And so the text tells us, “Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to their ancestors that he would give them; and having taken possession of it, they settled there” (Joshua 21:43). This is an interesting assertion, and it gets more interesting: “the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their ancestors; not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands” (21:44).

As we will read in a couple of days, however, the Benjamites had not actually defeated the Jebusites in order to capture Jerusalem (Judges 1:21), nor did the tribes of Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, or Naphtali dispossess the Canaanites in their territories (Judges 1:27-33). And as we read earlier in Joshua, when Achan son of Carmi coveted and took some of the spoil, the people of Ai had indeed withstood the people of Israel, to the extent of driving away their army with extensive casualties (Joshua 7:1-5), and resulting also in the death of Achan’s family (7:24-25).

Nevertheless the text makes this strong claim: “Not one of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass” (21:45). That certainly is a verse worth memorizing – yet we will not be well served if we remember it in a glib way. The promises of the Lord stand sure, but that doesn’t mean nobody is going to get hurt. God’s good and gracious will shall indeed be established, but that doesn’t mean that men won’t die in a battle they were supposed to win, or that when someone does something wrong there won’t be painful consequences – which sometimes splash onto innocent bystanders. We might recall as well that the promises of God include both blessings and cursings (Deuteronomy 28).

We commonly assume that it’s God’s job to make sure that only good things happen to us, regardless of what anyone may have done or failed to do. And if we are wise, we do indeed offer thanks to the Lord for all the good things that do indeed befall us. Yet bad things happen, too. Indeed, there are bad consequences for disobedience. And it’s not always our own disobedience that causes the bad consequences that land on us.

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Your word stands sure, O God. Your promises come true. Save us from our own casual presumption that you will always make things come out nice for us. Grant us hearts that long to serve you, and teach us to live as your people, with steadfast devotion.