I had a little mini insight in today's reading. Mind you, it didn't come because I'm smart, but because I've been doing this for so many years that bell finally went off. Also, it is probably meaningless to you, but the Spirit has made it meaningful for me, so I thought it was cool. I'm saying all this because if you read the Bible like this, year after year, the Spirit will do the same things with you.
So, I'm reading today and realize that one of the cities the Levites were given is a city of refuge: Ramoth in Gilead. Somehow I'm thinking, "I know that name." Then it hits me, there is a place in the Bible where the three words are spelled as one: Ramothgilead. This is the scene of a very spooky portion of Scripture. Actually, a lot of things happen there. You see evil Ahab (not from Moby Dick) getting set up to fall into God's judgment, you see a godly king, Jehoshaphat, making a devastating mistake, and you see a lone, starved prophet named Michaiah, open a window to let us see what actually takes place spiritually before the throne of God in heaven as he uses the demonic to judge the disobedient and rebellious on earth. The entire event is in 1 Chronicles 18, but look particularly at vs. 18-22. You can get some real insight out of this. I have always been intrigued by this story, but I never realized that what Ahab was using to lure Jehoshaphat into fighting with him had once been a spiritual city, a city of the Levites, a city of refuge. What a noble cause to use to entice Jehoshaphat into bonding with him and his evil. Of course God would bless them if they tried to recapture a city from Syria that had once been a godly city in Israel, right? Wrong! I think that's pretty cool. And it is only because of reading the One Year Bible, year after year.
Joshua 21:1-22:20
Joshua 21
This is the final act of establishing the people in the land. The Levites were large enough to need cities to live in and pasture land. God spread the Levites throughout Israel. Since they no longer needed to pack up the Tabernacle, they would be organized to minister at the Tabernacle in shifts. In the meantime, they were to have a teaching ministry among the people. So, rather than gathering the Levites around the Tabernacle in Shiloh, they were spread out. According to the Bible Knowledge Commentary, "someone has estimated that no one in Israel lived more than 10 miles from one of the 48 Levite towns." (p.364)
Now just for something to do, read through the list of these towns and see how many of the six cities of refuge are towns given to the Levites.
Vs. 43-45 state the completion of the administration of Joshua and the essential conquest and division of the land. If only the people would have continued to follow the Lord.
This summary didn't mean that the fighting was over, and it didn't signal the completion of the Abrahamic covenant. Everything here is still partial.
Joshua 22:1-20
This is an interesting event. It hints to future problems, but at this point, it shows Israel's very solid focus on obeying the Lord.
Notice in verse five, that Joshua's command to the tribes was to love the Lord. I thought we didn't hear about loving God in the Old Testament.
V. 8 is a command to share with those who had been left behind to protect their families and property and to begin farming the land.
Vs. 10-20 Tomorrow we'll read the answer of the 2.5 tribes as to why they built the altar.
Notice that the people are totally unified in their response in vs. 12 & 16.
Notice the references to how the sins of a few hurt the entire congregation in 17, 18 & 20.
V. 19 They offered the solution of letting the 2.5 tribes join them on the west side of the Jordan.
Since there is no mention of Joshua, it seems that Joshua was retired and that the new guys like Phinehas were leading the people.
Regarding discipleship, the thing I see in this account is the necessity to constantly be training the next generation of leaders. Phinehas had good family connections, but we also see him in action as a man who had a heart for God. When he mentions the fiasco at Baal-Peor in verse 17, it was because he himself took the lead in that situation when everyone else was paralyzed. It is interesting for me that the priests had an upcoming leader in Phinehas, but the nation had no one to follow Joshua. The next leader we will see is Othniel, who was close to Caleb and who was probably influenced by him. In the case of the rest of the judges, no one looks like they were "discipled" for leadership.
Since our focus in this life is to constantly be making more and better disciples, it shouldn't be rare to find leaders who have come up in a group to assume leadership from the past generation and groom leaders for the next generation. In working in the harvest, making disciples who make disciples, we should be pros at developing men and woman who have a heart for God, and who are convinced that their mission in life is to follow Christ in the harvest making disciples who make disciples. It is hard to break that chain of generational preparation, if we embrace our mission as makers of disciples from and for the harvest.
Luke 20:1-26
We have read these events before in Matthew and Mark. Jesus is close to His crucifixion, and here, He's in the pressure cooker of controversy and conflict.
Luke 20:1-8
So, as a disciple advising other disciples, what principle would you pull from this event that would arm people in your group to give a good answer in this kind of conflict?
Luke 20:9-19
I don't know about this one. Would you advise your guys to be this pointed? It kind of cuts against our cultural sense of being "politically correct."
Luke 20:20-26
I wish I could teach myself to come up with answers like this one. But as a "near" application, I think it is fair to tell the people we are growing as disciples, to stop complaining about government and do the work of a disciple in the harvest, bearing much fruit, glorifying the Father and so proving to be disciples of our Lord. Jesus said that if we seek His kingdom first, He'll take care of the rest.
This is a rather "exhausting" video, but "He'll Take Care of the Rest" by Keith Green is great. The song begins after a minute thirty seconds. Whether it's "success" in our following as disciples in the harvest or waiting for God to meet our earthly needs, we are just to focus on following Jesus in the harvest and to be faithful for our part. God takes care of results and keeping us fed and clothed.
Psalm 89:1-13
Ok, so this is interesting. This guy, Ethan, is the brother to the guy who wrote the psalm yesterday, Herman. Names are hard to track down, especially since the names vary in spelling over years and books. Also, it is hard to know when they lived because sometimes the head of the clan is named and then only the "famous sons" are mentioned with names skipped in between. But check this out, look at 1 Chron. 2:6 and then at 1 Kings 4:31. You find the same names together. These men were known to be wise, and so it's mentioned that Solomon was more of a wise guy than both of them put together.
Now, it says that they were together (if it's the same guys) when David brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem in 1 Chron. 15:15-19.
This psalm will be spread over today, tomorrow and the next day. If both men were with David during the time he fled from Absalom, I wonder if, and this is just pure speculation, if the psalms were meant to complement each other somehow. The extreme darkness of the days of running and uncertainty (Psalm 88), and the glorious establishment of David and then again, the cry to God to restore David (Psalm 89).
Vs. 51 (April 22) sounds like the verbal abuse David took at the hands of Shimei in 2 Sam. 16:5-9. I'm saying this now to suggest that that event might be the framework of this psalm.
All of this is a bit harder when a psalm is spread out over so many days. Then on the 23rd we get two psalms because they were both written by Moses. Go figure.
Proverbs 13:15-16
Amen!
If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.”
I'm writing these comments to and for those who are following a One Year Bible and interested in growing deeper as a disciple, following Jesus in the harvest. My hope is to see the growth of a discipleship culture in the church. Groups of 3-4 disciples, meeting weekly, encouraging each other to follow Christ and work to reach out and make disciples who make disciples. The Bible itself is the most universal manual we have and key to our growth and service in Christ. Nothing keeps us more focused on why we are here or what we are to be doing. My comments are only meant to provide some explanation of the events or to show the flow of God's plan of redemption. My comments are in no way exhaustive, but are designed to keep us focused on Christ and our role in His harvest. My hope is that the people in these groups will grow in Christ and be willing, after a year, to find 3 others to meet with and encourage in their growth as disciples, disciples making disciples in the harvest.
If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.
I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible; in fact, I read something you don't, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.
Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and is encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.
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