May 10 & 11, 2025
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Joshua and Titus? Here’s today’s reading:
Joshua 24 (NIV)
The Covenant Renewed at Shechem
1 Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.
2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:……Continue Reading
Joshua shares his final instructions to Israel and starts by giving a brief history lesson showing where they have come from and what they have done and recognizing God’s work in the midst of it. Then God lays it out for them….if you are going serve me, then serve me. If you are going to follow the false gods of the past, present or future, then do that. But Joshua makes clear that he and his house will serve the Lord. May that also be true of all of us. Joshua practically doubts their sincerity, but they confirm it is God that they want. And we might believe their commitment is true, but we know their history too well. Joshua is then laid to rest and so one of the faithful ones is no longer present with them. It will be amazing how fast and how far they fall.
Joshua 23-24
Joshua 24
“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.””
Joshua 24:15 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/jos.24.15.NIV
We must all choose to follow Him daily in our walk with Him. Just like Joshua deciding to follow the Lord no matter what happens. As he says, “As for me and my house, We, will serve the Lord.” But it all starts with ourselves in our own walk with the Lord. We have something that Israel didn`t have. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling inside of us. So, take heart and fully surrender to the ONE who knows best. We all fail as humans, but He will never fail. Seek Him, Serve Him.
Joshua 24
I like how important is is to remember what God has done. To say it aloud and to even go as far as Joshua to set up a stone reminder. We can often forget all God has done and can do in times of trouble and taking time to recall the countless times He was there for us is a comfort and a help in times of doubt.
It is also important to see that there are no part time disciples. God wants us to serve Him and Him alone. We can not have one foot in Him and one in the world. We must make a choice to follow Him and then teach that to the next generations. As for me and my house we wil serve the Lord!
”“Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed.“
Joshua 24:14-17 NKJV
“If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord” really struck me. How do we define good and evil? Much of our perception of good and evil is from Judaism and Christianity. I think of Moses’ wife being disgusted with circumcision. (Exodus 4:25), even the perspective of animal sacrifice, Israel displacing nations, etc. I think sometimes there are logical and “moral” explanations for these practices, but in our flesh and probably American mentality some may perceive God’s ways “seem evil”. There is even some “new” doctrine that questions the atonement and God’s wrath upon His son, reasoning that it is evil for God to sacrifice His own son….and that He could just forgive without sacrificing his own son. Logical? But not Gods plan told to mankind clearly. I think of places in the Bible where the people complain that God is not fair. I don’t necessarily understand His ways completely, but that’s the point.
”Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.“
Isaiah 55:6-9 NKJV
Joshua 23-24