Joshua 23:1-5: a reflection

1After many days, when the LORD had given rest to Israel from their enemies all around, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, 2Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and for their heads, and for their judges and for their officers, and said to them, “I am old and well advanced in years. 3You have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations because of you; for it is the LORD your God who has fought for you. 4Behold, I have allotted to you these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even to the great sea toward the going down of the sun. 5The LORD your God will thrust them out from before you, and drive them from out of your sight. You shall possess their land, as the LORD your God spoke to you.

Joshua is old now, at the end of a long life, and he gathers Israel for a farewell. He points them back over everything that has happened and names the truth he wants them to carry: it is the LORD your God who has fought for you. Not your swords, not your strategy, not your strength. God fought for you.

Notice what an old man chooses to emphasize when he looks back. He does not tell war stories to his own credit, or catalog his achievements. He directs all the credit to God. You have seen, he says, all that the LORD did; he is the one who fought for you. A lifetime of victories, and Joshua's summary is that God was the one at work behind them.

It is worth learning to look back that way, over your own life. The deliverances you have known, the battles that somehow turned out all right, the provisions that came through, how much of that was really the LORD your God fighting for you, while you were mostly along for it? And Joshua does not only look back; he assures them God will keep driving out what remains. So give God the credit for the battles behind you, and trust him for the ones still ahead. He has fought for you, and he is not finished.

Lord, like Joshua I want to look back and name the truth: it was you who fought for me. Thank you for the battles you won that I took credit for. Give me faith to trust you for the ones still ahead.