Today's reading: Joshua 23; Acts 11
The thing I couldn't help but think about as I was reading Joshua 23 this morning is how much people want to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to God. People want all the blessings and goodness God can provide without any of the judgment or consequences that follow from our sin.
At the end of Joshua 23 Joshua says to Israel,
“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. 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, 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.”
God always keeps His promises, but not all of His promises are necessarily desirable depending on which side of them you land on. God promised this land to Israel, but in order for them to take the promised land they had to kill those who previously lived there. If you remember back to Genesis though, when God was speaking to Abraham, He was not going to give him the land at that time because the sin of the Amorite was not yet complete. God knew where these people were going, but they were not yet so far gone as to be under His judgement nationally. But as time went on and they became more corrupt and sinful, it reached a point where they were under God's judgment and Israel was the means by which His judgment came upon them. So while His promise of the land was great for Israel, it was not so great for the Canaanites...
We like to talk about all the good things God promises His people, but He also promises to judge evil, and He promises that the wicked will not go unpunished.
For Israel, as God's chosen nation, He had already laid out to them the blessings that would come with their obedience and the curses that would come if they turned away from Him to worship other gods, which is why Joshua reminds Israel of them here. They have experienced the beginnings of all the blessings, and they can look forward to the continuation of those blessings if they stay faithful, but exactly because they have experienced the blessings, they can also expect the curses should they decide to turn away. You don't get one without the other.
But how many Christians live this way? How many people look for God to bless them financially, socially, or with regard to their health, but they couldn't care less about how God wants them to live? How many people will pray for God to give them that promotion and raise, but give God no say over how they spend the very money they are asking for more of? How many people will pray and ask God for a good relationship while neck deep in porn or other sexual sin? How many people will pray for physical health while their spiritual health is in shambles and they couldn't care less?
Now I don't want anybody to mistake me for sounding transactional here, like we are earning God's blessings by being faithful enough. All of God's blessings are an unmerited mercy on His part, but that does not mean we can completely disregard Him and expect to reap His blessings anyway. So while this isn't a transaction by which we earn blessings, we should also not expect to be able to live for ourselves, blatantly ignoring God's direction and will for our lives, either entirely, or in some area(s) that He is calling us to hand over to Him, and still expect to reap His blessings.
We are stewards of all that God has given us, and as Jesus pointed out on many occasions, the more faithful a steward is with what they have been given, the more their master is able to entrust them with. "For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away" (Matthew 13:12).
Let us strive to be the faithful stewards who are able to be entrusted with every good thing by our Lord.
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