The Cities of Refuge

to Calvary Chapel. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity to worship in song, Lord. To worship as we study your word. We would ask for your blessing on our service, Lord. We lift up the nursery, those little ones and the nursery worker. Bless their time. The children's church section as the teachers teach them, give them listening ears.

And we lift up the youth group. And ask for your blessing on them as they are taught and as they fellowship together. And again, we ask your blessing on us in here as we worship in song, as we study your word. We give you praise and thanks in Jesus' name. Let's try that again. You hear those notes? Oh boy, mercy. Your song is faith.

My time has come. Do that this evening, Lord. We worship corporately in song. We worship you. Those notes, Lord. We worship you when we follow that what you call us to do because we respect you and because we love you. We want to do what you've asked us to do. And oh, Lord, I thank you that when we have those times where we disobey, you don't throw us out. You may correct us a little bit

here and there, but you love us. Thank you, Lord Jesus.

Salvation. Thank you, Lord Jesus. You're so worthy of our praise. Would you all stand and stretch with me a little bit here? Sing sweetly in the tree.

Years can take it in. Thank you, Lord Jesus. We praise you for who you are, the God of the universe, our Savior, who came to save us by dying on the cross, raising from the dead, ascending up to the right hand of the Father. Thank you for making intercession for us. Oh, do we need it. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, now bless our time now as Pastor Ryan comes up.

Lord, I invite the power of your Holy Spirit to bring forth your word. In Jesus' name, amen.

Good evening. If you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Joshua, chapter 20. Joshua, chapter 20.

If there is a title for this evening's message out of Joshua, chapters 20 and 21, it's just simply the cities. Because that's exactly what we're going to talk about in these two chapters. We have seen the distribution of the land. Now that they have, really conquered the margin share of the enemies, it's up to each tribe to go in and take the land. They have each been given an allotment

and we went through all of those different tribes and the allotment that they have. And they were each given the responsibility of clearing out their particular area of the enemy. Of course, we saw that some of them did not do that. But now we get down to some of the individual cities because there's two different groupings of cities that are going to be laid out here.

The first given to us in chapter 20 is the cities. The cities of refuge. And then the ones given to us in chapter 21 are the cities of the Levites. So, we pick up in chapter 20, verse 1, with the six cities of refuge. And this is what it says. Then the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, Designate the cities of refuge of which I spoke to you

through Moses, that the manslayer who kills any person unintentionally without premeditation may flee from you. They shall become your refuge from the avenger of blood. He shall flee to one of these cities and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, state his case in the hearing of the elders of that city, and they shall take him into the city to them and give him a place so that he may dwell among them. Now, if the avenger of blood pursues him, then they shall not deliver the manslayer into his hand because he struck his neighbor without premeditation and did not hate him beforehand.

He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment until the death of the one who is high priest in those days. Then the manslayer shall return to his own city and to his own house, to the city from which he fled. So they set apart Kadesh in Galilee, in the hill country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, Kiriath Arba, that is, Hebron, in the hill country of Judah. And beyond the Jordan, east of Jericho, they designated Bezer in the wilderness of the plain from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh.

These were the appointed cities for all the sons of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them, that whoever kills any person unintentionally may flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stands before them. The congregation. So we see these cities that are laid out. Now, in ancient Eastern custom, there was what was known as revenge killings.

They're not just things in movies today. This actually is what took place at this point in time. If an individual killed another person intentionally or unintentionally, some member of the family took it upon themselves to avenge the blood of the family member. Well, God knew that that was the way that it was, so He established a law, a law that would create a place of safety for those who killed someone unintentionally.

We would call it manslaughter or murder or a killing that was not premeditated. It's not murder. It was an accident, an accidental death. And in this, we see the principle of the sanctity of life. And we're reminded of a couple of things. The first thing that we're reminded of is that those persons who did kill someone intentionally, those guilty of premeditated murder,

that's not who these cities were for. It was not for those who were actually guilty of murder because God holds human life in such high regard that those who commit murder are themselves to be put to death. This is a hot-button issue in our world because not many people like to think about this because, after all, aren't we supposed to be merciful? But we are reminded that God holds human life in such high regard that if you take the life of another in a premeditated fashion, that you are not guilty of murder.

