March 6 - Dt 32:15 – 34:12; Joshua 1:1-9
As I finish the book
of Deuteronomy I am struck by the severity of punishment God promises if the
Israelites disobey. While He is lavish in his rewards for following his law,
the backlash for straying is daunting. When Jesus came we, non-Israelites, were
given a choice to believe or not. The result of our choices has serious eternal
repercussions, but in this world God doesn’t discipline us for not turning to
him (other than typical consequences for our own actions). It seems those born
in an Israelite family didn’t have the option of choice.
That begs the question, are current day people of Jewish descent who choose not to follow Christ still bound by the original covenant? The New Testament tells us that Jesus is the only way (Jn 14:16), so that presumably nullifies the original covenant for all. There are VERY devout Jews who are doing their best to obey – is it all for naught? And are we, Christians, suffering the results of our disobedience but not realizing that it is God’s wrath? God is loving, but he is also strict.
Oh, I know this is a slippery slope, but it makes me want to jump ahead to the New Testament and do more digging. Dt. 29:29 states “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” God will keep some answers secret forever, we just have to trust and obey what we know!
That said, I don’t want to ignore the amazing blessings Moses gave to the tribes in his final speech – oh that all those things would come true for them.
God then calls Moses, at 120 years of age, to trudge up a mountain and look over the whole of the Promised Land before he dies. The word tells us that Moses’ eyesight is still perfect, and it must have been a very clear day for him to see so far (I have no idea how much you or I could see if we stood on top of Mount Nebo today. You can see several pictures of the view from here. )
I can only imagine his
deep emotions at that moment.
JOSHUA
It’s time! (An aside to anyone old enough to have watched
VeggieTales – I can’t type that without singing “We didn’t have a lot of fun in
the desert…”.)
After emptying the sand out of their shoes every night
for 40 years, the Promised Land is now a reality. The book of Joshua leads us
across the Jordan River and through all the efforts to resettle in the land.
There is some disagreement about who wrote this book,
when, and when the actual events occurred. You may want to look at the intro to
Joshua in your Bible, but in short many believe it was written mostly by Joshua
himself and updated a bit by others after his death (perhaps Samuel?) or it was
written well into the era of kings. Either way, there are very specific details
included and references to writings by Joshua himself, so he most likely kept a
good journal of the time.
Centuries after God made the promise to Abram, his
descendants are finally entering into the land flowing with milk and honey, and
Joshua is the one to lead them in. Joshua is from the tribe of Ephraim and his
father ,Nun, is the son of the leader of the tribe. He has been an aide to
Moses since his youth. We know he was over 20 years old at the time everyone
left Egypt, so I wonder when he and Moses got together. Was he a young man
living in Midian who followed Moses back to Egypt? Or was he a slave in Egypt
that Moses rescued?
In Ex 17, Joshua leads warriors into battle, so we know
he was strong and had some traits of a military commander (although success is
attributed entirely to Yahweh). He alone went with Moses up Mount Sinai for 40
days and nights – we know he is up there when he mistakenly thinks there is a
battle below (Ex32).
There are two verses that are considered key – Joshua
1:6-9 and Joshua 24:14-15. These essentially begin and end the book.
I look forward to learning from his devotion and
leadership.
TOMORROW’S TEXT: Joshua 1:10 – 4:24
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