Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / September 2, 2026 - Joshua 23 & Proverbs 13:17-20

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September 2, 2026 - Joshua 23 & Proverbs 13:17-20 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bob Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, with God's word lighting the way.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sandborn.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Today is Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Listen intently to God's written word.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Joshua 23.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: A long time afterward, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, I am now old and well advanced in years, and you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribe those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight, and you shall possess their land, just as the Lord your God promised you.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right nor to the left, that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you, or make mention of the names of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or bow down to them.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: But you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations, and as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, just as he promised you.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you, and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: All have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: If you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs thirteen, verses seventeen through twenty.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful envoy brings healing.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is honored.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: A desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul, but to turn away from evil is an abomination to fools.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Joshua twenty-three reiterates the overall theme for the book of Joshua as a whole.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: All have come to pass.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Not one word of all of the good promises that God gave to Israel failed.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: That is such an encouraging way to think about the book of Joshua and not just think about it, but to see that unfold in the life of Israel, specifically, and all the different battles and the struggles and the ups and the downs and the twists and the turns of the book of Joshua.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: God is with them and he is preserving and protecting his people.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: And when it's all said and done, all came to pass.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's the summary that we talked about, that four-word summary of the book of Joshua.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: So, Tyler, again, if if people are asking, what's the book of Joshua about?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's that four, those four words right there.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: All came to pass.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: God protected, he delivered.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: God did exactly what he said he would do.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: And um, as we even read this chapter today, uh, it's hard to read it without thinking of the future challenges that that Israel will face and how they will how they will fail, how they will turn left, how they will turn right and intermingle with uh the nations.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And uh even even still looking beyond that, God's faithfulness to to his people, God's faithful to forgive, faithful to restore, even in exile, faithful to draw his people back to him, who are his, who are his possession, and an encouragement for us today in the year 2026 when uh we're not immune from straying, we're not immune from um from breaking uh God's rules and his commands and um and just to reflect on God's faithfulness.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: God will do everything he says he will do, he will see you till to the end, he will encourage you, he will strengthen you, and he will lead you uh in paths of righteousness if if we're looking to his word and and stick to it, stick to all the words as as Joshua is instructing the people, all the words that Moses uh delivered, follow the book, follow his his words, follow the laws uh of Yahweh, and and things will go well for you.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, an encouragement for us today.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Continue to follow after God, continue to follow after after Yahweh, the God who is faithful, who does not, who does not waver, who does not fade away, the eternal God.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: A rich encouragement for us this morning.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and we see the ending of the book of Joshua parallel the ending of the book of Deuteronomy.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of Deuteronomy, we have these speeches by Moses where he's doing very much the same thing.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, remember, remember the faithfulness of God, remember your forefathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, remember how God brought you out of the land of Egypt and keep the covenant, obey the word of the Lord.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what we see here in Joshua 23.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: So today and tomorrow, Joshua's going to be giving these speeches, just like Moses did right at the end of his life.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: And you can kind of picture these older men, these faithful leaders of Israel, though they have their struggles and their downfalls at times, they faithfully lead the nation of Israel upon God's charge and calling on their life.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: And with all of the years of experience, with all of the years of seeing God's faithfulness, how do they both end?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: They both end by saying, Be faithful, because God is faithful.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Remember the covenant, be true to the covenant, obey the words of the Lord, love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, even in verse 6.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what Joshua I just think of Ecclesiastes every time.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: This is the end of the matter.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Fear God, keep his commandments.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: This is the Joshua version of that.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I've I've seen it all.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: I've fought in the battles, I've seen God do some crazy things.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the the sun stood still.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: The uh we were we were uh on the run from AI, that then shortly after we destroyed them by God's faithfulness, and we've we're we were promised this land and God provided it.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: And he's he's basically saying at the end of his life, this is the end of the matter.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: Do what God says because he is faithful.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: Do not turn to the left or to the right, do not go after other gods, do not marry with uh other foreign nations' wives wives.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're going to adopt their practices, you're going to adopt their false worship, their false gods, their idolatrous pagan practices.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Don't do it.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: God has proved himself so faithful time and time again, so much so.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Again, the summary is all came to pass.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what Joshua and Moses together are reiterating to the people of Israel.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: And the people of God have always needed to be reminded of the faithfulness of God.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, remember who he is, remember what he has done, and keep moving forward.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a an evergreen thing for us to remember and hold on to.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's an evergreen uh truth for us to cling to.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's never gonna fade.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's something that we need to hear now, even each and every day.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: God is faithful, not one word will fail of all of God's good promises.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: All will come to pass.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so, because of that, we need not worry about tomorrow.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: We only need to worry about, so to speak, today and being faithful with what God has called us to do.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: We were we were even just talking about uh at staff lunch uh when we are considering and trying to, in a sense, leave tomorrow where it is because we can't uh we can't grab it or do anything about it, anyways.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, when you focus on today and what God has for you today, you will find that there's work to do and people to love.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: That comes from a book that we're working through as a staff.