Your life is required of you. As a matter of fact, we are told other places in Scripture that the blood of those who have been murdered cries from the ground, which is quite the thought, especially given what's taken place, really, in the past 20 years in the United States of America, not only with all of the other killings that have taken place, but all of the school shootings that have taken place, some of which just in a really horrific fashion, that that blood would be crying from the ground. I would have to think that if the blood really does cry from the ground, that it must be deafening in nature. And so that's not what these cities were intended for. They're

not for those who had committed murder. Those were to be put to death. No. These were for those who were innocent. They were for those who there was an accident. Something happened. It was unintentional. And rather than having to hide the sin, rather than having to hide from the avenger of blood, they could flee to one of these cities, and in any one of these cities, they could explain their case

to the judge. They would still have to be heard out, and an investigation take place. But once they realized that it was not premeditated murder, but that it was simply an accident, they could find refuge or shelter in this city. So listen, there would be no shedding of innocent blood. Because the problem with revenge killings is that it's still a killing. And innocent blood oftentimes is

shed in those situations. And so, that's what these cities were set up for. Now, you may have taken note of the fact that it says that there were some on one side of the Jordan and some on the other. If you remember from our distribution of the land, there were tribes that took their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan River, and tribes that took their inheritance on the west side of the Jordan River.

Interestingly enough, because God is so gracious, He established six cities. Three of them on the west side of the Jordan River, three of them on the east side of the Jordan River. That way, there would be no difficulty making it to any one of these cities should something unforeseen happen, and you find yourself fleeing for your life. Now, as we take a look at chapter 20, we see these six cities of refuge that are laid out. We are reminded

that while this was a way of life in the eastern culture, there's also great spiritual application that we see in these cities of refuge. And so, I'd like to spend a few minutes talking about, the spiritual application that we see not only in God the Father, but that we especially see in Jesus when it comes to these cities of refuge. The first thing I would like for you to take note of comes out of Psalm 46, verse 1. I think I even had them put it up there. Psalm 46,

verse 1. You don't need to turn there, but you might, in the margin of your Bible, like I did, write Psalm 46, verse 1. Because it says this, God is our refuge, place of shelter, and strength of very present help in time of trouble. And that, for me, has become a really important place in the Psalms. The Psalms, in general, have become really important to me over the last few years,

finding some refuge in those. But that fact of the refuge of God is, to me, one of the more comforting verses in all of Scripture, because we realize that in God, we have that place of shelter. Because in the world that we live in, there is danger, spiritual, spiritually, but there is also the fear and all of the things that we deal with as human beings. And sometimes when life gets overwhelming, the only thing that we know how to do is run to God for refuge. To

find our refuge, our place of shelter in Him. As I run to the Father, and I pour out my heart to Him, and I believe those promises, I find that great security, that great comfort, that great shelter, that refuge, in God. Because He is a very present help in time of trouble. But there's also an interesting link between Jesus Christ and the cities of refuge. So there's a handful of things that I want to tell you about

this. I didn't come up with all of these myself. I stole them from some other commentaries that I read, but there's a list of a handful of things that are synonymous between Jesus and the cities of refuge. The first is that both Jesus, who is our refuge, and the cities of refuge. were all easy to reach. It's kind of interesting because when you do some studying about these

cities of refuge, you find that there's some Jewish tradition involved. And according to Jewish tradition, all of the roads leading to all of the cities of refuge always had to be clear. They were to be maintained on a consistent basis so that there would be no issue getting to any one of these cities of refuge. As a matter of fact, if there was any body of water that had to be crossed, and it was a road, that led to the city of refuge, they were to build a bridge across the body of water so that there would be nothing that would keep them from these cities of refuge.

They were to be easy to reach. They were also close within distance so they were easy to reach. And isn't it interesting that Jesus, for those of us that come to Him for shelter and refuge, is always easy to reach. He's not far from us. He's not difficult to get to. And there is nothing that keeps us from heading down the road that would lead us straight to Jesus.

