Week 21: Joshua 1-8; 23-24

As I was with Moses, I will also be with you. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi folks, we're back for another episode of Receivers Podcast today. Um very exciting. We're gonna talk about the book of Joshua. So um the Kung Follow Me has a section, which I think is a really good section, of the Come Follow Me. It's uh the thoughts to keep in mind. So like a separate section notes, just about the historical books in the Old Testament, because that's what we're gonna get now. Reminder how the Old Testament is set up. First, we get the Torah or the five books of Moses, right? That kind of set out the law or lead up to Moses getting the law and talk about the law. That's what that's up to Deuteronomy. Then we get the historical books, right? Um, and then we will get the prophets and writings, and so right now it's gonna be all of the history. What we read from Joshua until Chronicles is gonna be the history of Israel, and then we're gonna go out of order and we're gonna read the prophets and the writings and the wisdom writings um of the of what's happening. Well, actually, first we're gonna read the wisdom writings, so like Psalms, and that's and those are gonna take place throughout all of the history of the people of Israel, all what we've just read, and then we're gonna read the prophets, which also take across all the points of history that we just read. So it doesn't go in order, it's not in historical order thing like the Book of Mormon. Um, it's kind it's just the way that it was ordered. It's called the Tanakh, is the way that it's ordered, and so it's just kind of um, yeah, it's just it's just the way that it that it's ordered. But um, so now we're starting in the the historical books. These are gonna be a kind of a little bit less poetic as you would maybe think in the Psalms, and they're gonna be historical based. But again, as the Come Follow Me points out, this is not, they're not always gonna be answering all the questions that we would think as modern people. A lot of times when we think historical things, we are thinking we want to know all the details, right? We want to know, okay, where exactly was this at? When did it happen? What year precisely did it happen? And, you know, exactly how. But they're not really telling us all of those stories. Why? Because the purpose of these books is not to tell that, but it's written for the purpose of reminding the people of Israel what the Lord has done for them, telling their history and story, and how the Lord is their guide as they keep the covenant, as was told to them, and as we've just read it, as they follow the words. And if they don't, they will be punished and destroyed. So there's a theological element to this history. It's not just a good story about exactly what happened historically, but there's a there's a theological purpose to it. Um, and my I don't know if I've said this before, but that's what's so interesting about the Book of Mormon, and that's what's so hard about the Bible, is in the Book of Mormon, we know that a lot of different sources were written down, and one historian whose name was Mormon, and then his sin Ron, I helped him at the end, compiled all of these stories and the histories written by Nephi or written by other historians throughout the Nephi period, and he compiled them all together and wrote the Book of Mormon, or compiled it into the Book of Mormon, in which he narrates it, he tells the story, he, you know, quotes parts of it, quotes it, you know, Nephi. Well, he just adds that in at the end, but he tells the story of the history, history of the people of Nephi for the purpose, and he says this at the beginning of the Book of Mormon, to convince the Jews and the Gentiles, but particularly the Lamanites, his brethren and the Nephites, that Jesus is the Christ. And that as they follow him, they will prosper in the land. As they didn't follow him, they did not prosper in the land. And that is his purpose of writing it. It's to convince these people that Jesus is the Christ. And so we know that all of the stories that he's telling and all of the stories that he admits is because he feels like this is exactly what tells that story. We don't know what's happening exactly in the Old Testament. We don't have somebody who said, Hi, I'm the historian who is writing down all these stories and is taking them from multiple sources. We don't have that. So we have to make guesses and assumptions. And so what we see in the historical books from scholars suggesting is that this is just, it's um they call it the Deuteronomistic history. What does that mean? It's mean all of these historical books are looking back to Deuteronomy, which we just led, and how well the people are following this law. So there's a theological element throughout all of these historical chapters, sorry, books too, which is if the people are following God, that they are blessed. If they don't follow God and what he says, then they are not blessed. So very similar to the Book of Mormon, we just get um a lot of different stories, and so that's but that's what we're getting, right? They need to follow the law, the Torah, they need to think about it. And so that's what we're getting in the book of Joshua at the beginning. And as we set up, so Joshua 1 through 8, very important. Moses just died, and Joshua is now going to be set up as the new Moses. He's going to have very similar things happen to him and very similar experiences to what happened to Moses. He's their new leader. And I was just talking to my mom today, and I described the transition from Moses to Joshua maybe as we could maybe think