This Sunday I’ll have the privilege of sharing God’s word with you all. (Unless I break my other foot, in which case you'll get pastor Frank again). As I asked last week, please pray for my preparation and delivery, that it’d be a blessing to us as a church. 

As we approach the end of any book, play, or movie, it’s natural for us to expect some degree of resolution. If the book, play, or movie is about war, we expect peace. If it’s about sports, we expect the underdog team to finally score a victory. If it’s a love story, we expect the couple to live “happily ever after.” 

We’re nearing the end of the book of Joshua. So far we‘ve seen God lead Israel into the land of Canaan, fight on behalf of his people, and give them the land. A couple weeks ago the sermon dealt with the distribution of the land (chapters 13-19). God faithfully fulfilled the promises he had made to Israel. And now God’s people are finally in God’s promised land, under God’s rule, enjoying God’s blessings. Naturally, we expect the writer of Joshua to conclude with a happy ending—“and Israel lived happily ever after.” 

Of course, that’s not what happens. This week we will look at chapters 20 and 21, which deal respectively with the assignment of cities of refuge and cities for the Levites. On the one hand, this is positive—God, again, delivers on his promises. But on the other, it means that Israel’s settling in the Promise Land will not be a happy ending, the beginning of a perfect permanent state of affairs. On the contrary, there will be accidents, there will be death, there will be a need for legal procedures and the execution of justice; above all, there will be a constant need for sacrifice and atonement of sins.

What do all these things mean for us today, especially as those who live after and in light of the death and resurrection of Christ? Well, we’ll think more about that on Sunday. But the answer is found in the same faithful and merciful God who made and kept his promises to Israel, the same God who provided for and protected his people. Let us trust and seek refuge in Him. See you Sunday.

-Timo