Join It Is Written Sabbath School host Eric Flickinger and this quarter’s author, Dr. Barna Magyarosi, as they provide additional insights into this week’s Sabbath School lesson, “Choose this Day!”

<p>Join It Is Written Sabbath School host Eric Flickinger and this quarter’s author, Dr. Barna Magyarosi, as they provide additional insights into this week’s Sabbath School lesson, “Choose this Day!”</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

It Is Written

Sabbath School 4th Quarter 2025: Lessons of Faith from Joshua

Eric Flickinger

Barna Magyarosi

01 Recipe for Success

02 Surprised by Grace

03 Memorials of Grace

John Bradshaw

Alive From the Dead: The Strange Truth About Baptism

04 The Conflict Behind All Conflicts

05 God Fights for You

06 The Enemy Within

07 Ultimate Loyalty - Worship in a War Zone

08 Giants of Faith: Joshua and Caleb

09 Heirs of Promises, Prisoners of Hope

10 The True Joshua

11 Living in the Land

Eric Walsh

12 God is Faithful!

13 Choose this Day!

Welcome to Sabbath School brought to you by It Is Written.

We're glad that you are here today joining us.

This is lesson 13, the final lesson in our journey through the book of Joshua.

We are looking at lessons of faith from Joshua, and we're gonna tie everything together today.

Father, we ask that you will bless us again today on our final chapter in the book of our study of Joshua.

We ask that you will help us to bring a lot of ideas together and find how we can apply these ideas, these principles, these lessons practically in our lives today.

Well, we're grateful that you are here, but we are also grateful that the author of this quarter's Sabbath school lesson is here for 1 final time on our program, Barna Modjarosy.

Barna, thank you for joining us once again.

It's been a real privilege to have you with us and for you to share some of these insights that God has given you over the years into the book of Joshua.

This lesson, last 1, lesson 13, choose this day.

The last chapter of Joshua is structured in a particular way for a particular purpose.

What is that structure and what is its significance?

We have to understand that the purpose of the last chapter is basically covenant renewal.

And the whole chapter is structured according to how the ancient Near Eastern suzerainty treaties were structured.

And for those who would like to understand deeper what is a suzerainty treaty, a suzerain is a higher king that is offering protection to a lesser king and they sign a kind of an understanding, a memorandum of understanding of their relationship.

And of course in the relationship between God and Israel, God is in the role of this suzerain and Israel is the vassal that receives this treaty.

And there are several elements to a treaty.

It's a historical overview of the relationship of the 2 parties.

Then it is followed by a historical prologue which then is followed by the covenant stipulations.

What are the obligations and what the 2 parties pledge to fulfill.

The fourth element is blessings for obedience and of course curses for breaking the Covenant.

Finally we have witnesses, Who are the witnesses of this covenant?

And in the end, it is a ratification of the covenant.

Now, we have to underline that this is not the making of the covenant.

This is just the renewal of the covenant.

But if we go back and we study how the book of Deuteronomy is structured, it follows the same structure.

This is a shorter version which shows us that God wants Israel to once in a while recommit themselves to this covenant.

We understand now a little bit more about that structure.

And in this section here, we find that Joshua chooses Shechem to address the leaders of Israel.

It is the first place that is mentioned during the journey of Abraham when he entered Canaan.

And this is a place where he erects an altar and worships the true God.

So this is a very significant place because this is the place where Abraham received the first time the promise of the land.

Now 400 some years later, we have come all the way full circle back to the same place and we see that everything that God has promised to Abraham has been fulfilled now.

So Shechem is a very rich historical place.

But if we look at the life of the patriarchs, Shechem is also a place where we have some questions and doubts because It is the place where Jacob comes back and faces Esau.

And as he comes back, he promises something.

We remember that he said, when he had that dream with the ladder going up to heaven, it says, and that was at Bethel.

And at Bethel he says, I will come back and I will settle this place and I will build here a place to you.

He comes and instead of going back to Bethel, he settles at Shechem.

And this is the place where something terribly bad happened to 1 of his daughters.

She was raped by a prince of the Canaanites and then his sons take a terrible and bloody revenge and Jacob is fearful for his life.

And this is the moment when he starts analyzing himself and he says, wow, I promised the Lord that I will go to Bethel and yet I'm at Shechem.

And then he tells the family to gather all the idols.

Wow, what were the idols doing in the life of Jacob and his family?

So there were still idols there at Shechem.

So on the 1 hand, this is a place that reminds us of God's faithfulness.

But Shechem also raises the danger and the prospect of idolatry in the life of the Israelites.

In this section also Joshua gives this speech and as he gives this speech it implies a very strong sense of corporate solidarity within Israel.

Obviously there's a reason for that We can extend that down to our day.

From this example, how can we have a better understanding of being 1 body, the body of Christ, living in our day with all these implications, with all the implications for our church today?

For us, corporate identity is a strange concept.

But we have seen that God treats Israel as a unit.

Even in the previous chapter, we didn't have time to go into that detail.

You were there when the Red Sea was divided.

Yet, because they belong to Israel and they have this covenantal relationship with God, they are treated as 1.

Now there is something similar in the New Testament because Jesus comes as the true and the new Israel.

In the first letter to Corinthians, Paul says that in him, all the promises of the covenant have become yes, which means that Jesus with his life has fulfilled the covenantal expectations on behalf of Israel.

He is the real Israel and he repeats the history of Israel and he stands tall where Israel failed And then Paul goes on and develops this theme of you are in Christ.

But once our life is hidden in Christ, We are treated as Christ.

So this is perhaps a little intro into this concept of corporate solidarity.

And having that corporate identity is important for us living in the days in which we live.

There's a passage in here where it talks about Joshua serving the Lord in sincerity and truth.

Maybe we feel a little uncomfortable with this idea of God being jealous.

If he's perfect and loving and so forth, how can he be jealous?

Jealousy in most cases, in our human experience, is a negative term.

It can be translated as this, if this happens to me, then I'm going to do this to you.

But in the case of God, says if this is going to happen to you, then this is what is going to happen to me.

It is God's caring and loving attitude toward Israel.

Usually when we are jealous, we are afraid of what will happen to us if our partner or if our beloved 1 will do something.

In God's case, He is not concerned about Himself.

And He says, I don't know what I'm going to do if this is going to happen to you.

So it comes, it springs from God's deep love for us and for his people.

Now of course you mentioned that God expected Israel to love and to serve God in in 2 terms in sincerity and in truth.

I like what Walter Brueggemann says in 1 of his books.

He says this covenantal relationship between God and Israel is an all-giving and all-demanding relationship.

And when it comes to faithfulness, there is 1 single principle, I mean there are many, but 1 is crucial.

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Series

Sabbath School 4th Quarter 2025: Lessons of Faith from Joshua

13 Choose this Day!

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

01 Recipe for Success

28m

02 Surprised by Grace

28m

03 Memorials of Grace

28m

Alive From the Dead: The Strange Truth About Baptism

28m

04 The Conflict Behind All Conflicts

28m

05 God Fights for You

28m

06 The Enemy Within

28m

07 Ultimate Loyalty - Worship in a War Zone

28m

08 Giants of Faith: Joshua and Caleb

28m

09 Heirs of Promises, Prisoners of Hope

28m

10 The True Joshua

28m

11 Living in the Land

28m

12 God is Faithful!

28m

13 Choose this Day!

28m

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