When God promised the Israelites the promised land, He also promised to drive their enemies from among them. However, many times as I read through the book of Joshua I noticed that the bible said the Israelites were not able to drive out all their enemies and in some cases lives among thee enemies or forced them into hard labor. Despite this fact, the book of Joshua concluded with the verse:

Not a single one of all the good promises the LORD had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true.

Joshua 21:45 NLT

Well  that sounds very contradictory! If God fulfilled every promise then why weren’t all their enemies destroyed? Well after a whole generation this made sense. In the book of Judges, we see why:

…he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience…

Judges 3:2 NIV

To the doubtful person, God had not kept his promise. However, because God has the bird’s eye view of our lives and certainly did of the Israelites. He left a few nations among them to teach warfare to generations of Israelites who would come later who had no experience in battle. God knew the Israelites would need to be prepared for battles later on in their history so He left nations in their promised land who would eventually give them this experience.

When life seems like it is not going the way you want or God’s promises seem unfulfilled, do not look to the bigness of your problem but to the bigness of your God. And know that His plans are always for your good, though you may not understand them today, he is making you battle ready for your tomorrow.

Yours Truly