Reading Joshua

Wikimedia

Commonly, the focus when discussing Joshua is to look at the principles of a "Just War". The topic remains a huge discussion point amongst Christian circles, and a huge apologetical issue. It is extremely hard for many to understand why the Israelites would completely wipe out entire nations in this book under the premise of a "holy war" when the Bible does state that we are to turn our cheek. Ultimately, there is answers for such questions, but I will be addressing this "Just War" one in a later post.

For this book review, I want to focus on the person of Joshua. To me, he remains one of the best Old Testament biblical men to model your life after, due to multiple reasons.

First, Joshua had the perfect start to his career in leadership. He found someone who had immense knowledge, a wealth of opportunities, and a strong relationship with God. Moses was the perfect mentor for Joshua. Much of his success comes from the fact that he spent so much time learning and developing under Moses, and then modelling himself after that figure.

After that, Joshua remained wholly committed to his task. He knew what God had called him to do, and he never wavered from that purpose. Everything he did was to achieve his task of settling the Israelites in the Promised Land. His whole life was dedicated to that purpose, and Joshua threw himself passionately into that work throughout the book. There's a huge lesson there that we need to apply to our own lives.

Joshua was also a commanding leader. The people respected him, and followed him whole heartedly wherever he went. They listened to what he said, and obeyed immediately. That kind of leadership doesn't just happen.

In Joshua's case, I'm going to bet the people saw God's hand in his life, just as it had been in Moses', and because of that, they were willing to crown him their leader. When success dominates your life, people are willing to follow you until failure creeps in. However, when you deal successfully with failure, you will never lose your following. They will respect you and hold you in high regard, doing whatever you ask of them. Joshua possessed that character, mainly because he remained wholly focussed on God.

While commonly Joshua is idolized because of his warrior escapades, a trait that is coveted by men of every age, I think we should start respecting him because of his character instead. While there is no question that he was a warrior by nature, he was also a leader, and a servant of God. Everything he did was to glorify God. Men of every age need to start coveting that trait instead.

Reading Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy is perhaps my second favourite book of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, behind only Genesis. I love that the book is basically a synopsis of the Israelites' journey thus far, from the man (Moses) who was unquestionably the greatest leader during that time. It's a firsthand account of perhaps the greatest moments of history for Christianity.

Putting aside that uniqueness of the book, I noticed another major theme that prevailed for the entirety of Deuteronomy. Much like the other law books, with all the rules and numbers, there seems to be a special perspective on much of the same content as the other 4 books.

Over and over again, throughout Moses' recap, he offers two promises. They both are structured so that they contradict or contrast each other.

The first is if the Israelites obey God's commandments, He will bless them beyond belief. They will enjoy a time of peace, freedom, happiness, joy, and fulfillment. God will be with them always, and everyone will know that the Israelites are God's people. Basically, life would be great for the people, if only they would obey God's commandments.

The second promise regards the results if the Israelites disobey God's commandments. Not only will God strip away all His blessings, but He will take further action and punishment. He will make sure that the Israelites do not rest at all, are constantly concerned for their safety, are slaves, are unhappy, discontent, afraid, and despairing. Basically, the opposite of the blessings of God. He will be distant from them, and the Israelites will no longer be God's people.

This is continually repeated by Moses, chapter after chapter. Not only does it show how much God cares about His people that He is giving them due warning, but also how much Moses cares about what God is attempting to do. Even though Moses' lifetime has been filled with frustration over the disobedience of the Israelites, he is still working with God to try and help the future generations to avoid those past mistakes. He is making sure that they fully understand God's two promises, the two opposite ends of life.

Even though this was presented in the Old Testament, I think it can still apply to our lives today. Obviously, we can see very clearly throughout the Old Testament that God was not kidding with these promises. Continually the Israelites went through a cycle where they would obey God, and everything would be great, and then they would turn to a different God and times of great pain would ensue. Ultimately, this promise served the greater purpose for the Old Testament people, but in a way, it still stands today. While not as direct, the results of our choices produce similar results to what Moses warned in Deuteronomy.

If we obey God, we live in a better way. While we may still experience trial and pain, we are closer to God, and therefore experience greater happiness and joy in heavenly things. We see life in a different way, and therefore live our lives in a different way. However, if we disobey God, it is only a matter of time before our choices drag us down. While some may say that without God they are doing just fine, they are covering that sense of something else that is dominating their lives. Really, they are ignoring the search for God, that is trying to grip their souls. Pain will be greater, hopelessness will overcome the life, and all happiness will be gone.

God has done His part in warning us, we need to do ours in obeying His commandments. Really, these warnings are for our benefit, and not His.