Year 7, Day 197: Joshua 12

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Looking at Joshua 12, I am struck by the mirror symbolism here.  We are told about the kings that Moses defeated east of the Jordan.  We are told about the kings that Joshua defeated west of the Jordan.  There is a mirror to this chapter.

This mirrored symbolism leads me back to where I spoke yesterday.  Joshua finishes the work that Moses began.  What Moses obediently begins, Joshua obediently finishes.  Today’s chapter lends itself to continue to lesson from yesterday.

However, today we can extend what we said yesterday.  While Joshua and Moses were obedient, the key is that they were obedient to God.  They are doing God’s plan.  They are fulfilling God’s will.  As I spoke yesterday, they are bearing God’s judgment to the people in Canaan while simultaneous living out the fulfillment of God’s promise to establish the Hebrew people in the Promised Land.

I find that this allows me to fathom the mind and the will of God unlike many other passages.  Remember that God called Abraham out of Ur to dwell in Canaan among the Canaanites.  Then, there was a famine and the Hebrew people went to live in Egypt.  While in Egypt, the Canaanite people grew more and more evil, bringing God’s judgment upon them.  God had a people in Egypt ready to step into that role.  Here is God, setting up the conquest of Canaan well over four hundred years prior in a famine that brings Joseph’s family to him in Egypt.

This is the impressive nature of God.  The God in whom Joshua and Moses had placed their faith and obedience is a God whose plan spans the generations.  This is the God who can even use Joshua, over a millennium in the future, to be a forerunner to Christ.

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