One thing that I realized is that my parents will always be my parents and I will always be a son to my parents. Even after being married now, going on three years, my mom will still do things like a mom would. She will sometimes surprise us with groceries, take us out for lunch, she still goes out of her way for her children. My wife’s parents are the same way. She will always be their child and they will always be her parents. Sometimes even when you are older parents still will parent you and give you counsel that you may have not asked for. They still care and want to give advice and help out like parents. It is cool to see them still playing their roles that God wanted them to do and pass on wisdom to their children. 

In this chapter Joshua is getting old as the first verse says, “A long time after.” This means from the last chapter that we read there were several years that passed. All of Israel was making themselves comfortable in their land that God had blessed them with. In verse 1 it also says Joshua was getting advanced in years, he was getting old. The time had come for Joshua leader over Israel to pass on some final thoughts and he gathers all of the leaders together and gives them some last minute words of encouragement.

God will Fight for You 

Joshua reminds the leaders that God was the one that fought their battles, God was the one that allowed them to enter into the promise land, and God is the one that will continue to hold back the enemies from their land. This comes with a condition, that they continue to hold to the Word of the Lord. They better not stray from it. They need to stay clear of the idols of the surrounding nations and not even mention their names. If they do listen to this command, then life will be good, God will continue to fight off the enemy because they are not an enemy of God. 

If they fall into the snare of the Devil and worship and serve the idols of the nations then God will become their enemy. He will withdraw his hand for their protection and even wipe them out of the land in which they live.

God never Fails

He says in verse 15 that God never fails in his promises. Joshua was explaining God has never failed by blessing them and he is faithful with that but he is also faithful to bring upon his punishment. God gave the warning and he will issue the consequences when the time comes. 

God’s word tells us that he will judge everyone and everyone will face him one day. As Christians God does not look at us as what we have done in this life but if we know his son. We have the promise that we will be able to go to heaven. Joshua 1:8 tells us that he will never leave us nor forsake us as does Hebrews 13:5. 

Not only do we have the promise for the future but also every day life. We have the ability to face the devil with power and say, I have Jesus Christ on my side who has already fought the battle and won victoriously. Ephesians 6:15 tells us to have our feet ready with the Gospel of Peace. The reason why it is called the Gospel of Peace is because we are at peace with God. Jesus died so we would not be an enemy of God but a friend. God fights for us today and he will never leave us because we know his Son. God is faithful with that and will alway be faithful for his children.

It is nice when you have worked hard and did all the chores that your parents ask and when you are finally done you have rest. Maybe they said, “If you get your chores done then we can do this or you get this.” When you are done with chores and your parents are faithful to their end of the bargain, it is sweet because there is reward and rest.  

In this chapter of Joshua , all the 2 1/2 Eastern tribes: Rueben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh were told by Moses to stay and help the rest of Israel out in battle so they could conquer the land. That time has come and now they can go to the land that they wanted, Gilead. It is on the eastern side of the Jordan (more info read Numbers 32). Their time has come, they have been faithful to their end of the bargain and now Joshua is telling them to go home and rest. 

Before they go into the land, Joshua gives them a warning to not depart from the Lord. They need to follow after his commandments, to love him with all their hearts, and to walk in all of his ways. Joshua blessed them and they were off to their homes and to start growing and to multiply.

A Little Confusion

Some time went by and the 2 1/2 tribes that lived on the eastern side of the Jordan built an altar. The western tribes heard about this and panicked because they did not know why they built this altar. There was almost civil war that broke out in Israel because the western tribes thought the eastern tribes have abandoned the Lord and followed after idols. When the elders and leaders went to the eastern tribes to find out why they rebelled, they found out that they did not rebel, but actually wanted to have a reminder for their children and their children’s children of how awesome and mighty the Lord is and because they had the Jordan River separating them from the other tribes. Their motives were pure, there was no civil war, Israel had rest.

It is so easy to get worked up over something that you may not understand and you can assume that someone did something to hurt you. We can see through this chapter that the western tribes were jumping to conclusions but needed to find out what was going on before they started to fight with their fellow countrymen. Do you jump to conclusions with your friends? Do you talk to them before you start accusing them of something they did wrong? Hebrews 12:14 tells us to make every effort to live in peace with your fellow brothers and sister in the Lord. I am learning that it is best to talk about things before I jump in with accusations and assume that someone did something intentionally against me. I encourage you to learn this as well and to always go to God first when confronting a problem.

