Joshua 9:3-10:43
Joshua
9:3-27
This is a
great portion of Scripture, not because Joshua & Co. were tricked by the
Gibeonites, but because it shows something of the faith the Gibeonites and the
understanding that all of the nations in Canaan had of the people of Israel and
what God was doing with them.
Vs. 3-15
Now it says the Gibeonites acted with cunning, but there was faith in something
that motivated all of this. Not everyone responded like they did.
Notice in
vs. 9-10 that they knew of what God had done 40 years earlier in Egypt and
believed it. They also mention Og and Sihon, but notice that no mention is made
of Jericho or Ai. These guys were pretty clever.
V. 14 This
is the only negative thing there is in the Bible against Joshua, and God
doesn't make a big deal about it. I'll bet they never failed to ask the Lord
again. We’ve noticed that Joshua had failed to ask God about a couple of
things. Learning to ask God in practical matters was something that he was
growing in, even in his 80’s. He had intense faith in God, as we’ll see today,
but had areas where he thought he could understand a situation without needing
God’s guidance. This is true of all of us. I’m sure this lesson is here for us
as disciples.
To
Joshua’s credit, this decision turned out good for Israel and for the Gibeonites.
In Nehemiah, there are Gibeonites in Jerusalem helping to rebuild the wall.
Vs. 16-21
Three days later when Israel marched on Gibeon they realized they had been
hoodwinked. Notice that Gibeon was the main fortress that protected three other
cities.
Notice in
v. 18 that when the people of Israel found out what their leaders had done,
they were upset. Why? Because they had internalized the message that if one
person sinned, the entire nation suffered. They knew they were not to make
peace. God took care of this situation for Israel and covered this oversight of
the leaders, bringing something good out of it. Later, after Joshua and these
leaders are gone, the people will use this incident as precedence to disobey
God and form alliances with people in the land. That will be sin, since they
are not tricked, and it is what will launch them into the tragedy that is
the book of Judges.
Vs. 22-27
The Gibeonites, the people, the leaders, the entire city had amazing faith.
Remember that Abraham & Sons © had lived in Canaan for generations long
before this; and it is possible, besides the information the Gibeonites had of
Egypt, that they also understood something of the history of Abraham and the
promise. That's speculation, I know, but it makes you wonder. Somehow they knew
of what God had said to Moses in Deuteronomy about bringing all of the
inhabitants of the land to judgment. Were there spies in the crowd as Moses
preached? They knew what God had said. In 10:2 it says that this was a great city with real fighters, yet
they had the faith to try to make peace. God rewarded them for this.
Faith is
information, trust in that information and obeying that information. This is
why these people received God’s mercy. All of the other kings in Canaan knew
exactly what the Gibeonites knew and chose not to believe or even run. It is
the irrationality of sin.
Joshua 10
Vs. 1-5 It
is interesting that God used this event with Gibeon to draw all of these kings
into the open field for battle. Imagine how long this would have taken going
one city at a time. These are basically the kings that held military power in
the southern part of Canaan.
Vs. 6-11
Notice that God assured Joshua of victory. And then you see Joshua, the man of
faith, building his strategy on God’s assurance. This is the balance of hearing
God and then using our passion and creativity in following God. Both God and
Joshua get their licks in, during this battle. Joshua drove his tired army by
night to a place where the attack would be unexpected. Then God did His thing.
First He got some confusion going and then He threw down large stones. God made sure Israel knew that He was
involved and that they weren't just winning by their own strength. In light of
Joshua's request, this must have been a passing, isolated thunderstorm, since
the sky was clear enough to see the sun. I can imagine the guys running from
Joshua, saying, "Is it me, or does it seem to you that that cloud is
following us? Ouch!"
Vs. 12-14
These verses are amazing not only because of what happened, but because of
Joshua. How did Joshua know that he could do this? There must be a link between
this and what Jesus told the disciples about what would be possible if they had
faith as a mustard seed. Inspired by the Spirit, yet as a man fully immersed in
this moment with God, Joshua called on the day to stand still. Before we get
lost in the physics of the situation, think about the faith that was inspired
in Joshua. I think of how Jesus knew to heal one man and yet pass by another.
And how Peter and John one day walked past a guy Jesus had walked past many
times, and knew it was time to heal him. It makes me think about the harvest
and where those intersections of faith and mustard seed occur.
It was a
good thing Joshua didn't know a lot about physics or natural law or anything,
because if he had, he would never have asked this because it is
"impossible." It wasn’t that the day slowed down; it was that it
stood still; the sun and the moon remaining in the same place means the earth
stopped spinning. Apparently God isn't impressed with physics either, because
He did it. Just think about what had to happen for the earth to stop moving.
