January 30


Joshua 21-24

We’re reading from The Message translation this week and today we are going to finish the book of Joshua in The Nation Stream. This marks the end of the beginning of the newly settled nation of Israel. We are reading chapters 21-24.

Lord God what a man we saw finish his course and pass from the scene.  I pray we are steadfast, abiding in you and bent on victory for you and your glory – as Joshua was.  In Jesus we abide,  Amen.
It’s 1380 B.C. The battles of Joshua’s times are complete.  It’s time to divide the last of the new country, return each to his tribe, hear the leader’s final message, renew commitments to the God who gave them their homeland, lay their gallant leader to rest, and treat his burial with utmost significance.  Wow, what a finale~ to revel in.
21 – This is the dividing out of 48 towns for the priests/Levites so that there would be representation throughout the country.  And of course, the priests of God needed land, pastures, homes as did the rest of the people.  It is a bad sign when a people/congregation/household of faith/denomination have plenty, while the ones who gives them instruction are expected to “look to the Lord” to provide.  So the teachers among them get the old cars, live in ramshackle houses, eat bargain cheap food while the people they guide have shiny new rigs, live in exclusive neighborhoods, ride first class to their triannual vacations, etc.  This is wrong.  Paul tells Timothy in I Tim. 5:17 that the elders/teachers are to have double salaries.  Point made.  We should receive great strength and assurance in the final verses of Joshua 21:43-45.  God had been true to them.  They received all the land they were told they would receive.  Enemies were removed.   They may as well have been cardboard cut outs.  OK, that is exaggeration. Enemies didn’t blow over that easy, but not one of the enemies triumphed.  Israel did…and the final verse must be kept in front of us; “Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.”  God’s appositive is stated both directions in the literature.  Keep in mind that David would not be writing nor his Psalms divulged to the people for another ca. 400 years.  They needed verses and such reminders – as do we today.  This is a verse worth putting on the our walls.
22 – Joshua had told the eastern tribes that they were to be concerned and involved in the conquest of the west side of the Jordan.  This was in Josh. 1:12 and they were for the entirety of this last 25 years.  Their land was mentioned by Moses in Deut. 2:36, 3:8-11, by Joshua in Josh. 13:8ff.  Well the time had come and it was time to go home.  The sweetness of it all.  Would they remain true and in God’s blessing?  We will read of it soon in the Book of Judges.      There was a grand parade home by the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh’s eastern half.  They paused at the Jordan to build an impressive monument of remembrance.  It was a noble cause, but was misinterpreted by the other 9+1/2 tribes.  The sabres were rattled and a war-like gathering was called and yet the conflict was averted through communicating with the tribal leaders.  So much is learned from this.  Remember that WW I began because of a miscommunication.  So many squabbles turn mountainous because people seek revenge for a deed that was not meant to be malicious. It was just someone living their life and someone on the receiving end of an unintended consequence gets ruffled.  Talk things through people.  Do not decide what anothers’ motives are – find out what the motives are.  The chapter ends, “The Lord is God.”  It does not end with “my feelings are god!” as is a motif anchored in too many people’s “subconscious bible” (small “b” bible).  And it’s a bible that people live by but will never openly confess to.
23 – Joshua gives his farewell to the leaders of the nation.  His life had spoken volumes.  He had lived 45 years in Egypt, 40 years in the Wilderness with and under Moses’ training.  Joshua was now wrapping up a 25 year campaign to wrest the Promised Land for God’s people.  The man’s final speech warranted the undivided attention of the nation.  He tells them that it’s basically “final buzzer” for him real soon here.  Main points: ~The Lord fought and gave you all this. ~I.e., God gave you this land. ~God will still fight for you. ~Be strong in the LORD/be careful to obey Him.  They are to be feverish, soldier-like, obedient, students of the Law.  Man normally has trouble combining strength and attention to detail.  But Israel must.  They were to have no fellowship with paganism in ANY form.  They would continue their dominance as they look to God.  In 25 years only 36 casualties were reported among Israel.  Let that sink in folks.  This would continue as they obeyed their LORD God.  The converse was spelled out: If they turned on God, they would be occupied by pagans, whipped, they would encounter thorns, die and be removed.  Easy enough, right?  This is reiterated countless times in the Law, and History, and Prophetic Books, and within the New Covenant.  For centuries these truths were recited and sung and told over and again.  Would these principles take hold?
24 – Joshua gathers them at Shechem one last time.  Where are we?  Shechem?  It’s at the northern point of Ephraim upon their border with Manasseh west of the Jordan.  Abraham was here 600+ years ago. Jacob pitched his tent here.  Dinah found misfortune as her brothers took revenge in the same event; Gen. 37.  17-year-old Joseph wandered through Shechem looking for his brothers – it’s 1897 B.C.  He would never be here again after that day.  Numbers 26 has a passing reference to Shechem.  But now the powers-that-be gather [over 500 years after Joseph left] as Joshua recites their history and reminds them that they basically walked into a prepared paradise with well-stocked “supermarkets of food”.  BTW, the produce in Israel today is stunningly impressive!  And Joshua, asserts his faith and bellows a statement that is on the walls of millions of homes today; Joshua 24:15, “choose today whom you will serve…we will serve the LORD!”  The people respond asserting their faith and pledging to the Covenant.  This would require the discarding of all idols and remaining committed to God and not intermarrying with pagans.  A stone is marked, then Joshua dies and he is buried in the hill country of Ephraim while Joseph’s bones are buried at Shechem (cf. Gen. 50:25).  Aaron’s son, Eleazar; Moses’ nephew dies and is buried south of here about 20-25 miles in Benjamin’s tribal area.
And so a nation has been born.  The founders are mostly died and departed.  The second generation of Israelites will soon arrive soon in a land that had no personal memory of bondage.  And there would never be any need for bondage.  They had freedom, blessing, and bounty and God Himself.  Could they keep it this way?

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