¹⁰ And Joshua commanded the officers of the people, ¹¹ “Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, ‘Prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.’”

¹² And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua said, ¹³ “Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.’ ¹⁴ Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brothers and shall help them, ¹⁵ until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as he has to you, and they also take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and shall possess it, the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.”

¹⁶ And they answered Joshua, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. ¹⁷ Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses! ¹⁸ Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.” – Joshua 1:10-18 ESV

The conquest of the land of Canaan is about to begin. This day has been long in coming. It goes all the way back to the promise that God had made to Abram, when He called him out of the land of Ur.

¹ Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” – Genesis 12:1-3 ESV

Abram did as God had commanded him and was led by God to the land of Canaan.

⁵ When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶ Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” – Genesis 12:5-7 ESV

The book of Hebrews tells us that Abram, who later had his name changed to Abraham by God, lived in the land, but never possessed a single acre of it, except the plot where his wife was eventually buried.

⁸ By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹ By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. – Hebrews 11:8-9 ESV

Abraham remained a nomad, living in tents within the land of promise, but never actually possessing any of it as his own, and the author of Hebrews says he eventually “died in faith, not having received the things promised” (Hebrews 11:13 ESV). Eventually, Abraham’s son, Isaac, had a son named Jacob, who had a son named Joseph. Joseph would be sold into slavery by his own brothers, out of jealousy over their father’s treatment of him as his favorite son, Joseph would end up in Egypt where, through a series of God-ordained events, he became the second-highest official in the Egyptian government. In time, a famine came to the land of Canaan, forcing Jacob, his sons, and their families to search for aid in the land of Egypt. There they were surprisingly reunited with the brother they had left for dead. But rather than seek revenge on his brothers for what they had done, Joseph assured them that it had all been part of God’s sovereign plan.

⁵ And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. ⁶ For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. ⁷ And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. ⁸ So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. – Genesis 45:5-8 ESV

Jacob was reluctant to move his family to Egypt, but he received a word from God, assuring him that this was all part of His plan.

³ “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. ⁴ I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again…” – Genesis 46:3-4 ESV

Jacob and his family did relocate to Egypt and, not long after his death, Joseph reassured his brothers of God’s involvement in all that had happened, and of his own intentions to care for them as long as they lived in the land of Egypt.

¹⁹ “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? ²⁰ As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” – Genesis 50:19-20 ESV

And he kept that commitment. But the presence of the people of Israel in the land of Egypt would extend far beyond the life of Joseph. They would remain in the land of Egypt for 400 years. Eventually, a new Pharaoh came to power who found the explosive growth of the descendants of Abraham to be a potential threat to national security so, he began a program of enslavement and persecution of them that would last . And even this had been a part of God’s plan. Centuries earlier, God had told Abraham that all of this would happen.

Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.” – Genesis 15:13 ESV

But God also had a plan for their deliverance. He used Moses to free His people from their captivity and to lead them to the land He had promised to Abraham. And Moses had been successful in his emancipation of the descendants of Abraham and his 40-year-long effort to get them to the land of promise. Which brings us to this moment in time, where Joshua stands poised to take a new generation of Israelites into the long-awaited promised land. You can almost sense the fear and anticipation among the people as Joshua commands his officers to inform them of what is about to happen.

“Prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.” – Joshua 1:11 ESV

They had been here before. This was not the first time they had planned on entering the land of promise. More than 40 years earlier, Moses had them poised to take possession of the land, but the people had balked. When spies reported that the land was fruitful, but also occupied by apparently insurmountable armed forces, the people had refused to enter the land, even threatening to stone Moses and Aaron, and choose new leaders to guide them back to Egypt. So God, in His anger, cursed that generation, telling them that they would never enter the land.

²² …none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, ²³ shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.” – Numbers 14:22-23 ESV

And now, 40 years later, that next generation was being called to do what their predecessors had refused to do. Nothing had changed. The same formidable foes were still living in the land. There were going to be days filled with battles and the threat of death for everyone who obeyed God’s command to enter the land. But they also had the assurance that God was going to be with them. He was going to go before them. His promise of the land, given hundreds of years earlier to Moses, was going to be fulfilled.

And as they prepared to cross the Jordan River, Moses called upon the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, to assist them in their conquest of the land. At their own requests, they had all been given land on the opposite side of the Jordan, but they had agreed to fight alongside their brothers and sisters in order to ensure that all the land of Canaan was eventually possessed by the descendants of Abraham, just as God had said. And they assured Joshua of their commitment to keep their word.

¹⁶ “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. ¹⁷ Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses!” – Joshua 1:16 ESV

What is interesting to note is that this event signals the day on which the people of Israel were to enter their rest. As they stood on the banks of the Jordan, preparing to enter the land, they were doing so as an army. And yet, the minute they crossed over that river they would be entering not only the land of Canaan, but the rest that God had promised them. The very rest their ancestors had rejected.

⁸  “…don’t harden your hearts
as Israel did when they rebelled,
    when they tested me in the wilderness.
⁹ There your ancestors tested and tried my patience,
    even though they saw my miracles for forty years.
¹⁰ So I was angry with them, and I said,
‘Their hearts always turn away from me.
    They refuse to do what I tell them.’
¹¹ So in my anger I took an oath:
    ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’” – Hebrews 3:8-11 ESV

Entering into God’s place of rest was not a guarantee of a trouble-free life. It was not to be a picture of ease and comfort. The land was not going to be taken without a fight. The days ahead would be filled with battles and loss of life. But they had ceased from wandering. They were no longer going to have to wait for God’s promise to be fulfilled. They would be in the land and resting in the presence and power of God Almighty. And the book of Joshua will close with a reminder that God would remain with them throughout the entirety of their conquest of the land, providing them with victory after victory and slowly solidifying their possession of the land.

⁴³ Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. ⁴⁴ And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. ⁴⁵ 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 21:43-45 ESV

The author of Hebrews reminds us that the previous generation of Israel died in the wilderness, and it was “because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest” (Hebrews 3:19 NLT). And he warns us, as believers, to not repeat the mistakes of those stubborn Israelites who refused to place their faith and trust in God.

¹² Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. ¹³ You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. ¹⁴ For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. – Hebrews 3:12-14 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001