of like a Joseph Smith to Brigham Young, um, for the for in in the latter day times, which is Joseph Smith was a spiritual leader, so was Joshua, right? Sorry, so was Joshua, yes, and Brigham Young was a spiritual leader, so was Joshua, but so was Moses, right? But Joseph Smith and Moses were both establishing people in the covenants. They were way more of a strictly spiritual leader. Yes, of course, they set up a nation, both of them, right, in a certain way and organized a people. Um, but really, at least we can tell with Brigham Young, he kind of had more of that personality to push people to gather them in, to push them to establish new lands, those types of things. He had a little bit more um gumption. I mean, I don't want to say that Joseph Smith didn't have gumption, but you know, Brigham Young, we know, notoriously had this sort of gumption in fire to be able to push the people. And I think we see that with Joshua, even though he feels inadequate, which I'm sure Brigham Young also did. Right? He's the one who traveled, right? We read the story last week. He's the one who traveled in, saw that the land was plentiful, and saw the good, where everybody else was like, oh no, we're gonna die because of these giants. But Joshua is chosen. Joshua, whose name, once again, and this is brought out by the come follow me, means Jehovah Saves. It comes from, it also can just mean salvation. Um, but it it well, that's what Hoshea White was, which was his name before Moses changed it to Jehovah Saves, right? So it's not just that Joshua is their salvation, but Joshua is brings upon the Israelites salvation through Jehovah. It is Jehovah, it is the Lord that is leading them through each of these things. So you're going to see the salvation of the Lord as they go and they are in the land of Canaan. So in chapter one, okay, your mentor, the you know, Joseph Smith or whoever you look up to spiritually as your leader, your best friend, your mentor dies. And now you're in charge of leading an entire nation of people into a land of your enemies. And but that you know that the Lord has promised them to you, but you don't know exactly what that's gonna look like, and now you're in charge, right? The person that's been leading you for 40 plus years is now dead, and now it's your job. And that's what Joshua's experiencing, and so he feels inadequate. And the chapter one is the Lord speaking to him, as I was with Moses, verse five, I will be with you, I will not fail you or forsake you. God isn't just with Moses, and he's not just with Joshua, he is with each of us, especially as we are in our callings and trying to follow him, right? Um, be strong and courageous. He repeats that multiple times. Be like Moses. Verse 8: the book of the law, this book of the law, meaning Deuteronomy, what we just read, shall not depart out of your mouth, meaning it shall be continually there. You shall always be speaking about it, you shall think about it, right? So it's out of your mouth, it's in your mind by day and by night, and then you will act. So it's in your hands or your actions, right? It's all a part of your body. You shall make your way prosperous and you shall be successful. And this is interesting too because we will see in the Psalms, and we will see this later, that this idea of, right? We saw this also in Deuteronomy, right? Your days will be lengthened, but it's also the way will be made clear. Jesus Christ ultimately says that he is the way. As we follow him, he is the way. It's not all our ways are made prosperous as we follow the way, even Jesus Christ, right? Verse 9, I hereby command you to be strong and courageous, do not be defrayed or dismayed, for the Lord is your your Lord, the Lord your God is where with you wherever you go. So you know you're in the wilderness, maybe you're comfortable now in the wilderness, but now the Lord wants to push you again and push you into this new land, which he's promised to your fathers, but I'm going to be with you in all these hard times ahead. And so then Joshua, right, this military leader, he goes to all these people and he says, Okay, we need to fight. Um, but he gives the land first on this side of the Jordan to the Reubenites. Um, so that means on the east side of the Jordan River, what is now modern-day Jordan, um, it was given to the Reubenites and the Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh. So they get this land. Um, but the but uh Joshua says, please come and help us gain back the rest of the uh gain this land. We are gonna have to fight the people. So you come and come help us fight. But your wives and your children can stay here and be safe. So pretty nice for the for the woman and children um to stay there and not have to fight. But okay, and they say, and then in verse 16, again, we see this as a similar thing to King Benjamin, right? He reminds them, he reads them out the law, right? And tells them that just as you know, Moses he's the new Moses, and they're like, Yeah, and they respond, All that you have commanded us to do, we will do. And wherever you send us, we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Okay, we just had a new prophet come in to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Do we feel this way about President Oaks the same way that we feel we felt about President Nelson? Do we say, you know what? We believe that just as the Lord was with President Nelson, he is with you, President Oaks, and we will do what you say. It's tough, you know, because we I don't know, you come to really like old P. Nelly, old President Nelson. But we but he but President Oakes is receiving just the same revelation, just as