Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 23-24.

I love this passage.  In particular, I love where Joshua challenges the Israelites to choose whether or not to follow God, or some other gods.  He told them that they had to choose who they would worship and serve.  And the way Joshua finishes his call to them to choose is inspiring, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  It inspired the people of Israel to join with him in choosing to serve God, at least for that moment in time.  But before Joshua addresses the assembly of the Israelites, he had a meeting with the leaders of Israel.  He reminded them of what God had done for them in giving them control over the land.  He pointed to their successes and told them that those success all came because they served God.  He told them that all of the good things they had experienced and accomplished came from God.  Then he said, “So be very careful to love the Lord your God.”  And that is the phrase from today’s passage which really struck me today.  We live the good life because God has blessed us.  If we continue to love God, He will continue to bless us, but if we allow the people around us, who worship other gods, to distract us, God will remove His blessings from us.  If we ally with those who serve other gods, our devotion to God will be diminished and we will lose our focus on Him.  We must not allow that to happen.

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