I had a little mini insight in today's
reading. It didn't come because I'm smart, but because I've been reading like
this for so many years and the bell finally went off. I'm saying all this
because if you read The One Year Bible year after year, the Spirit will
do the same thing for you.
I mentioned yesterday that one of the cities
the Levites were given is a city of refuge: Ramoth in Gilead. I mentioned that
there is a place in the Bible where the three words are spelled as one:
Ramoth-gilead. This is the scene of a very spooky portion of Scripture.
Actually, a lot of things happen there. You see Ahab (not from Moby Dick, but
similar) getting set up to fall into God's judgment and you see a godly king,
Jehoshaphat, making a devastating mistake. Then you witness Michaiah, a lone,
starved prophet, 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 2 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. You can imagine Jehoshaphat
thinking, "Of course God will bless us if we try to recapture this city
from Syria, that had once been a godly and holy city of Israel." This
makes sense to me why a good man like Jehoshaphat was fooled. I think that's
pretty cool and very instructive. And it is only because of reading The One
Year Bible, year after year.
Joshua 21:1-22:20
Joshua 21
Vs. 1-45 This is the final act of
establishing the people in the land. The Levites were given cities to live in,
with land to plow and keep their animals. 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)
V. 11 We have heard of this city before. It
is Hebron, but when Caleb conquered it, it was the city of a giant among
giants. I don't think Caleb had a problem giving this city to the Levites. The
Levites were to be a good influence in Israel.
V. 17 I never noticed this before, but the
city of Gibeon, where the guys tricked Joshua and made a covenant with him,
became a city of Levites.
V. 18 This is the future city of the priests
and the hometown of the prophet Jeremiah.
V. 38 This is Ramoth-gilead.
Vs. 43-45 This states 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, but the doors are open for the people to take
the land by following God in faith.
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.
Vs. 1-6 Notice what Joshua says in v. 5, and
see how many individual commands you can get out of this. If you have trouble,
find the infinitives introduced by the word "to." This verse would
not only make a great sermon or devotional, but it also describes the life of a
disciple. And what is all this about love? I thought we didn't hear about
loving God in the Old Testament.
Vs. 7-9 As Joshua sent them back, he
commanded them to share with those who had been left behind to protect their
families and property and to begin farming the land. God and Moses had already
laid the groundwork for this.
Vs. 10-20 Tomorrow we'll read the answer of
the 2.5 tribes as to why they built the altar. That these people built an altar
is interesting. They could have built a Mt. Rushmore of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob
and Moses. This altar showed that they regarded the worship of God at the
tabernacle to be the unifying symbol of Israel. It was still a bad idea.
Notice that the people are totally unified in
their response in vs. 11-12 and 16.
V. 13 Notice that they sent Phinehas to lead
the people in understanding what had happened.
Notice the references to how the sins of a
few hurt the whole congregation in
17, 18 and 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 has retired and that the new guys like Phinehas were leading the
people. More on this story tomorrow.
Regarding discipleship, the thing I see in
this account is the necessity to be constantly 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 v.
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 up-and-coming
leader in Phinehas, but the nation had no one to follow in Joshua’s footsteps.
The next leader we will see is Othniel, who was close to Caleb and who was
probably influenced by Caleb. 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 be
constantly 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 women who have hearts 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.
Vs. 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?
Vs. 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."
V. 16 One note here is that Luke records the
Pharisees saying, Surely not. In
Romans, Paul (a former Pharisee) uses this all the time. In Romans 3:6 it is by no means.
Vs. 20-26 I'm always amazed when I read this.
I wish I could teach myself to come up with these kinds of answers. As a
"near" application, I think it is fair to tell the people we are
helping become disciples, not to complain about government and to 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.
Psalm 89:1-13
Ok, so this is interesting. This guy, Ethan,
is the brother to the guy who wrote the psalm yesterday, Heman. Names are hard
to track down, especially since the names vary in spelling over years and
books. Some guys even had more than one name. 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 Kings 4:31 and then at 1Chronicles 2:6. 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. It means that
they probably lived before Solomon and during the time of David.
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 Chronicles
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) these psalms were
meant to complement each other somehow. In the betrayal of Absalom and the
civil war that took place, Psalm 88 seems to capture the extreme darkness of
the days of running and uncertainty, and Psalm 89 seems to remember the
glorious establishment of David by cries to God to restore David again.
(In v. 51, which we will read on April 22, it
sounds like the verbal abuse David took at the hands of Shimei in 2 Samuel
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.
Vs. 1-4 Notice how God's steadfast love and faithfulness
are linked to God's sworn promise to David. Implied in what is said here is
that God should be praised as a result of all of this. This sounds very much
like David.
Vs. 5-7 The heavens praising the Lord here
are the angelic realms where God is ruling and served.
Vs. 8-10 Even the dangerous forces of nature
are subject to God. Their subjection to His power is seen as His faithfulness
to mankind.
Vs. 11-13 Even the majesty of creation
praises the name and sovereign power of God.
Tune in tomorrow for the rest of the story.
Proverbs 13:15-16
Amen!
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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