President Nelson was, and that we can all have that faith and renew our covenants to follow the prophet. So then the spies get sent into Jericho. Now Jericho's at the bottom, so Jerusalem's up high on a mountaintop. And uh Jericho's on the bottom of this hill, right across from the Jordan River. I have seen it, I have not been to it because once again I've been Moses looking across the river, but I have seen it, and it's yeah, it's on a flat ground. And um that is the first city that they're gonna get. It's a strategic city, it's an ancient, ancient city, and because it's um very, you know, um strategic in its placement, and so that's the best place for them to be able to overtake. That's where they're gonna start. And in this place of Jericho, there's this prostitute. Now you may have heard, I don't know. You may have heard that, you know what, she was actually just an innkeeper. No, folks, she was a prostitute, and I think that that is very important. Why? Um because it reminds all of us that the Lord and having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ does not come from it can come to anybody no matter what circumstances they're in. Um, and the Lord can use whoever he wants to complete his work as long as they have faith in him. And Rahab here shows strong faith in the Lord. And something that was interesting, I was listening to follow him before he did this, which is let's think about how Rahab knew. How do these people know that how do they believe in the Lord? They must have heard these stories of, oh my gosh, there's this people who escaped through the Red Sea, and their God is leading them and protecting them and has destroyed the people of Moab as they've been coming in, and they're afraid. But also, there must have been some concept of maybe, you know, we know that many times throughout the scriptures, the Lord has sent messengers to prepare a people. I wonder if he did it that here too, and we just don't know about them, right? Because she has to know and she has to have believed in the Lord. She's like, No, I believe that the Lord, right? Jehovah. Whatever she's saying, Lord here, she's saying Jehovah, right? Verse 8. I know that the Lord has given you this land, and the dread of you has fallen on us, and all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites. So maybe people were coming from the Amorites and were like, Hey, Jehovah, this it's it's the God that's doing this, it's not even the people. And she believes in it. And she's like, Okay, I believe. I believe that. Um, let me see what she says. Uh, 11. The Lord your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below. Jehovah, your God, is indeed the God in heaven. I love that. She believes the faith can come from anywhere. And do we believe that? I know that sometimes I judge people, I pray judge people. I'm like, oh, well, they wouldn't know. They wouldn't want to know. Maybe they wouldn't believe. That's such a hard transition for them. But she believes she repents, she comes unto them, and what does she do with these men? She makes a covenant with them. So, verse 12. Now then, since I have dealt kindly with you, she actually says in verse 12, now as I've had I've as I've had Hesed, so I've had covenantal love for you. Swear to me by the Lord that you will have covenantal love with me, just as I have done for you, so will you do for me, and upon my family. She's thinking about her family here. And you know what? What was her relationship with her family that she was a prostitute? I don't know. Maybe she had to do that in order to um cover her family's finances. Maybe they were destitute, and that's what she had to turn to. Maybe she was rejected by her family. I do not know, right? That's not in the context. But clearly she is worried about her family here, and she's like, I'm protecting them. And they said, Yes, we will do it, right? Our life is yours. If you do not tell this business of ours, if you if you don't see, say that you saw us, then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you. We will we will have Hesed with you when the Lord gives us this land. We will do it. We will have Hesed and Amet. Remember if we talked about Amet before, that's covenantal faithfulness. Not just covenantal love, but covenantal faithfulness. So she let them down by a rope through the window, and her house must have been near the wall. So they were let down. She's let down by this rope, and they also said, Give here's a sign that you're gonna do. You're gonna take this scarlet rope, and that's how we're gonna know what house to not destroy when it comes. And uh, many commentaries, the SBL Bible, the um the Follow Him podcast all pointed out that this is very similar to the Passover, right? Just as they put red on their uh doorposts to let the destroying angel pass over them. So Rahab does this. She's acting like an Israelite, like a covenantal person. She's showing her faith that the Lord will save her because she already has faith in Jehovah and it's passed over her. She also is mentioned as one of the ancestors of Mary. Therefore, she is an ancestor of Jesus Christ. So it doesn't matter what she was before. What matters is what she's doing now. Just like each of us, once she had faith and covenantal love for her fellow, for her family, for the covenantal people that she made it with, for the covenantal people of the Lord and for the Lord Himself. And so she goes, she lies to the people, and then she saves, she saves her people. And the text makes sure to note, by the way, her family is continually with Israel to this day. And we know that's true because, again, she's one of the ancestors of Mary and