From Joshua 13:1-7

Joshua is the leader of Israel and under his time in this role they have started to conquer the Promised Land. It would be understandable if the Israelites had started to attribute some of that success, some of that victory to their human leader.  In these verses however, God gently reminds Joshua and Israel that He is the one behind their victories.  He promises that, despite Joshua’s advanced age, Israel would continue to overcome their enemies.  He promises that He Himself will drive these other people out.  In preparation for that He instructs the leadership to divide up the land for the remaining tribes of Israel.  This reminds me of a saying I had heard somewhere, prayer is asking for rain, faith is carrying an umbrella.  God was asking the Israelites to figuratively carry their umbrellas, to trust that He would finish the work He had started and bring them fully into the Promised Land.

Different people in our lives will take on leadership roles for our spiritual lives.  Pastors, friends, mentors, Bible study organizers, even members of leadership teams at church all have roles of leadership.  When those people transition out of those roles for different reasons, sometimes there is a temptation to worry about the future. But we follow the same God who continued to take care of Israel, even after Joshua’s death.  We have a God who promises to be with us always (Matthew 28:20) and regardless of the human leaders in our lives, He will be there and support us in the ways He knows we need.

Focus on God

We are reminded in these verses that God graciously leads and protects His people.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged to trust in God, regardless of the human leaders He puts into our lives.

Topics to Pray About                                                               

• Thank God for the faith leaders you have been impacted by.
• Confess to God the times where you put more stock than you should in human leaders.
• Ask God to surround you with people who lift up your faith.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious

From Joshua 12

Eventually, Israel asks for a king. Not in these verses, it doesn’t happen until much later in history, but eventually they get there.  When they do ask for a king, they want one so that they can be like all of the other nations.  This is disrespectful to God, who set them apart from the other nations, who set them apart to be different.  In these verses we read a record of all of the kings that Moses and Joshua overcame.  These two men were not kings, they were prophets.  They were simply passing along the things that God had for His people, and that worked out in their favor.  Israel wasn’t like other nations and God worked on their behalf to overcome peoples who followed mere men.

It is worth remembering that we follow the same God today.  That same God has set us apart, not as a separate political or national entity, but as His people.  When we come across difficulties and struggles in our lives, we don’t turn to human solutions to lead us, we turn to our loving heavenly Father.  We don’t turn to kings or political leaders or our jobs our ourselves, we turn to God.  He overcame all of those ancient kings for Israel, He overcame sin, death, and the devil on the cross, and He can overcome whatever struggle you are facing today.

Focus on God

We are reminded in these verses that God graciously leads and protects His people.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged to turn to God as our leader and guide.

Topics to Pray About                                                               

• Thank God for the protection and guidance He has given you in life.
• Confess to God the times where you turn to human solutions instead of to Him.
• Ask God to lead you to His will for your life.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious

From Joshua 10:29-43

When I was a seminary student, I took a course called “The Offensive Passages of Scripture,” where we studied parts of the Bible that, from a certain perspective, can paint God in a negative light.  The conquest of the Promised Land can fall into this category.  God has instructed His people to ruthlessly conquer the existing inhabitants of the Promised Land, instructed them to violently take land from other people.  In each of the cities we read about in these verses, Joshua leaves no one left standing and God is given the credit for his victories.  There is a perspective that would recoil at this.  That perspective would ask how a good God could allow or instruct His people to commit violence, would ask how a good God could allow for people to take land that wasn’t theirs.  And there is a perspective that would respond saying that God has the power so He can do whatever He wants.

Both of those perspectives need to shift to a better understanding of the entire situation.

First, we need to deal with the idea of God administering violence.  The core issue with the perspective described above is that the idea that those people don’t deserve to suffer or die.  It’s a complaint that comes up a lot when God is punishing different people.  We need to shift our perspective, because no one is righteous, not a single person. And the consequences of not being righteous are death.  Fundamentally, you, me, and every other person to ever live deserved nothing more than death.  When we shift our understanding to that the violence that God commands from the Israelites is less difficult to wrap our heads around, and everything else around us takes on a new light of grace and mercy.  Second is the perspective that God is having the Israelites take land that isn’t theirs.  Well, the land didn’t belong to the people before them either, or the people before them, etc.  The land, the material possessions, everything Israel “took” belonged to God before it was Israel’s, and continued to belong to God after Israel took it – God was just giving it to a different steward.

