Devotionary

God is good. And while we might not always recognize or appreciate the extent of His goodness, it does not diminish the fact that God is good – all the time. And in Joshua 16:1-17:2, we are going to see God’s goodness displayed in the fulfillment of His covenant promise to bless the sons of Joseph. Throughout the story of the nation of Israel, the hand of God can be clearly seen moving behind the scenes, orchestrating events in such a way that His best is always accomplished, even in spite of the less-than-stellar behavior of those He has called as His own. The goodness of God is never diminished, even by the godlessness of His own people. Yes, He disciplines and punishes them for their sin and rebellion, but He never fails to do them good. Even His discipline is meant to bring about good outcomes. Sometimes God allows famine in order to bring feasting – at just the right time. Sometimes He allows suffering so that He might bring comfort. Because God is good.

It was Jesus who promised, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” But His offer of abundant life can easily be missed if we fail to live in submission to His will and in dependence upon the Holy Spirit’s power. The blessings of God can become illusive and seemingly absent when we fail to rely upon Him for all our needs. And in Joshua 15:20-63, we are going to see that the tribe of Judah, like all the other tribes of Israel, seemed to have a difficult time resting in and relying upon the power of God to accomplish His will. They were to possess the land allotted to them, but to do so, they were required to dispossess the pagan nations that were currently occupying the cities and villages in the land. And yet, the text will tell us that Judah was powerless to possess the land. Which begs the question: Why? Was the enemy too strong or God too weak? What was the cause behind their failure to possess the land completely? Had God asked to much of them? Or were they expecting too little of God?

One of the greatest lessons found in the book of Joshua is the gift of the land to the people of Israel. The land was the result of a promise made by God hundreds of years earlier to their distant ancestor, Abraham. God gave them the land as a gift, undeserved and with the only caveat that they fight to possess the land and obey His commands concerning its use. It was theirs. And they weren’t just inheriting undeveloped property that was going to require extensive renovations. They were being given entire cities and villages, farms and orchards, along with rich pasture land and beautiful forests full of timber. It was a land flowing with milk and honey, cultivated and fully capable of meeting all their needs. And in Joshua 15:1-19, as Joshua begins the dividing up of the land between the various tribes, we will see that the land was intended to hold great value to the people of Israel, but it was never meant to have replace God in their hearts. God was not giving them the land as something to worship, but as

Every now and then in the book of Joshua, we get introduced to a character whose life illustrates the kind of faith God is looking for in His people. They may seem few and far between, but they’re there. And in Joshua 14:1-15, we meet Caleb. As Joshua and the Israelites prepare to divide up the land of Canaan, Caleb approaches Joshua about a promise made to him by Moses more than 40 years earlier. Caleb, along with Joshua, had been one of the original 12 men who had been sent by Moses to spy out the land of Canaan. He and Joshua had been the only two who had returned from their mission and believed the land was not only abundantly fruitful, but conquerable. The other spies painted a bleak picture, describing the land as being filled with giants who were too strong for the Israelites to defeat. Rather than listen to Caleb and Joshua and trust God, the crowd had listened to the naysayers and refused to enter. But because of his faith in God, Caleb was promised his share in the inheritance.  

One of the realities of God’s unique relationship with mankind is that He sometimes give us exactly what we want. While He is the sovereign God of the universe and totally in control of any and all things, He occasionally allows sinful men to have what their hearts desire. And we see this truth played out in Joshua 13:14-33, when God provides the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh the land they requested on the east side of the Jordan River. They had fallen in love with this land the first time they had set eyes on it. It was rich pasture land, perfect for their many flocks and herds. So, rather than wait to receive their allotment of land on the western side of the Jordan, these three tribes set their sights on what was already readily available. And the tribe of Levi, which had been chosen by God to serve Him in the tabernacle, received no land, but were blessed by God with cities spread throughout the land of promise and the assurance that God would meet all their needs as a form of payment for service ren

