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24. Joshua. Entry
into the Promised Land.
But who will now lead the orphaned people into the land of their promise?
Man may die, but God lives. God's arm is not too short that he cannot
help. Did not God awaken the spirit of Joshua to complete the work he
had begun? When they had mourned Moses' death for thirty days, they set
out from the camp and crossed the Jordan. Twelve priests went ahead,
carrying the holy ark of the covenant; the people followed behind them.
They crossed the Jordan on dry land. There they were, escorted by God,
finally at the destination of the forty-year pilgrimage.
There they greeted the holy, dear land of which they had heard for so
long, the land where their fathers had once lived and God had spoken to
them, and where their bones lay buried. Then they ate of the fruits of
the land for the first time - it was in the days of the barley harvest -
and celebrated their Easter feast.
But other families now lived in the land than in the days of Abraham,
idolatrous people who were blamed for cruel things, such as burning
their own poor children alive in honour of their fictitious idols. They
shut themselves up in their fortified cities with high walls and did not
want to suffer the descendants of Abraham to spread and settle in the
land. A long, hard war ensued. Almost every step of land had to be
bought with blood. But God gave victory to the weapons of Israel.
Now when they had destroyed almost all the inhabitants of Canaan - but
not all - Joshua divided the land to them according to their families or
tribes, as follows: Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad,
Asher, Naphtali, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh. These two are the sons
of Joseph, of whom Jacob had said, ‘They are mine.’ The descendants of
Levi were not given land because they were priests, but they were
divided into cities. -
The Jordan River flows down from Mount Lebanon, where the cedars grow.
On the right and on the left of the Jordan the children of Israel lived
between the desert and the sea. This is the Promised Land or the land of
Canaan with its palm trees. So the promise came true to the descendants
of Abraham that God would give them this land as their own. When Joshua
was old and had established and completed everything, he gathered all
Israel to a national assembly in Shechem to take leave of them before he
died. He reminded them of all God's favours, that they should remain
grateful to him and not be unfaithful. Among other things, he said:
‘Take care of your souls, that you love the Lord your God! Behold, I am
going this day like all the world, and you shall know that nothing has
been lacking in all the good things that God has spoken to you. All has
come and none has failed. Just as all good things have come, so God will
bring all evil upon you if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your
God.’ -
‘Fear the Lord and serve him faithfully and righteously. If you know a
better God, choose another. But I and my house will serve the Lord’. The
people said: ‘We will serve the Lord our God and obey his voice’.
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