“Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.”
One day many years ago I stood on a large map and figured my feet would land wherever I was supposed to go next in life. It didn’t need to be a new geographical location. It just needed to be somewhere other than where I was. Totally messed up. Broken. Lost. No sense of direction. Or purpose. No sense of where I was headed. I couldn’t stand being where I was. I was looking for new land. I found it, you know. Plenty of new land. I spent the ensuing years in all different places. Geographically and otherwise. New people. Relationships. Counselors. Medications. Jobs. Disability. Any new land I could find so I could feel better. Even remotely. Why did my brokenness never go away? Why did I never feel better? Or get better? Why was my life an ever increasing mess? Surely finding and possessing new land had to be the answer, right? The obvious answer was I wasn’t a Christ follower. So I couldn’t possibly find the new land God wanted me to find and have. But this wasn’t the only answer. For even once I had found the Lord and believed in Him, even for a long time, I still felt lost. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you understand.
Take a look at Joshua and the Israelites with me, if you would. God used Joshua after Moses died to lead the Israelites into the promised land. Look at the verses above. What do you see? “UNTO THE LAND WHICH I DO GIVE UNTO THEM.” (all caps added) Do you see what I see? Who gave them the land? God did! God didn’t tell the people to stand on a map in their living rooms figuring their feet would land wherever they should go next in life. Or to sit around dreaming up their own dreams and go chasing after their own fleshly desires. Or to make their decisions in life based on what would make them feel better. Or to ask all their friends for advice based on what their friends thought they should do independent of God and His Word. Or to just hop on a bus and figure wherever the bus took them would provide their answer in life. Or to spend all their time watching television with the belief some ad would come on or some program would inspire them to arrive at some new destination in life whether geographically or even just mentally.
God told Joshua to lead the people to the land HE WOULD GIVE THEM. Some of us need to change our focus right now to God and His Word and to seek and fulfill His will for our lives and to choose to go to and possess the land He wants to give us. Wherever, and whatever, that land might be. It is with God through Christ and in His will we will find all He desires us to have. Most importantly Himself.