As Joshua began his farewell discourse he reminded the people of all that the Lord had done for their ancestors, the patriarchs as well as their ancestors who had died in 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. He wanted to encourage the people to faithfulness for he knew that when he was gone, they would become complacent and start to compromise with their idolatrous neighbors. He used the very words the Lord had spoke years before about maintaining fidelity to the book of Moses, the words that Moses had heard from the Lord God Himself. If the people harkened to and obeyed those words, they would have nothing to fear from the pagans or their so-called gods. The Lord was much more powerful than they.
We too must pay attention to the revealed word of God, that is, the Bible. It contains all the truth we need to live in contentment, peace and righteousness. For almost 2000 years people acknowledged its supreme value and have tried to live by its precepts. But today it is largely ignored. Its truth has been replaced by the thoughts and opinions of thousands of authors of books of self-help, psychology and philosophy who all claim to have the solution to all of mankind’s problems. There are even many so-called Christians books that make the same claim. But the truth of God is the Word of God as guided by the Holy Spirit. No book is as trustworthy and powerful as it is. If only would remain true to the Word of God as they say they do, they would be able to counteract the claims of the world and the devil that pervade most modern literature.
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