Consequences of Failing to Resist the Temptation Toward Procrastination...

This week, we are unpacking the timeless principle that to restart requires resisting the temptation toward procrastination. And Joshua 18-19, we see several timeless consequences that can occur when we fail to resist the temptation toward procrastination. We see a second consequence that can occur revealed for us in the lives of the tribe of the Jewish people that was chosen in Joshua 19:17:

The fourth lot fell to Issachar, to the sons of Issachar according to their families.

The tribe of Issachar, who was the ninth of the twelve sons of Jacob, was chosen fourth. In Genesis 49:14-15, we discover that Jacob described Issachar as being strong, but also docile and lazy. And as is so often the case, this temptation toward procrastination was passed down through the family tree of Issachar. And the reality is that the same thing often occurs today. And we know this to be true; we have seen this in the lives of others. Unfortunately, we often cannot see this reality in the mirror, however. The reality is that the temptation toward procrastination is a trait and characteristic in our lives that can be taught and caught by future generations.

A little further in the story, we see that the tribe of Dan ended up being chosen last when it came to receiving their portion of the land that God had promised the Jewish people. However, there was a problem with the tribe of Dan when it came to their possession of the land, which is revealed for us in Joshua 19:47:

The territory of the sons of Dan proceeded beyond them; for the sons of Dan went up and fought with Leshem and captured it. Then they struck it with the edge of the sword and possessed it and settled in it; and they called Leshem Dan after the name of Dan their father.

In this verse, we see revealed for us the consequences that the tribe of Dan faced for their procrastination when it came to occupying and settling the land that God had promised and provided for them. The phrase “proceeded beyond them” literally means that it went out from them. In other words, the land that God had promised this tribe was passed from the possession and control of the tribe of Dan. This tribe never fully occupied and possessed the land. In another letter in our Bibles, called the book of Judges, we read that it was the tribe of Ephraim, not Dan that ended up occupying and settling this land. In the 18th chapter of the book of Judges, we read that instead of occupying the land that they were supposed to possess, the tribe of Dan eventually ended up traveling all the way up to the northwest corner of the Promised land, where they ended up capturing a city named Leshem, which they renamed Dan. So instead of possession all of this territory, the tribe ended up only possessing one city.

And as we read through the Old Testament, we discover that the tribe of Dan repeatedly introduced idolatry into the midst of the Jewish people. And by the end of God’s story in the Bible, we discover that the tribe of Dan is omitted in the description of the 144,000 Jewish people that God protected so that they could serve Him during the Great Tribulation. In essence, the tribe of Dan faded into oblivion; they disappeared from being identified as part of God’s people. And this process of fading away into rebellion and failure began to be revealed by their procrastination.

And in the same way today, as followers of Jesus, our procrastination when it comes to doing the right thing when it comes to following God and restarting our lives can serve as a sign of a much deeper and far more significant spiritual issue. Whether it is procrastination that is fueled by idolatry; or it is procrastination that is fueled by rebellion, procrastination can serve to reveal the true nature of our spiritual condition.

So how are you doing when it comes to resisting the temptation toward procrastination? Are you missing opportunities to experience God’s activity when it comes to restarting your life because of procrastination? Are you suffering an identity crisis as a result of procrastinating when it comes to pursuing a growing and maturing relationship with Christ? Are you passing down procrastination as a trait and characteristic to future generations? Does procrastination serve as a sign of a much deeper significant spiritual issues? Because the reality is that to restart requires resisting the temptation toward procrastination.

Missing Opportunity and Identity...

Yesterday, we discovered another timeless principle that is necessary when it comes to restarting our lives in that to restart requires resisting the temptation toward procrastination. And in the rest of Joshua 18-19, we see several timeless consequences that can occur when we fail to resist the temptation toward procrastination. As chapter 19 begins, we see the first consequence that can occur as a result of procrastination revealed to us:

Then the second lot fell to Simeon, to the tribe of the sons of Simeon according to their families, and their inheritance was in the midst of the inheritance of the sons of Judah.

