A Time to Sow: Part 2Sample

A Seed of Promise

When God led the Israelites out of Egypt, He gave them a seed of promise. Forty years after leaving Egypt, God would fulfill the promise He made to Abraham centuries before. In Genesis 17:8, God said to Abraham, “The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” The individual who would lead them into the land wouldn’t be Moses (who helped them escape slavery), rather, it would be Joshua.

By the time Joshua entered the Promised Land, he was said to be about 80 years old. He had witnessed everything from being a slave in Egypt, the miracles God performed through Moses, the parting of the “Red Sea” to wandering in the desert. In Hebrew, Joshua means “the Lord saves.” God had been preparing Joshua for this moment. He was mentored by Moses who told him, “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged” (Deuteronomy 31:8).

However, the seed of promise required obedience. The Israelites had to be faithful to God. Throughout the book of Deuteronomy, we read about the significance of obedience and the Israelites’ inability to remain consecrated to God. The pleasures of the world led them astray. Before Moses died, he charged the Israelites saying, “Take to heart all of the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you – they are your life” (Deuteronomy 32:46-47).

Similar to Moses, Joshua, too, urged the Israelites to remain obedient to God. His charge to the leaders of Israel was, “Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left” (Joshua 23:6). To receive the harvest God had promised, the Israelites needed to remain obedient.

Many of us are like the Israelites. God has placed a seed of promise in our hands while asking us to be obedient. Through every circumstance (triumph and defeat), He asks us to trust Him. Yet, we aren’t strong or courageous enough to be faithful to God in today’s culture. We cave too easily to the pressures around us, planting seeds into our lives that will choke out the blessings God has for us. As Moses encouraged Joshua, we must hold tightly to the seeds of the promise God has given us. We need to obediently follow God and remember that as we are faithful to Him, He will never leave or forsake us.