All The Way Into The Land
Grace has already provided the ingredients, faith simply steps into the rise.
Devotional Credit: Day by Day by Grace by Bob Hoekstra
Photo Credit: Unsplash
Israel’s story teaches more than rescue from bondage. It pictures a God who brings His people out, then brings them in. Bob Hoekstra traces Joshua and Caleb’s confidence in the Lord and shows how humble faith enters the fullness that grace provides. Their generation left Egypt, yet most never stepped into the good land. Two believed God in the face of giants, and they tasted what He had already promised.
Hoekstra’s reflection exposes a pattern many of us know. We rejoice in forgiveness, then quietly settle for spiritual dry ground. We are grateful to be out of Egypt, yet we stop at the border. The lesson is simple and searching. Grace opens a door, and faith walks through it. The Lord never meant new birth to end at the Red Sea. He intends a daily life that draws on Jesus as our portion, our strength, and our rest.
This reading thanks us forward, not backward. It calls us to move from correct ideas about grace to a living experience of grace. Joshua and Caleb did not conquer by willpower. They leaned on the Lord who had already given the land. In the same way, we do not strive to become worthy. We rely on the One who is our life.
Thank you, Bob Hoekstra, for pointing us away from bare information and toward participation in what God has pledged to His people in Jesus. The call is not to try harder, but to trust deeper. Not to prove ourselves, but to walk in what is already ours together as His people. Out of Egypt is good. Into the land is better.
Journal Entry, Voice of the Holy Spirit Through Scripture
My child, I brought you out so that I might bring you in. Do not stop at the border when I have given you a good land. In My Son you stand in grace, and by faith you receive what I freely supply. I resist the proud, but I pour out grace on the humble who depend on Me.
You passed from death to life, and the life I gave is abundant. I redeemed you to share in an inheritance with all My people, a portion that I Myself am to you. Walk forward in trust. As Joshua was strengthened and Caleb remained steadfast in old age, so I sustain you. Your adequacy is not from yourself. I work in you to will and to do.
Fix your heart on Jesus. As you abide in Him, fruit comes. As you reckon yourself alive in Him, you step into freedom. Let the word of the Messiah dwell richly in you. Take courage. The giants are real, but I am greater. The ground is yours because I am with you.
Scripture References: Numbers 32:11-12; James 4:6; Romans 5:2; 1 John 3:14; John 10:10; Exodus 3:8; Deuteronomy 31:7; Joshua 14:11; Numbers 14:6-9; Joshua 1:9; Hebrews 3:7-19; Hebrews 4:1-11; Colossians 2:6-7; Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:4-11; Ephesians 2:8-10; Philippians 2:13; 2 Corinthians 3:5; John 15:5; Ephesians 1:3; Colossians 1:12-14; 2 Peter 1:3-4.
Real-Life Analogy
Baking day. You measure flour, water, salt, and yeast, then knead the dough and set it aside. At first it looks the same as when you started. But given time, the dough rises. The ingredients were already present. The rise comes as the yeast does its quiet work. Faith is like placing the dough in a warm place and leaving it to do what it was made to do. The promise is not created by your hands. You simply trust the process and act on it.
Today, when a situation feels like a wall between “out of Egypt” and “into the land,” I will pause and say, “Lord, I trust You to live Your life in me and through me in this moment.” If I face a budget concern, a tense conversation, or a weary afternoon, I will step forward with gratitude, expecting You to express the life of Jesus in my words and choices, just as You have already promised.
Prayer of Confidence
Lord, thank You that in Jesus I have been brought out of bondage and brought into grace. Thank You that Your promises are yes in Him, and that You have already given me everything needed for life and godliness. I rejoice that Your Spirit lives in me, that I share an inheritance with Your people, and that I stand complete in the Messiah. I rest in Your faithfulness and walk forward today, trusting You to express Your life through me.