Joshua 24:1-10 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is Joshua 24:1-10. Let’s go!
Joshua 24:1-10 (NIV)
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: ‘Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods.
3 But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac,
4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.
5 “‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out.
6 When I brought your fathers out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea.
7 But they cried to the LORD for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the desert for a long time.
8 “‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land.
9 When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you.
10 But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.
On verses 1-10: Here is Joshua’s final address to the entire nation of Israel. Here in these verses Joshua recounts the history of the nation of Israel, beginning with their forefathers Terah (v2), Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (v3-4), whose lives preceded Joshua’s time. Then Joshua recounts how Moses and Aaron led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt with incredible miracles such as parting the Red Sea (v5-7) and into the desert where the Israelites wandered for a long time (v7b). Joshua also recounts how God delivered the Israelites from formidable nations that had fought against them (v8-10). Notice that only Joshua and Caleb were alive for the events that Joshua describes in verses 5-10, for just as God had promised, Joshua and Caleb were the only two from their generation who got to step foot into the promised land because the rest of that generation did not trust the Lord.
What can we learn from this? If you want to know where you’re going, it helps to know where you came from. If you want an appreciation for what God is doing in your life, it helps to know what He did leading up to your part of the story. For God’s work in your life and the story God is writing with your life did not begin when you were born, but began long before you existed.
For example:
– Just like Abraham was the first in the Israelites’ family tree to worship the Lord (according to verse 2 his father Terah worshiped other gods), so it helps to know how the gospel first impacted your family. Are you the first Christian in your family? If not, who was? How did that person come to know Jesus as their Saviour? How was your family first impacted by the message that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose again?
– Just as Joshua recounts what kings Moses, Aaron and that previous generation of Israelites conquered and what miracles they experienced (v6-10), so it helps to know what challenges, obstacles, victories and miracles your family and the church in your city experienced before you came into the picture.
Knowing how God worked in the people who came before you will help you appreciate and understand your place in God’s story and the work He is doing in you now.
Heavenly Father, I recognize today that the story You are writing with my life did not begin with me. Rather it is a part of much bigger story You have been writing even before I was born and long after I am gone. I pray that I would have a good understanding of the struggles, obstacles, victories and miracles experienced by my relatives before me as well as the Christians in my city who came before me, so that I would better understand my place in Your story. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