Man it was so nice to be able to have someone to go to when you are were afraid. I am totally not ashamed of this but if someone was going to pick on me, guess where I would go? To my mom; would run to her for safety from those who wanted to bother me. Sometimes that would be kids in my neighborhood or even my sister. My mom would rescue me until it was time for me to face my fears of those who were picking on me. 

In this chapter we see Joshua releasing the names of six cities which would be the cities of refuge for Israel. The way it would work is if someone killed a fellow person but did not premeditate it they could flee from their pursuers in these cities. (Moses touched upon these in Numbers 35:9-34). Their pursuers would have to let them be as they were in the safety of these cities. The six cities were spread out throughout all of the land of Israel. If they were found guilty of intentionally killing the person they would face the consequences of murdering someone which was death. 

God’s Grace

There were still consequences for the person who killed another, they would have to flee and leave everything behind, they had the fear of being pursued, and they  were in the protection of the city to keep them safe. Here is a great picture that we see of God’s grace. God had grace upon the people of Israel and even those that made mistakes. God’s grace was shown on those that made a mistake and their was a chance for life to be restored. Once the chief priest died the man in the city would be able to return home. We may not have accidently killed someone but we still are wretched sinners who are held in refuge of Jesus Christ. He died so we can have refuge from the wrath of God. God now sees us as righteous and we are his children found clean and righteous and forgiven. How amazing is this to know that God’s grace is overpowering to us.

Have you ever thought man, “Where do I belong?” A lot of you may be starting school today or have already and sometimes that can be hard. You are wondering about friends and where do you belong. In this chapter of Joshua we read about the tribes of Joseph taking their land and now we move on to the others. There are 7 tribes left that need to take their land and Joshua takes the people that are left and says, “How long will you wait to take possession of your land?” God has already given them the land they need to stop being lazy and grab it. 

To help with that process he sends out 3 men from the 7 tribes and has them take notes on the land. When they return they will cast lots and whoever receives the lot that will be the land. The first lot that was cast went to the tribe of Benjamin . 

Our Place Today

God has given us an inheritance and he already did the work. Jesus died on the cross and rose again for salvation. We have it but how long are we going to be lazy. Take hold of the place you have and live it with no reserves. Hebrews 12:1 tells us to throw all the dead wait away. Paul said more than once to run this race and to not look back. Sometimes as Christians it is hard to see where we belong in this world. Either the world looks at us funny and conservative or we don’t understand all the time why we can’t do certain things. 

Right now you are in a place called school or learning. Some of you may be home schooled, some may go to private school, and some may go to public school. Each one is at that place for a reason and instead of being lazy, take advantage of the opportunities that God has given you. Be a light and share that Jesus is real and alive. That he died for them and so their can be forgiveness of sin.  It is so easy to make excuses and say, “If I only was there or had that.” Grab what you have and run with it for the glory of the Lord.

In the house I grew up with my parents I had my own room and my sister had her own room. We all lived under the same house but we had our own rooms to sleep in and even decorate a little in how we wanted it to look. In this section of Scripture the different tribes of Israel are being assigned the different locations in the new land. Conquest has taken place and now it is time to get settled. In chapters 15 through 21 we see the different tribes receiving their inheritance. Just like a house with the different rooms, the tribes have their assigned places but also have freedom to enter into the other locations.

The tribes of Joseph would be the ones that have come from his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. This area for the two tribes were the hill country, north of where Benjamin and Dan and south of the Jezreel Valley. It is nice to know that the wilderness experience has come to an end and every tribe will have its place. Those 40 years are gone for Israel and now they look forward to the future.

We may still be in a wilderness setting in this life but one day it will end, either we will die or Jesus will come for the believers before the end times. We will have a great inheritance one day and that is being in the presence of the Lord. We are going to have our place and be able to have true rest/ As Paul told the Philippians that he forgets the past and looks forward to what lies ahead of him (Phil 3:13) We too need to forget what our past is and look forward to the inheritance that we have in Christ Jesus.

Joshua had led the people over the Jordan River and now they are getting ready for something. Joshua knew that they were going to have to go to battle. It was warned ahead of time by Moses to the people. Before any of them did anything they needed to make sure they were reading. This type of ready was not for battle but making sure their hearts were ready before God. They made sure and had Passover and reflected on how great God is.

The Commander’s Commander

This chapter of Joshua gives us some great insight. Joshua saw a man coming with his sword drawn. Joshua asked the question, “Who are you for, us or the enemy.” The man responded with, “No.” “I am the Commander of the Lord’s army.” As Joshua received that response, he fell on his face and worshiped. Joshua knew that this was God in flesh, Jesus, the 2nd member of the trinity. God was there and ready to give the battle plans to Joshua. This is important because Joshua first off was looking to God and wanting to know what to do. God met him and we will see tomorrow what were those plans for battle with Jericho. 

