Joshua (The Book of the Bible That Is)

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
2 Timothy 3:16-17

Over the last couple of weeks I've been reading through the book of Joshua. It's one of my favorite books in the Bible and Joshua is one of my favorite Old Testament heroes.

I was encouraged by his words of remaining strong and courageous as the Israelite nation got ready to finally enter the Promised Land; thoughtful when the men from each tribes collected stones from the middle of the dried up Jordan to build an altar to the Lord. I was enthralled by the story of Rahab and the fall of Jericho. I was saddened by the sin of Achan, gladdened by the people's repentance and their defeat of Ai. I was skeptical of the Gibeonites but can't say I would've acted any differently. Finally I celebrated with God's chosen people as they defeated the Northern and then Southern armies.

Then I got to Joshua 12. I reread the account of all the people that the Israelites had defeated and was bored to death. As I was reading I kept thinking about that verse in 2 Timothy. If all Scripture is useful for teaching etc. then what was the point of this chapter? Or the genealogies for that matter? Or some of the other passages that I consider boring?

And that's when God showed me. He didn't explain the purpose of the genealogies to me but He did tell me about Joshua 12. As I read the account of all the people that the Israelites defeated I remembered something. The Israelites didn't defeat all those kings and people on their own, God went before them and fought for them.

Right now I have a lot going on in my life. A lot of situations that I'm having to give over to God and ask Him to work out. Reading about all those defeated kings in Joshua 12 reminded me that God can resolve all the situations in my life too.

I don't know how all Scripture applies to each servant of God. I don't know if I'll ever really figure it out but I do know that God showed me how this passage in Joshua 12 applies to my life this time. And I have to believe that not only will He help me deal with the situations in my life like He defeated the kings in Joshua but also that He'll continue to show me how Scripture applies at different times in my life.