Joshua 21:43

"So Jehovah gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And Jehovah gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them: and Jehovah delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not aught of any good thing which Jehovah had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass."

In these verses, our eyes are lifted above the sinful errors and mistakes of mankind to the Father Himself; and we behold no shortcomings or failures with Him. All of His deeds are perfect. His eternal purpose moves in perfect synchronization with both time and eternity. With God there are no failures and no defeats. Even in Paradise, it was not Satan who won, but GOD! These verses enable us to see the big picture. God has indeed accomplished exactly what He intended; He has moved the newly-created nation of Israel into the room of the shameful Canaanites whose cup of wickedness was running over, and this nation, in the process of time, would deliver to mankind the Redeemer in the person of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

But think of all the sorrows and the suffering, and all the failures and shortcomings of Israel! Yes, there were plenty of these, but Israel herself was expendable from God's point of view; and, in the process of time they were expended, thrust out of the very land God had given them; but, as God intended, they still delivered the Messiah!

So what a refreshing thing is this little paragraph! God and His holy purposes are eternally successful. With God, "There is no variation nor shadow that is cast by turning!"

Of course, as is always the case with men, the Israelites refused to follow through on their opportunities. Instead of driving out the Canaanite debauchees, Israel soon united with them, allowed themselves to be trapped and seduced by their gods, intermarried with them, and in time became, actually themselves Canaanites (Hosea 12:7; also see my discussion of this in Vol. 2 of the minor prophets Series, pp. 198,199).

There is a type of critic who FINDS FAULT with God: "Well, he did not drive out all the enemies like He promised." All of God's promises are CONTINGENT upon the obedience and cooperation of God's children, and when that is not found, there can be no complete fulfillment of Divine promises.

As Cook stated it:

"It was only the inertness and pusillanimity of Israel which prevented the completion of the conquest when the allotment of Canaan was made by Joshua, and it was their subsequent backsliding that caused God to turn the tide of victory against them and even to cast them out of the land."[17]

These verses state that God had delivered all their enemies "into their hands," and of course, He had. Nothing remained for Israel to do, but to apply themselves to the task and do it! "This they not only failed to do, but they even violated the conditions under which the land had been given to them, and they soon fell under the dominion of those who had been their vassals."[18] John Calvin stated that, "Nothing but their own cowardice prevented them from enjoying the blessings of God in all their fullness."[19]

These verses conclude the second major division of Joshua (Joshua 13-21), which has been concerned chiefly with the division of the land of Canaan among the Israelites. These verses actually encompass all that has already happened in Joshua thus far: the covenant promise of Joshua 1:19 has been fulfilled; Israel has possessed the Land of Promise, settled it, and received the promised rest; their enemies have been reduced to helplessness. What an inopportune moment for Israel to quit!

We can think of no better conclusion for this major section of Joshua than the last verse of this chapter:

"There failed not aught of any good thing which Jehovah had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass! (Joshua 21:45)."