Joshua says to the people of Israel, “How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?”
This strikes me as a bit odd. God gives a gift, but only if you work for it. When I get a gift I expect it to be handed to me with a nice bow around it. I imagine the Jews felt the same way or they would have started building fences around their new homesteads.
But God always has this thing called faith tied to everything we do. He gives a gift which is a promise that the land will be theirs. The current owners are big and tough and present an obstacle. Faith is required of the Jews to receive the gift God has promised. Faith without works is dead.
What gift has God promised you that you have not received? Maybe it is time to take that step of faith…
God Spots 
Hi Archie;
Maybe it is because of this “LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you”
Is there an implication the the God of their fathers is different than their God. Like a grandfather and father?
I never noticed this before, but if I were Joshua I would have said that “God has given you.”
And if you have to kick someone out of their homes to get your gift, what kind of gift is that?
I would not have taken the “gift” but found a new home.
I am kind of curious as to what your readers comments are.
Hi Ich. Interesting perspective on “God of your fathers” and “the janitor” obviously is no authority on anything except the plummer’s friend and “Tidy bowl”. But it seems throughout Joshua and the books before and after, the writer is reminding the people that God has historically both provided for their needs and whipped ’em when they were bad. They were encouraged to remember how big their God had been and had every reason He was just as big in real time.