Prepare for Battle

Joshua and the Isrealites were finally in. No surprise really. God had promised the land to them. Each tribe was given their portion of land. It was theirs and all they had to do was drive out the inhabitants to claim the land as their own.

But there were problems

"But the tribe of Judah could not drive our the Jebusites, who lived in the city of Jerusalem, so the Jebusites live there among the people of Judah to this day." Joshua 15:63

Some tribes asked for a bigger spot because the inhabitants were taking up so much space.

"The descendants of Joseph came to Joshua and asked, "Why have you given us only one portion of land when the Lord has given us so many people?"…They said, "The hill country is not enough for us, and the Canaanites in the lowlands around Beth-shan and the valley of Jezreel have iron chariots-they are too strong for us." (Joshua 17:14-16)

Joshua agreed to give them the forest areas to clear out, which pacified them, but in the end they didn't clear that out either. (Judges 1:27)

So many Isrealites chose to live out their days co-mingling with the people they were supposed to run out. Although they would have been victorious by God's promise, they simply thought it was too hard, or too much work. And the book of Judges records lots of problems later on because of this co-habitation.

This makes me think of myself, my friends, my family, my church, and all believers. It makes me wonder.

How many of us are living with the enemy simply because it's "too hard" to drive them out?

No, we don't have Jebusites in our neighborhoods, but we defiantly have hurts that we refuse to forgive, addictions that we haven't kicked, weight that needs to be shed, debt that has to be paid, sin that we put off confessing, relationships that should to be healed, and apologies that need to be made.

Sure we walk around quoting Phillipians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" but yet we don't even attempt the hard stuff. Or when we attempt it once, and get defeated by the iron chariots, sigh, and throw our hands up saying, "Well I tried, but they were too strong for me."

We continue to settle for less than what God has promised us. Even though we have the promise of victory, we continue to live with the sin in our lives because it's too hard to conquer it.