All Came to Pass

"Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass."

Joshua 21:45

Two things that stuck out to me from Joshua 21. First was the verse that I quoted above. It's funny how this is something almost everyone who goes to church hears and knows, and yet it's also one of the hardest things for us to believe. I find myself in a daily, perhaps hourly struggle to believe this with both my head and my heart.

But it's a fight worth fighting.

The other thing that stuck out was the way the Israelites used lots to determine which cities would be given over to the Levites as their inheritance. Casting lots is basically like rolling dice. What's being described in this chapter is how, after conquering the land of Canaan, the tribes went around and "rolled dice" to see which of their cities they would hand over to the Levites.

It seems pretty random. And it doesn't really say whether God approved of this method or disapproved (at least as far as I could see in this chapter). It's clear he wants the Levites to have these cities, but it's not clear how he wants the cities to be picked.

This is actually reassuring to me. I take it to mean that God's given us plenty to go by. We know what his vision is: love him, be loved by him, and love others. The means by which we do that, though, will vary. Sometimes we'll have a clear sign to move in a certain direction. Other times we might be going for awhile unsure of how exactly we're supposed to accomplish that. And that's okay. It won't be time or effort wasted.

It's simple: trust him, seek his kingdom, and don't obsess about the rest. This is good news for someone like me who gets tempted to over think every single decision, and blame himself for every single mistake to the point of paralysis.

It's really not about me. It's about him. Gotta keep my focus right.