Joshua 24

(June 1, 2014)
Nostalgia is a powerful emotion, but it is one that is not always correct.  Joshua, in this chapter, points that out to his people.  They were returning to freedom and returning to the land that they had been promised.  It was important to look to the past, but it was likewise important to look to the right past.  If they focused on the deliverance of the Lord of His people, they would be blessed.  If, instead, they focused on the past for the past’s sake, they could easily be drawn into the same idolatry that beset Terah and others.

The key is not that the past has any value in and of itself.  The blessing of remembering the past is to learn the dealings of the Lord.  If we are nostalgic, it should be because we have been so very blessed and we remember those times.  This nostalgia should be tempered by a desire to see a return of those blessings in our lives.  The past is the past for a reason, and we should always focus on the things in the past with meaning (our dealings with the Lord) and continue those into the future.