“See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers – to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give to them and their descendants after them.” —
Deuteronomy 1:8
God’s dealings with Israel in the Bible had a lot to do with the land He promised them. He first promised the land to Abraham and then confirmed that promise to Isaac and Jacob. Next He chose Moses to lead them out of slavery to possess this land that had been promised to them many hundreds of years earlier. The challenge to this promise however, was that the land was not unoccupied land which Israel could take over but an inhabited land they could only possess through faith and conquest. When Israel realised what it would take for them to claim the land which was promised to their fathers, they became disillusioned. God told them two things:Deuteronomy 1:8
• ‘I have set the land before you’.
That simply meant that what they wanted was available. It was a reality they could verify for themselves. What is required at this stage is for us to see the promise and believe in its reality.
•`Go in and possess the land’.
What is available does not become ours until we possess it. For Israel, possessing their promised land demanded more than faith. It demanded faith with action.
Israel spent forty years in the wilderness trying to avoid what they had to do to possess their promised land. Today, a lot of us also waste precious years in avoiding the bold decisions and actions we must take in order to realise our promise.
Prayer:
I thank You God for what You have made available to me and boldly possess it all in Jesus’ name.Scriptural Reading:
Deuteronomy 1:1-8
#YearOfWisdom