Sometimes we make it more difficult than it needs to be, but when it comes right down to it, He has cleared every path possible so that our path to Jesus is absolutely as straight as it can be. He's always easy to reach. Number two, both of the cities of refuge and Jesus are open to all. As a matter of fact, when you look at the principle, the law for the city of refuge, it was available both for the citizen of Israel and it was available for the stranger. It was available for the

alien or the pilgrim. All were welcome within these cities of refuge given they fled to them and they met the qualifications of being able to hide in the city of refuge. We're also reminded that Jesus is for everyone. That the gospel, as I've pointed out lots and lots of times, is for everyone. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter what your background is. It doesn't matter

any of those other things. Jesus is available to all just like the cities of refuge were. The third thing that we took note of about the cities of refuge is that they were both a place where you dwell. They were both supposed to be a place where you dwell. When you fled to the city of refuge, you had to remain in the city of refuge. As a matter of fact, according to the law,

if you left the city of refuge, you were free game. You were free game for the avenger of blood. The only way that you could be protected is if you dwelt in the city of refuge. You had to dwell within the borders. And the same is true of Christ. The only way that you can find safety from the judgment, the only way that you can find safety from the judgment to come is if you are

in Christ. You can't just know about Christ. You can't just decide that you're going to visit. It has to be the place where you dwell. It has to be the place where you dwell. It has to be the place where we live. The next thing that we take note of about the cities of refuge and Jesus is that they are both the only place of hope. They were the only place of hope.

If you found yourself in that situation, that desperate situation where something happened that you never intended to happen, the only place of hope that you had was to flee to the city of refuge. You couldn't go anywhere else because nothing else would help you. The only place where you could find safety from the coming storm was in the city of refuge. And brothers and sisters, the same is true for us.

The only place of hope we have is in Christ. The world will tell us there's lots of other places of hope. Sometimes we will even think there's lots of other places of hope. Well, if I'll just be a little bit better of a person. If I'll just do a little bit better. If I'll just try a little bit harder. Maybe there's a little bit of hope. No. If you're not in Christ,

then you have no place of hope. The next thing that's true of both Jesus and the cities of refuge, is that crisis seems to reveal our need for both. Have you ever noticed that? Have you ever noticed that crisis is the thing that seems to cause us to go, ooh, you know where I should go? I should go to Jesus. Crisis is what creates the need for somebody to go to the city of refuge, and

unfortunately for us as human beings, that's usually what it is that causes us to end up in a place where we say, the only place of hope that I have is in Jesus. Wouldn't it be great if we could just one day be like, hey, I'm just going to follow Jesus with all of my heart just because it's what I want to do? Nah. I guarantee in every single one of our testimonies, it started with a crisis.

It started with something that happened. Something that happened in our lives. Something that caused us to be desperate because until we find ourselves in that place where we're desperate for some kind of hope, unfortunately we tend to not find Jesus. That's why about 99.999% of testimonies all start with things were not going well for me. And I fled to Jesus.

And then the last thing that's true of both the cities of refuge and Jesus Christ is that in both cases the death of the high priest meant freedom. The death of the high priest meant freedom. Now, I read a couple of things in commentaries about this, but basically nobody really fully understands why it was that when the high priest died, you were free to go back home. Whoever was high priest, when you fled to that city, when they died, you were free to go back home with no charges because all of your charges had been dropped. There's

no good reason, at least according to all the commentaries that I read, why that would be the case other than the fact that it was always pointing to one thing and one thing only. We have a merciful and a faithful high priest. His name is Jesus Christ and his death meant freedom for me because when he died all of the charges were dropped. Because he took upon himself in the tree, on the tree, all of the sin that belongs to you and I. That's why the very last thing

that Jesus said from the cross was to tell us I paid in full because he paid the penalty for all the charges against you and me. Isn't that pretty cool? So Jesus and the city of refuge are a lot alike, but you know there's one main difference between Jesus and the city of refuge. It kind of takes on two parts, but there's one main difference. For the city of refuge,

to work for you in the Old Testament, according to the Old Covenant, only the innocent can find refuge in the cities of refuge. Only those who had not committed premeditated murder could find refuge. So if you were guilty of murder and you went to the city of refuge and they heard your case and they found that you were guilty, they would hand you over to the avenger of blood because it was only a place of refuge for the innocent. See that's where Jesus and the cities of refuge differ.

