“ALL Came to Pass!” – FBC Morning Light (3/19/2024)

Joshua’s Allocation of the Land to the Levites

What a good Tuesday morning to you. Today in our reading we're finishing up Joshua and reading chapters 20 and 21, getting close to finishing it up, we had a few chapters left, but finishing up the division of the land and giving of different territories to different people.

And then we read just a few verses in 1 Chronicles chapter 6. But what's happening in Joshua 20 and 21 is that these 48 cities that are to be given to the Levites are picked out, selected, and then allocated to the tribe of Levi.

You remember that that particular tribe was not given so that there would be that spiritual influence, if you will. The tribe of Levi's were the ones that cared for the tabernacle and eventually the temple.

All the priests were in the tribe of Levi. So there were Levites that were scattered throughout the whole land. So you had these 48 cities, some cities were taken from each of the of the 12 tribes, and Levites lived in those cities.

As I read about that, I got to wondering. I wondered, how did the Levites' brothers feel about giving cities from their territory to the Levites? Now, I'm sure that most of most of their brothers were more than happy to do so.

This was their abundance, this territory was their abundance, and they were glad to give out of their abundance these different cities allocated for the Levites. Some perhaps probably just looked at it as, well, sort of a necessity.

You know, well, they need to have a place to live too, so okay, you know, we'll give them, we'll be glad to give them a couple of these cities. They didn't resent it, but it's not like they were thrilled about it either.

They just went along with it, it was just something that needed to happen. And I'm sure there were probably a few pretty selfish people in those tribes who resented the Levites getting these cities, and they thought, well, I'd rather have that territory than, I'd rather have that city, look at the pastureland of that city, and I got to deal with this, you know, that kind of thing.

The only reason I say that is because of human nature, and I mean, it's prevalent, and you see it even today. Okay, so that's one thing that just kind of struck me, and that's, take it or leave it. But what I really want to get at is, at the end of chapter 21, and this kind of follows up on what we said yesterday, verses 43 through 45, listen to what the Scripture says.

The Lord Gave All the Land and Rest

It says, So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which he had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it, and they dwelt in it. Did you get that? The Lord gave all the land which he had sworn.

Verse 44, The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that he had sworn to their fathers, and not a man of all their enemies stood against them. The Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand.

Now, you may come back to that later and say, well, wait a minute, what about that? That said this. What this verse is saying is that every time Israel went to battle to fight against those in the land, up to this point, nobody stood against them.

They weren't able to stand against them, the Lord gave the victory. And then verse 45 concludes and says, Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.

Latch on to that last verse. Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass. You ever feel like the promises that the Lord has made, they're never gonna come.

They're never gonna come to pass. You just, you become so impatient and so weary, waiting for and longing for the fulfillment of those promises. Promises that are recorded for us, for example, in the end of the book of Revelation, that there will come a time when all of this world's corruption and all this wretched and everything will be done away with, and there will be a new heavens and a new earth, and in this new heavens and new earth there will be no corruption.

There will be nothing that causes pain, nothing that causes tears, and you're going day after day and running into one thing of pain and another thing of anxiety and another thing of tear that causes tears day after day, and you wonder, will those promises ever come to pass?

Well, take heart, my friend. This verse applies to us. As I said yesterday, the fulfillment of what is reported here in this verse took hundreds of years to come to pass. The sometimes it's a long time in coming, but not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord has promised, and not a word that the Lord has promised will fail.

Count on that. Count on that today. So our Father and our God, we're thankful that we can count on you, we can trust in you for the fulfillment of your promises. Bless these thoughts to our hearts today we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.

All right, may you have a good day, and may God bless you in it.