JOSHUA 13-14 - AN INHERITANCE FROM GOD
Joshua 13-14
In these Chapters, God describes the portions of land to be inherited by each tribe of the people of Israel. There are a couple of key verses in here on how God’s blessings are to be obtained, but as a whole, these chapters give us a foretaste of our inheritance in Christ.
The key verses are Joshua 13:1 where God told Joshua to go and possess the land, and Joshua 13:6 where God says that He will drive out all the existing inhabitants of the land. God acted, and without His action, the land never would have been available to His people. Yet, His action did not excuse His people from the responsibility of doing their part as well.
Although God gave then the land, they still had to go take it. That is generally how faith works.
God did the work of salvation for us, by sending His Son Jesus to die on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins, and to be resurrected to give us new life, but we must personally appropriate salvation by faith. We are saved by grace, through faith. Grace is unearned, unmerited, and undeserved favor with God, and is not a reward for good behavior. However, standing alone, it will do nothing to save us. It is only when Jesus and the grace He offers is personally received and trusted in by us, which is what faith is, that it works to save us. For those who have received the free gift of salvation through Jesus, there is an inheritance available to them that far surpasses the earthly inheritance of land that was given to God’s people in these chapters.
The people receiving that land would not have it forever. They would die, and it would be possessed by their descendants. Even their descendants would not always possess the land, for they would eventually lose it to other nations. Although God, who is faithful, has promised to restore them to that land, and in this past century we have been witnesses to Him doing that, there were long periods of time when they were not in possession of the land. Not only that, but even when they have been in possession of the land, they have always had to work to maintain it and keep it fruitful. Eventually, that land, like the rest of the earth, will be consumed with fire, when God creates a new earth.
The inheritance that we have in Christ cannot be lost, there is nothing we have to do to maintain it, and it will never be destroyed.
We will always be in possession of it, and it will never diminish or be destroyed. In 1 Peter 1:4, this inheritance is described as being imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, and kept in Heaven for us. Ephesians 1:3 describes this inheritance as consisting of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and then the rest of the chapter goes on to describe those blessings for us. Our spiritual blessings in Christ far surpass any earthly blessing we could ever receive from God. Abraham, who was the father of faith, and the first one to whom God promised all this land, knew that, for Hebrews 11:10 tells us that although Abraham journeyed to this promised land by faith, that what he was really seeking above and beyond that, was Heaven, which is described there as the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
Unlike our earthly blessings, which are many, no one can ever take the spiritual blessing of salvation from us, or deprive us of an eternity in Heaven.
When it comes to salvation and Heaven, God does not, like some fisherman, practice “catch and release.” Jesus said in John 10:28 that He gives His sheep eternal life, and that they will never perish, and that no one will snatch them out of His hand. If you have, by faith, personally received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are His forever, and an eternity in Heaven with Him safely and securely awaits you. That is an inheritance worth receiving!