I’m sure these were bittersweet words. Moses had to say, “I cannot lead you anymore. The Lord told me I would not cross the Jordan River.”
Don’t you know the people started thinking, “What will we do without Moses?”
But he reassures them, telling them that God Himself will lead them across. He
would destroy the nations for them,
and He had appointed Joshua to lead them.
Moses knew that the uncertainty of this leadership change would worry them. So he said, “Be strong and brave … Don’t be
frightened, because the Lord your God will go with you. He will not leave you or forget you.”
But they would do
that to him. It was therefore important that they regularly review what Moses had written
down. Every seven years they were
commanded to review this book. Those who’d
heard it before would be forgetful of what they’d heard, and the children would
need to hear it for the first time. In
particular, the youth were mentioned: “So
that they can listen and learn to
respect the Lord your God and carefully obey everything in this law. Since their children do not know this law, they must hear it. They must learn to respect the Lord your God for as long as they live…”
God called Moses and Joshua into the Tent of Meeting, and I’m
sure Joshua hated the hear these words: “Moses,
you will soon die … these people will not
be loyal to Me … they will leave Me … Then I will become very angry at them,
and I will leave THEM … and they
will be destroyed … I know what they plan
to do, even before I take them into the land I promised them.”
God knew that many of
them were still carrying idols they’d brought out of Egypt and idols they’d
collected along the way!
On the cusp of entering the Promised Land, they were being
told how they would wreck it all with their idolatry.
Father, I know that You already know everything that I will choose to do. I pray that You will hear my prayers and that
You will increase my faith and help me to rid myself of anything that is not of
You so that I won’t be sealing my future fate by my present actions as these
people were.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
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