GOD THE WAY MAKER
When I listened to the passage being read, I noticed that these pronouns don't stand out very much as the story is being retold. But when I reflected on these verses. all of those "I's" began to jump off the page at me: The Lord is reminding the Chosen People that their entire history was really the story of his acting on their behalf. Especially in times of threat or of suffering, the Lord was always present to deliver them.
Joshua then challenges his fellow Israelites: Now choose -- are you going to serve the pagan idols that are all around you, or will you serve the Lord who has done all these great deeds for you? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. They all answer, "Far be it from us to forsake the Lord our God to go after false gods." Then the famous "covenant renewal at Shechem" takes place, and the Chosen People begin to settle down in the Promised Land.The sad part of the Old Testament story is that, despite their re-commitment to the covenant, the Jews keep forgetting the great deeds that the Lord has done for them, and they continually turn away from worshiping the one true God to go after false gods, idols made of stone or wood.
WHERE ARE YOU, GOD?
This short reading from the beginning of Joshua 24 should be a source of great encouragement for each of us, reminding us that God is acting in our lives, in our "history," every bit as much as he acted in the lives of the Israelites in the days of Moses.
What about you and me? How often do we turn away from God and put our trust in idols, in substitutes for the real God? Possessions, power, prestige, pleasures, none of these can fill the God-shaped emptiness at the center of our being. Only the one true God can do that -- the God who said to the Israelites and who says to us: "I am with you to deliver you."
But we, like our Jewish fathers and mothers in the faith, continue to put our trust in created things, hoping that they will deliver us from our emptiness and our loneliness and our sadness.
Read the entire chapter of Joshua 24 and ask the Lord to help you to renew your covenant with the God who Delivers us," to renew your confidence in the One who Saves.
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