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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Wednesday, 11 June 2025:
Joshua 16:1–4 — The allotment of the people of Joseph went from the Jordan by Jericho…. This was the inheritance of the people of Joseph, the tribe of Manasseh and Ephraim.
God honors Joseph’s descendants, Ephraim and Manasseh, by giving them a rich inheritance. This was not just because of their numerical strength, but because of God’s blessing on Joseph (see Genesis 49:22–26). God is faithful to generational promises. Your spiritual inheritance is not based on your strength, but on God’s promises and grace. Do you recognize and rejoice in your “pleasant places”?
- Genesis 48:20 — By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, “God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.”
- Psalm 16:6 — The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
Joshua 16:5–9 — The territory of the people of Ephraim… also there were cities that were set apart for the people of Ephraim within the inheritance of the Manassites.
The description shows that God’s provision sometimes includes shared spaces and overlapping responsibilities. Though distinct, Ephraim and Manasseh are interdependent—just as God designed His people to work together within their callings. Don’t isolate. Your inheritance is tied to the Body. God often places His people close together to encourage, strengthen, and refine one another.
- Romans 12:4–5 — So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
- 1 Corinthians 12:21 — The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you.”
Joshua 16:10 — However, they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites have lived in the midst of Ephraim to this day but have been made to do forced labor.
You must obey ALL of God’s commands and be willing to go the distance to receive the full blessings of God. There are always consequences for disobedience, and some consequences may be tangibly significant, but they are always spiritually significant. Often the consequences are not realized until many years later, perhaps not for generations, but the roosters always come home to roost. In this case, the Israelites chose to disobey God by not driving out the Canaanites (Deuteronomy 20:17) – avoiding the challenge was the easy thing to do and didn’t seem to result in many problems for them. However, we will soon read that this decision to disobey God would prove extremely costly over time. Unfortunately, they failed to understand that the weight of daily discipline is nothing compared to the burden of life regret.
In Joshua, chapter 6, God gave strange and very specific instructions to bring down the walls of Jericho — “You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.”
So God commanded, march around the city for seven days and march around the city seven times on the seventh day. Imagine how the people must have felt marching around the city on days 1 (nothing happens), day 2 (nothing happens), day 3 (nothing happens), etc. What if the people simply stopped marching on the sixth day or only marched around once on the seventh day, giving up when no results were observed? It takes faith to be totally obedient to God, particularly when it doesn’t appear to make any sense or produce positive results. However, unconditional obedience is required to receive the blessings God intends for you. Don’t quit on day six — keep marching in fidelity! Persistence is the path to the promise.
Partial obedience is disobedience. What compromises have you allowed to coexist in your life? Don’t settle for cohabiting with sin under the name of control—it will eventually control you.
- Judges 2:2–3 — “But you have not obeyed my voice… So now I say, I will not drive them out before you.”
- Galatians 5:9 — A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 11 June 2025: Don’t Compromise the Promise. God has given you a spiritual inheritance in Christ, but He expects you to take full possession of it. Don’t just read the promises—walk them out. Ephraim was strong but grew complacent. What areas of your life have you left “mostly surrendered” but not fully cleared? Identify one area where compromise or convenience has taken the place of obedience. Name it. Face it. And by God’s grace, drive it out. Don’t domesticate what God told you to eliminate. Pray: “Father, thank You for the rich inheritance You have given me in Christ. Forgive me for the ways I’ve accepted partial obedience and allowed compromise to linger. Help me to fully possess what You’ve given, without excuse, hesitation, or fear. Strengthen me through Your Spirit to drive out every remaining foothold of sin or complacency. May I walk in the fullness of Your promise today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 