Focus Chapters:
- Exodus 22:16-31
- Exodus 23-24
Standout Verse(s):
Exodus 23:28-30 NLT
I will send terror ahead of you to drive out the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals would multiply and threaten you. I will drive them out a little at a time until your population has increased enough to take possession of the land.
Observation (s):
- The pace at which God’s promises are fulfilled in your life is dependent on your readiness to handle the fulfillment of the promise.
I will drive them out a little at a time until your population has increased enough to take possession of the land.
- If you are not ready to take possession of the promise’s fulfillment, God allows others to tend it for you. If left empty, it could become destroyed or obsolete or overran with situations that will multiply and threaten your future possession.
But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals would multiply and threaten you.
Application:
God’s promises are sure but Rome was not built in a day. You will not be ready in a day. The reason God doesn’t immediately clear the entire path to the Promised Land for you is because you are not ready to take possession of it.
Instead, God allows others to tend what is intended for you so that it is protected and doesn’t get destroyed, become obsolete or overran with creatures or situations that will threaten your future possession. In the interim, God prepares you.
He increases your numbers. He increases the skills you are lacking. Then year by year, He covers you and clears the path ahead of you, that you have been readied for. Readied, you are expected to push forward as He has directed. Slowly but surely you are being prepared and directed towards your Promised Land.
