Joshua 21:43 - Meaning and Application

Here we come to the close of the whole account, with everything summed up and set in the clearest light. What God had promised and what God had done explain each other. The fulfillment shows that the promise was true, and the promise shows that the fulfillment was kind.

God had promised to give Abraham’s children the land of Canaan as their possession, and now he finally did it (Joshua 21:43). They took the land and lived in it. Though they often acted in ways that could have cost them the blessing, and though God delayed for a long time, every obstacle was overcome in the end, and Canaan became theirs. The promise of the heavenly Canaan is just as sure for all God’s spiritual Israel, because it comes from the God who cannot lie.

God had also promised to give them rest in that land, and now they had rest all around them. They were at rest from the long weariness of the wilderness journey, a march that may have still felt heavy in their bodies. They were also at rest from the wars in Canaan and from the insults their enemies had first thrown at them. They now lived not just in houses of their own, but in peaceful and secure homes. Some Canaanites still remained, but none had the strength or courage to attack them, or even to alarm them. That peace lasted until they, by their own sin and foolishness, brought trouble on themselves.

God had also promised them victory and success in battle, and that promise was fulfilled too: no one was able to stand before them (Joshua 21:44). They won the upper hand in every battle, and wherever they sent their forces, they prospered. It is true that Canaanites still remained in many parts of the land, and later some of them rose up and became dangerous. But, first, their presence did not go against the promise, because God had said he would not drive them out all at once, but little by little (Exodus 23:30). Israel already had all the land they could use and manage at that time, while the Canaanites kept some of the less developed areas from wild animals until Israel grew large enough to fill them. Second, when the Canaanites later gained strength, that came from Israel’s own weakness and laziness, and from God’s punishment for Israel’s sinful desire for the idol worship and other evils of those nations, whom the Lord had wanted to drive out. So the foundation of God still stands firm.

Israel’s experience of God’s faithfulness is written here for all to see. It stands as their own signed witness to God’s honor, a defense of his promise, which had been doubted so often, and an encouragement to all believers to the end of the world. Nothing failed, not even the smallest part of any good thing that the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel, but everything happened in its proper time (Joshua 21:45). Joshua, speaking for all Israel, here gives that testimony, and later Solomon made the same confession, which all Israel in effect agreed to when they said Amen to it (1 Kings 8:56). God’s unbreakable truth and his full keeping of his promises are things all the saints have been glad to testify to. And if anything has seemed to fall short, they have been just as ready to admit that the fault was their own.