“Then you crossed over the Jordan. You came to Jericho, and the citizens of Jericho attacked you. They were Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites. But I gave them into your power. I sent the hornet before you. It drove them out before you and did the same to the two kings of the Amorites. It wasn’t your sword or bow that did this. I gave you land on which you hadn’t toiled and cities that you hadn’t built. You settled in them and are enjoying produce from vineyards and olive groves that you didn’t plant.” – Joshua 24:11-13 (CEB)
It wasn’t your sword or bow that did this. Of all the lines in Joshua’s long recital, this might be the one Israel most needed to hear and least wanted to. They had fought real battles. They had real scars. And God still insists on saying plainly that the victory wasn’t theirs to claim.
Then comes the harder gift: cities you didn’t build, vineyards you didn’t plant, a life handed to a whole generation that had done none of the original work. Someone else’s labor became their inheritance, the same way someone else’s faith usually becomes ours.
What are you living in right now that you didn’t build? Somebody did build it. Name them if you can, and give thanks for them today.
God who gives what we didn’t earn, thank you for every gift I didn’t build myself. Keep me grateful instead of proud, and generous with what I was handed. Amen.
God bless you brother