We can only truly be ready for battle when we met and get the plans from the Lord. Joshua had to spend time with the true commander, Jesus. He was not spending time with his 12 elders from the different tribes, he was spending time with his friends for advice, it was with the Lord. Who do you get instruction from? We can see who we receive that from by looking at who we talk to when we have questions and problems. Do you spend time with the Lord? We can do that by reading what God wrote for us, the Bible and spend time in communing with the Lord, prayer. Just like Joshua needed to receive instruction on what to do, we do too. We need to fall on our faces and worship Jesus and just listen. It is such a great thing to be able to just spend time in God’s presence, to be able to just not worry about your day or your future tasks, just be with God. I encourage everyone to spend time like this with God every day. If not please make time, it is well worth it.

It is so exciting to be able to do something or get something that you have been longing for. I know when I have been waiting patiently for something and I receive what I have been waiting for, it is totally worth the wait. I have been longing for the day that my wife would tell me that she is pregnant and the day finally came. All I could do is thank the Lord for his goodness, all I could do is Praise the Lord! When things like that come up it is always nice to have something done or write it down so you can pass that on from generation to generation.

Joshua and the rest of Israel have crossed over the Jordan River. They have finally entered into the Promise Land. As they finally have crossed over all they could do is but praise the Lord. God instructed Moses to take 12 stones from the Jordan River from which they crossed on dry ground. With those 12 stones they took and built a memorial for their children and their children’s children to see and know how great God is and how he sticks to his promises.

All the Peoples of the Earth

As the stones stood for not only Israel and the future Israel, it would stand as a testimony to all of the earth. God is great and greatly to be praised as he is mighty. We may have not been there and walked across dry ground. We may have not been amongst the people in the wilderness and experienced God’s daily provision like they did. We may have not seen the pillar of fire, or the pillar of cloud which led the people. What we do is see history and his mighty hand throughout its pages. If we take a look at our life and just see God’s provision daily for us, or how we have the Bible as our guide in life or how we walk across the rivers of life into new life and promising life which is in Christ Jesus; than we can see how mighty God is. He is mighty, he is worthy of all praise, he is our KING. May this serve as a memorial to our future generation. May our example and efforts in this life serve as an example to the future. May our sons and daughters be raised in your ways. May we long for your return. May we write down his love on our hearts for eternity.

As we look into this new book we see a new commander over God’s people, Joshua. In this book we will see this new generation of Israel enter into the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 40 years have gone by and they are ready. So Joshua does what any commander would do, send out people to look at what is ahead of them. Two spies get sent out and they go to a place called Jericho. Jericho, was considered to have massive walls around its city. It was a massive city with many people in it. The people in the city worshiped false gods.

Meeting of an Unexpected Friend

The two spied go to the house of Rahab who was a prostitute. As they went there to stay the king of Jericho found out that spies were in the land. He wanted them to be caught and as Rahab was questioned, she said they were there but they split and they may be able to catch up with them. As she hid the two men, she got them and told them what the king was doing. As she was telling them, she then decided to open up and tell them about how the whole city, feared their God. She told them how word has spread that their God separated the Red Sea and made it so they could cross on dry ground.  She told them that once word got out that their God delivered them out of the hands of their enemies such as the king of Og and the king of Sihon that everyone in the city had fear in their hearts. She told them that she knew that their God was God above all; God of heaven and earth.  Who would ever think that this woman, who lived a bad life, desired to help these men that she never knew or met. She only heard about the mighty works of God and that was enough for her to believe.

What makes it so we would believe in God? Would we have to see his mighty works? Would we be able to hear it and believe? As Thomas even said, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my fingers into the mark of the nails, I will never believe (John 20:25).” We are told in Psalm 150 to praise the Lord for his mighty works. God has done and will continue to do mighty works. The mightiest is what Jesus did for us on the cross which we see that God was going to do another mighty work by saving Rahab and her family.

Because of her actions, they desired for her life to be saved. They told Rahab to tie a scarlet cord to the window so that they would know to keep her and her family safe.  This scarlet cord is what would save her. When Israel was going to have the angel of death pass over them, they were told to place the blood of an innocent lamb upon their doorposts. I do not want to read into it but it was a scarlet cord that would save her and it was Jesus blood that saves us. Isaiah 1:18 says, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Thank you Jesus, for washing away my sin. We are the unexpected receiver of God’s mercy everyday.