the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Joshua 23:14-16; Joshua 24:1-5
To the people gathered at Shechem, Joshua recalls the great moments of their history. In so doing he needs to go to the distant past, not only to make a gratifying reference to Abraham which Israel was glad to be reminded of (John 8:33; John 8:39) but back to Abraham’s father, Terah, who had served other gods. Joshua seeks by this to show them that idolatry is not only the way of the nations in spiritual darkness all around, but also that it was in their blood too, in their own nature. "You are", he says, "no better than the rest." Again let us hear what the epistle to the Ephesians says, "you . . . were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world . . . fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." If we can recognize that we too were amongst these wretched ones found "on the other side of the river", serving the idols of this world, let us read again and marvel in the verses which follow at what God "who is rich in mercy" has done for His own (Ephesians 2:1 . . .). For we plumb the depths of the grace of God in proportion to our recognition of our need of that grace in our lives.
