Today, I am reading and commenting on  Joshua 8-9.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about today, then I was re-reading the account of the altar which Joshua had built on Mount Ebal after the defeat of Ai.  I saw that it said that all of the Israelites were standing on both sides of the Ark of the Covenant, half in front of Mount Ebal and the other half in front of Mount Gerizim.  What struck me was that it said that “Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born were there.”  This is yet another reference to foreigners who had joined with the Israelites.  It shows how the Israelites welcomed outsiders to join them in worshiping God, giving them the opportunity to join God’s people.  Which brings us to the account of the treaty the Israelites made with the Gibeonites.  The foreigners living among the Israelites were, for the most part, small groups of people (individuals, families, and clans) who recognized that God was with the Israelites and chose to join them in worshiping God.  In many ways, the Gibeonites were like those who had previously joined with the Israelites: they saw how God had blessed the Israelites and defeated their enemies and they wished to join with the Israelites.  Here’s the thing, we should trust in God and serve Him in such a manner that people wish to join up with us in order to part of His people.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.