The tribe of Simeon, who was the second of the twelve sons of Jacob, was chosen second. What is interesting is that the territory that was given to the tribe of Simeon was actually located in the middle of the land that had been previously settled and occupied by the tribe of Judah. Instead of receiving an independent portion of land in the Promised Land, Simeon was given land that was surrounded by the tribe of Judah. Now you may be thinking “why is that so interesting”? Why this is so interesting is that this development was actually fulfillment of a statement made by a man named Jacob, who was the father of the twelve sons that would eventually become the twelve tribes that formed the Jewish people. Some 500 years earlier, in Genesis 49:7, as a result of the sinful actions of Simeon and Levi that resulted in the deaths of an entire adult male population of a village, Jacob predicted that these two tribes would end up dispersed and scattered among the Jewish people after arriving in the Promised Land.

The tribe of Simeon’s procrastination was predicted over 500 years earlier. In addition to fulfilling this amazing prediction, this tribe’s procrastination would eventually result in the loss of their identity as a tribe. The seventeen cities that are described in verses 1-8, over time, would eventually come to be identified as being a part of the tribe of Judah. We see this reality reinforced to us in Joshua 19:9:

The inheritance of the sons of Simeon was taken from the portion of the sons of Judah, for the share of the sons of Judah was too large for them; so the sons of Simeon received an inheritance in the midst of Judah's inheritance.

Unlike Simeon, who had procrastinated in following God’s command to come and receive the territory that they were to occupy and settle, Judah faithfully showed up and followed up on their desire to restart their lives in the Promised Land. And as a result of faithfully following God’s commands, the tribe of Judah was in a position where they had more land than they had people to occupy the land. And the tribe of Simeon’s procrastination did not stop here. Over time, this tribe’s persistent procrastination resulted in the tribe of Judah having to assist in occupying and settling this territory. And eventually, the tribe of Simeon became absorbed by the tribe of Judah to the point that their possession of the land was lost.

And in the same way today, persistent procrastination can result in missed opportunities and a loss of identity. When we persistently procrastinate when it comes to our relationship with God and one another, we can miss out on opportunities to experience God’s activity in and through us. In addition, when we persistently procrastinate, we can lose the opportunity to experience the identity that we were created and called to live with Christ and one another. We can fail to live our lives in the identity as the husband, wife, father, mother, son, or daughter we were created for. Instead, we can find ourselves having an identity crisis. You see, procrastination can often cause a failure to understand and embrace our identity that flows out of a growing and maturing relationship with Christ.

So are you missing opportunities to be a part of what God is doing in the world as a result of procrastination? Are you experiencing an identity crisis as a result of procrastinating when it comes to pursuing a growing and maturing relationship with Christ?

Tomorrow, we will see a second consequence that can occur as a result of our failure to resist the temptation toward procrastination.

To Restart Requires Resisting the Temptation Toward Procrastination...

For the past several months we have been looking at a letter in the Bible, called the book of Joshua that records the frustration, tension and trouble that the Jewish people experienced as they attempted to restart their lives as individuals and as a nation. And as we jump back into this story we come face to face with another timeless principle that is necessary in order to restart our lives so that we would be living in the relationship with God and one another that we were created and called to live. Let’s pick up again beginning in Joshua 18:1:

Then the whole congregation of the sons of Israel assembled themselves at Shiloh, and set up the tent of meeting there; and the land was subdued before them.

This story begins with the Jewish Nation moving their base of operations from Gilgal, which was located on the outskirts of Jericho, approximately 20 miles to Shiloh, which was more centrally located in the Promised Land. And just as we saw last week, while the Promised Land was controlled by the Jewish people, it had not yet been fully occupied and settled by the people. Moving their base of operations was designed to assist in maintaining a sense of unity and community amongst the tribes as they branched out to settle the land that God had promised them. After the move, the Jewish nation gathered together to address a problem that had arisen in their midst. We see this problem exposed and another timeless principle that is necessary to restart our lives revealed for us, beginning in Joshua 18:2:

There remained among the sons of Israel seven tribes who had not divided their inheritance. So Joshua said to the sons of Israel, "How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?

As the Jewish nation gathered together for a congregational meeting, Joshua exposes to the nation the reality that seven of the twelve tribes that formed the Jewish people had failed to begin the process of occupying and settling in the land that God had promised and provided for them. Unlike the tribes of Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh, these seven tribes failed to send representative to the tabernacle to meet with Joshua and his leadership team in order to receive their portion of the territory that God has promised and provided them.

