J8-19: How Do You Come Back To God After You Have Fallen Away From Him?

“There was not a word of everything Moshe had ordered that Y’hoshua did not read before all Israel assembled, including the women, the little ones and the foreigners living with them.”-Joshua 8:35

The final verse of Joshua Chapter 8 points out something ALL believers should keep in mind.

God’s Torah is for all of mankind.

It’s for women as much as it is for men.

It’s for children as much as it is for adults.

And it’s for the grafted-in foreigner as much as it is for the native-born Hebrew.

I should also add, I’m aware of the tradition in Orthodox Judaism that prohibits men and women from studying God’s Torah together.

Nevertheless, women are still expected to gather together and learn God’s Word.

The children also start learning Scripture from as early as age 5 and guess which book they start with?

They begin their Torah studies with the Book of Leviticus which isn’t exactly the most stimulating and easiest book to understand now, is it?

If I were to choose just one main point out of the many lessons to be extracted from Joshua 8, I would say the most important one is this:

…a successful life with God can only come by obeying His commands.

That really is the point of life for the believer.

King Solomon at the conclusion of his life said the same thing.

Well, he actually came to two conclusions.

The first one was that life only has meaning because God exists.

His second and as he put it “final conclusion” was as follows:

^“Here is the final conclusion, now that you have heard everything: fear God, and keep his commands; this is what being human is all about.  For God will bring to judgment everything we do, including every secret, whether good or bad.”-Ecclesiastes 12:13

In their battles to take the Promised Land, the Israelites learned obedience but more importantly, they learned how to come back to God when they had strayed off the path of obedience.

Those steps leading back to redemption are detailed for us in the first failed battle to take the city of Ai.

FIRST, the Israelites had to examine themselves to see where they had gone wrong.

SECOND, they had to repent and recommit their lives to obeying God’s Word.

THIRD, after much self-examination and confession, only then would the Lord would step in and do His part which was to renew and redeem His People.

These steps make up the path all of us must take when we have strayed from God’s Way and want to come back to Him.

If you feel like you have fallen way from God, remember all is not lost.

There is a way back to God and it is exactly what we’re witnessing here in the closing verses of Joshua Chapter 8.

It is coming back to His Word, His Covenant people and recommitting yourself to wholehearted obedience to God.

If you do that, the refreshing waters of renewal, redemption and great blessings will be waiting for you.

NEXT TIME WE BEGIN JOSHUA CHAPTER 9