It is Finished
Joshua 19:51
These are the inheritances that Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel distributed by lot at Shiloh before the LORD, at the entrance of the tent of meeting. So they finished dividing the land.
“It is finished,” gasped our Lord through the shadows of a cosmic anguish subsiding in a final breath of death’s welcome relief. And although that word still reverberates unto eternity, although salvation’s atoning sacrifice is forever complete, our Shepherd still toils to advance His church against the unabating auspices of demons, still joins us day by day in the push-and-pull of a suffering world, still blazes fresh trails in the lives of unreached peoples, still unmasks the plots of wicked elites and opens the eyes of the blind and gives rest to the poor and liberation to the captives and forgiveness to the repentant.
Doesn’t that thought breathe wind into the sails of your diverse efforts and ministries, friend? Isn’t that the thought that grounds us when the walls start closing in all around us? That no matter what wreckage we witness today in our lost and dying world, even if the whole earth gets swallowed up in seawater or scorched by meteors, Christ’s ongoing, sanctifying work in this fallen world stirs us to keep on going.
Consider the analogy of a house. To build a house, you have to start by levelling the land, and when that’s finished, you can excavate the foundation, and when that’s finished, you can lay footers, concrete, and rebar, and when that’s finished, you can add structural walls and floors and a roof, and then add windows, and then plum for water and electricity, and then place insulation, and then drywall, until the whole construction is complete. But you can’t finish the house all at once, right? You finish it one step at a time. And that’s what Joshua’s biography has been. One finished task after another. He led God’s people across the Jordan River. He defeated the enemies and the giants and cleared the land of idolatry. And now, after all that, he’s just finished dividing the land for the people to possess.
Friend, for the glory of God, may the tasks we leave for tomorrow be extensions of the tasks we finish today.