Those hours on earth, everywhere on earth, would have been strange hours. God's
power is beyond physics. Physics exist for His purposes but are not necessary.
He is absolute. He creates. He stops. He resumes. Physics and natural “laws”
work because He makes them work, and life can and will exist (someday) without
the sun.
It is
interesting on this point that Luther tried to teach science with this section
and called Copernicus a fool to say that the earth revolved around the sun
because Joshua clearly asked that the sun stand still. Obviously God knew what
Joshua meant, and in the same way, we still call it "sunrise" and a
"sunset," even in scientific journals, even though we know better.
Again, all
of these nations knew what the Gibeonites knew. They could have fled; they
could have repented and asked God for mercy. The same is true for the people we
are sent to reach in the harvest. They need to hear the message, but responding
by faith is between them and God.
Luke 16:19-17:10
Luke
16:19-31
Since
Jesus was just talking to the Pharisees, this story would have been aimed at
them and also would have been good teaching for the disciples.
The story
of the rich man and Lazarus falls into a different category than Jesus'
parables. The parables are normally faceless, nameless object lessons. They are
examples of "that woman" or a "certain man." No names of
historical people are ever used. Names of known people throw the meaning of the
story into an historical or fictional framework. For example, if Jesus had told
the story of the prodigal son, and Abraham had been the father, we would have
immediately asked the question of the story being real or being something Jesus
just made up using the historical figure. If the story didn't jibe with what we
knew was historical, it would open the question of what, in fact, is historical
in the Bible. That would be a nasty can of worms. BUT, that didn't happen. When
Jesus told a parable, he used no names and didn't use historical figures.
So, what's
going on here? The obvious implication is that this is an historical event.
Jesus was not only the man, the Spirit indwelt Son of God, but He was also God the
Son. He not only had earthly illustrations to draw upon, but as God, having
seen the dramas on earth and how they were concluded when men left the earth,
He knew what happened to these people when they finally entered the next life.
Jesus, as God the Son, had witnessed every person who had ever lived enter the
presence of God. Actually, it is a place of waiting. The waiting was for the
time when the justice and righteousness of God would be fulfilled by Jesus
living the perfect life and making payment for sin. The question, "Could
God really provide salvation for sinners righteously, according to His own
rules," was answered in Jesus' sacrifice, payment and resurrection. Until
that event, there was a place of waiting, which was divided into two parts: A place
of punishment and a place of comfort in the presence of God. If you read the
book of Revelation, people being resurrected to judgment and being thrown into
the lake of fire (hell) is still future (Revelation 20). The new heavens and
new earth (heaven) is also still future (Revelation 21). So for now, even on
the spiritual side of life, things are temporary until the final judgments and
new creations are finished.
As a real
event, this story provides us with real learning about what happens immediately
after death, what it looks like and what the awareness of life is like after
leaving this part of life. So, for my part, I treat this story as an historical
event.
Notice
that the two parts have names: Hades
being the place of punishment and Abraham's
side being the good place. Why Abraham's
side? I can only guess that God's redemptive purpose was tied into the
promise to Abraham. Though the promise of redemption goes back to the Fall, it
is at God's call to Abraham that the plan of redemption is mentioned in detail.
The promise to Abraham was the object of faith in God for many generations of
Israel's history. Today the object of faith is the gospel of Christ. Anyway,
God calls the good place, Abraham's bosom, or Abraham's side.
Notice
that Abraham knows about the Law of Moses and the prophets. You wonder by that
if Abe was able to hear or view some of that history.
Notice
that the response of the man in Hades is concern for his brothers. We often
feel very uncomfortable talking about Christ and commitment to God when an
unbeliever has lost an equally unsaved loved one. I get that, and there should
be concern and tact. But in reality, that lost person who has just stepped into
reality, and that being the place of punishment, is consumed with begging that someone
will go to that other person on this side of life and tell them about Christ.
What shocking reality! Not only is heaven cheering us on to share the gospel of
Christ, but hell is rooting for us, too, and maybe with more emotion and
desperation.
Notice that if a person will not accept the
Word, they will not be impressed by miracles. Think about what we’ve read in
Deuteronomy. So much of that was true and inspiring for us as believers. What
Moses said there was the essence of following God in faith for any generation
of people on this earth. The Pharisees put their hope in Moses, but as Jesus
told them in John 5:45-47, Do not think
that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on
whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me;
for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you
believe my words?
The same
goes for miracles. I remember saying, "If God shows me something, then
I'll believe." Not so. The preaching of the Word is sufficient and goes to
the heart and soul. If people will not believe what God has said, they will not
be moved by miracles. We've seen that the miracles of God bringing Israel out
of Egypt and the miracles of His daily provision didn't do much for them.
