Keep God's Commandments

Tradition and Wisdom
Teaching and Learning:
From Generation to Generation

Joshua 23:1-8

The Message

Joshua's Charge

 ^1-2 A long time later, after God had given Israel rest from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua was a venerable old man, Joshua called all Israel together—elders, chiefs, judges, and officers. Then he spoke to them: ^2-3 "I'm an old man. I've lived a long time. You have seen everything that God has done to these nations because of you. He did it because he's God, your God. He fought for you.
 ^4-5 "Stay alert: I have assigned to you by lot these nations that remain as an inheritance to your tribes—these in addition to the nations I have already cut down—from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. God, your God, will drive them out of your path until there's nothing left of them and you'll take over their land just as God, your God, promised you.
 ^6-8 "Now, stay strong and steady. Obediently do everything written in the Book of The Revelation of Moses—don't miss a detail. Don't get mixed up with the nations that are still around. Don't so much as speak the names of their gods or swear by them. And by all means don't worship or pray to them. Hold tight to God, your God, just as you've done up to now.

For Reflection
Readers of the old testament are familiar with war stories. It seems that being committed to God does not exclude involvement in war.  Yesterday's Washington Post carried an article that showed in the decades since Vietnam, the United States (indeed the whole world) has been involved in warfare.  So much so, that in spite of daily visual reports, war is almost an accepted part of our daily background.  Bombs explode, people are killed, and perhaps for all except those who are directly affected,  life as we know it continues as though nothing happened.

How is a Christian supposed to respond when opposing religious forces, however demonic,  threaten? What is our Christian inheritance?  Where is God's plan in all of this turmoil?

Now is the time, as Joshua has reminded us, "to stay strong and steady," obedient and God fearing.

Pray
that you will return to Scripture and prayer for support.  Pray that in these times of fearsome uncertainty, fear will not be your guide.  Pray that you will hold fast to the knowledge that God, in the end, will be victorious.  Pray that you will be comforted by your trust in God and your vocation in His kingdom.