JOSHUA 13

At the beginning of Joshua 13, the Lord comes to Joshua and says, "You are now very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over." (vs 1) And then, He proceeds to outline exactly what areas of land are left for the Israelites to take possession of. I was struck by the specificity of it. He didn’t just say, "There’s still some land to the east over there." No, it was from this border over here to that border over there and everything below this mountain and so on.

So, for me, the point today is this: God remembers His promises, and He remembers them in sparkling detail. He is not a laissez-faire kinda guy when it comes to His promises. No, He has them intricately planned—in this case, right down to the very last blade of grass.

I have often heard God described as more of a "hands off" sort of God. You know, someone who set the universe in motion, but doesn’t have very much to do with our everyday lives. Sometimes He’s described this way because the person believes that He doesn’t care. Other times, He’s described this way because the person believes He can’t influence events in the lives of people on this sinful planet.

But I look at a chapter like this and think, no way is God a "hands off" guy! Just as He had the Promised Land all charted out for the Israelites—down to the very last parcel of land—so He has plans for our lives that He has fine-tuned down to the last detail. Of course, He won’t force His plans on us. We are free, as the Israelites were, to ignore Him and go our own way. But when God makes a promise to us, He never forgets it. As far as it is in His control, He will see it fulfilled down to the nitty-gritty end!