Joshua responds to this situation with a question: “How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers has given you”? What is so interesting is that the phrase put off literally means to sink or relax. Instead of responding to God’s gracious gift of territory in the land that He had promised them, these tribes were sunk back in their lazy boys relaxing. Instead of confidently trusting God and following God’s command to occupy and settle in the land, theses tribes were procrastinating and showing a lack of gratitude for all that God that done to give them the land.

And it is in this situation that we see God reveal for us another timeless principle that is necessary when it comes to restarting our lives. And that timeless principle is this: to restart requires resisting the temptation toward procrastination. Instead of faithfully moving forward by doing what God had commanded them to do when it came to restarting their lives, the Jewish people were procrastinating. And this morning, if we are brutally honest, don’t we all have a tendency to be tempted to do the exact same thing when it comes to restarting our lives? “Yeah, I know I need to lose weight and work out more. I’ll start tomorrow. Yeah, I know I need to stop smoking, I’ll stop tomorrow. I know I need to stop watching pornography; I’ll get the filter for my Internet tomorrow. Yeah, I know I need to go to church and read my Bible more. I’ll start next week. I know that I should join a small group to help me grow in my relationship with God and develop relationships that encourage and support me. I think I’ll try one next week”.

But here’s the thing: tomorrow or next week never comes, does it? So we end up walking through life singing the song “tomorrow, tomorrow, there’s always tomorrow, tomorrow’s just a day away” while wondering why our lives are filled with hurt, pain, disappointment, and failure when it comes to changing and restarting our lives. I mean if we are brutally honest, in the vast majority of cases, it is not as though we do not know what the problem is. The problem isn’t the problem. And usually the problem isn’t that we do not know what the solution to the problem is. Usually, the problem is that we do not act on the solution to the problem-we procrastinate. And this is exactly what these seven tribes were doing when it came to following God’s command to occupy and settle the land that God had promised them. We see this revealed as the story continues in Joshua 18:4:

"Provide for yourselves three men from each tribe that I may send them, and that they may arise and walk through the land and write a description of it according to their inheritance; then they shall return to me. "They shall divide it into seven portions; Judah shall stay in its territory on the south, and the house of Joseph shall stay in their territory on the north. "You shall describe the land in seven divisions, and bring the description here to me. I will cast lots for you here before the LORD our God. "For the Levites have no portion among you, because the priesthood of the LORD is their inheritance. Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh also have received their inheritance eastward beyond the Jordan, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave them."

Here we see Joshua respond to the seven tribe’s problem of procrastination by commanding them to get off the lazy boy that they had sunk into and fulfill their responsibility to follow the commands that God had previously given them when it came to occupying and settling the land. These seven tribes were to form a committee of 21 members, three from each tribe, who were to walk through the parts of the Promised Land that had not yet been settled and occupied.

This committee was to divide the land that had not been occupied and settled into seven parts or pieces of territory. This committee was also to write out a comprehensive description of each of these seven pieces of territory that were to be divided amongst the remaining tribes. Joshua also commanded the tribes of Ephraim, Judah, and the ½ tribe of Manasseh, who had already participated in the process and received their territory, to remain where they were at. Once this committee returned with a comprehensive description of the land that they had surveyed and divided, lots would be cast to determine which tribe would receive with piece of territory that remained.

As we talked about earlier, casting lots was a process that would be similar to picking names out of a hat. A representative from each of the tribes would pick from two urns. One urn had the name of the tribe, while a second urn had the land that was to be given to that tribe to possess. These lots were drawn simultaneously drawn and would determine which land each tribe would be given to occupy and settle. This process, however, was not simply a random act of chance. Since the Jewish people were without the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence and the Bibles guidance, casting lots was a way that God used to guide and direct the decisions of the Jewish people to determine the distribution of the land to the twelve tribes that formed the Jewish people. And as the story continues, we see recorded for us the response that the tribes who had procrastinated had to Joshua’s strong rebuke:

Then the men arose and went, and Joshua commanded those who went to describe the land, saying, "Go and walk through the land and describe it, and return to me; then I will cast lots for you here before the LORD in Shiloh." So the men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities in seven divisions in a book; and they came to Joshua to the camp at Shiloh. And Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the LORD, and there Joshua divided the land to the sons of Israel according to their divisions.

The committee that represented the seven procrastinating tribes responded by compiling a comprehensive description of remaining territory that had not been occupied and settled. And in the rest of chapter eighteen and nineteen, we see how God distributed the remainder of the Promised Land to these seven procrastinating tribes. And in these two chapters, we see several timeless consequences that can occur when we fail to resist the temptation toward procrastination. We will spend the rest of this week looking at those consequences.