We get so caught up in viewing the world through our limited perspective, and sometimes we need to step back and remember that we don’t deserve nearly as much as we think we do, to remember that we are just recipients of God’s grace and stewards of His gifts.

Focus on God

We are reminded in these verses that God graciously shows grace and gives gifts to His creation.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged to humble ourselves and broaden our perspective.

Topics to Pray About                                                               

• Thank God for the gifts that He has given to you.
• Confess to God the times where you don’t think about His involvement in your daily life.
• Ask God to lead you to take care of His property well.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious

From Joshua 10:16-28

As Israel sweeps across the Promised Land, the kings of five cities hide away in a cave.  They don’t evade Israel’s attention and Joshua instructs the Israelites to close the kings in the cave until the fortified cities were conquered.  After the cities fall to Israel, Joshua returns to the cave and has the kings brought out.  He has the leaders of the Israelites put their feet on the necks of these five kings and proclaims a prophecy for the Israelites to “not be afraid or dismayed: be strong and courageous, for thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight.” The kings are then put to death and Israel moves forward in taking control of the Promised Land.

There are a wide variety of reactions these events can inspire in us today.  Maybe you read these verses and think to yourself “that seems kind of extreme,” or you read these verses and think to yourself “this sounds so mundane, so ordinary.” Comparing this conquest to the conquest of Jericho, where God just made the city walls collapse with a shout, mundane and ordinary seem like appropriate words.  It can remind us that God works like this very consistently.  Most of us reading this have seen God work in our lives through “mundane, ordinary” things more regularly than we see God work through incredible displays of power.  When we feel alone, when we feel like God isn’t actively working in our lives, it can be helpful to remember that He works through the ordinary and the mundane just as powerfully as He works through the extraordinary and the supernatural.  Sometimes we need the reminder to look around and see how He might be working through our community, through our vocations, and through our daily routines.

Focus on God

We are reminded in these verses that God graciously works through ordinary looking things too.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged to look around for God working in subtle ways.

Topics to Pray About                                                               

• Thank God for His ability to bless us in so many varied ways.
• Confess to God the times where you don’t look for Him in the ordinary parts of your life.
• Ask God to help you see His work.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious

From Joshua 10:1-15

Personally, I love seeing when God reaches out and blesses outsiders.  In the New Testament, I am relieved at the news that Jesus came for Jews and for Gentiles – because I am a Gentile.  In the Old Testament, I love seeing God care for people outside of Israel because it reminds me of how broadly the Gospel extended in the New Testament and in the world today.  In Joshua 9, the Gibeonites make a covenant with Israel.  Israel upholds this covenant, even though the Gibeonites used deceit to get them to agree to it, because it was made in the name of God.  As we read Joshua 10, the Gibeonites cried out for help as an alliance of other kings moved to attack them.  Israel lives up to the covenant agreement, going to defend Gibeon in battle.  At this point, I want to remind you that Israel did not consult God before making this covenant with Gibeon.  Nevertheless, God acts on behalf of Gideon by throwing the enemy into a panic and then raining down hailstones on them – so much so that “there were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.” (Joshua 10:11) On that day, God makes the sun stand still as He fought for Israel.

These events give us another window into the character of God.  Even though Israel made this alliance without consulting Him, He still acts to defend Gibeon. This tells us that God takes covenants made in His name seriously, that He acts for the sake of those who believe in Him – regardless of their background, and that He has absolute power over nature.  This is one of those events in Israel’s history that shows God’s care for all people, even though the Gibeonites were not His chosen people He still acted to protect them and allowed Israel into that conflict.  Today, regardless of our ancestry, we trust that Jesus’ sacrifice was for us.  We know that for anyone who confesses Jesus as Lord and believes that God raised Him from the dead, salvation is a guarantee.

Focus on God

We are reminded in these verses that God graciously cares for people who trust in Him.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged trust in God to act to protect us.

Topics to Pray About                                                               

• Thank God for His faithfulness.
• Confess to God the times where you don’t acknowledge His love for other people.
• Ask God to lead you to be an agent of His will in the world.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious