Human Response 275: Possess the Land

Deuteronomy 9:1-2 Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, A people great and tall, the children of the Anakim.

Moses is giving the people an impossible mission: go into the land and possess great nations, great cities, and a great people. These enemies will oppose your taking over the Promised Land. And they are greater than you. You are definitely weaker and smaller than they are. You absolutely will not be able to possess the land by yourself in your own strength. Yet God tells you to do it.

In the next verse (v. 3), he says the Lord will go before you to destroy them and bring them down, but then he adds “so shall thou drive them out.” The Lord comes to do what we can’t do: He destroys, but we drive them out. In other words, it looks like we are doing the work, but it is really God with us who is giving victory after victory. Joshua led the Conquest of the Land, but God did the miracles to win.

“It is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom,” yet we are told to “seek first the kingdom of God.” God gives the Land, but we possess it; we drive out the enemies that God destroys. Faith possesses what God gives by grace. Jesus earns for us and gives the kingdom, eternal life. Faith receives it.

But it is not that easy. Our spiritual enemies fight against our possessing Life and the Kingdom. And they don’t stop. Throughout life on earth we continue to possess the gifted land. We will always fight against Sin, flee the temptations of the world, and reject the lies of Satan. But Jesus fights for us and grants victory after victory: “For us fights the Valiant One,” and “He’s by our side upon the plain.” We will be engaged in this warfare until the Last Enemy, Death, is destroyed. We believe. We possess. We win.