YOUR PROMISED LAND
Your "yes" to God will lead you into the promised land. Let's take a look at the Israelites and Job's journeys to get to theirs.
The promised land was God's gift to the children of Israel. The condition to this promised land was simple, Israel was to obey and worship one God. The entire people were led out of slave labor, seeing miracle after miracle via the hand of Moses. These miracles included watching a sea split in half to make way for their safe passage. Yet, despite everything they went through, they did not trust God to help them defeat the giants of Canan that lived in their promised land. The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years because they told God "no." Their blessing was right in front of them, but fear consumed their faith.
31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are." 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, "The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them." - Numbers 13:31-33
How many times do we let fear paralyze us from saying "yes" to what we know God is asking of us? Fear cripples us from walking into the lands God has promised us. Don't let fear steal your inheritance. And don't let your circumstances steal your joy. For your joy (which comes from the Lord) is your source of strength. Job is the most extreme example of this in the Bible. Job was more dedicated to God than anyone else on earth. God considered him blameless and upright in his eyes, and God blessed Job with wealth, land, and children.
1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. - Job 1:1
Job was so faithful to God that God believed no matter his what, Job would not curse God. In a deal with Satan, God allowed horrible circumstances to befall Job via the hand of Satan.
21 And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." - Job 1:21
On the surface, Job had great reason to believe God left him.
Job had painful sores all over his body
His children died tragically
His animals died and were stolen
His property destroyed
His wife urged him to curse God
Even still, Job does not blame God.
22 In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. - Job 1:22
The Israelites experienced great pain and suffering at the hands of the Egyptian's. But even through it all, God repeatedly showed his mercy, grace, and miraculous love through extravagant signs and wonders for the Israelites.
Protection from the plagues that affected the Egyptian's
Freedom from slavery
Parting of the Red Sea
A cloud by day and fire by night to guide them in the desert
Water made drinkable
Manna from heaven
Water from a rock
To name a few! And even still, the Israelites refused to say yes to God. They couldn't enter the promised land until the members of the generation that rejected God passed on.
Walking through the "yes" it's easier said than done. With the Israelites and Job you see firsthand the different outcomes between their heart postures. The Israelites heart posture longed for comforts and the "easy" way. While Job experienced extreme personal pain, suffering, and loss, his heart wanted to honor God. He was faithful to God through the good years when God's favor was clear and when it looked like God abandoned him to everyone else. Job knew he did not wrong God. And because of this, Job saw God's faithfulness on this side of eternity.
12 And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days. - Job 42:12
What I take from these examples in the Bible is the weight of what my "yes" means to God. As my dear friend Fallon always says, God is a God of strategy. What God asks of you will never be in vain. He will lead you, even when your circumstances look bleak. Spend time alone with Him, know His voice, and say "yes" and place your trust in Him, no matter the circumstance. Your "yes" to God is the path to your promised land.
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