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The Key to Continued Success

The Key to Continued Success

As Joshua led Israel from victory to victory through the promised land, the time came to send them away to their new homes.  God had been their victor.  God had conquered the land.  The people had served the Lord all the days of Joshua (Joshua 24:31a) and God had blessed them.  Unlike the skilled politician who talks a lot but says nothing or the legal quagmire of endless documents required to buy a home, Joshua’s final speech is short, simple and ever so powerful.  He lays out the key to continued success in a few short words:

    “Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”  Joshua 22:5

So Joshua blessed them and sent them away to their homes.

You have been successful and you can continue to be successful if you follow these few simple guidelines:
•    Love the Lord your God by obeying the commandments and laws of Moses.
•    Walk (live) by them, obey them and...
•    Cling to God, serve him with all your heart and soul.
   
The Hebrew word for “cling” (also translated “hold fast”) is the same word that is used in Gen. 2:24 when it says “a man shall leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife, and they should be come one flesh.”  It denotes a permanent, life-long relationship.

Love, walk, keep, cling and serve.  The latter four words prove the first.  It’s that simple.  The New Testament affirms that nothing has changed, “And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.” 2 John 6

Love, walk, keep, cling and serve.
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