Joshua 18:3 "So Joshua said to the Istaelites: "How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors has given you?" I want you to just sit and think on this scripture for a minute while I give you the back story, in case you don't already know ; )
Moses had just led the Israelites from captivity in Egypt, through 40 years of wilderness with the purpose of entering the Promised Land. God had heard the cries of the oppressed (the Israelites) and sent a "redeemer" to lead them. However, Moses would not get to enter the promised land with the people. God raised up Joshua and Caleb to lead them after Moses died, two men who had tremendous faith and would not allow the Israelites to dissuade them from what God was doing with their negativity and fear. In Joshua 1:2, God said "Moses, my servant, is dead. So now arise, take this place, go over this Jordan, you and all the people, into this land which I am giving to them, the Israelites. Every place upon which the sole of your feet shall tread, that have I given you, as I promised Moses."
If you know anything about the Israelites, you know that they were a fearful, complaining group of people . Moses had to remind them OVER and OVER who God was for them. Miracle after miracle and yet they still questioned God's goodness to bring them to the promised land, out of captivity. Does this sound familiar??? I know I've struggled with this too.
God goes on to give Joshua very specific instructions on how to proceed. He was to instruct the people to pack their things, and that in 3 days time, they would cross the Jordan and go into the Land that God had given them as their possession. Joshua then sent out two spies to go and assess the land. Those two spies encountered a woman named Rahab who hid them from the governing authorities at the time until it was safe for them to leave. Rahab informed the spies that the whole nation was in fear and dread because they know God was with Moses. They had heard of all God had done for them and didn't want to mess with Israelites. WHOA! Just take a minute and let that sink in. The God who would do that for the Israelites will do that for YOU and ME!
I highly recommend reading the entire book of Joshua, because it is chalk full of accounts of God's provision, instruction, deliverance and protection. Fast forward to chapter 18. Joshua says "How long will your wait before you begin to take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors has given you?" This resonates deep within me. Something I've mentioned briefly before in this blog is PTSD, or Complex PTSD and how surviving trauma often leaves us with certain deficits. One of those deficits is the inability to plan for the future, or a sense of foreshortened future. Feeling paralyzed when it comes to making decisions that involve the future. The inability to think ahead and dream and see 10 years down the road where you want to be. If someone asked me, I would have said "you mean I have a future?"In very simple terms, when you are so focused for so long on surviving your circumstances, there is little room or ability to think of anything beyond that. Id venture a guess and say that the Israelites, as one of the most oppressed people groups of that time, had varying degrees of what we now would call PTSD. They were slaves. Their children were murdered. They were forced to endure manual labor beyond human capacities. That is gonna leave some scars! I believe this is why Moses struggled to get the Israelites to believe that God was good, even though they had experienced it over and over and over again.
In my own life, I've endured a captivity of sorts. I was held captive by fear, oppression, abuse, pain and loss. Over and over again. I know that the enemy wanted me dead. He did everything he could to keep me from healing and overcoming. He used willing people to take me out. He did not want me to rewrite the story of abuse because of what that means for generations that come after me. There is so much process to getting out of that, that I fail to do the details justice here, but It was very much a walking out of captivity, and being led into life. And sometimes it can take awhile before the brain recognizes that you are no longer in captivity and it's time to go in and reign in your own life. Take possession of the land God has given YOU, as an individual. Trust that he is so good that your enemy and enemies KNOW that God is for you, and thus they know not to touch you because God is with you. That the enemy actually lives in fear and dread of God inside of you.
I feel this is where I am now in my process. I'm entering a very blessed season of my life. Not that we don't have struggles, but I feel like I'm living for the first time in years, possibly for the first time EVER. And I'm challenged by that verse that says "How long will you wait?", because I too want to hang back. I too struggle with fear at times of really savoring all that God has put before me, and not worrying if it'll be taken away. I struggle to go out and take risks knowing that the area in front of me is vast.
So...what areas in your life is God challenging you, or rather PERMITTING you to go and take possession??
