On Joshua 22:5
I’ve been making my way through the book of Joshua lately, and last night’s reading took me into chapter 22. Verse 5 of that chapter particularly stuck out to me — in it, Joshua is addressing three of the tribes of Israel as they headed to the lands that God had given over to them. Joshua 22:5 says this –
“But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul.”
What a powerful set of parting charges; and it is still as relevant to us today as it was to the tribes of Israel back then. Five commands — and each speaks of what our relationship to God ought to look like. Love Him. Walk in His ways, walk with Him, follow Him. Obey Him and do as He directs in His Word and through His guidance. And hold fast to Him — cling to God. And serve Him — work for, and live for, God with everything within us.
Each command is stirring in its own way, but the fourth one in particular especially stuck out to me. “Hold fast to him,” Joshua said. When I read that, a couple images come to mind. First, there is the image of the jockey clinging for dear life as his racehorse bolts across a track. I also see a shy little girl gripping her father’s hand in the midst of a public crowd.
The first image reflects the sheer power of breakneck speed and “holding fast” for the sake of preserving one’s physical self. The second reflects a stillness and “holding fast” for the sake of preserving one’s emotional security. I think that both are good representations of what it means to hold fast to God as we walk through this life.
Because, really, as humans – we have so little control over our lives. It is God alone who tells the sun to rise and the moon to shine, the oceans to roar and the thunder to crash. It is He who dictates the substance of our lives, and He has already seen all the days that we have yet to live. As one of my dear second ge ge told me a couple years ago, “The safest place is in the middle of God’s will.” Only by holding fast to Him can we ensure a life well lived, for He alone knows what is best, and when we walk the journey closely and next to Him, we cannot stray too far.
Furthermore, God alone can determine our value as humans, and it is in Him that we must find our emotional and spiritual security. When He calls us “My child” we are immediately endowed with the greatest title we could ever dream or hope for. But we (I) spend our lives chasing after a host of other things — for some it’s money, for others it’s prestige, still for others it is family or love or feeling needed or otherwise significant — all the while forgetting the material point: that in our states of being as God’s children, we already have everything. We have enough. We have more than enough.
Only when we “hold fast” can we fully experience these truths, though. So… thank Joshua for the reminder, and thank God for speaking through Joshua.
Love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul. This reminder could not have come at a better time.