So where do you find yourself failing to resist the temptation toward procrastination?

Practice that leads to impact...

As I have the opportunity to talk with people, one of the common comments that I hear about Christians is that they are hypocrites. And while in some cases, this claim is made without a true understanding as to what a hypocrite is and does, in many cases their claims are quite accurate.

But here is the question: What leads people to come to such a conclusion? What leads many people who would consider themselves far from God and skeptical of Christianity and the church to come to the place where they feel the church and Christianity is irrelevant and that those who attend church are hypocritical?

I believe that the answer to why people come to this conclusion can be found in the midst of a story that is recorded for us in a letter in the Bible called the Book of Ezra. In the midst of this story, we see a man named Ezra described for us in Ezra 7:10:

For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.

Notice that Ezra did not simply set his heart to study the Bible. And Ezra did not simply set his heart to teach and tell others about the Bible. Ezra also set his heart to practice what the Bible had to say.

You see, Ezra put into practice what he learned from the message and the teachings of the Bible. He did not simply settle for telling others what the Bible had to say for their situation. Instead, Ezra looked in the mirror and applied what the message and the teachings of the Bible had to say to his life. Ezra did not simply settle for reading the Bible. Instead Ezra allowed the Bible to read him.

And because Ezra practiced what he preached; because Ezra allowed the message and the teachings of the Bible to influence and change how he lived his life; Ezra was a man who was able to have tremendous influence and impact on the culture that he lived in. Ezra was able to speak into lives in a way that impacted others because he not only had a great deal of knowledge about the Bible. Ezra was able to speak into lives because he put into practice what the Bible taught in a way that could be caught as well as taught by others.

However, when we simply settle for reading the Bible instead of allowing the Bible to read us; when we simply settle for talking about what the Bible says instead of walking what the Bible says, we lose the ability to influence and impact those around us because our personal walk with God does not match our talk about God. The men and women that God has used throughout history to influence and impact our culture, however, do not simply settle for studying the Bible or teaching about the Bible. Instead the lives that God uses to influence and impact culture also put into practice the message and teachings of the Bible.

So are you content about studying and telling others about the message and teachings of the Bible, but not practicing what the Bible teaches in your own life? Or are you striving to practice the message and teachings of the Bible, so that it's message is caught as well as taught?

To Restart Recognizes that Partial Obedience is Total Disobedience...

Yesterday, we looked at a section of a letter in our Bibles called the book of Joshua and discovered that several tribes of the Jewish nation were failing to follow God's commands when to came to occupying and settling the land that they had received. Just as the tribe of Judah did not care enough to fully follow God’s commands and instead were satisfied with doing the right thing 99.9% of the time; Just as the tribe of Ephraim chose to be pragmatic problem solvers who bent the rules in a way that would benefit and make their lives easier; the tribe of Manasseh failed to fully follow God’s commands when it came to restarting their lives.

While these three tribes followed God’s commands most of the time, they were able to rationalize a reason why they did not have to follow God’s commands all of the time. And it is the story of these three tribes that we see God reveal for us another timeless principle that is necessary when it comes to restarting our lives. And that timeless principle is that to restart recognizes that partial obedience is total disobedience. The timeless reality is that partial obedience is total disobedience.

And intuitively we know this to be the case, don’t we? Intuitively, we recognize that our lives are often guided by this principle. That is why parents do not ask their children to unload the dishwasher and then say “I’m so proud that you partially unloaded the dishwasher”. No, what we usually say is “why didn’t you unload the dishwasher like I asked”, because partial obedience is total disobedience. That is why our employers do not give us pay raises and bonuses when we accomplish 75% of what we were supposed to do on the job. Instead, employers usually fire people who accomplish 75% of what they were supposed to do on the job, because partial obedience is total disobedience. That is why doctors do not say to their patients “I’m so glad that you took your high blood pressure medication 50% of the time”. Instead, the person who took their high blood pressure only 50% of the time dreads what they are going to hear from their doctor, because intuitively they know that partial obedience is total disobedience.

