Week 10 Joshua 1
The book opens with the Lord speaking to Joshua. He tells him four key things (I figure they’re key because each one is repeated at least twice). The Lord says:
I will be with you
Be strong and courageous
Be careful to obey the law
You will be successful
The Lord begins and ends that second paragraph with the promise that he’ll be with Joshua. The Lord will be with Joshua in that abstracted with-ness way that the Lord tends to practice with people. A non-physical with-ness…dissimilar to person-to-person with-ness since it’s an immaterial present-ness.
Anyway the two things that’re most interesting to me are what Joshua is supposed to do.
He has to a) be strong. He has to b) obey the law. He doesn’t get much direction about point a) but he does about point b):
Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left…Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.
So this is an interesting bible-readers’ reminder. Bible reading is definitely part of the plan. An important & recommended part. But a part. The Lord has compounded the reading part with features like being more undeviating & absorbed & meditative & activated by what I read. Readings’ additives.
Note: quote from Joshua 1:7-8 (NIV) and see 5-9