Because with Jesus, even the guiltiest of sinners can find refuge in him. And I don't know about y'all, but that's me. I'm one of the guiltiest of sinners. And the only place that I could find refuge is in Christ. So that's the only difference between those two things. But I thought that was pretty cool, some of those things that they pointed out because, man, because God is our refuge

and strength. Amen? So now we come to chapter 21. The 48 cities of the Levites. It says this. Then the heads of the households of the Levites approached Eliezer the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the heads of the households of the tribes of the sons of Israel. And they spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, The Lord commanded through Moses

to give us cities to live in with their pasture lands for our cattle. So the sons of Israel gave the Levites from their inheritance these cities with their pasture lands according to the command of the Lord. Now I want to point something out because there's just some interesting stuff and I've shared these things before, but I feel led to share them again about how Levi landed themselves in this situation. It all goes way back to the book of Genesis.

When Jacob was living in the land with all of his sons and he had this one daughter and this one daughter ended up in the land of the Lord. And this one daughter ended up getting raped by one of the local men. Only this local guy fell in love with her. Super twisted story, but that's not even the most twisted part of the story. He comes to Jacob and he says,

Hey, we would like to make a covenant with you guys. My son's in love with your daughter and he would like to marry her. Well, Jacob says, Hey, wait till my boys get back and we'll talk about it. So the boys get back and they're like, How dare he treat our sister this way? We have an idea. So they set up this plan, right? Simeon and Levi set up this plan. They say,

If all of the men of your community will become circumcised, then we will make a covenant with you. We will take your daughters as wives. We will give you our daughters for your sons as wives and there will be a covenant between the two of us. And so they said, That seems like a great idea because they were crazy. And so they were like, Yeah, all the men will be circumcised. So that's what they did.

Well, when it was the day when all the fellows were up, shall we say incapacitated Simeon and Levi went in and slaughtered all of Shechem just absolutely obliterated the place. And Jacob said, What did you guys do? This is horrific. You've you've made me a stain in the land. And so when Jacob was handing out the prophecies for all of the different sons there at the end of the book of Genesis,

he told both Simeon and Levi, you will be scattered throughout the land. And if you remember when we were looking at the allotment for Simeon, remember we said it was just that one little spot in the midst of Judah because really they were kind of scattered throughout the land. Well, Levi was just a little bit different. While Levi would still be scattered throughout the land, there was this other crazy story that took place in the book of Exodus.

And it was when Moses was up on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments while he was up on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments in this just locked in there with God, right? Aaron was down at the base of the mountain with all of the children of Israel. And as he was at the base of the mountain with the children of Israel for 40 days and 40 nights, they're like, Hey, I think that Moses guy's gone, right? Whatever pillar of fire he went up into, he ain't coming back. Make

for us a God that will lead us to the promised land. And so Aaron's like, Oh, it seems like a good idea. So he throws all the gold earrings and he crafts this golden calf. And he says, this is your God. And they dance around the golden calf and all kinds of nefarious things take place with the children of Israel. And so all of a sudden Moses is up there caught up in all

the cool stuff that's going on with God giving him, you know, Ten Commandments and whatnot. And God says, you need to get down there because your people, they done messed up. And it's because of Aaron, right? And I'm sorry, I tried it. It's the best I could do. You got to get down there. And so they're heading down and Moses goes, what, why do I hear? No, as Joshua said, it sounds

like the sound of battle. And Moses says, it ain't a battle. It's a party. He goes down and he breaks the Ten Commandments. Ironically, picturesque breaking of the Ten Commandments because they had just broken the commandments. And then he destroys the golden calf. And he says, everybody who's on God's side, come here. And all of the tribe of Levi got it around him.

