Choose a timeframe, say 5 years, and think back through your life. What transpired, what happened, what didn’t happen. Then look for God’s guidance and how He has led you to where you are today. The Israelites under Joshua’s leadership essentially were the first generation as a nation who could look back to what God had saved their parents from, leading them ever more to trusting God’s guidance for their own future.
This generation witnessed the passing of the torch. Commanded by God, Moses had appointed his long term assistant, Joshua, to lead the Israelites. Right before, during, and after his ‘coronation’, explicit instructions were given both for the nation as a whole and Joshua individually.
Blessings…
And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 28:1-2
IF. If is the key word in those verses. Blessings are not an automatic but a gift to those who seek to honor the Lord. They were a promise of glorious blessings. Covenants in the Old Testament were not just a promise by God to deliver on; they involved dual obligations/commitments that each side was to adhere to. Here the Israelites are promised a future in the Promised Land as His established nation, with blessing after blessing (Deuteronomy 28:3-14):
- blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field;
- blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock;
- blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl;
- blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out;
- the Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways;
- the Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake;
- He will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you;
- all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you;
- the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you;
- the Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands;
- you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow;
- the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down.
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Curses…
Since the operative word is ‘IF’, that means the other end of the spectrum is bound to come should the Israelites not obey and listen. The warnings given should scare anyone away from complacency or disobedience. Not only are the prior blessings reversed, but additional curses are added. The Lord will:
- send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me;
- make the pestilence stick to you until He has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it;
- strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish;
- cause the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron;
- make the rain of your land powder; from heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed;
- cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth; and your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away;
- strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed;
- strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head;
- strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind, and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways; and you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you;
- bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known; and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone; and you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away; and
- bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.
Furthermore:
- You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her.
- You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it.
- You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit.
- Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it.
- Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you.
- Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you.
- Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, but you shall be helpless.
- A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see.
- You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it.
- You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them.
- You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off.
- You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity.
- The cricket shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground.
- The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.
- He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
The curses continue after all of those and get extremely graphic. The line of reasoning leading up to these curses is that ‘grace covers my sin so I can keep sinning’.
…[W]hen he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart’.
Deuteronomy 29:19
For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant.
Deuteronomy 31:20
In our world today, it can be so easy to separate ourselves from the commands to obey and follow the Lord. But just because we think this is only for the Israelites doesn’t mean that is true. We see, instead, this theme running throughout the entire Bible: As Christ followers, we are to trust and obey. Trusting God’s guidance carries with it the joint duty of obedience. Not the swelling of our pride once prosperity comes our way to lead us to disobey, fall into complacency, or worship other gods.
Direction…
Moses had just finished explaining the blessings and curses, and the potential for prosperity after turning to the Lord when Joshua is given the pep talk of a lifetime. Both he and the Israelites were told:
The Lord your God Himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you.
Deuteronomy 31:3a
Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.
Deuteronomy 31:6b
Joshua and this generation witnessed God’s guidance out of Egypt and were just promised God would guide them into the Promised Land. Trusting God’s guidance should be a natural result. When the spies visit Jericho, Rahab and the entire city were already in fear of the Israelites because God had led them to prior victories.
“I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.
Joshua 2:9-11
Encouragement…
In our lives, we can confirm that obedience does not always rightly follow good intentions; the Israelites suffered similar plights. God has a way of gifting us with reminders to keep us focused on Him though.
I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet.
Deuteronomy 29:5
Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated.
Deuteronomy 34:7
And [the spies sent to Jericho] said to Joshua, “Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.”
Joshua 2:24
The biggest confirmation this generation could have seen was when they crossed the Jordan to enter the Promised Land. God was to cross over first, then Joshua, and finally the Israelites. The time of year was when the Jordan flooded, all throughout the Harvest season. The Lord stopped up the river and offered them the hugest symbol that He was their God. He showed them the same miracle that established Moses as their leader to now know that Joshua was their leader. The waters would part and they would walk through on dry ground. The waters stopped flowing when the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan. What powerful symbolism for them to witness.
God WAS with them and WAS leading them.
It would serve us well to consider the same details God shows us in our own lives. Yes, our lives are wrought with struggles and trials, but we can still pick through those to see how God is guiding us. Trusting God’s guidance is a key tenet to our faith, most often lived out once accurate remembrance occurs. If your own life is hard to pick out God’s guidance, start walking through the Bible picking out how God cares for us.
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