Joshua's Charge to Israel's Leaders

  

Joshua 23:1-13

 

Joshua's Charge to Israel's Leaders

A long time afterward, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years,  Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders, and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years.   And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you.   Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west.  The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, just as the Lord your God promised you.   Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left,  that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day.   For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day.   One man of you puts to flight a thousand since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, just as he promised you.   Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God.   For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them so that you associate with them and they with you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.

 

Joshua is an example to anyone that expires to be a great leader, if he had an ego it was well in check, if he was prideful it was in a big God who he looked to and obeyed, and for many years Joshua was learning the ways of God, by serving Mosses.  Now it is time to leave, and even in doing so, he understood the need to remind the people of what God has done.  It was reported today that our ex-President Obama released his third book on his life and Presidentship, unlike Joshua, it was 700 pages all about him, and what he did, it speaks volumes about his leadership skills.  What does a leader who God's honor look like, someone who looks to Him, obeys all that He tells them, and I’m fearful, the USA, has no desire to follow such a leader?  With that said, if we desire the government to be our master, my prayer is, come LORD Jesus, and give the USA what it desires, hell on earth. 

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice