Joshua 24:1-13 / Matthew 19:3-12
There is one prayer that we are all familiar with. It is one of first prayers that we learn and have come to know by heart.
Officially called the "Gloria Patri" it is commonly known as the "Glory be". We know how it goes: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen".
Other than the last part "world without end" which can be difficult to explain, coupled with some translation difficulty from the Latin "in saecula saeculorum", the rest of the prayer is fairly simple to understand.
That prayer also expounds on an eternal truth, that God is Trinity, Three Persons in one God, and that all glory belongs to God, from the beginning, through all ages, and into eternity.
That was also what Joshua expounded to his people when he recalled how God was with them right from the beginning to the present day.
God was with them from the beginning to the present, blessing them always, clearing the way for them and forming them into a great nation.
The question and the challenge is whether the people will present themselves to serve the Lord as their eternal God.
In the gospel, Jesus addressed the question of divorce when He expounded on the foundations of marriage, that from the beginning, what God has united, man must not divide.
So it is clear to us that if God is not the beginning and the end of what we are doing, then there will be confusion and digression and distortion, and firm foundations will be shaken and broken.
So the next time we pray the "Glory be", let us commit ourselves to God, just as He had committed Himself to us from the beginning and forever.