Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – Joshua 24:11-28
Set – Joshua 24; Psalms 44
Go! – Joshua 23-24; Psalms 44; 1 Corinthians 11
Joshua 24:11-28
11 When you crossed over the Jordan into the land of Canaan and came to Jericho, the leaders of Jericho fought against you. So did the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But I gave them all into your power.12 I sent hornets ahead of you to run off the two kings of the Amorites; it was not done by your bow or sword. 13 I delivered to you fields you had not worked and towns you had not built, yet today you live in them. You eat the fruit of olive trees and of grape vineyards you did not even have to plant.”
14 So remember: fear the Eternal and serve Him sincerely and faithfully. Put away from you any gods your ancestors served across the Euphrates River or in Egypt, and serve only Him. 15 If you decide that you’re not willing to serve Him, then today is the day for you to choose whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors bowed to in the land beyond the great River, or the gods of the Amorites whose country you possess. But as for me and my family, we will serve the Eternal.
People of Israel (responding): 16 Nothing could be further from our minds than abandoning the Eternal to serve other gods. 17 We know that the Eternal One our God rescued us and our ancestors from slavery in the land of Egypt. We remember that He performed all those great signs in front of us. He protected us from the people we passed as we traveled. 18 And we know that He removed the Amorites and all the peoples who lived in Canaan. We, too, will serve the Eternal One, for He is our True God.
Joshua (warning them): 19 If you think you will be able to serve the Eternal, you are wrong. He is a holy God and a jealous God; He will not tolerate your shortcomings and your sins. 20 If you desert Him and worship these foreign gods, He will fall upon you and totally consume you, even though He has done all this great good for you.
People of Israel: 21 All the same, we choose to serve the Eternal.
Joshua: 22 All right, then. You are witnesses—against yourselves, if it comes to that—that you have made this choice to serve the Eternal.
Israel: We are witnesses to it.
Joshua (repeating): 23 Then you must put all other gods away from you and turn your hearts to the Eternal God of Israel.
Israel: 24 We will serve the Eternal One, our God, and we will obey His voice.
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day at Shechem and gave them statutes and ordinances to obey. 26 Joshua wrote the words in the scroll of the law, and he had a large stone set up underneath the oak tree near the Eternal’s holy place.
Joshua (to all the people): 27 This stone will also be a witness to your vow. It has heard all the words the Eternal spoke to us, so it will be a witness if you turn your backs on your True God.
28 So he sent the people away, back to the lands He had given them.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
Everyone must make a choice about whether they will follow Me. Joshua made the choice early in his life while assisting Moses in the Exodus of Israel from the bonds of slavery in Egypt. Then as Joshua neared the end of his life, he called on the rest of the Israelites to make a choice for themselves. They did. But they didn’t keep their covenant with Me.
Joshua tried everything he could to remind the people of their promise to follow Me. He wrote the covenant on a scroll. He had a memorial stone erected under an oak tree near the tabernacle where they worshipped Me. He called all the elders together and had them and all the people personally vow their allegiance to Me.
Joshua gave all of them the consequences that would follow if they failed to keep their vow and the rewards they would gain if they kept it. Still, over time they forgot what they pledged and fell away from Me and began to worship the pagan gods of the nations I defeated for them. It’s truly a wonder to Me as to why they would trust the idols of the lands I defeated instead of trusting Me after I clearly showed My power over them. But they did.
You must make a choice also. And just as with the Israelites, you will find yourselves bombarded by a host of other gods that try to sway you from worshipping Me. Today’s gods don’t appear as idols of wood, stone, or silver, though. Today, Satan has become more subtle in his attempts to gain humankind’s attention. The most sought after god of the world today finds itself in the form of money and material goods.
Men, women, and young people around the world seek material goods and socio-economic status as their prime objective rather than pleasing Me. They chase the dollar and the things they think will earn them more. They worship money instead of Me. People give themselves to the pursuit of making more regardless of what it takes to do so. They sacrifice almost anything to accumulate more things that won’t last and in so doing, give up what is really important.
Families become secondary. Spiritual growth becomes unimportant. Support to others becomes a waste of hoarded resources in their eyes. Relationships are built only for what they can provide rather than for the joy of the relationship. The world turned My creation upside down for so long that what I ask of you seems topsy-turvy. But trust Me. Following My way leads to real life. Real joy. Real peace. Real riches. Just try it.
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