Topic: The Mighty Displaced [Tuesday September 5, 2017]
Text: Joshua 15:21-47
Key Verse: “Ashdod with her towns and her villages, Gaza with her towns and her villages, unto the river of Egypt, and the great sea, and the border thereof” (Joshua 15:47).
Sun Tzu, a Chinese General and philosopher once said that: “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”. Joshua, in dividing the promised land by lot before the entire territory was conquered militarily, had a winning strategy.
From our text, the portion given to the tribe of Judah remained the very largest in proportion to the inheritance of the other tribes. The boundaries and the territories are described in Joshua 15. The territory was divided into four sections, including pasture land, valley or plain fertile land, the hill country or the mountains of Judah; and the wilderness, near the Dead Sea.
The resources of the soil were great. In describing the territories given by lot to the tribe of Judah, many cities were named with the Philistines popular towns of Ekron, Ashdod and Gaza and their surrounding villages. There was almost perpetual war between the Philistines and the Israelites with both conquering and losing at different times. The hostilities did not cease till the time of Hezekiah, when they were entirely subdued. The allocation of territories by Joshua was therefore a powerful precursor to Israel’s dominion over those enemy nations. Believers must be mentally and spiritually prepared to displace the giants in God-appointed areas of ministry by faith.
The battle is no longer physical but spiritual, against principalities and powers. In the mind of the overcomers, the giants are defeated long before the battle starts. Truth is, we do not live in a land of giants now but there are things that seek to exalt themselves above God or present themselves as hindrances between us and where God wants us to be. We can conquer by faith in God if we fight manfully in the name of our Lord.
Thought for the day: That which you keenly believe, you receive.
Bible Reading in one Year: Leviticus 15-17
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