of David, right? And so that's also probably why the story is included as well. The underlying element of all these historical books is will be leading up to, especially Judges, and Samuel will be the establishment of King David, who is this who is, you know, seen as just such a great monarch and figure and king and a type of the Messiah. Um, and then Chronicles will show him a little bit. I'm sorry, Samuel will actually show him as a little bit more of a complicated figure than Chronicles, but that's kind of the establishment, right? Um but the Lord is the one who is doing all of this. So then they cross the Jordan, and the way that they do this is so they go up to the Jordan and apparently it would be flooded. And so what they're supposed to do is they need to number one, sanctify yourselves, right? For tomorrow the Lord will do so. They're a miracle's about to happen. This day it's happened before, but this one it's gonna look a little bit different. And again, we're getting Joshua acting as the new Moses, and so he's like, Okay, guys, we need to be prepared. We need to be prepared. And you know what? I think these people are, I mean, think about this people's progress. Let's just look back again. It was a different people, it was their parents, but they're learning from their parents' mistakes. Their parents didn't sanctify, well, they did sanctify themselves, but they didn't go and touch the mountain or go up to the mountain when they were said they were scared. They were like, Oh, you know what, Moses, why don't you go up for us? But these people, they follow Joshua. The priests representing each tribe go and they're oh, sorry, the Levites are the ones holding the Ark of the Covenant, right? This throne of God, and they go into the water. The water's still there, but the Lord says, You will pass over on dry ground. And the come follow me points this out, right? Um Rahab also shows this that not only did they have faith in the Lord, but they acted to show their faith. They they um were living in revelation, as as David A. Bednar likes to say. And I just have seen this in my own life, which is a lot of times as I've received revelation, it's not until I act upon it, or even act in faith, that the Lord can move me in the right direction or can cause the miracle to happen. And so Rahab shows this, right? She works. She's also mentioned in um, is it the book of Hebrews? I believe so. Let me see. Yeah, in the book of Hebrews, as an example of how faith and works are tied together. She had faith, but she also acted to save her family. And each of us can do that, right? They believed that the Lord could do this miracle, but they acted by putting their feet in the water and by following the prophet. And so, sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. It's literally coming tomorrow, but you need to be prepared. And that's kind of in our day, it's Jesus is coming. We don't know when exactly, but he's coming. We need to prepare the world. Prepare yourselves, he's coming soon. And be prepared for miracles, like President Nelson said. So this is what's happening. So they go, they step in the water. They didn't know it was gonna work, but they stepped in the water and it did, and it went away. Again, we don't know if this happened in an instant or if it took a little bit of time. Um but eventually, we don't know how long this process was, if it was a day, if it was 20 minutes, we don't know. I mean, I'm tend to thinking more it was, you know, a long process that the waters had to go away. Um and you know, they walked across on dry land, the splitting of the Jordan River. This is interesting because this also points to Jesus Christ whose body split the Jordan River as he was baptized, right? Joshua. That's Jesus' name in Hebrew. If we translate it into Greek, it would be Jesus. So literally, Jesus is splitting the water of the Jordan here, just as a new Jesus or even a new Joshua will be doing the same thing and establishing a covenant with God and with Israel, setting setting forth a new covenant, just as Joshua's doing, right? He not only is doing this, but he's renewing the covenant with them as they cross over. So they grab dry stones, they have I have one person for me to try to grab a dry stone and place it in a circle so that they know they remember what was happening there. And it's called Gagal. Um and is that what it's called? I guess yes, yeah, yeah. Twelve stones set up that gagal. Gagal means circle. So it could be the circle of stones that they're setting up. It also could be um sorry, I'm looking really fast to see. Yeah, you know what, yeah, just a circle, right? Remember reminding them. Um and so it's also, and giggle will be still contained to be born later. But it's about establishing of a covenant. And then it's also it's so interesting because it teaches us the importance, I think, and what ordinances and symbols are supposed to be, just like the Passover. It's supposed to be, it's supposed to be set up for us to not really understand it yet, so that we ask questions. It's not all laid out for us. We have to ask questions. So we see the stones and the children are like, okay, why do we set up stones here? And then the parents can answer. Let me tell you, the Lord saved us. This is an example of that. How many times do we allow the symbols that are in the temple or or in the scriptures or whatever to cause us to ask questions or be okay with questions and then turn them to the Lord, turn them towards our trusted advisors and learn and see that they're there to teach us something about God. So then they go and they're set up, okay? And uh so that this uh verse 24 of