Last Friday of the Month! Joshua

It is the last Friday of the month so today I will be discussing Joshua, the book of the Bible that I studied this month. Joshua falls between Deuteronomy and Judges in the Old Testament. As far as context, the book of Joshua is the story of the Israelites taking possession of the promised land. Moses had just died along with all of the Israelites who left Egypt and Joshua had just taken over as the leader of the people. Joshua was one of the spies that was sent into the promised land by Moses to report back to the people about what they would be facing when they got across the Jordan. Joshua and Caleb were sent out with 10 other spies and what the spies saw was not promising. 10 of the spies came back saying that the Israelites would be crazy to try to defeat the people of the land, but Joshua and Caleb came back excited because they saw how great the land was and knew that they had God on their side. From the first time Joshua is spoken of in the Bible, it is easy to see the extreme faith that he had in God and that is what struck me most about the book of Joshua. Joshua was constantly faced with impossible solutions which he responded to with one answer: God is in control. Joshua believed God was going to fulfill his promises and so he faced impossible situations with courage and continued to prove that the impossible becomes possible with God. Through Joshua's faith, the people of Israel were able to witness that "Not one of all the Lords' good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled." (Joshua 21:45, NIV) But after all of these promises were fulfilled, Joshua challenged the people of Israel to continue in their faith when he says, "Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness...But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15, NIV) Just as Joshua challenged the people of Israel in that moment, I was challenged by the book of Joshua as I read through it. Am I seeing the blessings God is giving me and the power he has to fulfill his promises or am I making my problems out to be so big that I can't see God's power any more? The book of Joshua certainly did challenge me and I hope that this will inspire you to read through it and let me know what it says to you!

Next month I am reading through 1st and 2nd Corinthians, so I am looking forward to that.

PS: Veggietales has forever made the scene in Joshua 5:13-15 hilariously funny to me, all I can see is Larry falling flat on his face in the sand, cracks me up every time, lol.