Joshua 11:7-15

So Joshua and his whole army came against them suddenly at the Waters of Merom and attacked them, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Israel. They defeated them and pursued them all the way to Greater Sidon, to Misrephoth Maim, and to the Valley of Mizpah on the east, until no survivors were left. Joshua did to them as the LORD had directed: He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots.

At that time Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and put its king to the sword. (Hazor had been the head of all these kingdoms.) Everyone in it they put to the sword. They totally destroyed them, not sparing anything that breathed, and he burned up Hazor itself.

Joshua took all these royal cities and their kings and put them to the sword. He totally destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded. Yet Israel did not burn any of the cities built on their mounds—except Hazor, which Joshua burned. The Israelites carried off for themselves all the plunder and livestock of these cities, but all the people they put to the sword until they completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed. As the LORD commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.


I remember listening to a particular speech during my own convo. That guy he talked about a few ships, one of those is followership. I again remember a few years back, a sister told me that the key to great leadership is to be a good follower first. I held that in mind. And that guy reminded me once. It's sort of like Joshua in this passage and the rest of the book. I believe that what makes Joshua a leader that God can depend on is because he had followed God and he had followed Moses. He is willing to follow while he was leading the Israelites. And by following what God had said and what Moses had commanded, successes in the conquests were added onto him.

I think we need to consider one question here. It is clearly stated that blessings will come upon obeying God. I believe what happened to Joshua is a fulfilment of this verse:

The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.

A lot of times we want to be at the top and be the head. This is understandable. But the question here, are we following God first? The pre-condition here is obvious. Pay attention to the commands and carefully follow them. Jesus was to substantiate this with a famous saying:

But seek first His Kingdom and righteousnes and all these things will be given to you as well

Are we following God? Are we putting His Kingdom as our priority? Or is it that the girl that you have been going out with had taken over God as the priority? Or is it that you have treated your job and your success more important than God?

I know that I need to continue to improve upon this area in my lives and I dun deny that I need to follow God more. And it takes courage to admit all these. Are you ready to admit this?

We can come out with a lot of excuses. But how long more before we run into the dead end, and see God there?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Parable of the 'Good Samaritan'

Of Teaching and Learning

Iakobou Epistode: From Confusion to Clarity