chapter 4, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, so that you may fear the Lord your God forever. You can be in awe of your God forever. Okay, and then their re-establishment, okay. A new generation is circumcised, and the manna goes away. So they're they're being reborn in a way, okay. The people you once were reliant on the Lord in the wilderness, now you're gonna have to be reliant on a God in a new way as He as He fights for you in these wars, right? Um, but we're gonna celebrate the Passover and we're going to re-establish the covenant, just like Moses did many times. Now we're re-establishing it again, we're remembering it, and we do that each week as we partake of the sacrament. We're renewing our covenants, we're thinking about what the Lord has done for us, right? Renewing that covenantal contract that we talked about last week, thinking about what the Lord has done for us, remembering the blessings that come, remembering the hard times that come as we don't follow the Lord, and then sticking to it and saying that we will do it. So then Joshua has another experience just like Moses, in which he sees a man standing with a drawn sword, and he says, Take off your shoes, this is a holy place, just like Moses at the burning bush, and he says, I will, you know, I will fight for you. And, you know, I'm a commanding, he's yeah, I'm gonna fight. And he and Joshua worships him. So there's this Jesus is this a messenger of Jesus who looks like him, or not who looks like him, who represents him? Hard to know. But I like to think that that that Joshua sees God and sees that he will be with them as they go and do all these things, right? And so then Jericho comes, and I just think of the veggie tales, keep walking, but you won't walk down our wall, right? Okay, and then the the historical question is Did Jericho have a wall? No, this has stumped scholars for a long time because clearly the Bible says it does, but then you go there and there's no wall that was built during that time. Okay, but there's evidence of an earlier wall, right? So that's kind of what the general thought is, at least among believing scholars, is that it was just an older wall that was used, and uh there's no evidence that it was destroyed. Well, there's a destruction layer, and it's around this time, but there's no evidence of a wall being built or destroyed at this time, but uh they could have just used an older wall, and I we don't know, you know. So that's what I what that's what the scholars would say too because there's evidence of an earlier wall, but not of a wall that was built during this time. But old walls can be used at the time, if that makes sense. So that's probably what was happening here. So then they go and they're all quiet, and the Lord gives them this sort of ritualistic thing that they do, but they don't fight, right? Where they they trust in the Lord, they walk around. The shofars are blown. That's horns that look like rams horns, and they're pretty, they're pretty cool sounding. So they probably looked super intimidating, and everybody knows who they are, right? Um but they go and they walk around them, and again, maybe this is giving the people of Jericho time to to leave if they need to, or to be prepared, or maybe they're just like, Who are these weirdos that are walking around? But eventually they all yell in the seven as they walk around seven times, right? Completion, perfection, and then it it goes down. And but the Lord says, Do not ransack this place, everything is now the Lord's, the treasury, the people, these are the lords. And follow him when uh the scholar mentioned that maybe this is also to avoid disease or the transmission of not only like uh spiritually things that might have been toxic to them, i.e., new gods or new cultures that would have been potentially devastating for the Israelites, because we know their tendency to go towards those things, which is totally fair, because same, you know, like I have tendencies that in my life I kind of actually need to stay away from because of my own inclinations to do those things. So the Lord says, you know what, there's those are haram, meaning those are forbidden, and so they they are forbidden, they are now the lords, and um, so that is what happens. And as I was reading it this week, I actually had a really hard time dealing with the death in this in these stories. I was just like, okay, Lord, why dying? Why are why are people punished with death? And I was really sitting about it, and I I think I came to two conclusions, and you can come up with your own, or if you can't find an answer and it's still, you know, you're still struggling with it. That's okay. Not everything we have to remember. Number one thing is that these people had a different view of the world than we did. They didn't see killing as a bad thing, so they're seeing God in it when maybe he wasn't fully in the killing. Another thing would be that um to think about it in a uh perspective is thinking about the plan of salvation, which is that people death is not the end, it's not the ultimate punishment. In fact, sometimes it can be an opportunity to again learn about the gospel and accept it. And I also think that the Book of Mormon teaches us a really important and interesting thing, excuse me, which is that, and and Nephi says this, which is do you think he teaches this to his brothers? Do you think that if the people of Canaan had been as righteous as the Israelites, that the Lord would have caused them to be destroyed and had the Israelites go in there instead just because they were Israelites? No, it's because the people of Canaan rejected his word and