Joshua 23:1-24:33

I've gotten behind on my posting.  While I've found it difficult to sleep the past few days, I've found it very difficult to concentrate when doing my reading.  I would read a paragraph over and over and over and still be unsure of what I'd read.  Of course, this is the most famous passage of Joshua, and many homes sport that well known command: "Choose this day, whom you shall serve; as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord."  Paraphrased, a bit.  The thing that really struck me this time around, was not that particular passage, but the warnings Joshua gave the people again and again about intermarrying with the local tribes and being careful to be faithful to the Lord, even calling them to be witnesses against themselves should they turn away from following the Lord.  Israel already had a history and a proven tendency to go astray.  Joshua erected a monument beneath the terebinth in order to remind them of their promise to follow God.

I don't know if it is discouraging that Israel is warned over and over again to be faithful, and yet they prove faithless, or if it could be encouraging.  Discouraging, that even a people who have a unique and intimate relationship with the one true God, who are given prophets and Scriptures to keep them steady, can't seem to hold it together.  Encouraging, that despite all of these things, and the fact that they can't hold it together even with all the help, God still loves them and provides for them, remains faithful to them.  I definitely don't hold it all together; not even some of the time.  I mess up.  Horribly.  There are many times I am convinced I am the worst of women.  But still God loves me.  And He's faithful to me.  It's encouraging to remember 1 John 1:9, that if I'm faithful to confess my sin, I will be forgiven.  Just like Israel.

Next Reading: Judges 1:1-36