Hold On
Scripture Reading — Joshua 23:1-11
“Hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now.”
—Joshua 23:8
You went to school, trained hard, and now you’re a nurse, teacher, computer programmer, accountant, or other professional worker. You’re on your own without anyone to guide you. All that responsibility is a little scary: What will happen? Will you help people or get in the way? Will you be successful? The answers are up to you.
Joshua had led God’s people across the Jordan, against Jericho and many other cities, and had supervised the distribution of their inheritance. Now that Israel was facing the future on its own, Joshua reminded them to keep the law of the Lord, the instructions that Joshua himself had followed all those years.
If there was anything special about Joshua, it was that he sought to do God’s will as proclaimed by Moses. Doing so, he successfully brought Israel into the land, to the rest that God had promised them.
This would also be the key to Israel’s future: “Hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now.” Joshua was telling God’s people to imitate him, to submit to God’s instructions in their future, as he had done in their past.
When Christ gave his disciples the Word of the Father (John 17:14), he was teaching them to imitate him: to submit their lives to the Word of God, knowing that their future depended on it. And by the power of his Spirit, God’s Word is with us to the end of the age.
Help us to hold fast to your Word, Lord, that we may face the future secure in your presence. Amen.
About the author — Arie C. Leder
Dr. Arie C. Leder is the Martin J. Wyngaarden Senior Professor of Old Testament Studies at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He previously served as pastor at Ebenezer Christian Reformed Church, Trenton, Ontario, and with Christian Reformed World Missions in Latin America. He teaches courses on the Pentateuch and on historical books of the Old Testament.
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