were and were not righteous. So, again, like we talked about, maybe these people had had an opportunity to hear the word of God from messengers who were coming up, who were saying, Hey, the Israelites are coming, believe in Jehovah. And they chose not to. Because clearly we get, even though Joshua tells the story of the armies coming in and destroying all these places, the reality is, and we'll see this, we see this in the book of Joshua, in several um verses, we see this in Judges and in Samuel. Clearly, there are still people there. Otherwise, how would they fall into idolatry? And how would these cities still be there? And so the reality is that they didn't come and just kill every single Canaanite. They killed some cities. Um, and maybe those, you know, they killed every single person. Maybe that's a slight exaggeration or um propaganda that was found at the time, you know, like, and we went in there and we killed every single person. It was like, okay, you just won the battle, right? But you're kind of pushing it to this propagandic extreme. So it could be all of those things happening at once. Um, but again, I also think it's important to remember, and this is still debated by scholars today, we don't exactly know how Israel was taken over, meaning the land of Israel or the land of the promised land. Some people think that they actually did go in there and, you know, award every single place. Some people are like, you know what, they just kind of came in gradually and kind of took over, you know, as they intermarried. Um, but I tend to think it's a mix of both, which is they probably came in and were a strong military force, and people were afraid of them because they've heard all these stories, and so they did, you know, have to face some battles, and then also other people were just living near them. But as long as they felt like they could establish themselves and be maybe more of the domineering group, then they were, right? And so that's kind of what is happening here. And in verse 7 and 8, we get the story of how one of the people does not follow this god's uh commandment of Haram and instead takes the goodies, right? He takes a Babylonian garment, and he's he's unfortunately punished for that because he was not following what the Lord said. Again, it's more about following the Lord's commandments, and we're not given all the reasons why the Lord gives this commandment. There's a lot of logical reasons that we could presume, okay, you know, um, we shouldn't have one person have more wealth, we shouldn't take these people's stuff because it was never about stuff. Um, you know, there could be diseases on it that we don't want, and the intermingling of people's can not, but you know, they could have foreign things on them that we don't know. But that's but the Lord doesn't give that reason. He just says, Don't do it because it's mine. Okay, right? So that's again more the theological turning point to that, and then they go and they destroy a I as um it's similar to the way that Moroni does it, Captain Moroni does it in the Book of Mormon. So that's pretty cool. So some military strategy there, with again Joshua renewing the covenant as they come, and uh they they they're doing these things for the Lord. Um they're reminding that it's all because of the covenant, and they're following the law that was given, they're following God's God's thing, which is the Ten Commandments, right? Love me and follow me and have me as your God and do these things. Think about how you can do them better, meditate all day long, right? So then we get again a lot of the kings are destroyed. And I I also want to talk about what kings means at the time. Hard to know. Hard to know. We even maybe think of mayor, like it, these are not big communities, they could be the mayor, or it could even be smaller than a mayor, they're a tribal leader, right? But we say kings because later it describes kings, but it could be that they were over a smaller group and they wouldn't necessarily be holding a crown and robes or anything like that, right? Like they're the tribal leader, they're the highest up. I also want to talk just really quickly. When Joshua was going through all of these different groups, it shows how the Israelites were organized. So I just wanted to talk about that a little bit. So he goes through and he goes tribe by tribe. So, right, so we're numbered by the tribes of Israel, and then the clans. Okay, what are the clans? Those are like gonna be closer to like smaller family clans, and then it's household. So you have your tribe, you have your family clans, so maybe that's like aunts and uncles and cousins, and and then you get your household. So it goes down, down, down, down. So the biggest thing in Israel was not actually what tribe you're from, but what household you were from. That's important. And we learned that in in one of the stories um found here that we that we learned a little bit um about the daughters of one of the um fathers. He would they were talking about who's going to inherit the land because it will make sure that their father's name and their the Manasseh will be continued. And these women, these girls say, Hey, our father only had daughters, but we can't inherit the land. How are how are our father's names gonna be remembered? And Moses and Joshua say, Oh, you know what? You're right. We need to keep your your father's name, and so that's important. And that was that was earlier, but it just establishes too um that and it it they come here in these in Joshua to remind the priest Eliezer, who was the higher priest at this time, um, and Joshua of these things, and they're like, you