Saturday, March 16, 2013

Choose You This Day Whom Ye Will Serve

Choose You This Day Whom Ye Will Serve Joshua 24:15

This section is on the account of Joshua pointing out the successes and blessings of God and encouraging the Israelites to continue to serve God so they can continue to reap the blessings.

These verses talk about the standing still of sun and the moon for the children of Israel to continue their fight against their enemies.  It’s curious that we know the sun is always still and it’s the earth that moves but he commanded the sun to be the one to stand still.  One explanation for this curiosity is possibly that as far as the Israelites knew the sun moved instead of the earth so it was stated according to their understanding of science even though we know that what was really happening was a halt in the rotation of the earth around the sun. 
 Reading: Chapter Summaries of Joshua 7-22 
List of Successes:
Ambush and conquer of Ai, altar built, Israel conquers (Ch. 8), a league with Gibeonites and makes the Gibeonites their servants (Ch.9), Amorites defeated with lots of the Lord’s help, other kings and cities destroyed (Ch.10),  Conquer entire land of many cities and nations (Ch. 11), Two kings east of Jordan and 31 on west side are conquered (Ch. 12),  Emphraim tribe drive out Canannites (Ch. 17)
List of Failures: 
Defeated by people of Ai, Achan and household destroyed (Ch. 7), incomplete expollation of people and possession of lands (Ch. 13), Some Canaanites are still among them in land (Ch. 16)

The address that Joshua gave to the children of Israel prior to his death was focused on recognizing the Lord’s blessings for them with a grateful heart, ready to serve him in return.  The list of successes for Israel ultimately shows that the hand of the Lord was helping them.  Joshua wanted to bring this to their attention to help them remember him and serve him only so they could continue to reap the blessings in store for them. 

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