"The land lay subdued before them." (Joshua 18:1)
"How long will you put off going to take possession of the land, which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?" (Joshua 18:3)
With these verses we find a tension in Israels conquering of Canaan. Verse 1 tells us that the land is subdued but in verse 3 Joshua is rebuking the people for having not taken possession of the land.
God's Faithfulness & Israel's Unfaithfulness
In God's faithfulness He had delivered the land to Israel, it was subdued before them and they had now an authority of rule over it.
But in the people's unfaithfulness they had failed to live in the reality of this and had not occupied the land as they ought to have.
As i thought of this i thought of how we are in a similar state:
God's Faithfulness & Our Unfaithfulness
Christ, by His life, death & resurrection has subdued the flesh, death, satan and the demands of the law so that we are no longer under their authority. We are now more than conquerors over these things, in Christ Jesus.
But in unfaithfulness we, all-to-often neglect to live in the reality of this and fail to occupy our time according to our position in Him.
How long will we put off taking possession of the life which the LORD, our God has given us in Christ Jesus.
