All Came to Pass

GETTING STARTED

When I was a young girl, my mom and dad took our family on a trip to the Grand Canyon. We completed the 15-hour drive in one day, cruising across I-40 in my parents’ sturdy Oldsmobile, passing the time with a combination of reading, coloring, and fighting. Each time we got fussy, my dad would distract us by describing the amazing wonders we would see when we finally arrived. Although it felt like forever, when we saw the Grand Canyon for the first time, it all seemed worth it. In today’s passage, the children of the house of Israel finally arrive. And it is all that it was promised to be.

  • Has there ever been a time in your life that you waited and waited on something big, and when it arrived, it was all that you had expected?

READ THE WORD: JOSHUA 21:43-45 (ESV)

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.

English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

DIGGING DEEPER

  1. Each of these three verses contains some form of the word “gave.” Who is the giver and what three things did he give?
  2. How many times is the word “all” used in these three verses? What do you think the significance of that is?
  3. From a New Testament perspective, what is the “all” that God has given us?
  4. What are some ways that our words and actions demonstrate that we have “taken possession” of all that God has given?
  5. Would your family, friends, and neighbors say that you are settled by God’s provision? Why or why not?

RESPOND TO GOD

These Old Testament verses are a picture of what Jesus did for us: Jesus’ death and resurrection gave us the ability to take possession of all that God has promised us. Just as God gave the children of Israel all that he had promised, Jesus gives us the ability to live a settled life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, and so much more. But we have to take possession of it and be settled in our hearts and minds to live the surrendered life. Just as the Israelites had to enter into the Promised Land to enjoy all it had to offer, we have to enter in to the spirit-filled life offered by following Jesus.

  • Thank Jesus that he made a way for you to enter into abundant life with him.
  • Pray that God would give you the strength to live as though you have access to “all of the good promises” that the Bible tells us we have through Jesus Christ.

© 2014 Austin Ridge Bible Church, Inc.  All rights reserved.