Now I have a question for us to wrestle with. And the question is this: if we intuitively know and recognize the truth of this principle in other aspects of our lives, then why do we tend to discount this principle when it comes to our spiritual lives? Why do we have a tendency to want to dismiss the principle that partial obedience is total disobedience when it comes to the message and teachings of this book? Why are we o.k. with not being uncomfortable or even disturbed when we are satisfied with doing the right thing most of the time, but not all the time? Why do we have a tendency to want to be pragmatic problem solvers in order to bend the rules to make our lives easier instead of following God’s rules and do the right thing even when it isn’t the easy thing to do?

You see, just like the Jewish people, our default mode apart from Jesus work and the Holy Spirit’s activity in our lives is to rationalize away and excuse partial obedience as being o.k. with God. We see the tribe of Manasseh’s attempts at rationalization and excuses for their partial obedience revealed for us in Joshua 17:14:

Then the sons of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, "Why have you given me only one lot and one portion for an inheritance, since I am a numerous people whom the LORD has thus far blessed?"

Here, the tribe of Manasseh tries to excuse and rationalize their failure to follow God’s command to occupy and settle that land that was given them by blaming Joshua and his leadership team. The phrase “One portion for an inheritance” literally means one piece of territory to possess. In other words, the tribe of Manasseh was blaming Joshua for not giving them two pieces of territory in light of how large their population was. The tribe of Manasseh wanted to sidestep taking the right and obedient course of action to instead take the easy path of least resistance.

The reality, however, was that Manasseh’s rationalizations and excuses fell short on credibility for two reasons. First, while Manasseh claimed to be a numerous people, their population was around 20,000 less than Ephraim, who was the other tribe from the sons of Joseph. In addition, there were other tribes that were even larger than Manasseh. Second, as we discovered earlier, the tribe of Manasseh had already been given two large pieces of territory. And just like Manasseh, if we are brutally honest with ourselves, often our attempts to rationalize and make excuses for our partial obedience when it comes to following God’s word fall short on credibility and factual reality. We see Joshua’s response to Manasseh’s excuses and rationalizations revealed for us in the verse that follows:

Joshua said to them, "If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest and clear a place for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you."

In other words, if you are a numerous people, you have no excuse for not being able to occupy and settle the land that you have been given. So, get to work, clear some additional land and settle down. But don’t think that you are not responsible for following God’s command. And, just like we often do, Manasseh is able to come up with another excuse for their partial obedience. Here is what Joshua heard from the mouth of the tribe of Manasseh:

The sons of Joseph said, "The hill country is not enough for us, and all the Canaanites who live in the valley land have chariots of iron, both those who are in Beth-shean and its towns and those who are in the valley of Jezreel."

I would love to have seen the look on Joshua’s face at this point. While we are not able to see his expression, we do have his response recoded for us as this story concludes:

Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, saying, "You are a numerous people and have great power; you shall not have one lot only, but the hill country shall be yours. For though it is a forest, you shall clear it, and to its farthest borders it shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, even though they have chariots of iron and though they are strong."

These verses, if this letter was written today with the language of our culture in 2011, would sound something like this: "Quit whining. You are the fourth largest tribe of the Jewish people. And yet, even though there are three tribes larger than you, you didn’t get just one piece of land for your tribe; no you received two pieces of land for territory. You have more land than any other tribe except Judah. So quit whining. Instead of trying to take the easy path, the path of least resistance; do what you are supposed to do. I don’t want to hear about trees and chariots. You are quite capable and have everything you need to follow God’s commands and dispossess and destroy the inhabitants of the land so that you can occupy and settle the land like you are supposed to."

You see, as far as Joshua was concerned, partial obedience is total disobedience. And throughout the pages of the Bible, we see this principle affirmed over and over again. And what this story does not tell us is that the partial obedience of these tribes resulted in a gradual moral erosion in the lives of the Jewish people. We see this erosion revealed to us in the very next letter in our Bibles, called the book of Judges, in Judges 2:10-12:

All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel. Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals, and they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked the LORD to anger.

These three tribes failure to recognize that partial obedience is total disobedience led to the following generation of Jewish people rebelling and rejecting the Lord. The Jewish people became influenced by the evil practices of the cultures that they failed to destroy and worshipped and served idols. The rationalization and excuses for partial obedience by one generation resulted in a moral erosion that led to full-fledged rebellion and disobedience by the next generation. They failed to recognize that partial obedience is total disobedience.

