{"id":4413,"date":"2022-12-05T12:02:45","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T18:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4413"},"modified":"2022-12-05T12:02:45","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T18:02:45","slug":"devotional-on-joshua-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-joshua-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Joshua"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-G_8EU8Rkkq8\/XY6IYr7JjtI\/AAAAAAABBms\/kWJIH2256Y0d1E3ssSXyTgCNqJNIXw_BgCKgBGAsYHg\/s1600\/PHOTO_20140803_133431.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"902\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; near Eureka, CA<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nIt makes sense<br \/>\nJoshua 8: There wasn\u2019t a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua didn\u2019t read to the entire congregation.<br \/>\nThere\u2019s both good news and bad news.  The good news is that the Israelites have just won their second major victory.  The bad news is that because of Achan\u2019s sin, that victory was preceded by their first defeat.   In spite of the clear statement of the Law Achan\u2019s greed led to the deaths of several.  Now, Achan, and those close to him, have paid for his sin with his own lives and the humiliation dealt the army of Israel has been erased by the total destruction of Ai.  Joshua wisely calls for a time out.  The people gather at the twin Mounts of Ebal and Gerisim and Joshua has half the people turn their backs on one of the mountains and the other half turn their backs on its twin.  Then Joshua gives them a refresher course on God\u2019s Law.  The blessing of the Law is represented by Gerisim and the curse of the Law is represented by Ebal.  Clearly, Joshua wants the people to remember that what they&#8217;re doing in Canaan isn\u2019t all about combat and conquest.  If they don\u2019t remain firmly connected to the Lord God their future is bleak.  Their only hope is to remain on the \u201cblessing\u201d side of things.  This isn\u2019t magic.  In fact, it\u2019s quite practical.  Life works better for those who live in a consistent relationship with God than it does for those who reject him and live by some other standard.   I realize that there\u2019s more in play here, but I can\u2019t help but note that the bottom line is based on plain good sense.<br \/>\nTake Away: There\u2019s a way of life that is blessed by the Lord. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It makes sense Joshua 8: There wasn\u2019t a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua didn\u2019t read to the entire congregation. There\u2019s both good news and bad news. The good news is that the Israelites have just won their second major victory. The bad news is that because of Achan\u2019s sin, that victory was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1509,7],"tags":[105,136,213,772,900],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4413"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14099,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413\/revisions\/14099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}