Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Joshua was "tight"...God's "tighter".

Ok. So. I just got done reading through the book of Joshua again. The first and most important thing I realized: Joshua was a pimp, but God's a bigger one. So, check this out. Joshua breezes through the Canaanites no problem, right. The South. The North. Whatever, he got 'em. In fact Joshua 12 lists the kings conquered earlier by Moses which were 2, and as if to say, that was nice but look at this, it then goes on to discuss the 31 ! kings Joshua conquered. So, picture it. Joshua is in total control. You have to admit the Israelites were probably like...this guy is good man!, did you see him kick the king of Geder's butt! They were in awe with him, Im sure of it.

Then Joshua is close to dying. He knows the end is near. What would you be doing if you were a great king? I would probably be eating fruit and "sitting like royalty" as someone used to say I like to do. I would be figuring out my net worth, you know stuff like that. But Joshua, he exhorts Israel big time (Josh. 23). He tells them to hold fast to the Book of Law and not turn towards foreign idols. He just lays into his countrymen. He even tells them that WHEN (not if) you transgress the Lord your God He will inflict harmful things on you and goes on and on about it. How is that for straight talk?!?! Finally, the book wraps up with this: "Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua". Quite a nice run for ole Joshua.

But here is the thing. No doubt Joshua was a good man, but what I love about the book of Joshua is that it is clear who is The Man in all of this. God. Yes, Joshua was used by Him to conquer and receive the promise, but God is the one who makes the sun stand still (Josh. 10), and "routed all before Israel" (Josh. 10:10), and was the deliverer. It was God's promise that was fulfilled upon the receiving of the land (Josh. 21). God was responsible for all of this and the author of Joshua makes that abundantly clear. So to that, thank you Lord.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

You're a Persian prince at heart.

Mercy Now said...

Hey, I don't remember how I got to your blog but I did eventually by following one link to another, etc. Anyway, here's a story that you prob already know re an Afghan being put in prison and prob death.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0603210143mar21,1,938137.story?coll=chi-newsopinion-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true