Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Abide
- Abide: This is a moment, day, or even a season when we focus on God. It is a time when we are rejuvenated by God. It is the time for us to gather up what we will need for the coming growth after a season of pruning. However, abiding is not the end. We abide so that we can grow, bear fruit, prune, and abide again.
I haven’t spoken much about abide in this blog so far. But I think coming off of yesterday’s reading
and knowing about all the conquering that is ahead of us in Joshua, this is an
opportune time to talk about abiding.
There is a fair amount of abiding in the passage, but it doesn’t
necessarily look like abiding.
God asks the people to circumcise themselves after crossing over
into the Promised Land. Think about this
for a second. Joshua is on the verge of
war. Yet he voluntarily takes his fighting
men and circumcises them, essentially putting them out of fighting condition
for no insignificant amount of time. God
puts Joshua in a position of forcing the Hebrew people to abide as they come
into the Promised Land. Joshua focuses them stop and realize that everything comes from the Lord.
Once the people are circumcised, God tells Joshua to hold the
Passover feast. On that day, they ate
fruit of the land. The manna
stopped. God is looking to the people
and telling them that their time of abiding has come to an end. It has been a good time for abiding in God’s
provision. But the coming days would
bring about growth in the Lord and fruit under His power.
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