There is really no such thing as partial obedience. Failure to obey completely is really nothing more than disobedience in disguise. It is a willful decision to do something other than what you were told to do or had agreed to do. It’s a form of compromise that tends to benefit the one making the compromise, not the one who made the initial command. And in Joshua 13:1-13, we are given an up-close and personal glimpse of what partial obedience looks like in the lives of the people of God. They weren’t completely ignoring or disobeying God’s command. But they certainly weren’t doing what He had told them to do. They had made some concessions, what they thought to be were logical alterations to God’s original command, that would make their job a lot easier. But they were about to discover that playing fast-and-loose with God’s word rarely turns out well. Partial obedience tends to bring God’s full judgment. Compromises and concessions sound good for the moment, but always have long-term consequences.

If you had asked Joshua what he thought about God, it is likely that his answer would have been full of superlatives and adjectives defining God as great, good, powerful, reliable, holy, righteous, faithful and gracious. But if you were to ask God how to describe Himself, He would use the four simple words, “I am the Lord,” He is God. He is the Creator-God, the maker of all things and the one who holds all the things he has made, together. In Joshua 12:1-24, we have what appears to be a list of Israelite conquests. It’s one of those passages we find temptingly easy to pass over when we come to it. There seems to be little value in all the names and places mentioned. What benefit do we have to glean from this ancient historical record? But it’s essential that we see this as far more than a history lesson. It’s a recitation of the accomplishments of God on behalf of the people who bear His name.

You would think that the title of this episode: Rest from War, would mean that the Israelites have finally conquered the land of Canaan and dispossessed all their enemies. But in Joshua 11:10-23, it doesn’t take long to see that the battle was far from over. There was rest, but only in the sense that God had given them a physical and moral victory over their enemies. They had conquered and captured a great many of the Canaanite cities, but they were far from finished with their job. The reputation of the Israelites had spread and their enemies lived in fear of them. They saw the Israelite God as a force with which to be reckoned. And there was a sense in which the Canaanites who still occupied the land were as good as defeated, because they knew they were no match for the Israelites and their God. The major battles were over, but there was still work that needed to be done in order to ensure that the land, in its entirety, became of the sole possession of God’s chosen people.

Every army that has ever existed has dreamed of having a secret weapon – some kind of unknown and previously unavailable source of power over their enemies. In World War I, the airplane proved to be a new weapon in the arsenal of both sides in the conflict. In World War II, Hitler believed he had the war won because of the development of another aviation innovation: The jet fighter. But in Joshua 11:1-19, we are going to see Joshua and his forces outnumbered and outmanned by superior enemy armies. They are going to lack the kind of sophisticated weaponry fielded by the opposite side. But Joshua was learning to recognize that their greatest source of strength and power was not going to come in the form of chariots or the latest, state-of-the-art weapons systems. It was going to come from God Himself. He was their secret weapon – a power so great that no army in existence could stand before Him. He was learning the truth behind the statement penned centuries later by the apostle Paul: If God is for us, who can

God hadn’t just pointed out the land of Canaan and told Joshua and the people of Israel to do their best. He had not led them to the land only to leave the conquering of the land up to them. He gave it to them. And that included His fighting on behalf of them. From the defeat of the kings of Og and Sihon on the eastern side of the Jordan River to the fall of Jericho, God had been leading the way and providing the means by which the people of Israel were able to take over a land from countless people groups that were more abundant and more powerful. Heavily fortified cities fell before them. Well-armed armies fled in terror from them. But it was all God’s doing. He was the one who, behind the scenes, was orchestrating every single victory that the Israelites enjoyed. God was giving His chosen people a decisive advantage over their enemies because He had plans for them. He was making them a light in the darkness, a an example of His abiding presence and almighty power among the nations who worshiped false gods