know what, you're right. You guys can inherit this land and you do have property rights. Be sure to marry within your tribe, but you will get to keep the land of your father. So it shows how important families were for the Israelites. This is important because it just reminds me of Del Oaks's President Oakes' um Instagram post and talk that he gave at General Conference, in which he talks about the importance of families and how spending time with each other can is one of the most important things that we can do. Spending time as a family, growing those familiar relationships is a duty that we all have and is the way that we can live like God and learn to be like God and learn about Jesus Christ and have an eternal family unit. And we can see that as a fundamental way of understanding even Israelite society, is that families were so important. Then in verse 23 and 24, sorry, chapters 23 and 24, we get Joshua dying, and it's his final exhortation, and he says, Hey, the Lord is gonna be with you. He already has been as we've come and we've taken these lands, he's gonna continue to be with you. Trust in him, just as he led me and Moses, he's going to lead you guys as you go through, if you follow him. So let's renew the covenant. And they do. And the way that he says one of the most classic lines, right? So this is also why maybe this gives a little bit more meaning to uh Joshua, right? When he says, you know, if you're unwilling to serve the Lord, choose you this day who you will serve. Here's all the things that the Lord has done with us, from Abraham to Jacob to Egyptians, like he's done so much for us. So you can decide if you want to be a part of that or not. But for me and my household, the one that I'm over, right? Or the one that me and my wife are in charge of, right? And in maybe more of our modern day times of looking at it, we will serve the Lord. That's what this little unit is going to do. And you guys can decide to do whatever you want, but but me, the people that I that I love, and I'm, you know, as much as we can, I'm going to teach them that we're gonna serve Jehovah. You guys can go against all of your gods if you want to, but think about everything that he's done, and we're gonna follow him. So, can we actively choose to serve the Lord each day? He's a holy God, right? But you but you can't go back, right? And so Joshua reminds them as they're making these covenants, right? If you go back, you're gonna be away from his presence. He's gonna he can't he can't be with you if you do not draw unto him. That's but you have to choose him. If you don't, then he will go away from you. You will not be able to enjoy his presence. That's represented by the tabernacle, right? But he will not be with you. You have to follow him. It's a it's a covenant, it's a relationship. But if you do, he will love you, he will have mercy and hesed and all of those wonderful things upon you. And so the people decide to do it and they remake their covenant, and that each of us can do that as we take the sacrament, is my hope and prayer and my exhortation. The last thing I want to talk about, sorry, this is a really long one, but is um when the Lord and and Joshua are talking to Caleb, and it's actually one of my um favorite, favorite scriptures, and I had forgotten about it, but then I I remembered. And the reason that I like it a lot is because um it just teaches such a beautiful lesson that Caleb teaches. Now, Caleb is an old, an old, old man at this time. He's the one who went with uh with Joshua and was the other one who was like, Yeah, this is a great place. But um Joshua goes to him and says, you know what? The tribe of Yudah is gonna need this land, which Caleb was a part of. And he says, Who do you want to command to go? Because you're old. And Caleb, even though he was old, he says, you know what? I want to go. And so he says, I was 40 years old when Moses told me from Kadesh Batharna to Armiah to spy out the land, meaning he's 80 now at least. And I, but my companions went and made me the heart of the people melt, yet I made the heart of the oh, sorry, but I wholeheartedly follow the Lord my God. And so he says, You know what? The Lord has kept me. I'm 85 years old, I'm still as strong today as I was on the day that Moses sent me. And I think that's in following the Lord. I'm still as strong as doing that. My strength is now as my strength was then, forwarn for going and coming. So give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke of on that day. Rather, in the in the KJV, it says, Therefore, give me this mountain. So that the Lord, it may be that the Lord will be with me and I will drive them out, as the Lord said. And how many times in our lives do we say, Hey, you know what? You know, I can do it. Give me this mountain, give me this trial. I'm just as strong as I was, and you know what? I might even be stronger on the other side of this mountain, of this climb, to quote a beautiful Miley Cyrus, right? On the other side of this, give me this mountain, and I'm going to be better for it. And you know what? I don't know how the Lord is going to save us all in our lives from all the different things, right? Be have this salvation for each of us. I don't know exactly what that's gonna look like. I know that it will become because of Joshua, because of Jesus, right? I know that it will become because of him. As we turn to him, I know that it may look different than the way that we think, but as we turn to him and as we follow him, even if it doesn't make sense, he will be with us just as he was with Moses. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Talk to you next week. Bye.