I (Neil) have been reading the Bible for many, many years. (Tee hee, this is Janet – that first sentence looks like Neil’s saying I don’t read the Bible 😂 He’s actually just identifying that it’s him writing this post 😂)

Thanks Janet!!! Anyway, the Bible has grown to be something that is a deep joy in my life. One of the surprising things about the Word of God is that even though I’ve read through it so many times, I still discover things in it I’ve never seen before. I guess that’s why it is called the living Word – we are never simply reading it as a book. It is alive; we read it in partnership with the Holy Spirit, and in turn, it reads us back. Therefore, the Word of God becomes a journey of constant discovery. This week, as I was reading the book of Joshua, I had another one of those discovery moments that has been helpful to us in our journey with theonehundredyearsproject and one which I hope will be helpful to you too.

One of the major themes we find weaved throughout the Bible is the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus’ first teaching that we read in Matthew 4 was “”Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.” (MSG) Many years before this moment, we find one of the more obvious stories that displays the Kingdom narrative: the establishment of God’s people – the Israelites. They are a people born from a promise through Abraham, a people who lived through 400 years of slavery in Egypt, a people who were delivered from that slavery through Moses, and a people who wandered for 40 years in the wilderness while God established a cultural identity in them. At the end of all of that, we find them, in theory, knowing who God is and knowing who they are. However, there is one major thing that they do not possess. Up to this point in the story, they have nowhere to call their home, no place that they own, and no land where they could establish themselves.

But they did have a promise of that home. God had told them many times that He did have a land for them, a land that was full of resources and abundance, a land that would serve them for generations. This land became known as the Promised Land, for obvious reasons! God had guaranteed that this land would be theirs for generations to come, but up to this point, they hadn’t seen the fulfillment of that promise; they just had the promise itself.

Promises are interesting, aren’t they? We have probably all had instances in our lives where we were promised something that wasn’t delivered. We’ve also experienced promises that were fulfilled. What we’ve learned is that the currency of a promise is trust, and without trust, the promise isn’t worth much.

A promise is believing something is done ahead of time based on the word of the one who promised.

To borrow an example I have heard before, if I promised you that I would give you £10,000 on Friday next week, when would you start to celebrate that money? Would you celebrate when I told you, or would you wait until next Friday until the promise became a physical reality? Your answer will most likely be determined by the level of trust you have in me. If you believe that I am as good as my word, you will celebrate in the moment the promise is received, but if you aren’t so sure about me, then I imagine you would wait until the fulfillment. To return to the story we have been telling – the Israelites, we find in the book of Joshua, are living their lives on a promise, and their trust in God is the glue that is holding it together. They believe He will do what He told them He would. They believe they will receive the land He promised them.

There is an interesting dynamic to God’s promise that I noticed when reading the book of Joshua today. It comes when the Israelites are facing their first big city (Jericho) since crossing the river Jordan and entering the Promised Land for the first time. The cities in the Promised Land were occupied; it wasn’t vacant land that they simply would walk into. The people who were living there would need to vacate it in order for the Israelites to take up residence. In verses one and two of chapter 6, we read this;

Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Then the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. Joshua 6:1-2

This is a great promise, right? The city is already scared of them, and God has told them He has given the city into their hands. It doesn’t sound like a lot of hard work. The work seems done, the promise has been given, and all they have to do is receive it. God has told them it is done; there is no argument about this – Jericho is already theirs. Then we read on as God continues;

March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.” Joshua 6:3-5

Wait. I thought it was all done. If I had been standing looking at Jericho after what God said in the first two verses, I would have expected the people of Jericho to vacate voluntarily, leaving us the keys. But there seems to be a part the Israelites were going to have to play here. What we are learning is that even though God’s promise was given, meaning it was as good as done, there still was an activation of the promise that Joshua and the people had to claim. But let’s not mistake what is happening here. This is not a conditional promise as far as I can read it. It’s not a “if you’ll do this then I’ll do this.” There are times when God speaks to His people like this, but I don’t believe that is what is happening here. The promise was already given to the people. The work was done. There was no ‘condition’ added to the original promise. There simply was an ‘activation’ that needed to happen. It’s like in the £10,000 example we used earlier. If you weren’t where I thought you would be at the end of the next week, I simply couldn’t give you the money. It’s not conditional on you being there; I could still get it to you another time, it’s just that you’d need to see me at some point for it to happen. You would need to activate it. It’s like an inheritance being passed to you that simply requires a signature to claim it. The inheritance is done, it can’t be changed, but in order to activate it, your signature is needed. To call what God is doing in Jericho a conditional promise where each side has to play their part would be overstating it, and to call it an unconditional promise would be underplaying it.

I’m not sure what the technical word is for it, but I see it more as covenantal promise. Let me explain. The promise wasn’t unconditional in the sense that there is no participation required, but it’s not conditional as if the actions of Joshua were the determining factor as to whether the promise would hold. A covenantal promise is a binding commitment based on a long-term relationship. Marriage in the traditional sense is perhaps our best example. In a godly marriage, it isn’t all one-sided with no expectation of the other participating, but it isn’t a quid pro quo situation either, where each person carefully weighs up their part. It’s a loving relationship that should keep no record or score, but instead commit to a lifetime of service and connection to each other. Whilst, as imperfect human beings, we often fail to live out that covenant relationship in its fullness, God has no such challenges.

So, why does this matter?

Well, it matters when we think about the promises God makes in our lives today. It matters, especially in those moments when we have heard His voice promise us something very clearly without any stated ‘conditions’ as far as we know. I’ve experienced many promises like this. In those moments, we could be mistaken for thinking we can sit in our lazy chairs, never pursuing or listening to Him because He already said it and didn’t ask for anything in return. We trust Him, right? Or, we could treat it as some kind of contract where we have to do this, that, and the other in order to twist His arm to hold to the promise. Either one of these positions would be to mistake the God in the promise.

When we gave our lives to God, we entered into a life-giving covenant, and His promises in our lives are spoken from that covenant relationship. That is so reassuring to me. To link this back to where I started; we believe God called us to live out this faith journey with theonehundredyearsproject. We believe He told us that He would be our provider. We believe He called us not to do what we thought was best but to wait for His instruction. We believe His instruction was to pray around the land, to record a podcast, and to document the journey He was taking us on. I also have an instruction to write a book, which I am slowly getting to! Outside of that, we serve young people in church and the community, and we’ve been looking after our family in what has been a tricky season for them. Beyond that, we have received no further instructions from God as far as we know. But often we feel like we’re not doing enough. We easily fall into the trap of thinking that the future of theonehundredyearsproject and His provision in our lives is in question because we aren’t doing enough – just like a worker who is paid on a commission basis, we can feel His promise of purpose and provision may fail because we didn’t do our bit. It’s like we haven’t done enough to earn a promotion or our wages. It seems so silly when I write it as plainly as this!!! On the other hand, we recognize we aren’t on vacation, and we can’t spend our days doing anything that we would like. We must be obedient. There’s an obedience to His voice that isn’t ‘conditional’ to His promise – it’s just the natural response to a covenantal relationship. Welcome to the maelstrom of my brain 😂

I should try and wrap this up eh?

I’m not sure what promises you are standing on today. I don’t know what God has spoken and what else He has told you regarding those promises. All I can guarantee you is that He is faithful, and if He promised it, then it is as good as done. I also know He isn’t finished with you yet. He desires your eyes and ears so He can direct your hands and feet. His promise and our partnership are the fruit of a life well lived before God. It’s not a contract, and it’s not a free pass. It’s a beautiful response to the One who gave everything for us.