Rest at Last
"So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war." (Joshua 11:23 NKJV) Anyone who has ever been engaged in a legitimate battle, which was fought to a logical conclusion, would probably admit to the futility of estimating the period for the war from the starting point. Both Moses and the children of Israel would have been discouraged to even start, if they had known that the journey from Egypt to Canaan will take as long as 40 years of wilderness experience. However, a little moment of rest from war overrides the long period of test in the wilderness. Although the cost of the race to freedom may be great, the unending string of servitude is greatly overbearing. If we proceed according to God's purpose, our momentary pain, no matter how long it takes, will fade away in the face of our rest at last.