So where do you find yourself failing to recognize that partial obedience is total disobedience? Where do you find yourself rationalizing and making excuses for being satisfied with doing the right thing most of the time, but not all the time? Where do you find yourself rationalizing and making excuses for being a pragmatic problem solver in order to bend the rules to make our lives easier instead of following God’s rules and do the right thing even when it isn’t the easy thing to do?

Part Time Followers...

For the past several weeks, we have been looking at a letter in the Bible that records the efforts of an entire nation to restart their lives after forty years of wandering in a literal desert of hurt, pain, disappointment and failure. This letter, called the book of Joshua, records how the Jewish people experienced the same frustration, tension and trouble when it came to restarting their lives as individuals and in community with one another. And today, as this story continues, we see a problem revealed for us in Joshua 15:63. Let’s look at this problem together:

Now as for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the sons of Judah could not drive them out; so the Jebusites live with the sons of Judah at Jerusalem until this day.

As the tribe of Judah began to occupy and settle in the land that they had received, they were unable to drive out or dispossess the Jebusites. The Jebusites were a culture and society that lived in the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding region. To understand why the tribe of Judah was unable to drive out the Jebusites we first need to understand where Jerusalem was located in relation to the land that they had received.

Jerusalem was a border town that was located between the tribe of Judah and the land that would later be assigned to the tribe of Benjamin. And since the land was on the outskirts of both tribes land, neither the tribe of Judah or the tribe of Benjamin cared enough about this border town to take serious action to destroy the culture than inhabited the land. So in essence, the town of Jerusalem and the surrounding region became a no man’s land and enclave to the Jebusites. While they may have won victories over their part of the land, the reality was that the Jebusites were not removed and destroyed as God had commanded; instead they remained present and in close proximity of the Jewish people.

Now a natural response to this could be “well sure they didn’t get rid of the Jebusites, but look, they took care of everything else that they were supposed to. I mean they occupied and settled in 108 cities; that a 99.9% success rate. And anyways, Jerusalem is just an outpost in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of their territory. It really belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. It’s their problem, let them deal with it. It’s not that big of a deal, so let’s just move on in the story”. As the story continues, we then read of another tribe’s response to the land that they were given to occupy and settle in Joshua 16:10:

But they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites live in the midst of Ephraim to this day, and they became forced laborers.

As the tribe of Ephraim began to occupy and settle in the land that they had received, they were unable to drive out or dispossess the Canaanites that lived in a city named Gezer. The Canaanites were another culture and society that inhabited the Promised Land that God had commanded to be removed and destroyed. To understand why the tribe of Ephraim was unable to drive out the Canaanites, we first need to understand where Gezer was located in relation to the land that they had received. The city of Gezer was located on the very southwest corner of the land that the tribe of Ephraim was to possess.

Similar to Jerusalem, Gezer was an outpost located far from the heart of the land that the tribe had received. And while the king of Gezer had been defeated as the Jewish army conquered the Promised Land, the residents of Gezer remained and dwelt in the land as a result of the failure to fully occupy and settle in all of the land. Instead of following God’s command to remove and destroy this society and culture from the land, the tribe of Ephraim chose to use the Canaanites as forced laborers. The tribe of Ephraim decided that it would be better to be pragmatic and bend the rules in a way that would benefit and make their lives easier, instead of doing what God had commanded them to do when it came to restarting their lives.

And just like the tribe of Judah, one could argue that this really was not a big deal. Sure, while they did not follow God’s command, they did something that seemed, at least at first glance, even better. They were still able to settle and occupy the city and at the same time were able to get some really cheap labor. I mean, is that really that big a deal? They could just as easily be celebrated as pragmatic problem solvers, couldn’t they? Some of you may even be thinking “Can we just move on in this story and not dwell on this little detail”. So let’s move on and look together at another tribe’s response to the land that they were given to occupy and settle.

In Joshua 17:1 we are introduced to a man named Machir. Machir was actually the only son of Manasseh. And Machir was a man of war; in other words he was a capable warrior who led his tribe to take possession of the land that the tribe of Manasseh would possess, occupy, and settle east of the Jordan River, which we looked at last week. This was the land that is referred to here as Gilead and Bashan. The land described in Joshua 17:2-11 was actually a second piece of land that was given to the tribe of Manasseh.

