Joshua 4: God commands the people to pick up 12 stones from the river that will be used to represent them crossing the river. These stones will be used to remind the next generations what happened. Everyone finishes crossing and they set up the stones.
Joshua 5: Joshua is ordered to circumcise all the men since they were not circumcised in the wilderness. Since none of the men who left Egypt survived, this is why none are already circumcised. A commander of the Lord’s heavenly force comes to Joshua and he is told to remove his sandals for where he stands is holy. Another similarity to Moses.
Joshua 6: Israel completely destroyed Jericho in this chapter. They are told to circle the city once a day for six days blowing horns. On the seventh day they have to circle the city seven times and then start screaming. The walls of the city fall down and everything and everyone are completely annihilated. This included women and children. As with other instances when this happened, I don’t like this. More innocent people destroyed. Joshua warns everyone to not try to rebuild Jericho or they will be cursed and lose their firstborn son.
1 Thessalonians 5: Paul continues his message from the end of chapter 4 about death. He continues to reassure the people that it is ok to mourn the loss of someone, but we need to continue to encourage each other and support each other. Pretty much that we need to remember that Jesus will be there for us after our death.
Paul ends this chapter with final blessings for the people: respect leaders, live in peace, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient (i gotta work on this one), always pursue the good, rejoice, pray, give thanks to God, don’t suppress the spirit, examine all spirit-inspired messages, avoid evil, and be dedicated to God.
He then asks for their prayers and for them to read this out to everyone.
This was the first of many letters from Paul that I’ve read. I really enjoyed reading it. I feel like I was able to see a different side of Paul.