NIV 365-Day Devotional Plan (2017)Sample

Zealous Leader of a Fickle People

Joshua

“We’ve been through all this before,” Joshua reminded himself, “and they always say the same thing: ‘Yes, we definitely will follow the Lord and him alone.’ But when things get tough — or too easy — they drift away and go chasing after the neighbors’ wives and their gods.”

Less than a breath later, the clamor of the assembled nation standing before him intensified. Thousands of voices swelled together, affirming with fervor their devotion to the God of Israel, who had given them all this rich territory.

The aging leader scanned the vast crowd before him, seeing face after face of comrades-in-arms with whom he’d gone into combat. What glorious days those had been! Just as God had promised, he had gone before them as they charged into battle. Though confronted by grim forces many times their size and number, Joshua and his fellow warriors had mown them down as though they were harvesting wheat. He remembered the deafening tumult of screaming voices and clanging weaponry; then, afterward, the sobering silence of the corpse-covered battlefield.

But now things were easy. Most of the land had been subdued and occupied. People were enjoying the fruit from their vineyards and watching their children grow up.

Joshua, who had served for 40 years as Moses’ assistant before rising to the position of field commander, knew how fickle these people were. At the slightest difficulty—a temporary lack of water, rumors of an approaching army, boredom with their daily rations—they would rebel and forsake all order and discipline. He had watched Moses grow old, tired and exasperated. He himself had known frustration as the long military campaigns eventually sapped his troops’ enthusiasm, and he had been compelled to keep exhorting them to stay on task and finish taking the land.

Now, years later, much of the territory still had not been conquered. Israelite forces had gradually adapted a conciliatory strategy toward the Canaanites. Rather than clear them out entirely, the Israelites would half-heartedly wage war, then settle in with the pagans, sharing the land, their wives, their customs . . . and their religious preferences.

“Will you keep your promises to God this time?” Joshua shouted to the crowd. “Yes, we will!” they shouted back (see Joshua 24:19–24). The aged leader looked out over the crowd with ambivalence. A lifetime in leadership had drained his earlier optimism; still, he would love to believe them.

Taken from NIV Men’s Devotional Bible