Day 16 Joshua 1-14

Reading today was so refreshing. We finally got to more of a narrative, although reading (actually skimming) through the Law was interesting, it is a lot easier to read when it is more of a story...at least for me! The book of Joshua has always been very interesting to me. We get to see Israel, a nation that 40 years before, was completely in captivity, just completely destroying any country that got in it's way...that's some pretty cool stuff. But we also get to see the walls of a very fortified city just crumbling away and on another occasion the sun completely standing still for an entire day.

Some of the major events that I wanted to point out about this reading is we see some things repeated that we saw at the beginning of the Exodus story. First, we have the Jordan river crossing on dry ground just as we had the Red Sea crossing. And the Jordan was not just a tiny little stream either. It was at flood stage meaning it was a massive river at the time

We also see Joshua being told to take off his sandals because he was on holy ground just as we saw with Moses and the burning bush. We also see Israel forgetting to follow God on a number of occasions and we see them suffer the consequences of that.

There are two things, however, during the first two chapters that I feel are the most important things to point out. In chapter 1 verses 6-9, we see God's promise and encouragement to Joshua. A number of times, He tells Joshua to "be strong and courageous". I wonder how many times He has tried to tell me that and I didn't listen...my guess is that it has happened a lot.

The other thing I want to point out is how time and time again God uses people of "insignificance" to do His most important work. We had Moses in Exodus saying that he wasn't the right man for the job and later on we will see many other examples of that as well. But in this story, it is Rahab the prostitute that is used to hide the spies in chapter 2. You see, all God needs is someone that is willing to listen to Him and He can and will do the rest.

This thought came to mind while I was reading the text for today and writing this blog so I will end it with this. God often uses people of "insignificance" to do the most significant parts of His plan. Don't let your "insignificance" in society make you think God can't use you! Just be willing to let Him work through you and He'll do the rest!