9/10/12. Joshua 23_1-16. JOSHUA’S FAREWELL SPEECH-devotional

Joshua 23:1-16  Key Verse: 23:8

Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF Monday, September 10, 2012

“ But you are to hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now.”
Dear Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for all of your abundant graces on our lives. Thank you for helping me to overcome many trials that I have been going through as of late. Help me to be able to minister to my family and to others you have brought near to me. Enable me to transmit the Gospel to others in novel ways. I pray that you may help Jenn to fair well at McGill and grow spiritually there. Protect her in every way and may she grow to be your servant. Bless the Chicago UBF pastor’s Bible study and prayer meeting today. I thank you and I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen! Please grant me one word of God to hold onto today. I thank you and I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Part 1: The Lord your God who fought for you (1-11).

Verses 1-11 read, “After a long time had passed and the LORD had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then a very old man, 2 summoned all Israel—their elders, leaders, judges and officials—and said to them: “I am very old. 3 You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the LORD your God who fought for you. 4 Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain—the nations I conquered—between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 5 The LORD your God himself will push them out for your sake. He will drive them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the LORD your God promised you. 6 “Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left .7 Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. 8 But you are to hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now. 9 “The LORD has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you. 10 One of you routs a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised. 11 So be very careful to love the LORD your God.”
Joshua called all the Israelite leaders to hear his final words. He knew the nation’s weak points and gave them commands to help them where they were the most likely to fall away. He begins with reminding them of the obvious grace of God. God had delivered his people and they must never forget it. He planted faith in God’s continued presence in their lives. He challenged the people to make a conscious choice to be strong and courageous and always serve God. When they hold fast to the Lord, loving him, continued victory is promised.

I like Joshua a lot. Though he was an old man he still had a commanding presence. He was still about to gather the people together and declare powerful truths of God to them. He was not fading away into irrelevance. He was not withdrawing into himself. He was not disengaging an irrelevant existence. He was engaged. He was shepherding others. He was a national leader.

I pray that I can be a shepherd of others as I get older. I pray that I may be able to gather people together to declare to them the grace of God in their lives. There are forces at work in my heart that want me to just withdraw and be quiet and simply entrust everyone around me to the Lord and not even open my mouth about spiritual things. But I need to look to Joshua’s example and be a spiritual leader for the people and my family until the end of my life. I repent for shutting down and shutting up. I pray that God may grant me the words to say to the people around me, especially to my family.
I thank God for our UBF missionaries. They are serving God. Many of the senior missionaries are in their 60’s and now even in their 70’s some are even in their 80’s. But they are still living as shepherds of God’s flock. Some have even gone out as silver missionaries, permanently serving the Lord in foreign lands. They are neither shutting up nor shutting down. They are preaching the life saving Gospel to the new generation. May God grant me a heart like theirs.

I also need to remind people of the grace of God and the present grace being poured out on people. I need to veer away from negativity. I need to not dwell on the negative but on the positive. Lord, help me to be a man of abundant grace and blessings and wisdom.

Part 2: A dire warning (12-16).

Verses 12-16, “But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, 13 then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you. 14 “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. 15 But just as all the good things the LORD your God has promised you have come to you, so he will bring on you all the evil things he has threatened, until the LORD your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you. 16 If you violate the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the LORD’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.”

Joshua pleaded with his people to be holy and not to succumb to the pagan nations’ allure or the worship of their gods. They were not to intermarry with them. If they gave in, they would suffer a lot and perish from the land. Joshua knew the importance of our associations and relationships in the world. Like Joshua, we must concede that we have weaknesses and hold fast to the Lord Jesus. Then we can overcome temptations.

I can see here that turning back to the world is very serious. Turning to the world can bring disaster upon disaster. I thank God for helping me thus far to live in Jesus. There are times when my heart drifts away from devotion to the Lord. That is when I begin to have sorrow and depression and anger and my relationships with those close to me become troubled. I loose hope for myself and those close to me. I know that if I stubbornly reject the Gospel, then all my relationships would be strained and crumble around me. I would loose many things in this life. I need the Lord. There are many weak points in me. But I need Jesus to be my Savior and to help keep me on an “even keel” as I pass through this world on my way to eternal life in the kingdom of God. I pray for my kids that they may love Jesus and the gospel more than the things in this world. They may not be allured by the idols of this land. May they hold fast to Jesus and taste spiritual victory in their lives.

Prayer: Lord, you know my weak points. Show me my need for a savior and your word. Help me to hold fast to Jesus, walking in your strength.

One Word: Hold fast to the Lord