Joshua 22-23

May 31, 2014)
I don’t know that we recognize the importance of these chapters (particularly the last one).  There are any number of religious texts that exist, including a few from this time.  There are a number of quasi-secular texts as well.  But here we have a religious text that takes the unique position of prophesying the captivity of the people of Israel (and this was clearly written pre-exile), and provides the reason for the captivity.  It is a moral text – if you do not serve the Lord, you will be taken.  It is given at a time when the children of Israel were ascendant.  It remained part of the sacred writings when Israel ruled over and dominated the lands under the kingship of David.  If a secularist had read these chapters then, what issues they could have raised.  But, in the end, the Lord’s words are true and fulfilled.

So, too, it is with each of us.  We may be in a time in our lives when things are going well, or we may feel on top of the world.  We may think, at times like these, that we can rely on the arm of the flesh (after all, in our imaginations that is what brought us to this point).  But, in the end, we stand or we fall on the strength of our loyalty to our Lord.  He alone can save us, and without Him we will be destroyed.  If we ascend to heights during our mortal life without Him, it will only serve to give us a greater distance to fall from when the inevitable consequences of our unrighteousness occur.