Daily Devotional • July 24
A Reading from Joshua 8:30-35
30 Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, 31 just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, “an altar of unhewn stones, on which no iron tool has been used,” and they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed offerings of well-being. 32 And there, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses that he had written. 33 All Israel, alien as well as native-born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark in front of the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded earlier, that they should bless the people of Israel.34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, blessings and curses, according to all that is written in the book of the law.35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the aliens who resided among them.
Meditation
I don’t know if Martin Luther really said, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” I do know that it sounds like great advice that would be terribly hard to achieve.
In the hustle and bustle of life, with packed schedules going every which way, we can find time for almost anything under the sun. We try to console ourselves that we are too busy to pray, and yet, what do we find Joshua doing today? The people of Israel are in the midst of taking possession of the Promise Land, and Joshua builds an altar, makes offerings, and renews their commitment to being in relationship with the one whose providence was making it all possible. They stop and pray.
We can barely begin to fathom the riches of God’s grace toward us, and without the intentional connection in prayer, we can quickly lose sight of all that which has been set before us. It is tempting to object because that was then, and this is now. That was them, and we couldn’t possibly have time for all that. Except the story of the people of Israel warns us just how easy that road is to go down. We don’t have time not to do it.
How might the Lord shape the work of his chosen people now and in the days to come if we collectively remembered to stop and pray a little more often? It may not be three hours every morning, but with every little bit, we’ll come to see more and more of what the Lord has in store for us to do.
The Rev. Benjamin Hankinson is the director of admissions for Nashotah House Theological Seminary and priest in charge of St. James in West Bend, Wisconsin. Originally from South Carolina, he has also served parishes in the Diocese of Springfield.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
St. George’s Episcopal Church, Fredericksburg, Virginia
The Diocese of Hereford – The Church of England
