February 22, 2023 - Joshua 4-8

The Lord brought the people through the Jordan River on dry land, and they set up a pile of memorial stones so that, when their children and their children's children asked, they could point to those stones and say, “There is where the Lord did a wonder by cutting off the waters of the Jordan so that the people could cross into the land he has given us” (4:6,7). It’s good, always and regularly, to go back to our roots and to all that we know about God and what we have experienced with him and remember his faithfulness to us.

And the adult men were circumcised, and the people celebrated their first Passover in Canaan (ch. 5). Even in the midst of travel, war, or whatever, it is good to pause and give thanks to God and to worship him. By the hand of the Lord, Jericho fell (ch. 6). Even sin in the camp (Achan) and the resultant defeat at the second city attacked, Ai, could not keep God from fulfilling his promise to give the land to Abraham's descendants (chs. 7,8). God will always do what he promises. An amazing story. And wonderful lessons for us.

Let children hear the mighty deeds

which God performed of old,

which in our younger years we saw

and which our fathers told.

He bids us make his glories known,

the works of pow’r and grace,

that we convey his wonders down

through ev’ry rising race.

Our lips shall tell them to our sons,

and they again to theirs,

and generations yet unborn

must teach them to their heirs.

Thus shall they learn, in God alone

their hope securely stands,

that they may ne’er forget his works,

but practice his commands. --Isaac Watts (1719)