Thursday, November 10, 2011

gifts of God

Good morning brothers and sisters,
Joshua continues his review of how God has led and blessed Israel. He focuses this section on how God led the way. Israel only needed to follow; they didn't need to earn God's blessings. This way of telling the story, especially the last sentence, fits very well with Deuteronomy, which comes before this book. God's grace is a free gift that comes to us before we do anything to deserve it. We can't earn grace and we don't need to, but we are called to respond by following God faithfully and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

blessings as you follow today,
Sam


Joshua 24:8-13
8Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan; they fought with you, and I handed them over to you, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. 9Then King Balak son of Zippor of Moab, set out to fight against Israel. He sent and invited Balaam son of Beor to curse you, 10but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you; so I rescued you out of his hand.  

11When you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I handed them over to you. 12I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove out before you the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. 13I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and olive yards that you did not plant.

No comments:

Post a Comment