The tribe of Levi went through and just started being the hand of judgment amongst all the people. It says 3,000 were killed that day in judgment from God. And so God said, because you took that step of obedience, because you were jealous for my name, I will make you my tribe. You won't have an inheritance in the land because I will be your inheritance. You will always be the tribe

of the priests. And it's really kind of cool because the tribe of Levi took what was a great stain on their name with that horrific thing that took place in Shechem. And they experienced God's redemption as they took a step of obedience. As they took a step of following God with all of their heart. And it's so cool because we are reminded that sometimes like the tribe of Levi and Simeon, we can

do things that create a great stain on our name. We can even do like David, right? And do something that causes the enemies of God to blaspheme. But it doesn't mean that God is done. It doesn't mean that redemption is impossible now. Because all it takes is that one step of obedience. All it takes is that one step back to God to get back on track and God says, I will take what was

at one point in time your greatest stain and it will become your greatest place of redemption. And that's exactly what happened with the tribe of Levi. They went from being the worst of the tribes to being the priestly tribe. And all it took was that one step of obedience. And so, the tribe of Levi gathers around and now they're going to receive this inheritance

still scattered throughout the land, but they will receive an inheritance. Interestingly enough, the guy that calls them, notice what it says in verse 1 of chapter 21. Then the heads of the households of the Levites approached Eliezer the priest. You know what's significant about Eliezer the priest? Is that when that last stain happened on the children of Israel

with the whole Balaam incident when the daughters of Moab came in and there was a whole situation there and some guys trailing a girl through the middle of camp, remember? And they're going, oh my gosh, what is going on? It was Eliezer the priest that took matters into his own hand and stopped the judgment of God by putting the sin to death. Isn't it kind of interesting that he's now the guy who's going to help distribute the land? Man,

God loves that obedience. And so, in verses 4 through 42, which I would highly encourage you to go read on your own, he's going to give out all of the cities to the sons of Levi. We're not going to go through all that, but I do want to point a couple of things out to you. It's a lot to read. It's a little bit cumbersome to read and my ADHD won't let that happen.

But I want to point a couple of things out to you about these cities. There were 48 cities that were given to the tribe of Levi and they were scattered all throughout the land. Most of the tribes gave 10 cities. A couple of them gave 13. But they were scattered all throughout the land from the south to the north. And it was said that you were no more than 10 miles from a city

that belonged to the tribe. of Levi. You were always within 10 miles of one of those cities. Now, why is that important? Because remember, the tribe of Levi were the priestly tribe. Therefore, they were the ones who knew the law of God the best. Because, after all, they were in charge of the tabernacle, the implements of the tabernacle, and the distribution of the law

amongst the people. So, in God's arrangement of the nation of Israel, you were no more than 10 miles from a city where the representation of the law of God was. Therefore, you were not a long ways from having any questions about the law answered by experts in the law. Because God made sure that His word and His testimony and His witness were interspersed throughout the entire land of Israel.

And I think that that's kind of a cool thing. It's a cool thing to pay attention to because God was so big on making sure that the word continued to go out to all of the people. That He made sure that all of the Levites were scattered in all of the right places so that the people could know God's word and there could be no excuse for them saying, well, I didn't know what the word said because I didn't have it available to me. Nope. You were within

distance that you could have done that. Now, that means something for us. And I think I had her put this up there. Because there's a truth that for us that we are to be in the world but not of the world. Because in the same way that the Levites, who were the experts in the law, who were the representation of the witness of God, the representation of the law

of God amongst the people, were scattered everywhere throughout the land, we are the same way. As believers in Jesus Christ, remember the last thing that Jesus told His disciples is that they were to go and they were to be witnesses, right? He said, you're going to be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. Now, that means something about us. It means that we have

to be scattered throughout the land. Do you remember what happened with the disciples right after Jesus ascended into heaven? They all gathered in Jerusalem, which is exactly where they were supposed to start, because that's where their witness was supposed to start. They received the Holy Spirit. Once they received the Holy Spirit, a great revival started taking place, but

only in one spot, in Jerusalem. But He wanted them to be scattered out throughout the entire world. You see, there was a danger at that point in time that all of the Christians would find themselves gathered in Jerusalem, and they would become this, like, holy club that never went out amongst anybody else, and they would find themselves held up in some kind of a commune where they never got out amongst the people, because we don't want to intermingle with all of the other sinful people of the world. But you see, God took care of that, didn't He? Do you remember what happened

for God to take care of that? Well, He was using Saul when Saul didn't even know he was being used by God, because Saul started persecuting the church. He started persecuting the church so heavily that they, they then began to scatter into Judea and into Samaria, and then Paul got saved, and then into the uttermost parts of the earth. Brothers and sisters, we need to know something.

