military victory, success as a leader, divine abundance—if he will carefully follow the law of God and step out with bold, courageous leadership. And if that weren’t enough, God adds a few more promises: his protection, power, provision and presence. The first chapter in this journal of Israel’s conquest is full of the promises of God. God is a promise maker.

And God is a promise keeper. Joshua 23 is this old leader’s testimony that God has been faithful to his covenant. Over the thirty-five years since the Lord commissioned Joshua, he has been true to his word at every turn. He has driven out all of Israel’s enemies, given them victory at every turn, and brought them into a land where the fields have already been plowed, the orchards have already been planted, the roads have already been laid, and the houses have already been built. (Joshua 24:13) Even when the challenges were great and the enemies were overwhelming, God has been with them. And now, God has indeed given them their Promised Land. He has fulfilled every one of his promises. The Lord is a covenantly faithful, promise keeping, very good God

Personally, Joshua had known God’s protection, power, provision and presence. While Joshua had accepted that by faith in chapter 1, over three decades later he could now stand before Israel and in reality say to them, “not a single promise has failed.

What was true for Joshua and the Israelites is true for you as well. When you are fully devoted to the Lord your God, you will not be able to contain the favor that God pours out upon your life. And along the journey, at each step you take, you, too, will enjoy God’s protection, power, provision and presence. You will have to accept that by faith now, but over time, that will be the testimony of your life as well.

As I think about these two bookend chapters, I realize that I have been in ministry about the same length of time that Joshua led Israel. There had been times where the challenges were so great and I felt overwhelmed, out-gunned and on the brink. There were moment when I didn’t know if I could stand up under the pressure. But guess what? I’m still standing. Why, because I’m so great? Not at all! It is all because God made some promises—and then kept each one of them.

With God, a promise made is a promise kept.