YET MUCH LAND TO BE POSSESSED

Now Joshua was old, advanced in years. And the LORD said to him: "You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed. Josh 13:1 NKJV

Human traditions are not divine creation for they are largely built around what has been. One funny part to it is the habit of dwelling in the past and preferring former times to things yet be seen, done, or experienced – Lk. 5.39.

After experiencing the goodness of God for a while there is the tendency to be relaxed and not to be all out as it was at the beginning just as Israel had spent years in military expedition of the land of Canaan and now seemed to be relaxed. But God spoke: it is not time to relax yet. There are more awaiting us than the familiar, and more to be experienced than both the seen and the imagined. There are still very large areas of land to be taken over (NIV); to be conquered (NLT); or to be possessed.

Standing out of these verse are two distinct words: ‘land’ and ‘possess’. The word possess means ‘to have or own’, to take control of, to gain or seize, or by its sense in Latin, ‘to sit on as head’. The word land however stands in the text for an area, territory, or region that belongs to or inhabited by an individual or a people, or which they regard as their home or as possession.

The present territory fits into the current sphere of our experience; ability; provision; degree of influence. Each of these areas of our life does not constitute all that is to be, there is more to be possessed, taken, or conquered, just like God spoke to Joshua.