They did not dislodge the Canaanites living in Gezer; to this day the Canaanites live among the people of Ephraim but are required to do forced labor. – Joshua 16:10

Today's Scripture Reading (February 20, 2022): Joshua 16

Have you ever noticed that it is usually the small things that trip us up? A small pebble inside of a shoe can cause us so much pain that we develop a noticeable limp or maybe cannot take another step. A speck of dust in the eye can cause so many tears that we can't see. So often, it isn't the big things that cause us to fail; it is the little things.

Life is actually made up mostly of the little things and sometimes about the intangible things. The big stuff often grabs our attention, but the big projects usually can't be completed unless we have completed the little things and the many intangibles of life. And one of those intangibles is passion. Some people argue that passion can be detrimental to getting things done, and some would even say that passion is disruptive to our lives. They would have us believe that we need to live out our lives more like Star Trek's Mr. Spock than Captain Kirk. But I think that is backward. Mr. Spock makes sense on the screen, but not in real life. We need to channel more of the Captain's passion than the intellectual detachment of his first officer.  

Maybe one of the most important questions we need to ask is, "what is it that gets your passions aroused?" What makes you mad or sad or pound on the table in frustration? These things can seem small, but they are actually important if we are going to chase after our dreams. What seems like such a small thing, in reality, is incredibly important.

Right here, at the very beginning, as the land is being handed out, Ephraim sets the pattern for the Northern Kingdom of Israel that would trouble them for as long as the country would exist. They would become a people that refused to take care of the little things and a people that had no passion for following the directions of God. They just didn't care enough. In reality, they just didn't see anything wrong with the world in which they lived; at least nothing wrong for which they thought that God had the answer. God had told them to take the land, but they didn't take it all. I guess no one saw a reason to expel energy on a place like Gezer or had the passion for carrying out all of God's instructions in the land.

But Gezer was important. Historically, the city-state formed deep alliances with Egypt. It profited by keeping an important trade route open between Egypt and Assyria and the rest of the known world and the important Canaanite city of Jerusalem and the now Israelite city Jericho.

And for the rest of the nation's existence, Gezer became a pebble in the shoe of Israel, impacting the country negatively until Ephraim would finally burn up and disappear from the pages of history.

The moral we need to take from the story of Ephraim and Gezer is that we need to get rid of the pebble in the shoe and meet life with all the passion that life deserves.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Joshua 17

Personal Note: Happy Birthday to two of the finest boys that I know. William and Henry, I hope you have a great day as you celebrate birthday number 8.