Joshua 21:1-22:20 Luke 20:1-26 Psalm 89:1-13
“Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee.” “All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!” Sing it! That song by Thomas Chisholm comes to mind as I reflect on the central theme of our One Year Bible reading today in Psalm 89 and Joshua 21. God is there, fulfilling His promises for us, day after day after day with answered prayers for salvations, lives transformed by the Gospel, financial provision, forgiveness, healing, protection, wisdom, joy and all we need. Psalm 89:1 declares, “I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.” The Bible captures God’s faithfulness, records it in verses like Joshua 21:45 “Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.” EVERY promise was fulfilled. “So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the Lord handed all their enemies over to them.” (Joshua 21:43-44).
Lest there be any doubt about His faithfulness, God sent His one and only Son. Jesus came and proved God’s faithfulness. He brought the Good News. As we see foreshadowed by Jesus Himself in Luke 20 today, no matter how cruel the world’s rejection of Jesus, though they would kill Him, He would become the Savior when he rose from the dead. The God who “founded the world and all that is in it” (Psalm 89:11) sent Jesus to save us. More than that, God sends His Holy Spirit to empower us to be and to do all He has promised. God’s faithfulness is directed toward us.
We are like the people of Israel who Joshua led into the Promised Land to see every promise fulfilled. Each of us was created by God to experience and declare His faithfulness. We do so by entering into a relationship of mutual faithfulness, putting our faith in Jesus as our Savior and letting Him, by the Holy Spirit, equip us each day to be faithful. Like those tribes described in today’s chapters of Joshua, each of us has specific promises unique to us. Our passions, our talents, our unique abilities, our spiritual gifts position us to have specific promises fulfilled in our lives. Through our unique contributions, we can build God’s kingdom just as the tribes of Israel established themselves in the Promised Land. In doing so, we can and must declare God’s faithfulness, declaring it to our children and to all generations.
May we ever sing: “Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!”
Pastor Paul
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