Even as the tribe, even as the tribe of Levi was scattered throughout all of the land of Israel, because of the testimony of God, because of the witness of God, and to be able to explain the Word of God to the people, that is what we are supposed to be as Christians. We are supposed to be the exact same way, because you know what we're called in 1 Peter? We are called a kingdom of priests. I'm not a priest. Yes, you are.

According to God, you are. You're a kingdom of priests. Therefore, you are representatives of God to a very fallen world. And I tell you this because we're living in a very fallen world right now, and you know what's our tendency to do? And I see this a lot, and I'm going to choose my words really carefully, so I don't offend anybody right now, unlike usual.

It can be our tendency to now want to hold up. And I see people say this, man, we just you know, just stay away from all of the stuff of the world. Listen, if we don't get out in the world, we can't be a witness in the world. If we don't get out amongst people, we can't be a witness amongst people. And sometimes, we want to only be a part of our church, and our church group,

and our church people, and we don't ever go do anything with any of the other people, because after all, we don't want the state of the world to rub off on any of us. Problem is, you're not rubbing off on anybody. The scent of Jesus isn't getting on the people around you, because we're all held up where we don't get around anybody else. And that's not what we're supposed to be.

We're supposed to be those that get out amongst the people. We're supposed to be those that get out amongst the rest of the world, so that we can be the light of Jesus to the world that is around us. So that anywhere people go, there can be a witness, of Jesus around them. And I think that's really important for us to pay attention to in the world that we're living in today, because as the difference becomes greater and greater between light and dark, it's important that we're out there to be the light. Because if all of the

light is in this one place, you know what Jesus called that? He says, no one shines a light and hides it under, you guys remember the story? Under a basket. Right? We all used to sing this song when we were little kids. Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm going to let it shine. But you know what everybody in the church is doing right now? They're hiding it under a bushel.

Why? Because they're like, well, you know, we just want to stick together. Jesus is coming tomorrow, right? Jesus is coming any time. We just need to hold off and wait. We need to wait for him to come. No, we need to occupy until he comes. Could he come tomorrow? Absolutely. Could he come in the next 15 minutes? We can pray that way, right? But could he come in 50 more years? Yeah!

So what do we need to do until then? We need to be out amongst the people. We need to be out being witnesses amongst the people. And you can sometimes be a witness through the things that you say. Sometimes you can be a witness through the way that you live. Sometimes you can be a witness because people come and ask you questions because they know you go to church.

Sometimes they ask you questions about your church because they can't believe you go to church. That's an unfortunate thing. But sometimes they ask you questions about your church because you're living out the truth. And as we live out the truth with the people around us, we become that witness. And brothers and sisters, you're like those cities of Levi. People should never be

very far from someone who can tell them exactly what the word has to say and be that light of Jesus to the people around them. We're called to be witnesses. But remember, while we're called to be in the world, we're not called to be of the world. We are still called to be different. We are still called to look different, to act different, to speak different, to live

different than the world that's around us. Otherwise, we're not really a light. We're just part of the world. So he tells us to be in the world, but not of the world. So again, all of these things are given to us, and it's pretty cool that God, even though God is their inheritance, which is a pretty cool inheritance, he still knows they have to have some place to live, so he provides

them with these cities. But now we come down to verse 43. Verses 43 through 45 are some pretty cool verses. It says, So the Lord gave Israel all the land which he had sworn to give their fathers. And they possessed it, and they lived in it. And the Lord gave them rest on every side according to all that he had sworn to their fathers. And no one of all their enemies stood

before them. The Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. And not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed. All came to pass. It's cool. I took note of the fact, by the way, this little section is called the faithfulness of God. I took note of something, because it starts off by saying, so the Lord. And so there were four things it says that the Lord

