Will you be faithful? Are you going to follow God and seek His will for your life? Will you diligently seek Him now and twenty years from now? Are you making Him and doing what He says first priority? Do you love Him with everything in you? And your response is, “Obviously, yeah. Why is that even a question?” I am sure the majority of us would say, “yes.” But as these passages of scripture have held up a challenge to my heart, I hope you truly consider this thought. I hope upon consideration, your response is an even more resounding YES! For time, there will be a major lack of context, but hanging it on the fact that you know who Joshua and Moses are. So Moses is gone, Joshua is the leader of Israel and we jump in chapter 22. It begins with Joshua commending these tribes of Israel...
Joshua 22.1-5, “Then Joshua called the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, And said unto them, Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you: Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord your God.” So, Moses is gone, Joshua is now the leader of Israel, and the chapter begins as he is commending these tribes of Israel. You have done well, you have obeyed the Lord and followed in His commandments. Because of that, the Lord has blessed you. He has given you the land as was promised and has given you rest. “And now the Lord your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them: therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side Jordan.” He is sending them away, but doesn’t let them leave without a warning. “But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Joshua challenges them to continue in their obedience, especially in their relationship with the Lord, to love the Lord their God with all their being. In chapter 23, Joshua is now old. He calls for Israel and is giving his last words and instructions. Joshua 23.6-8 “Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left; That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them: But cleave unto the Lord your God, as ye have done unto this day.“ Joshua 23.11, “Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God.” Why would he repeat this over and over, challenging them and encouraging them to be diligent and mindful of their path of life? Because they had a track record. There was a pattern than continued to be repeated, and is still repeated to this day. “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord.” It feels like this somedays, “And the children of Lizzy did evil again...” WE have a track record, because we be sinners. We are sinful, prideful creatures who are bent toward our own way. Our go-to is not righteousness. Joshua challenges them because being faithful, genuinely serving Him, and being in love with Him doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a choice; a conscious decision we make on a daily, even moment-by-moment basis. In these verses, Joshua is pleading and challenging the people of Israel to make that decision and stick with it. To continue making that decision as they move forward, and even if/when they’re tempted to go their own way. The challenge applies to us as well. We must be diligent. The opposite of diligence would be lazy or casual; apathetic. These verses don’t give me the impression of apathy or flippancy but rather, diligence, carefulness, being purposeful and passionate. Perhaps the reason some think others act so extreme in the things of God is because they don’t take them seriously enough. Perhaps if the flippancy, excuses, and apathy stopped, we too would get excited. People are passionate creatures. Only, our passions are often misplaced. If we were half as excited about serving God, sharing the Gospel, and hearing from Him as other people are excited about... football, work, politics, or their pets, what would happen? I remember working at Chick-Fil-A in OKC and we had a couple coworkers who were extremely passionate about dogs. If you were outside taking orders and there was a dog in the car, after their name in the description, you’d type “DOG!”, and they’d be the first ones at the window. Their dog was a part of every conversation, it was totally normal for them to randomly ask, “Hey, you wanna see a picture of my dog?” If someone thought they were weird for how much they loved their dog, it didn’t bother them, they just kept on doing what they were doing. It was all over their social media, and every conversation. Everyone knew what their passions were. Reading your Bible is something you can crave. You can be excited about it. You can spend hours, not minutes, reading and want more. It can be very real and precious to YOU. The Lord can speak to YOUR heart... on a daily basis! He can comfort, encourage, convict, challenge, and exhort you through His word. It is His very words. Cleave unto Him. Prayer can be so incredibly meaningful and encouraging. You can watch God work publicly through petitions you’ve made privately. He can open doors and make ways clear when it was truly impossible by human standards. People can be saved, lives changes, hurts healed, circumstances changed, comfort and direction given, all through prayer. It can be exciting, not sleep inducing. As you cleave unto Him and listen to Him speak through His word, the natural response is a desire to talk to Him. Concern and burden for the lost can be greater than your concern for comfort and desires. Your sole desire can be that you may see others saved. Through that, every monetary thing and expectation you had for life can come to nothing... and that is far from disappointing. “The glory of God, and, as our only means of glorifying Him, the salvation of human souls, is the real business of life.” - C.S. Lewis. Our entire purpose in life is to bring honor and glory to Him and share the Good News with others. I think we lose sight to that and believe that our purpose is to have things. To be happy. To build a family and furnish a house, have enough money to live and give offerings to the church. We become so content with just living, enjoying life, making enough money, going to church – even serving Him to the socially accepted capacity; the expected standard; and then calling it good. When that is only our duty and we can do more! You can truly love people how you should. People won’t get on your nerves, at least as much. “My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.” -Prov. 3.1-4 Loving them how Christ loves them just makes your heart hurt FOR them. When we cleave to the Lord, we aren’t seeking acceptance from human relationships – the comparison and jealousy would be gone. The drama would cease to exist. How freeing is that?! What would happen if we truly cleaved unto the Lord. What would happen if we decided that HE was all we needed. What would happen if each one of us chose to give diligent heed to do His commands and follow His will to the fullest?
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January 2023
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