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: And that's just a great encouragement.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's what we're seeing here, even in the book of Joshua.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, don't worry about tomorrow.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about the nations that have yet to be pushed out today.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: God is telling you to be faithful, to remember.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and when you do that, there'll be work to do and people to love.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And even from our context, the same is true for us.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: So a great reminder, an evergreen truth for us to hold on to that God is faithful, and we just need to worry about seeking to be faithful, uh, modeled after his ultimate faithfulness.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: As we think about these older, older guys, older, older ladies in our life that would point back to God's faithfulness, uh, we would look to them to give us wisdom as to how to endure trials, how to continue to walk with the Lord over decades.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh just people people in my life are front of mind when I think of people like Joshua or or Moses at the end of their lives giving a charge to uh to remain faithful, to remember God, to walk with him, to follow him.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's what a wise person is going to do.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: A wise person is going to to remind you of of the Lord and what what he has done and what he continue uh what he will continue to do because he is faithful.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, as a result, you will you will be wise and and to be wise and to trust in the Lord, not a lean on your all on your own understanding.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 20 of our text today in Proverbs 13 will we'll start at the the the last verse of our of our section, then work work backwards.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it the foolish thing to do would be to forget.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: The foolish thing to do would be to to search for something greener, for something better, uh, for a shortcut, for a quick fix, um, looking for a way out of a trial um in the easiest way possible, rather than to to wait on the Lord and and to trust to trust him and his timing.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's it's good for us to to seek out these people in our lives who are wise because we we aspire to to to emulate the faith that they have.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we aspire to uh to look back at the end of uh uh of our lives and and think, man, God has been God has been so kind.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: He has been so kind to keep me, so kind to to walk with me through the different seasons, through the the valleys and the mountain peaks, and that's that's good for us to do.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're if you're without someone who is wise, ask God that someone would would bring uh that God would bring someone into your life.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Ask for God to to show you an older older man or an older woman that that you would uh find to be encouraged by to live life with.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And um, there's some action for us to do as well.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be looking out for those people.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they cross our paths and God brings them to us, but sometimes we need to go and seek them out.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So um we have we have uh at our church, we're blessed to have older saints that have been walking with the Lord faithfully, that have have seen his steadfast love and faithfulness over decades.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: So a charge and a challenge for us to find those people this week.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I was really struck by Proverbs 13, 17, as I was reading this.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful envoy brings healing.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now, a wicked messenger, you can imagine, is someone that doesn't deliver the message.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: The message changes between the person who gives it and the person who receives it.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's a sense in which they fall into trouble by their own deception, by their lack of telling the truth.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Both they fall into trouble relationally.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: You can even imagine they can fall into trouble legally, and certainly they can fall into trouble spiritually because God hates lying lips, as Proverbs 6 tells us.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: So a wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful envoy, envoy brings healing.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so the idea there is people who would bring good news typically was associated with battle.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so someone would be running to tell the good news victory, victory, victory has been won.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: We have succeeded.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so there's this sense of uh relief.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if your family's staying behind, uh uh and you're the ones in the city, perhaps that are being protected, if the city's under siege, you can imagine that the good news of the faithful envoy that's saying, Hey, uh, we have had the victory, our our city is secure.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's a sense of even just saying what is true uh can bring a sense of of healing uh and delivering good news again.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, like apples of gold and settings of silver is a word fitly spoken.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so we see that reiterated here in a little bit different way.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: A wicked messenger, of course, is gonna change the message.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna say what suits them, that what best needs their needs.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but someone who is a faithful messenger, an envoy, is uh gonna tell good news for the relief of others, is concerned about how that news will bring a kind of healing to those around them and not be selfish with their words and the messages that they change or alter, that they're gonna say what needs to be said, they're gonna say it truthfully, and they're gonna say it in a way that builds other people up and brings great encouragement along the way.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking of the ways that we uh receive news or or deliver news, um, instruction is something that you spoke on this past Sunday, and in specifically in the context of life groups and how we how we share and how we encourage, how we might admonish or encourage our brothers and sisters to follow after the commands of the Lord, Pastor Josiah.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was greatly encouraged by that as we uh consider the the heart that might be proud, that might not be open to sharing, open to receiving um things as we live life together in God's house, in God's family.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh verse 18 says, poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And as we chew on God's word in the context of life groups, we're able to ask questions about how we're doing.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: And uh what another uh what another uh opportunity to encourage and to remind us all uh to to lean into those relationships that God has placed into our lives.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um we we have an opportunity to to be sharpened, to be to have the calluses of our of our souls scraped off by one another.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think about I don't know why boats came into my mind, but I was thinking about just the different barnacles on on the underside of ships.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: But God is kind to do that as we would be uh willing to as we lean into the the words and instructions and the admonishments, the reproofs even uh of God, um of the way that God brings other people into our life.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: So um life groups are back on.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, as you're listening to this last night, this Wednesday.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: So as we're recording this, this is Tuesday.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we have some life groups um getting back into the swing of things tonight.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And um as we as we pray for one another, I just want to challenge us to be praying for those people in your life groups, praying for the people on on Thursday nights as well as at Tuesday nights as we seek to build each other up um in God's house.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: And continue to remind yourself and others that all will come to pass, because not one word of God's good promises will fail.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that's something that should anchor us, that should ground us and give us great confidence for tomorrow, though we have no control over it.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: We know the one who does.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible sv.org.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.