In addition to the territory that the tribe was given east of the Jordan River, which we talked about last week, the tribe was also given this large piece of land that was located north of the land that was given to the tribe of Ephraim. This piece of land was also quite large. And you would think that the tribe would be satisfied and happy about the land that they had received. However, that was not the case, as we see in the verses that follow:

But the sons of Manasseh could not take possession of these cities, because the Canaanites persisted in living in that land. It came about when the sons of Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely.

You see, as the tribe of Manasseh began to occupy and settle in the land that they had received, they were unable to occupy and settle five cities that were located in the North and Northwest regions of the land that they had been given. Instead of destroying the cultures and societies that had lived in the land, as they had been commanded, they allowed these cities to be enclaves where the evil and wicked cultures were allowed to continue to exist and more importantly coexist with the Jewish nation that was inhabiting the land.

Just as the tribe of Judah did not care enough to fully follow God’s commands and instead were satisfied with doing the right thing 99.9% of the time; Just as the tribe of Ephraim chose to be pragmatic problem solvers who bent the rules in a way that would benefit and make their lives easier; the tribe of Manasseh failed to fully follow God’s commands when it came to restarting their lives. While these three tribes followed God’s commands most of the time, they were able to rationalize a reason why they did not have to follow God’s commands all of the time. And it is the story of these three tribes that we see God reveal for us another timeless principle that is necessary when it comes to restarting our lives.

Tomorrow, we will discover this timeless principle and the implication that this principle can have as we live our lives.

To Restart Requires the Desire to Finish What We Start...

Yesterday, we looked at a section of a letter in our Bibles from the book of Joshua where God provided guidance and direction to the Jewish people as to how they were to divide and settle into the Promised Land. And as Joshua and his leadership team began the process to divide the land, we see a member of the Jewish nation come to the forefront with a special request of Joshua. And it is in this request and it is through this life that we are introduced to another timeless principle that is necessary when it comes to restarting our lives. So let’s meet this member of the Jewish nation again, beginning in Joshua 14:6:

Then the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, "You know the word which the LORD spoke to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh-barnea. "I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. "Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear; but I followed the LORD my God fully. "So Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God fully.'

To understand what is happening here, we first need to be reminded of Caleb and his story. As we discovered at the beginning of this sermon series, 45 years prior to this conversation, twelve spies were sent to provide a report about the Promised Land that God was going to give the Jewish people. And as the Jewish people waited at the doorstep to the Promised Land, these spies returned from their journey and described the beauty and blessings that the land would provide the people.

But instead of trusting God to overcome the obstacles that they would face on the way to the Promised Land, these spies led the Jewish people to reject and rebel against God. All of the spies, except for two, named Joshua and Caleb. Only Joshua and Caleb faithfully trusted God to bring them into the Promised Land. In another letter in our Bibles, called the book of Numbers, we see God, in the midst of responding to the selfish rebellion of the Jewish people, describe Caleb and his character in Numbers 14:24:

"But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.

For the rest of the Jewish people, however, God responded to their selfish rebellion and rejection of Him by causing the entire adult population to wander in the desert until they died. So for forty years, between 1.5 and 2 million people wandered in the desert filled with frustration, failure and rebellion. Can you imagine how Joshua and Caleb must have felt during those forty years of wandering in the desert due to the selfish rebellion of others?

So for forty years Caleb wandered in circles, clinging to God’s promise that someday he would enter into the Promised Land as a result of his willingness to trust God and fully follow Him. For forty years, Caleb remained faithful to follow God fully while he wandered and watched as his lost and rebellious family and friends died. And as Caleb recounts his story to Joshua, who was the only other person of that wandering wilderness generation to step foot into the Promised Land; and as Caleb tells his story to this new generation of the Jewish people looking to restart their lives, we see the evidence of God’s activity in his life revealed, beginning in verse 10:

"Now behold, the LORD has let me live, just as He spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness; and now behold, I am eighty-five years old today. "I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in.”?

In verse 10, Caleb reminds the Joshua and the Jewish people that God is a promise maker and a promise keeper. For forty years, Caleb wandered in a desert of hurt, pain disappointment and failure as a consequence of the selfish rebellion of others. And for forty years, Caleb recognized the reality that while disappointment and death was an all too present reality all around him, it was God who let him live.

