Joshua 22-24

After all the land allotments have been issued to the tribes of Israel, Caleb and Joshua, they all go out to the land and begin to settle into the promise that the LORD fulfilled. This has to be an amazingly settled feeling of peace and security for the Israelites, after having defeated 33 Canaanite kings conquering the land that the LORD promised Abraham hundreds of years earlier, to then begin settling in the existing cities and building new cities. Joshua commissions the tribes to their land allotments and warns them:

Joshua 22:5 (NET) "But be very careful to do the commandment and the law which Moses, the LORD's servant, commanded you, to love." *Hebrew Translator Note

Since the exodus from Egypt the people of Israel have been together en masse over the past 40+ years in the wilderness and through the entrance into Canaan and now all the tribes will split up into all their designated areas throughout the land of Israel. Joshua's word of caution encourages caution in deed to love the commandment and law of Moses which echoes the shema established in Deuteronomy. 

Deuteronomy 6:5 (NKJV) "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."

This caution is important because up until now the camp of Israel has been centrally arranged around the tent of meeting now for 40+ years since it was constructed, everything about their lives in the wilderness has been built around the following of the cloud and fire as the LORD would move, leading and guiding them under his mighty hand of protection around ancient Mesopotamia. With all the tribes going far and near to the land allotted them the onus is on them remembering and putting into practice, shema, the Mosaic law since the tabernacle was assembled in the city of Shiloh in the land of Ephraim. Joshua commands a call to action for the people to intentionally remember, hear and obey the precepts of the law. 

Psalm 119:97 (NKJV) "Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day."

O LORD may I not forget your law, let the precepts and truth of your word be the meditation of my mind each day that I wake as I seek first the kingdom of God in all my ways and deeds. 

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