Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. 3 But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants...So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.
Joshua 24:1-3,13
Can you think of a significant event in Joshua’s life and faithfulness? Let’s think back to the exploratory trek into the land of Canaan. They came back with statements such as “we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes.” In spite of being outvoted 10 to 2, Joshua and Caleb said that they could take this land because God is bigger than any giant who stands in the way of His Will. (see numbers 13 and 14 for a play-by-play on the story of the spies sent to Canaan).
This section of scripture recounts for us the fact that Abraham lived in Ur prior to being called by God to leave his comfort zone. Think about it, at 75 years old, Moses and his extended family lived in a bustling city of about 300,000 people. This city was protected by walls about 30 feet high and presented itself as a thriving commercial center. The wealth of Ur was represented by the precious stones, gold and silver unearthed by modern architects. Would you be so eager to leave your home for the prevalent starvation and diseases in a third-world country? Would you be eager to leave everything behind if there was a clear call from God to do so?
There are many who have done exactly this. God said go, so they tied up all loose ends in their comfort zones and prepared to follow His Will. Most of them have been able to say that God has a specific calling in a part of the world that is truly unfamiliar. They have time to gather funding, learn the language, pray with others for guidance and safety and many other preparations that can take months or years. Moses didn’t have this time to work things out – God said go, and he did. I don’t think he even knew where he was going, just that God said it was time to leave his current comfort zone for a better situation that God had planned for him and his family.
In this scripture, how did Joshua begin his message to the Israelites? Do you sense trepidation? Fear of how the people may receive the word that he has for them?
