I will be with you. See what I've done.

I've been dragging my feet reading Joshua (in the Bible) for more than a few months now. Yes, really slooooowly. I was distracted. Bored of land allotments. And sleepy. Somehow we can too easily slip into that rut.

BUT I finished today! And as I neared to the end I actually started getting pumped. And then when I was finished I looked back where I'd read and what I'd underlined and was even more pumped. The picture was becoming clearer.

At the beginning God promised Joshua "As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Josh 1:2)

But,

"Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." (Josh 1:8-9)

And so God brought them into a new place, but they had to walk and go forth.

God fought for them.

They won.

They sinned.

They repented.

God fought for them again and they won again.

"Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!" (Josh 10:14)

They won again. And so on.

A man, Caleb, was even given special mention "because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly." (Josh 14:14)

Then come the land allotments. But it kind of seems like they might have been sitting around for a while before this started because Joshua asks them "How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?" (Josh 18:3)

Had they gotten distracted, bored and sleepy too?

So they did it. They moved into the land that God had given them.

But how long had it been?  They'd had some pretty big successes. God had fought for them. And they won, and they won, and they won. But somehow they still needed to be reminded.

"Not one of all the LORD's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled." (Josh 21:45)

And even some warnings needed to be given: "be very careful to keep the commandment and the law... to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, to obey his commends, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul." (Josh 21:5)

But where I start getting excited at the end is in Joshua 24 when the tribes are assembled at Shechem. Joshua is reminding them of where they've come from and what God's done. And it just seems to me like over and over again God is shouting SEE WHAT I'VE DONE! SEE WHAT I'VE DONE! SEE WHAT I'VE DONE! "Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed." (Josh 23:14)

I think sometimes our lives are like that too. (Of course they are, we are human as well.) God promises he'll be with us - and as Christians today, we have the Holy Spirit. We go into life. God does good things - in us, around us, for us. We give him credit, or sometimes we give him credit, and sometimes we forget who's fighting for us. And time passes. And we get distracted. And we need to LOOK BACK and SEE WHAT HE'S DONE already. Because he HAS done good things. So many. So many. So many. And he still will.

And we must continue (continue, continue, continue) to love Him, walk in his ways, obey his commands and hold fast to him, to serve him. To go forth.

Right?