And not only did God let him live; God blessed Caleb. Caleb was an eighty five year old man living in a forty year olds body. Caleb still possessed and maintained the same spiritual, physical and emotional drive and desire to fully follow God. Caleb still possessed that different spirit; that spirit that leaned into God and swam against the current of the circumstances around him and into God’s promises and plans. And it is that different spirit; it is that desire to follow God fully that leads Caleb to make an amazing request, which is recorded for us in Joshua 14:12. Let’s look at this request together:

"Now then, give me this hill country about which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the LORD will be with me, and I will drive them out as the LORD has spoken."?

To grasp the significance of Caleb’s request here, we first must understand where this hill country was located and its significance to Caleb and the Jewish people. This hill country was located in a part of the Promised Land known as Hebron. Caleb, Joshua, and the ten other spies had visited this hill country some 45 years earlier. We read about this land, and the response of the ten other spies to what they had seen in this land, in Numbers 13:32-33:

So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. "There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."

It was this report about this hill country that led the Jewish people to selfishly rebel and reject God and his promises. And it was this hill country that Caleb wanted to occupy and possess. For while the Jewish nation conquered the nations that ruled this hill country, there would still be battles to be fought in order to occupy and settle this land. There would be insurgents who would try to keep the Jewish people from occupying and settling the land.

And Caleb wanted this battle. And this battle was not just any battle; this battle would be with the very people that so intimidated the Jewish spies some 45 years earlier that they failed to trust God and instead brought a bad report to the Jewish people. You see, Caleb did not want a garden spot in the Promised Land at a resort with a golf membership and a spa to retire and settle into. Instead, Caleb wanted to finish something that he had started some 45 years earlier. Caleb wanted to finish something that he recognized was filled with potential challenges and difficulties. Caleb recognized he needed to finish what he had started some 45 years earlier in order to fully restart his life.

And in Caleb’s story, we see revealed for us another timeless principle that enables us to restart our lives. And that timeless principle is this: to restart requires the desire to finish what we start. Just like Caleb, when it comes to restarting our lives, we often find ourselves faced with challenges and difficulties that must be overcome. And to overcome those challenges requires the desire to finish what we start.

If we are brutally honest with ourselves, isn’t this one on the main reasons why we fail to keep New Year’s resolutions. We begin the New Year with a desire to restart our lives through New Year’s resolutions, but as time goes on, the desire to restart and change our lives begins to weaken and wane. And usually, by March, we find ourselves faced with disappointment and failure when it comes to restarting our lives because the desire to finish what we have started is overwhelmed by the challenges and difficulties that come with change. If you do not think that this is the case, just go visit a gym in January and then go back in March. Instead of leaning into and trusting God to do what only He can do as we do what we need to do to swim against the current of circumstances and into God’s promises and plans, we give in to the desires and fears that compete with the desire to restart and change our lives.

When Caleb says perhaps the Lord will be with me, this is not a negative statement. In the language that this story was originally written in, this phrase conveys a sense of hope. Caleb possessed a hope that the Lord would continue to be present with him as He had been during these 45 years and would continue to keep the promise that He had made to Caleb some 45 years earlier. Caleb had a confident expectation that God would continue to do what God could only do as Caleb remained faithful to do what he was supposed to do when it came to restarting his life. And as this story continues, we see Joshua’s response to Caleb’s amazing request in Joshua 14:13:

“So Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite until this day, because he followed the LORD God of Israel fully. Now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba; for Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim. Then the land had rest from war.”?

Joshua responded to Caleb’s amazing request by doing two things. First, Joshua blessed Caleb. The word bless here literally means to pray and ask for God’s enabling power to be upon him. Joshua prayed that the Lord would continue to be present with Caleb and would empower Caleb to restart his life by finishing what he started some 45 years earlier. Second, Joshua responded to Caleb’s amazing request by granting the request. Joshua gave Hebron to Caleb as his possession.

And in verse 15, we see that Caleb finished what he started. Caleb faced and defeated the giant insurgents of Hebron and brought peace to the entire region. The very giants that caused the previous generation to selfishly rebel and reject God were now defeated by a man who desired to finish what he started. And just like Caleb, to restart requires a desire to finish what we have started.

So what have you started this new year when it comes to restarting your life? And how is what you started going? Do you still have the desire and drive to finish what you have started when it comes to restarting your life? Or do you find yourself struggling, or being overwhelmed, with competing desires and fears when it comes to restarting your life?

What do you need to do this week when it comes to finishing what you started?