History – Joshua 1 – 5
Today is Sabbath day – Saturday. And on every Saturday, we will be looking at the books of History.
We start off with one of the most action packed book of the Bible – Joshua (one of my favourites).
Joshua – as we all know, was appointed as a successor to Moses and was given the difficult task of finally leading the people of Israel into the promise land of Canaan.
The years of wandering in the wilderness had come to an end. Now it was time for them to finally inherit the land flowing with milk and honey. But they had to do it without the help of their great leader Moses.
Suddenly, their leader… the mentor of Joshua was gone and the student has to now take his place.
If you were Joshua, how would you feel? What would you do? Can you pass the test?
Let’s see what Joshua did…
Bible Passage: Joshua 1 – 5
My favourite verses in Joshua are found in Joshua 1:8.
Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
Here we see the Lord giving a command to Joshua to keep the Word of God with him all the time. This was no new command. In Deut 17:9 – this same command was given to the future kings of Israel.
And this very same instruction applies to us today and that is the reason why we are are encouraging everyone to read the Bible.
Daily Bible Study helps us to fear God and obey His commands. We are reminded of who God is and it keeps us humble and in times of storm, provides us an immovable anchor. We are to meditate on the Word of God day and night. And the only way we can do that is if we actually read it. And in that way, we will know God’s will and do it.
and Joshua 1:9 – But God is not one who leaves us alone in our battle in life.
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
It is easy to focus on our problems which we can see, and not on God.
Brother Vincent Yeoh gave an excellent sermon last night entitled “Illusions and Realities”. He ended the sermon by showing a series of pictures which reinforced his point that we tend to allow ‘background’ noises to affect our focus and hence create an illusion far from reality.
God is always with us, just as He is with Joshua. But we tend to allow problems, issues, and lots of other things distract us. But here God reminds Joshua, and in turn us, that He is with us wherever we go.
So be strong and of good courage!
Ok… I was going to end here but thought some of you would like to see some of the illusions again. So here they are….
Picture No 1:
Question: Are all the lines straight? Are they wavy?
Answer: Take a ruler and check. They are all straight lines (vertical and horizontal).
Picture No 2:
Question: Which vertical line is longer? The one on the right or left?
Answer: Both are of equal length.
Picture No 3:
Question: Do you see a spiral?
Answer: What spiral? Use your finger and trace each circle. You will see that it is a series of concentric circles.
Picture No. 4:
Question: Who is the tallest policeman? The one on the right or left?
Answer: Would you believe that all of them are of the same height?
Picture No 5: (last one)
Question: How many cubes do you see?
Answer: I see 6. No wait 7. That’s wrong…. it’s 6. 7. 6! 7!
Ok, you get the picture 🙂 The background tends to distort our view of things.
And that is what happens when we do not put our entire focus on God.