‘Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass.
– Joshua 21:45
Joshua 21:45 is a great verse. Like Joshua 21:45 is a summary of God’s people taking the promised land, really not taking the promised land, having the promised land given to them in the verses.
Right before this, verse 43 says the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers, verse 44, and the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Later in verse 44, the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to his people failed. Not one word. Just let that soak in. Not just thinking about what God did with his people, leading them into the promised land, giving them the promised land. That’s the point. It was promised to them, and God always is faithful to his promises, to every single word of his promises.
The Lord displayed His kindness by giving the Israelites the promised land.
That his truth to bank your life on today. The word of God is filled with all kinds of promises to those who trust in him. And he will prove faithful to every single one of those promises. Not one good word of what God has promised you will ever fail. All of them will come to pass.
Joshua 21:45 Leads Us to Praise God
So we pray to the faithful God, upon whom we can trust forever. God, we praise you for your promises to us. We praise you for your promises to never leave us or forsake us, your promises to be with us, to strengthen us, to help us, to give us everything we need in our time of need. God, we praise you for your promise to work all things together for the good of those who love you. We praise you for your promise that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any power, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will ever separate us from your love in Christ Jesus.
God, we praise you for your promise that there’s coming a day when sin and sorrow and suffering will cease and death will be no more and you will wipe away every tear from our eyes. We praise you that when we see your face, Revelation 22. When we encounter you in all of your glory in heaven, we will be able to look back and say with the words of Joshua 21:45, not one word of all the good promises that the Lord made to his people failed.
This Verse Reminds Us of God’s Promises
Not one good word of all the promises you made to us failed. All came to pass. God, we praise you for your faithfulness. We praise you for your promises. Help us to meditate on them. Help us to know them, to hide them in our hearts, and to bank our lives every single day on your promises and your faithfulness to every single word in them. We love you and worship you, God. And we pray, Joshua 21:45, in the name of Jesus in whom all the promises of God are. Yes, we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
