LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?
THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Today's readings begin our time in the book of Joshua. So far, our chronological journey through the Bible has been mostly the same as it otherwise would have been--except for we have encountered the book of Job a little earlier, and read the Psalm of Moses (Psalm 90) in yesterday's reading. But soon, we're going to see this start to change a little bit as we go through the book of Joshua, and then quite a bit more as we start to enter the book of Judges on Day #80. Hold on for the ride.
God initiates, and we respond. In (almost) each of the first eight books of the Bible, before we get into the royal history of the Kingdom of Israel, the opening words of each book are about what God has done. God is the initiator, and everything else comes in response to him. In Genesis ("In the beginning, God"), Leviticus ("The Lord called Moses"), Numbers ("The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai"), Deuteronomy ("These are the words that Moses spoke... according to all that the Lord had given him"), Joshua ("After the death of Moses... the Lord said") and Judges ("After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord..."), God's initiating work is highlighted in a way that it just isn't afterwards in the rest of the historical books--except Ezra, which signals an end to the absence of God, and celebrates God's rescue of Israel from exile. But the only two books in this first group of eight which don't begin with God are Exodus and Ruth, which each highlight a crisis: the seeming absence of God, and the need for him to intervene in human history in order to rescue. (Exodus is more obvious, and we have covered it, but I think we'll find together that this chronological plan brings out some treasures from Ruth that make you read it differently than you have before.) Here is the takeaway: Joshua 1:1-9 shows us that if God initiates, if God establishes the mission, if God equips his people with strength, and if God tells us to go, then we can go boldly into all that God commands of us to do. If we are "strong and courageous," and yet also paying careful attention to serving God with humility and obedience (Joshua 1:7), then we can go out boldly in response to God, knowing that if he leads us out of the spiritual wilderness, then he also means for us to take the Promised Land as well.
Repentance and reinventing history. The first sign that Moses' warnings to the people of Israel have gone unheeded is this bit of revisionist history (or else, some kind of veiled threat!) in Joshua 1:17 - "Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so also we will obey you." This is how I picture Joshua's internal response:
There really is no moving forward without repentance. One part of repentance is doing better going forward. However, that kind of repentance is not going to have any staying power without admitting to, and committing to correcting, the past.
Salvation is for every kind of person. Rahab (Joshua 2) is the kind of person who no one would expect could be welcome in Israel. She was a Canaanite and a prostitute. By living in the wall of the city, she literally seemed like she was ready to be one of the first people that God would judge (when "the walls came tumbling down," that wall was where she lived!). But she took in God's people, and recognized the God of Israel, and asked humbly that she would be accepted into God's Kingdom. And God responded in a way that she never could have asked or expected--God transformed her from a Canaanite prostitute into (see Ruth 4:18-22 and compare to Matthew 1:5) the wife of the chief of the clan of Judah, the great-great-grandmother of King David, and an ancestor of Jesus, the Promised Deliverer, the foretold Messiah of Israel. Rahab was the ultimate outsider, and God made her, literally, a part of his own family. What a picture of the Gospel that is!
RESPOND | WHAT IS OUR PART?
How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? In our worship, we can respond to God, humble ourselves before him, and freely put our trust in him. In our attitudes, we can look to God's word for understanding about what he is calling us to do, and then we can respond with an attitude of boldness and obedience. We can also pursue humility by being willing to face our past thoughts and actions when they were not right. And we can be encouraged that our past does not prevent us from being known and accepted by God! And in our actions, we can imitate God by accepting the outsider. We can also spend time reading God's word, allowing him to initiate a call in us through prayer and meditation on God's Word. And we can be quick to confess to others and to God when we have done something wrong.
PRAY | HOW DOES THIS LEAD US TO CONNECT WITH GOD?
We can take this all to God in prayer. We can adore God for his wonderful nature, being a forgiving and initiating God who speaks to us and takes us in whatever our past was. We can confess where things are holding us back in our walk with God. We can express thanks for all that God has done in saving and pursuing us. And we can seek God's help as we move forward through the challenges of life.
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