Tag: God’s promises

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Love and obedience

Jon Galloway

“Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left. Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. But you are to hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have until now.…So be very careful to love the Lord your God” (Joshua 23:6-11 NIV).

Joshua had led the Israelites into the Promised Land and they had conquered the land. Each tribe had been allocated their inheritance and they had settled into their homes. Joshua was now a very old man (Joshua 23:1) at 110 years of age (Joshua 24:29). He called the leaders of the tribes together one last time to remind them of what God had done for them and what God required of them. “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed” (Joshua 23:14). Continue reading “Love and obedience”

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The need to trust in God

Jon Galloway

“Now Jericho was shut tightly because of the Israelites. No one was allowed to leave or enter. The Lord told Joshua, ‘See, I am about to defeat Jericho for you, along with its king and its warriors. Have all the warriors march around the city one time; do this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the horns. When you hear the signal from the ram’s horn, have the whole army give a loud battle cry. Then the city wall will collapse and the warriors should charge straight ahead’” (Joshua 6:1-5 NET).

The Israelite nation had crossed the Jordan River and were now in the Promised Land. God’s promise was being fulfilled! But…they were still living in tents and the land was full of hostile people. They still needed to conquer those living in the various towns and villages before they could settle down to a peaceful life. Continue reading “The need to trust in God”

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Promises and blessings

Jon Galloway

God had set the Israelites free from being slaves of the Egyptians. As they camped at Mount Sinai, they were being formed into an orderly nation. As we will see from the census in Numbers 1, there were over 600,000 men, aged 20 and over, who were able to go to war. Conservative estimates, taking into account that there are generally more females born than males, plus the elderly who couldn’t bear arms, those under 20, and the tribe of Levi, would give a nation of at least two to three million people. That would place them around the same size as Lithuania, Nambia or Slovenia today. But they did not yet have land and were living in tents in the wilderness.

To prepare this new nation to enter the Promised Land, God made promises to them. These were conditional on their obedience and living by the commands he gave them. And for a budding nation, these were quite powerful promises. Continue reading “Promises and blessings”

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Trying to help God

Jon Galloway

From the time they had entered Canaan, God had promised Abraham and Sarah that their descendants would be given the land they were now in (see Genesis 12:7). The problem was that both Abraham and Sarah were well on in years and weren’t getting any younger. When Abraham first received this promise he was 75 years old (Genesis 12:4), and Sarah was ten years younger. Continue reading “Trying to help God”