Tag Archive | Conquest

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 70

Mar11
Day 70.  Reading Deuteronomy 1 – 2. 
 

Read today’s scripture.

What do you learn NEW about God’s goodness?

Who can you share that with today?

Deuteronomy 1.

At the end of Moses’ life (forty years after he led the people out of Egypt) and before Israel enters the Promised Land, Moses reviews their history, bringing up the GOOD that God did and the mostly REBELLION that they did, challenging them to NOW obey and succeed. 

I love that he honored God and blessed them with, “The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. May the LORD, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as He has promised you!”

He reminded this new generation of people how (at his father-in-law’s suggestion and God’s approval) he chose leaders of their tribes to help him judge all of them. 

He also reminded them how they refused to enter the Land almost 40 years earlier because of fear and a rebellious heart, how God had condemned them to the wilderness again, and how they would not listen but rebelled against the command of the LORD and PRESUMPTUOUSLY went to fight the Amorites. How horribly they failed because the LORD was NOT with them.  

God was angry with them… and him (Moses).  

Deuteronomy 2.

Moses here recounts the years of wandering in the desert, until all that generation died (except Caleb and Joshua and their children). 

Finally, they came up again at the gates of the Promised Land. God told them NOT to invade Edom (descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother), NOR the Moabites, for they were descendants of Abraham’s nephew, Lot.  Likewise, they were not to harass the Ammonite people for they also descended from Lot.  (Blood truly IS thicker than water.)

However, they did fight and defeat the Midianites, who, through their kings and the false prophet, Balaam, had led them into idolatry and sexual sin.  That defeat was a foretaste of their battles when God was with them. Not one soldier died.  

….

to be continued.

#2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 88

Mar28

    Day 88 —  Now that we’ve passed Day 66, we have established a “habit.” So, CELEBRATE our habit of daily Bible reading! We are in the third month so far! Praise God!  TODAY, we finish the 7th book in our Bible reading!

   Day 88 – Joshua 22 – 24 (Eastern tribes, an alter, Joshua’s charge & challenge, Joshua’s death)

In Chapter 22, with the land settled and divided, it’s time for the armies of the Eastern two-and-a-half tribes to return to their lands and settle down.  Joshua charges them with the basis of the Covenant, to “love the LORD their God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to cling to Him, and to serve Him with all their heart and soul.”

These tribes received Joshua’s challenge and blessing and headed East, stopping at the border to erect a massive altar.  WHAT??  Rightly, the other ten tribes, plus the High Priest, come and confront them. They fear that God will judge them ALL if these eastern tribes are already worshiping at a place other than where God signifies.  But the eastern tribe allay their fears, saying the alter is NOT a place to worship, but only a memorial to reinforce that the eastern tribes are a part of the whole of Israel.  All outcry is calmed with this explanation.

In Chapter 23, Joshua—well advanced in years at 110—tells how faithful God has been to ALL his promises, even though Israel repeatedly fails Him. He says, “You know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you.”

  • Therefore, be very strong to keep and do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses.
  • Don’t turn aside from it to the right or left.
  • Don’t mix with the nations remaining among you or even mention the names of their gods.
  • Don’t swear to their gods, serve them, or bow down to them.
  • Cling to the LORD your God just as you have done to this day.
  • Be careful to love the LORD your God.

In Chapter 24, Joshua reviews Israel’s history from Abraham’s first call to this day in detail, and concludes with these thoughts.

  • Now therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and faithfulness
  • Choose this day whom you will serve.
  • As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

And the people answered, “we also will serve the LORD, for He is our God. Joshua contradicts them, saying they are NOT able to serve the Lord, but they double-vow that they will.

Then Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being 110 yeas old.  They buried him in his own inheritance.  And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the LORD had done. Finally Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the High Priest dies too, and his son, the righteous Phinehas becomes High Priest.

Then the chapter and the book close with a rightful conclusion to Genesis 50.  The bones that Joseph made his brothers promise they would carry out of Egypt and bury in the promised land are finally buried at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor. (Near the very place Joseph’s brothers kidnapped him and sold him to slavery in Egypt.)

God is faithful always and honors those who serve him.

END of Joshua. And a new, spiraling down period of Israel’s history – JUDGES.