1:6 “Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. 8Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. 9 This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
What about us? Do we meditate on the "Book of Instruction" continually? Morning and night? God tells us that only then we will prosper and succeed in all we do.
In chapters 7 & 8 we see how the sin of one person affects more than just themselves. The Israelites were told to go and capture Jericho and take nothing for themselves. But one man, named Achan, not only stole some of the goods, but lied about it. So when the Israelites went to attack the next town, 36 of their men were killed because of the sin of Achan. God revealed to Joshua who had done this, and when confronted Achan admitted what he had done. He saw some things he wanted and then he said "I wanted them so much that I took them." That is what sin is - selfishness - wanting things for ourselves at the cost of disobeying God. And we see that because of his sin 36 innocent people died. God takes obedience seriously. He has given us His word to guide us. Again, we all have a choice as to whether we will obey or not.
In this stage of the bible and in the early church (pre-100s) God sets some prettty high consequences for sin. He made some major examples for us to follow. we put God in a box. We forget his great healing and power, and we skip over his divine wrath. We have made him a genie who is impersonal, uncaring, and unemotional.
ReplyDelete