did, right? Number one, it says that the Lord gave Israel all the land. Remember, that's exactly what God said he would do all throughout Exodus and Deuteronomy, or Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, that he would give them the land, that he would provide it for them. And that's exactly what God did. He gave them all of the land. Number two, it says that he gave

them rest. He gave them rest. While there were still things that they needed to do, they had rest from their enemies. The third thing it says is that he gave their enemies into their hands, which we saw over and over again in the first half of Joshua, that God was always giving over the enemies into their hands, even if it meant making the sun stand still. And then the fourth thing

that I took note of, it says about the Lord, is that he kept all of his promises. He kept all of his promises. Now, perhaps you're like me, and you read that, and you remember the last lesson that we had. Maybe you don't. I do because I taught it, but maybe that's not you. Or maybe you've read the book of Judges, and you're going, wait a second, they still had enemies.

They didn't possess all of the land. They didn't seem to have possessed. Where's the disconnect here? If God kept all of his promises, why did they still have enemies that they were facing? Because they did not possess all the land. We talked about that the last time that we were together talking about Joshua. As a matter of fact, they did not drive out the enemy.

So who failed? Did God fail? No. God did not fail. They did. And I wrote down a handful of things in which they failed. Because this disconnect is real. I'll get back to the faithfulness of God in just a minute, but I want to remind us of this because God did not fail. They did. Number one, they failed to believe. They failed to believe. It's interesting to think about

what kept them from going into the promised land the first time. Remember the first time they come to the edge of the promised land, Joshua and the rest of the spies that go in, and ten were bad and two were good, and they wouldn't enter in. Matter of fact, we're told in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews references this exact same thing. It says, so we see that they failed to

enter because of, unbelief. Therefore, be diligent. That's what Hebrews tells us. Be diligent to enter the rest. But they failed to believe. Why did they not drive out all the inhabitants of the land? Is it because they couldn't drive out all the inhabitants of the land? Is it because God couldn't drive out all the inhabitants of the land? No. They failed to believe that God could drive

out all the inhabitants of the land. They failed to believe that God would give them all of the victory because God kept all of His promises. right? So number one, they failed to believe. Number two, they chose ease and apathy. They chose ease and apathy. We all know what that's like. You ever gotten three-fourths of the way done on a project? Me too. I call it my house, right? You get three-fourths of the way

done on a project and you can live in it now, right? Like it's good enough to live in. And then you're like, I mean, I'm good with it. Are you good with it? My wife's never good with it. I'm always good with it though. And I'm the guy that knows what to do. So I'm like, eh, it's okay. I mean, three-fourths, maybe I get 90% done. But then ease and apathy kick in and you're kind of

like, eh, good enough, right? This is what we used to always say when I work construction. You can't see it from my house, unless it is your house. And then you can see it from your house. Can't see it when I'm asleep, right? And this ease and apathy kick in. And unfortunately the same thing happened with the children of Israel. They got three-fourths of the way conquering all of the

people. And they were like, eh, good enough. That's close enough, right? Instead of complete victory. And how many times do we do that in our walk with Jesus Christ? Man, I'm a whole lot better than I used to be. I don't struggle with that as much as I used to. Good enough. Good enough. Forgetting that it's now just a thorn in your side, right? So they chose

ease and apathy. First of all, they failed to believe. Second of all, they chose ease and apathy. And then the third thing is that they chose convenience and financial gain. They chose convenience and financial gain. Pretty soon it became convenient to keep some of the people around. After all, they could turn them into, remember, water carriers and wood choppers,

right? They turned them into forced labor. And so it was kind of convenient to keep some of these people. Sure, we've dominated them, but let's just keep them around. Because if we keep them around, they can do all the hard work that we don't want to do. They can do all the hard things that we don't want to do. As a matter of fact, we can probably make a little bit more money

because we don't have to pay them. They're forced labor, right? And so, it's kind of for our own gain that we keep some of these things around. And unfortunately, sometimes we're the same way. We keep some of those little things of the flesh around because it's just kind of convenient, right? It's not that big of a deal. Matter of fact, it kind of helps me a little bit

in the long run. It kind of helps me a little bit in my life to keep some of these old habits around. And we choose that convenience and gain. And that's exactly what the children of Israel did. God kept his promises. They didn't do, what he called for them to do. And so, but I do want to close with this. And it's out of verse 45. It says, Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed. All came to