One of the most difficult things for believers in Jesus Christ to do is to see life through God’s eyes. We believe in Jesus. We say we trust in God. But when life gets tough or things don’t go quite the way we expect them to, we can easily begin to doubt God’s goodness and even question whether He is really there at all. In reading through the book of Joshua, we are getting a steady dose of violent interactions between the people of Israel and the inhabitants of the land. Destruction and devastation seem to go hand-in-hand with their conquering of the land. In fact, God had given them specific instructions to destroy any and all inhabitants living within the land. And in Joshua 10:16-28, as part of Joshua’s clean-up operation after his defeat of the five-nation confederation, he orders the brutal execution of the five kings who joined forces against the Gibeonites. And it would be easy to see all this brutality as unnecessary and even ungodly. Unless we see it through God’s eyes.

We’ve seen Joshua make an unwise decision. Now we get to see the consequences that came as a result. In Joshua 10:1-15, the Gibeonites, who deceived Joshua into making an alliance with them, find that they are surrounded by a five-nation confederation, bent on their destruction. And, taking full advantage of his newly signed treaty with Israel, the king of the Gibeonites calls on Joshua, demanding that he honor their agreement and come to his aid. Now Joshua finds himself having to defend the very people he should have defeated. He ends up as an ally to a nation that God had deemed their enemy. But having sworn to keep his treaty with the Gibeonites by the name of God, Joshua had no other choice but to come to their aid. And God, bent on honoring His name, came to Joshua’s aid. He gave the people of Israel a great victory and even proved His power through an unmistakable miracle.

They say one bad decision leads to another. And most of us have learned the painful reality of that statement. Our mistakes have consequences. And when our mistakes are the result of sin, the consequences can be painful. In Joshua 9:16-27, Joshua’s decision to make an alliance with the people of Gibeon was going to lead to yet another, even more dangerous decision, that would have long-term ramifications on the nation of Israel. Joshua had failed to seek the counsel of God and it seems that he continued to make that same mistake in the days that followed. In an attempt to clean up his mess, he only made matters worse. Since he couldn’t destroy the Gibeonites, he chose to make them slaves, but assigned them to the tabernacle. He took a pagan and idolatrous people, who had knowingly deceived him, and gave them jobs that would place them in close proximity to the house of God. Everything about his decision was wrong, but when you fail to seek the counsel of God, things rarely turn out well.

Whether we want to admit it or not, those of us who claim to be children of God can often live as if we don’t really believe in God. We can acknowledge His existence and express faith in His love for us, but then, turn around and make decisions without His input. We can go through out day without giving Him a second thought. And in Joshua 9:1-5, we are going to see the Israelites do just that. Even after having built an altar to Him at Mount Ebal and having recommitted themselves to keeping His law, Joshua and the people of Israel will end up making an alliance with the Gibeonites. Sure, they were tricked into doing it. But the text makes it very clear that Joshua neglected to seek God’s advice. He made a decision without divine assistance ­– never a wise move for the child of God. And not only would Joshua’s ill-advised decision obligate the people of Israel, we will see that it obligated God, because it was made in His name. For the child of God, leaving Him out of the daily affairs of life is never a good

After two major victories over the cities of Jericho and Ai, Joshua led the people of Israel to Mount Ebal and a place called Shechem, where they built an altar to God and offered sacrifices. This pause in the military action had been decreed by Moses years earlier and Joshua was simply doing what he and the people had been told to do when they finally entered the land. In Joshua 8:30-35 we are given a much-needed reminder that the people of Israel were to worship and revere God for all that He had done. He had set them free from slavery in Egypt. He had led them through the wilderness and into the promised land. And now, He had given them victory over their enemies. His provision for them deserved their worship of Him. So, an altar was built and the law of Moses was written on its stones – a permanent reminder of God’s requirement of holy behavior on the part of His people. The law was a non-negotiable part of their relationship with God. And, now that they were in the land, it was going to be important that

