I am so honored and proud of the veterans who have served our country.   Hundreds of thousands of citizens have bravely fought and served since our country was formed.

The sacrifices of these brave men and women are not to be diminished.  They left their homes and their families behind to bravely fight for a cause bigger than themselves.  

Today my heart is overwhelmed with gratitude for those who served in military service and because of them I can live and worship freely.  

I am reminded of another brave veteran in the Bible….Joshua.

Joshua was handed the mantle of leadership after the death of Moses.  Joshua was given the  difficult task of leading Israel into the promised land.  But they weren’t just going to walk into the land and start living.  The people of Israel had to fight for it and take the land little by little.  

They learned a lot of hard lessons along the way.  The first city they took was Jericho.  Because they obeyed God’s instructions, God gave them a decisive victory in Jericho.  But in that victory, there was a man named Achan who disobeyed God and then tried to hide it.  No one knew what he had done, and from a human perspective, there was no reason to think that anyone would ever find out.

But God knew.  And He was not happy.

When they went to conquer the next city, Ai, they should have had an easy victory.  But Israel was stunned to find themselves being chased back by the men of Ai and even more so to find that they lost 36 of their own men that day. Joshua and the leaders were perplexed and dismayed.  Joshua cried out to God, and He answered by telling him that it was because of disobedience in the camp of Israel that they had lost their battle in the small town of Ai.  

Joshua had the difficult task of dealing with this sin swiftly and decisively.  But once he did, they went back to Ai and were able to easily conquer it.  And as the book of Joshua goes on, it records many military victories given to Joshua because he obeyed God’s commandments and  gave God the glory in the process.

Joshua saw many successes as Israel took hold of the promised land.  The scripture says that God even gave Israel rest from their enemies around them.  And as the book of Joshua comes to a close, we see a wiser and older Joshua reminding the people that it was God who fought for them and gave them this land as an inheritance.  He charged them to trust God and to be careful to obey all of his commandments.  And if so they would find success in whatever they did.  He famously asks Israel to “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve….But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

Joshua bravely served and lead the armies of Israel during a difficult and unknown time.  He didn’t know what was ahead or what enemies he would face, but Joshua knew that if he listened to God and obeyed his commands, he would lead God’s people to victory.

As I reflect on the book of Joshua and all that he did, I pray that I can follow Joshua’s example and obey God’s commands so that I can bravely conquer the territories and spheres of influence that God has positioned me to take.

~Vijoy