THE JOSHUA GENERATION -- Devotional for September 22, from "Good Seeds"

And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord, which He had done for Israel. (Judges 2:7)

Societies may flourish for a time, but eventually will perish when governed by an iron-fisted dictator, when led by the wispy will of the fickle majority, or when running free to please themselves, bowing to no god but the sickly god, Anarchy. But America is not like that. It is a nation ruled by rules, not by rulers; by laws, not by mobs. But this does not mean we don’t have capable leaders and colorful heroes. At our great nation’s foundation were the noble Founding Fathers. Our constitution established a triumvirate, where a healthy if not always friendly balance is maintained between those who make the laws, those who interpret them, and those who enforce them. Laws alone cannot rule. Laws are objective, but impersonal. Enter men who abide by law, but who also model it, in spirit, not just in letter. One of our nearly forgotten patriotic songs says, “Our fathers’ God, to Thee, Author of Liberty, to Thee we sing.” Our laws define and preserve liberty, but those who formed them knew liberty’s roots. Our forefathers worshiped the Heavenly Father, theirs and ours. We love our great nation, and value its pristine constitution and the freedom it defines, but we will bow only before the divine Author of Liberty. Of course many in our nation make no such acknowledgment and give no such allegiance to a power any higher than their good laws and great men. But we must look beyond our heroes to our heroes’ God. Still, we know we could not have survived without the noble leaders that dot the landscape of our history. Such a man, of another nation and another time, was Joshua. The people he led were a motley sort – well, no worse, I suppose, than any other rag-tag nation of any other era, but it’s amazing how well they fared under his leadership. Joshua was not only strong and wise – he was godly. He didn’t just know the law of Moses – he also knew the God of Moses! When Egypt’s soldiers and chariots were inundated at the Red Sea, while Israel miraculously passed through dry-shod, Pharaoh said of Moses, “HIS GOD IS GOD!” A true enough statement, but not enough to earn heaven. Joshua took it a step further when he said: “His God is my God, too.” And it was by this profession of faith that he, his generation, and the one to follow, lived to bask in God’s blessing. This was the Joshua Generation. But then arose a generation that knew not Joshua, nor his elders, nor his God. They forsook the God of their fathers. It seems that now America is going that way, too. But not all! Not I! Not you? For this, for us, is still the Joshua Generation, and we have a God to claim!