Sometimes we read passages of Scripture and, in our hurry, we blow right past important details that seem of little importance to us. We ignore the cities with difficult-to-pronounce names and the people who seem little more than obscure characters in the storyline. And when we do, we miss the rich detail that God has provided in His Word. In Joshua 8:3-29, the people of Israel are going to get a second chance to do battle with the people of Ai. And while that fact is important, what’s even more important is that this city holds important significance for the nation of Israel. It’s not just another city among many that the Israelites have to conquer and possess. And there is another city mentioned in this passage that carries special significance as well: The city of Bethel. As we are going to see, these two cities and their history are critical to understanding all that is going on in this passage. So, rather than hurry through the story and rush to the details of the battle itself, let’s take time to see wh

Waiting can be difficult. Even having to wait on God can prove to be a challenge for most of us. And Achan, had he lived, would have learned the invaluable lesson that waiting on God can be rewarding. When he and his fellow Israelites had surprisingly and easily defeated the city of Jericho, he had helped himself to some of the spoil, in direct violation of God’s command. But his sin was exposed by God when the Israelites were routed by the much-smaller army of Ai. Achan and his entire family were put to death for his sin and with payment made for his transgression, God told the Israelites that He was going to give them victory over the city of Ai. Not only that, He was going to give them the spoil of the city. Had Achan only waited, he would have had all the spoil he could carry, and he wouldn’t have had to hide it in a hole dug in his tent. In Joshua 8:1-2, we get a glimpse of what happens when we are willing to wait and do things God’s way. He rewards us. Perhaps Achan thought the ban on spoil was a perman

Something had gone terribly wrong. The people of Israel had been routed by the much small army of Ai, and 36 of their men had died in the process. And to make matters worse, Joshua and the leadership of Israel placed the blame for their loss on God, assuming that He had somehow abandoned them. But in Joshua 7:10-26, we are going to see that the problem was theirs, not God’s. The fault was theirs. Someone had violated the command of God and taken plunder from the city of Jericho that was supposed to have been dedicated to God and placed in His treasury. One man sinned and the entire nation suffered. A single individual got greedy and the whole community was punished for his transgression. And while we may choose to label the response on God’s part as unfair and a bit over-reactive, Joshua and the people were going to learn an invaluable lesson about the danger of sin and the holiness of God. One man’s decision to disobey God had devastating consequences on the family of God. Sin is contagious and infects the c

How do you follow up a decisive victory over the enemy, made possible by the sovereign, all-powerful help of God? You go right back to war, choosing yet another enemy of God to conquer. And that’s exactly what the people of Israel did after their defeat of the city of Jericho. Fresh off their unexpected and inexplicable victory, the Israelites were ready to capitalize on their success and take on the next closest city they could find. That proved to be Ai. While this was a much smaller city with far-less-advanced fortifications, the Israelites found their confidence shattered when their forces were easily routed by Ai’s much-smaller army. That led to the blame game. Something had gone terribly wrong. And rather than look inwardly, searching for a possible reason for their unexpected defeat, Joshua blamed God. They lost the battle and Joshua lost faith. He questioned God’s integrity and began to fear for their future. In his mind, God had abandoned them. But he was going to learn that it was not God who had br

There are many who struggle with the God who is portrayed in the Old Testament. Some even suggest that it is a different God altogether, because He appears to be vengeful and violent, prone to fits of anger and quick to mete out harsh judgment in the form of what appears to be indiscriminate acts of genocide. And in Joshua 6, 15-27, we have recorded the story of the Israel’s defeat of the city of Jericho where God ordered His people to dedicate to destruction everyone and everything in the city. The text tells us that Israel obeyed the command of God, devoting all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old. No one was left alive except Rahab and those in her family who sought refuge in her home. This story is tough to read and even more difficult to understand. One can’t help but wonder why God was so harsh in His treatment of the people of Jericho. Why did the women and children have to be slaughtered along with the soldiers? What was their crime? How were they a threat to the people of Is