Judges 1-3:6

With Joshua's death, the last of the generation that experienced the Lord's deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt is gone. Here, in Judges, it is an angel of the Lord who delivers God's message to the people--not one of their own. The Israelites gain some victories over inhabitants of Canaan. The brothers Judah and Simeon, for example, defeat the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and in doing so cut off the thumbs and big toes of Adonibezek. How horrifying. But the Israelites choose to live side by side with some of the tribes in Canaan--in disobedience to God's command to Moses and Joshua that the Israelites put them allot the sword. Over time, the Israelites forget God's commands, and they assimilate with these peoples and begin to worship their gods. They forget the Lord and all He has done for them. They abandon Him. As a result, the Lord becomes angry with them and allows them to fall under the power of certain plunderers until they are in great distress. The Lord periodically sends a judge to them to get them back on the right path, which they would do, at least temporarily. But upon a judge's death, they relapse into a worse state than before. Therefore, the Lord allows certain people's to remaining Canaan to challenge and thwart the Israelites. 

How often I relapse, forgetting all the good that God has done for me. I forget God's promise to me, His faithfulness, His mercy. When this happens, I don't look for "false gods" to worship--at least I don't think I do. Instead, I am more like Adam in Eden--I hide my face from Him. 

Deuteronomy 31-34

Deuteronomy ends with the final words, and then the death and burial, of Moses. How fitting that the Pentateuch's bookends are Adam and Moses. One was responsible for man being cast out of Paradise. The other responsible for leading God's people to the Promised Land. At God's command, Moses teaches the people a song that they are to sing and to teach to the generations that follow. It is a song of God's anger and the consequences of the Israelites' eventual turning away from God, which God has foretold. It is a song of bitterness and regret. He commissions and consecrates Joshua as his successor, at God's command. Then, in a poignant moment, Moses ascends Mt. Nebo in order to view the Promised Land, which he is forbidden from entering. Moses gives a final blessing to the tribes, except the tribe of Simeon. (Why that tribe is omitted, I cannot tell.)  And then he dies and is buried and is mourned.  Thereafter, his successor, Joshua, "is filled with the spirit of wisdom" and the Israelites give him their obedience. 

The book ends with a short, yet powerful, statement of praise for Moses, which in part reads: Since then no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. None until Jesus.

Genesis 45:16-48:7

Joseph's story continues. He is reunited with his father, Israel, who is retrieved by some ofhis sons and brought to the land of Egypt. On the way, Israel has a dream in which God confirms to Israel that he should journey to Egypt, and reaffirms His covenant, telling him that "there [i.e., in Egypt] I will make you a great nation." Joseph rides out to meet his father, Israel, in a scene that reminds me of the parable of the Prodigal Son. Joseph exclaims, "At last I can die, now that I have seen for myself that Joseph is still alive", calling to mind the story of Simeon in the temple when Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to be presented at the temple. The story goes on to describe how Joseph is able to husband and then share all of the resources of Egypt to get its people through the famine, but in exchange they are forced to give up all their money and possessions, and eventually to hand themselves over as slaves to Pharaoh, in exchange for the food they need to live. At first I found this unsettling and distasteful even. But thinking more about it, doesn't Jesus ask us to give up our money and possessions and even our lives to follow Him? Perhaps not literally, but in our attachment to these things.