What Task Have I Left Unfinished?

Joshua 13: 1,7, and 13   - When Joshua was old and well advanced in years, the LORD said to him, "You are very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over…..

and divide it as an inheritance among the nine tribes and half of the tribe of Manasseh."…..

But the Israelites did not drive out the people of Geshur and Maacah, so they continue to live among the Israelites to this day.

 

Joshua was getting old….most commentaries average his age around 100 years old when God spoke to him this day. He had been a great military leader…using his great listening skills…and a God-given boldness…to complete even the strange sounding military tasks he was asked to do. So God rewarded his ability to listen and his obedience in all tasks with a well-deserved rest.  He was to assign the remaining 9 and one half tribes who would live on the west side of the Jordan River ….the enormous land of Canaan…and charge them with driving out the remaining kingdoms that were not following God’s rules for living.

 

Each tribe that crossed to the west side of the Jordan…was appropriated a section of this great land…and as they enjoyed the great resources and provisions God had placed there….they were to drive out the pagans that remained.  They were to remain pure worshipers of God…and continue to follow his rules.  They were to build altars …and bring to  the Levites who would live around them…what they needed to care for them… bringing the first fruits of each area of land….the new lambs…the sacrifices of thanks described by Moses…and continue to worship him forever in this promised land.

 

They failed to drive out two distinct groups of people… and the cancer like pagan beliefs…slowly dislodged all the great training Moses and Joshua had implanted in the Israelites….it began to seep into the souls of the remaining people who were worshiping God. Maybe they got a little spoiled…maybe they grew tired of the same routines…maybe they failed to teach the importance of worshiping God to their children….maybe they grew too tolerant of the pagan practices around them…or perhaps it was a combining of these. But whatever the reason...they failed to complete the task they were given…and it will eventually separate them completely from God.

 

Makes me wonder…what task…well in my case it is probably what tasks…has God given me to do that I haven’t quite completed yet…and how is the remainder of that important task influencing the way I serve my God? I sure don’t want to be separated from him ever again…so I had better spend some time thinking about it. Maybe the way I jokingly say quite often that I want to retire soon is wrong…a Freudian slip perhaps…cause I am only 54 and not near the 100 years that Joshua put into serving God.  Maybe Satan has twisted my thinking the wrong direction….and I should be searching for what jobs I need to finish still.  Maybe the thoughts of rest have become a cancer… one that might destroy all the progress God has made in my soul in the last 54 years. Like the Israelites…I need to be careful to guard against becoming a little spoiled…or growing tired of the same routines…or failing to teach the importance of worshiping God to my children.  I need to guard against becoming too tolerant of the pagan practices around me.

 

Father…you amaze me with these lessons from Joshua…just when I read at night a huge list of land territories and think that it has nothing for me to apply to my daily life…you stick in my spirit 3 short passages embedded in the long complicated names of mountain lands and kingdoms of old. Thank you for that… thank you for reminding me that that cancer is not just a disease of the body…but it invades our very soul.  Help me this morning to pray for your covering and courage and strength….to evaluate my daily routines for the pure worship you called me to bring to you at 14.  Help me this morning to stop thinking about rest…and ask you to bring to my remembrance the tasks that you have given me to do that I have set aside…and forgotten...like all those craft projects still to be finished….tucked away in the drawers and closets of my home.  Place in my spirit …one by one…in the order of most importance…each task I need to pick back up…and renew my soul with the passion I need to complete it. Amen.