FBC Daily Devotional – August 12, 2021

Well, good Thursday to you. Let me ask you this. Have you ever stopped to think about what God has done through the centuries even, intergenerationally, to bring you to the point where you are right now, to bring you into existence, and to bring your life to where it is right now in your relationship with God through Christ and so forth.

Have you ever thought about that? I think it's a valuable exercise to consider from time to time, you know, maybe on your birthday or something of that nature. And there's actually a biblical basis for doing that, and that basis is found in Joshua chapter 24.

Reflecting on God’s Generational Work in Joshua 24

And if you read in our Bible reading plan, you read Joshua 24 today, and Joshua is doing just that very thing. He is reflecting upon the generational work of God that goes back hundreds and hundreds of years.

He goes back to talking about what God did with Abram when Abram was in Ur of the Chaldees, and Abram and his brothers and his father, they all worshipped other gods. They weren't even worshipping Yahweh, the God of Israel.

They were worshipping the pagan gods, the idols and so forth. But God, Joshua rehearses, God graciously called Abram out of that and entered into a relationship with him and made him all kinds of promises, promises that were then reaffirmed in Abram's son Isaac and in Isaac's son Jacob.

And that's over 400 years ago that he's talking about, that God reaffirmed the promises to Jacob. And in the last 400 years,.

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Descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were living in bondage in Egypt. Joshua rehearses how God, in his grace, rescued the people from Egypt, delivered them from that bondage, brought them through the wilderness, through that wilderness wandering period of time, brought them to the east side of the Jordan River, brought them through the Jordan River, and miraculously dried up the river so that they could cross on that dry ground, and brought them into the land of Canaan.

And now, at the end of chapter 24, Joshua is about to die. He's a hundred and ten years old, and the land has been divided up, the land of Canaan has been divided up. The Canaanites have been either expelled or they're under control at this point, enough so that the different tribal groups can go to their section of the land that they've inherited.

And so much has happened, and God has done so much for the rescue and the redemption of his people, and bringing them to this land of promise. And I think it's good for us, from time to time, to reflect intergenerationally in what God has done to bring us to the point of where we are today.

And in a recent pastor's page, I shared that very thing about how, in my own family, I could look back and I remember how my grandfather on my dad's side, we didn't even know whether his last name was really Bice or it was Boyce, because he ran away from home to join the army, and he lied about his age, and he lied about his name, and he changed his name.

But my dad said, I don't know whether the name Bice is what he changed it to, or if the name was Boyce. Was it Boyce and he changed it to Bice, or was it really Bice and he changed it to Boyce, and then he changed it back when he got caught.

He said, I don't really know. That led me to find out, and I did find out. I found out a lot of things. I was able to trace my lineage on my dad's side back to the 1400s in the Netherlands. So I'm Dutch.

I've got some Dutch blood in me, and I've got some Germanic blood in me, and I've got some Irish blood in me, and I was able to look at my own ancestry and see how God orchestrated different things through the centuries to bring people together, husbands and wives together, and their offspring, and bring them to this place.

My grandfather on my mom's side, his parents, his ancestry was from Ireland. My grandmother on my mother's side was from, her family was from England. They ended up meeting here in the United States and getting married and all the rest of it.

But here I am. Here I am because of what God has done through the centuries, and then even in my own salvation experience, I can reflect on how God worked to bring me to that place of realizing my need of trusting Christ as my Savior, delivering me from the penalty of my sins, and bringing me to repentant faith in Jesus.

Choosing Today Whom We Will Serve

It's a good thing to do, to reflect upon all that God has done. And why do that? For the reason that Joshua did. After rehearsing all that God has done, Joshua then said, thinking back on all God's done for us to bring us to this point, then we need to choose today whom we're going to serve.

Are we going to serve Him, the one who's done all of this for us? Or are we going to serve the pagan gods, the gods of the Egyptians and the gods of the Canaanites? No. As for me, Joshua says, in my house, we're going to serve the Lord.

And all the people say, we are too. We are too. In other words, one of the values of that process of reflection is to bring us to a renewed commitment to serving the God who has so graciously done so very much in our behalf.

A Prayer for Renewed Commitment

So take some time. Reflect. What has God done through the centuries to bring you to the place of grace that he's brought you to? Father in heaven, I pray that that reflection would bring forth some wonderful fruit in our lives.

This we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Hey, have a good rest of your Thursday. God bless.