28/01/14

Every Promise of God will surely come to pass

Joshua 1:3 - Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.


The book of Joshua starts with the Lord speaking to Joshua after the death of Moses. One needs to give due attention to the words of the Lord to Joshua. The Lord tells Joshua 'that I have given unto you, as I said unto Moses', and what was that the Lord had promised? The Lord says 'every place that the sole of your feet shall/has tread upon'.

Yes there were many places the Israelites captured during their journey in the wilderness but all the places they captured they left and did not stay back to dwell, leaving for the places on the banks of the river Jordan which the sons of Joseph insist on dwelling on, but which the Lord did not desire they do. Even till date all the land which was promised is yet not under Jewish rule in the natural. Also in his lifetime Moses did not dwell in any land he captured, so was the promise a failure?

If we see this scripture without its true understanding, we see God did not fulfil His promise to Moses, but if we see it in its true understanding He did fulfil it. To understand it we need to get into study of each word.

The Hebrew word 'maqowm' translated as 'everyplace' comes from the root word 'quwm' which means 'rise' or 'standing up', so this word does not refer to a place but what develops on it, like city, nation or home. It refers to the people more than the land or an object.

The word 'kaph' translated as 'sole' is mostly translated as 'hand' in the Bible, but here we see the translators chose the word 'sole' not 'hand' because how could one say 'hand of your foot!'.

Now, coming to the word 'foot' which is from the Hebrew word 'regel' actually refers to the journey and not the feet. So the words 'sole of the foot' actually means 'hand of your journey' which further means 'the works of your life'.

So the actual promise of the Lord was the Lord would give Moses all those people with him and they would be deeply affected by the life of Moses or the things Moses did and this we see was fulfilled in the life of Moses.

When Moses died the people were so taken up with the loss of Moses that they grieved for many days and the Lord had to hide his body so that they do not start to worship or give to honour his corpse. Had God not hid Moses body, the Jews who call themselves disciples of Moses, they would have preserved it and would have roamed with it all their lives making it a relic, worshiping it (like some 'Christian' do to dead bodies or parts of people whom they call saints). Jude expands on this point and puts it as an incident where the Lord (Angel of God) and Satan fought over the body of Moses.

Know that our Lord is indeed God and He is a keeper of His Word. Everything He has promised towards us He surely brings to past. Now what is very important is that we understand the promises well and we do not assume our own things, so that we do not have doubts when we see our expectations are not being fulfilled.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord, You are mighty God, who is Omnipresent. Time is not a factor for You. Be it past, present of future in all dimensions of time You exist and for You they all are today. Lord, we know when You chose us, You knew us as finished products, for You fulfil all that You promise. Open our minds to understand your promises so that our eyes are truly focused on them...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference ]
John 9:28 - Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples.

Acts 6:11 - Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and God.

Jude 1:9 - Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.



The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others.
(All rights are with God)