Now, or not yet?

One of the dangers of reading Joshua, as we have been doing, is in working out how it applies to us. Joshua could just "claim the land" that God had promised him. We must remember how that works out for us as the Bible unfolds.

For us, the "promised land" is our eternal home, the new creation (eg 1 Peter 1:4). Keeping our hopes fixed there guards us from some common errors:

• we're not working for "success" here, as if our church were what mattered; we're working for God's kingdom.
• we're not to expect perfection here; we have joy as we look forward to what we will have. This life is to make us more godly (through hardships, usually); the life to come will be "rest".
• we're not to give up. If we have false expectations, we'll lose hope.
• we're not to look for glory now. The pattern of the Christian life is: the cross now, glory to follow. We haven't yet got our promised land to enjoy, but we're working towards it.