Getting the Last Word In

April 15, 2009

Today's Reading: Joshua 23-24 and 1 Corinthians 2

It would appear that Joshua is about to die. In all honesty, if I knew I was about to die, I would probably say the best thing that I could think of to my family and friends before I pass on.

Not Joshua. He does almost the exact opposite. He doesn’t tell them: “you did an awesome job serving the Lord, so keep it up”. Instead, he says: “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins”.

Dang! He tells it how it is, doesn’t he. Maybe he’s got a military mindset. You know what I mean, the kind where the superior officer always has to talk down to the inferior. “You are a disgrace, private” or “This is the worst battalion that I have ever seen”.

Or maybe he is telling it like it is. As I recall, Israel had a lot of trouble serving the Lord after Joshua died. These words made him a prophet. Of course, I don’t know about the part where he says: “He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”

Isn’t that amazing. Joshua is saying that God will completely waste us, but only after he has been good to us. The implication is that we haven’t been good to the Lord. Of course, we really should be good to God, because He has been really super-swell to us. Not really fair to Him, is it?

Yeah, these last words of Joshua, and they sound like a guy who wants to get the last words in on an argument. You know the type: “And that’s the last I want to hear of it”, and slams the door.

Truth be told, Joshua was really telling it like it is. He knew that the land was not as peaceful as it seemed, and dark times were still ahead. The people had to be ready for them.

In the end, Joshua wanted to know the same things we want to know: did our life make a difference? Not only that, but is everything going to be all right without me? The only way we can know the answers is to “test” the people around us before we go, even if it isn’t really a good way to spend our final minutes.