Luke
17:1-10
Jesus was still thinking about the pride of
the Pharisees, how they were like the rich man and made faith and acceptance
very difficult for the needy, like Lazarus, tax collectors and sinners. These little ones are those in need of
redemption like the tax collectors and sinners who had been drawing near to
Jesus to hear the Word. The word for sin, means "to stumble." I was
reading Romans 14 and 15 this morning, and not making people stumble was a big
part of what the Spirit said through Paul. And when you get to the end of
Romans, it says in Romans 16:17-18, I
appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create
obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For
such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by
smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. The word obstacles means a stumbling block.
Jesus was
warning the disciples about this problem and Paul was fighting against it in
churches.
V. 3 seems to be Jesus warning His disciples
not to be like the Pharisees, holding prejudices and grudges that make it hard
for people to come to God and find His acceptance. Jesus tells the disciples
that they are to forgive and thereby not give people cause to stumble in their
steps with or toward God. Notice what Paul says to Timothy and how that sounds
like this: 2 Timothy 2:24 And the Lord's
servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently
enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant
them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their
senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to
do his will.
This
gentle spirit, willing to forgive and be patient with the aggressive, sinning
and frustrating, was something that Jesus was trying to ingrain in His
disciples, and something Paul knew Timothy needed. And, hey, I need it too.
Notice
that if the conditions are met, Jesus commands, "you must forgive him." I take it that the rejection of this
person would cause the stumbling.
Vs. 5-10
It seems that with this command, Jesus pushed the disciples to realize He was
asking something of them that was impossible for them to do emotionally. In
fact, it was beyond their faith. So they asked Him for the faith to trust Him
in order to do what He commanded.
In this
context, where Jesus has just talked about forgiving in a complicated
situation, it is interesting that He uses the illustration of a mulberry tree. As I understand it, they
make a very dense and complicated network of roots. I know from living in
Texas, that if you had clay or cast iron sewer piping, and you had a mulberry
tree in the yard, the pipes were full of roots.
Jesus is
saying that even the tiniest amount of faith would cause, in this image, the
tree to rise up and this complicated root system to release and unravel. Of
course, if you do this, remember that in cities there is often restricted
airspace around international airports so be careful of how high you throw the
tree through the air into the sea. Just a helpful suggestion. J So the
promise of faith is that the most impossible thing and the most complicated
relationships can be overcome with faith.
Vs. 7-10 Now
comes the faith itself, and how simple. Faith is increased simply by obeying
with gratefulness, without questioning or thought as to what we deserve. We
think our service for God is above and beyond the call of duty, but it's not. I
struggle with this all the time, but I'm inspired by this example. In light of
all that we've been given as disciples, our salvation, the Spirit, and eternity
with Christ, our work in the harvest is nothing and we are unworthy servants
and have only done what was required of us.
I know
that it might be hard to see this, but this actually ends this section of
teaching that began with tax collectors and sinners coming to hear Jesus in
Luke 15:1. The harvest is important to Jesus and a disciple needs to be able to
extend the grace and forgiveness of Christ, not as a conceptual message, but as
his living experience and passion in knowing his Lord.
Psalm 83
Vs. 1-8
It's hard to know when this was written. At the destruction of Jerusalem, many
of the neighboring nations were happy and were judged by God for their acts
during that time. I have the sense this might have been when the Assyrians were
threatening Jerusalem and the surrounding nations were hoping that Judah would
be taken captive.
Notice the
references to chapters 4-8 in the book of Judges. That period of time was a
time when the neighboring nations made frequent "shopping trips" to
Israel.
Vs. 9-18
The psalmist cries out to God to save them like He did during the days of the
judges.
Notice the
crying out. Earlier in the year, most of The Psalms were the "crying
out" kind. You might conclude that by the mere frequency of those kinds of
psalms, that should be our normal state before God: asking, seeking, and
knocking.
V. 18 The
desire is that the nations would know the Lord. If this psalm was written
regarding the Assyrian threat to Jerusalem, God decimated the Assyrian army.
The world was stunned and every nation knew there was a God in Jerusalem.
Proverbs 13:4
What
occurs to me reading this is the difference between knowing God's will and
doing it. We may need to question what His direction for us is, but we don't
need to ask what our sense of interest and energy should be once we know.
Diligence is a response of faith and love.
If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year
Bible, click on this link http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/every-day-in-the-word/. If that doesn't
work, go to http://www.esvbible.org/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 complete description of this model
of being and making disciples you can find it in my book: Simply
Disciples*Making Disciples. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WJIDQA?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
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.
Send comments or feedback to dgkachikis@gmail.com.
If you would like documents containing an entire month
of the Reading Notes, go to https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes. You can download
these to use on your computer or to print.
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