Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Joshua 11-13
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 90
Key Verse
Joshua 12:18 — “The king of Aphek, one; the king of Lasharon, one;”
Devotional Thought
There is a temptation, when the days are long and the work is unfinished, to believe that what we have done for God is too small to matter. Joshua could have felt that way. By the end of Joshua 11, he had led Israel through years of campaigning—against Jabin of Hazor and the vast coalition at the waters of Merom, against the Anakims in the hill country, against thirty-one kings from Jericho to Tirzah. The text says plainly, “Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.” And yet in chapter 13, the Lord says to an old man, “there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.” Even a lifetime of obedience leaves work for the next generation. That is not failure; it is the ordinary shape of faithfulness in a fallen world.
Notice, though, what Joshua did with what he was given. Verse 15 says he “left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.” He houghed the horses and burned the chariots at Merom exactly as God had said, so that Israel would not trust in the weapons of their enemies. He did not negotiate with the Canaanite kings or preserve their strongholds for convenience. He obeyed in the details. And when he could not finish, he did not despair—he divided the land by lot, giving each tribe its inheritance and its unfinished business, trusting the same God who had fought for him to fight for those who came after.
We live in a season—late summer, perhaps—when the year’s momentum is slowing and we begin to take stock. Psalm 90, Moses’ own prayer, sits beside this reading like a mirror. “The days of our years are threescore years and ten… it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” Moses, who also left work unfinished, asks God to “teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Numbering our days is not morbid. It is clarifying. It means knowing that our time is short enough that obedience cannot be postponed, and God’s faithfulness is long enough that our incomplete work is not wasted.
So what does this ask of us today? It asks us to do the next commanded thing with the same care Joshua showed at Merom—obeying fully in the small matters, not hoarding what God has told us to burn. It asks us to hold our unfinished work with open hands, dividing it faithfully for those who come after. And it asks us to rest, as Israel finally rested from war, not in our own completeness but in the everlasting God who is our dwelling place in all generations.
Reflection
- What “land” has God placed before you that remains unpossessed—and are you treating that unfinished work as failure, or as an inheritance to steward faithfully for whoever comes next?
- Where might you be hoarding something God has plainly told you to burn—a trust in your own strength, a compromise kept for convenience—the way Israel was told to burn the chariots at Merom?
Prayer
Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations, and before the mountains were brought forth, Thou art God. Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Give us Joshua’s diligence in the small obediences and his humility in the unfinished ones. Hough our horses and burn our chariots, that we trust not in the arm of flesh. Satisfy us early with Thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days, and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 90:1 — “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.”