pass. I got to tell you, because for Joshua, I do think that that was true. Not one good thing failed of what God promised to do, because God was faithful in it. Everything that he did. And the great thing about it is that Joshua recorded it all as he went. And it really started with the crossing of the Jordan River. Remember what God had him do when he crossed the Jordan River? When he crossed the Jordan River, he had him set up that stack of

stones. That stack of stones in the middle of the Jordan River, and that stack of stones just on the east or just on the west side of the Jordan River. So that anytime somebody looked at that stack of stones and they were like, what's up with the stack of stones here? He could say, well, that's a reminder of the Jordan River. He could say, well, that's a reminder of the Jordan River. He could say,

of God's faithfulness in bringing us across the flooded Jordan River. It's what brought us into the promised land. And I got to tell you, brothers and sisters, I think one of the best things that we can do is keep track of those places of faithfulness for us, because I guarantee everybody in here has some stories, some stories about God's faithfulness. And you can say not one good promise of God has failed. He's kept them all.

And that testimony of faithfulness is your life story, your life story of how you've seen God provide for you financially, your life story of how you've seen God heal you from past mistakes that you've made in your life, your story of how you've seen God restore broken relationships that you didn't think there was any restoration in, your story of how God took you from somebody who was apathetic and now you're passionate in your walk with Jesus Christ, your story of how God took you from somebody who was maybe addicted to God to somebody who was not. And that testimony of how God took you from somebody who was maybe addicted at one point in time, and now you're

delivered and you're walking in freedom. Your story of how God took someone who hated to read and turned you into the most passionate reader of God's word possible, and now you can't get enough of it. That's your story of God's faithfulness in your life. I was reading John Corson on this, and if you don't know very much about John Corson's story, he's a Calvary pastor, used to be up in Oregon. I'm not totally sure where he pastors now, but he has a fascinating story.

John Corson lost both his wife and his daughter to a car accident. The car accident took place on the exact same curve, not at the same time, years apart. And John Corson was recounting, matter of fact, when he had written the commentary that I was reading today, it was a year after, no, no, excuse me, it was five years after he had lost his daughter. And he said, I went back and I started looking at the pages of my journal, from the day that I lost her. And I started looking at all of the ways that God was faithful

in my life. And I just started reading back through those old yellowed journal pages that were now several years old. And I just looked at all of the ways that God was faithful in my life. All of the times that he kept his promise, the promise to never leave me, nor forsake me, the promise to be my place of refuge, my place of shelter, the promise to be the place that, I could always run to when life was too much for me. And I looked at all of those pages and I

realized that the words of Joshua chapter 21, verse 45, are the truest words ever spoken. Not one of God's promises failed. He kept them all. And perhaps you're in a place right now where you've seen God's faithfulness in the past, but now it's time to see it again in your life. And you need to remember that the faithful God who kept the promises, to Abraham, who kept the promises to Isaac, who kept the promises to Jacob,

who kept the promises to Moses, who kept the promises to Joshua and the children of Israel, who kept the promises to you early on in your walk with the Lord, is the same God keeping the promises today. And his promises never fail. They never fail us because God never changes. There is no shifting or change in him. He is always, the promise keeping God. All he wants us to be is the promise believing people,

because as we believe God's promises, it's not hard to walk in obedience because then it's not me earning God's promises. It's me walking in respect of God's promises in response to God's promises. Amen. And so as we see these cities of the Levites, it's amazing to see God keep his promises. And so, next week, next time we're together, we'll talk about how they have to resolve a little bit of an

issue between the tribes of the East and the tribes of the West. But for now, let's bow. Father, we come to you and Lord, I thank you for your faithfulness. Lord, the words of that song have been running through my head all day. You won't fail. You never fail because you are our firm foundation. And so Lord, may we see you again next week. May we see you as that today. Lord, as we scatter ourselves out in the world around us,

may the promises that you've kept and the promises that you continue to keep in our lives be the witnesses to the world that you are everything that you say that you are. And Father, we thank you for who you are. In Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.