As humans we are bent on presenting ourselves as the ones in charge of pretty much everything.  We have no other true rivals on earth in reference to intelligence, creativity or organization.  Because of this self promoting nature God has to constantly remind us that He is the one in charge, that He is the one that is the most intelligent, creative and organized.  The act of bringing attention to this truth is called several things in scripture but my favorite is "Bringing Glory to God". 

We bring glory to God's name whenever we help people to see that it is God in control and producing the outcomes we are experiencing.  Because God is jealous and hates it when anyone or anything receives the credit for His works.  He has several times in scripture chose not to act or to change the circumstances to gain Him the Glory.  Case in point, today's story of Gideon and his men taking on the Midianites.  God makes it clear in verse 2 that He could not deliver the Midianites into Israels hands because Israel would give themselves the credit, as long as Gideon's army was the size that it was.  So God asks Gideon to send some people home.  This sounds so counter productive to us.  Why wouldn't you send every man you have to fight a battle?  There's strength in numbers right? Right! But God wanted to make sure everyone knew that it was by His power that Israel won. 

So of coarse that is what happened.  God's plan worked out perfectly and all the glory was given to Him.  As believers today we face Gideon's same struggle.  It often looks a little different but the fact that it is often hard to see God's glory in our actions still remains.  It could be the fact that we set spiritual goals that are easily within our own reach; It could be that we choose to not trust in God and take spiritual chances; Or it could be simply that we look to others, rather than God, to fulfill our spiritual needs. 

When we are in a close relationship with God we passionately want others to experience it as well.  This is when we take the most risks and set the highest spiritual goals.  This is when God gains the most glory through our actions and choices.  When was the last time your life brought glory to God?  I hope it was today.  Chase after Him, pointing to Him the whole way.

Are you a Gideon?  Wait...before you answer that, how do you view Gideon?--As someone who needed double assurance he was on the right track?  Or as someone who kept fighting the enemy, even though he was petrified?"

Today's reading is the story of Gideon, called by the Lord to raise up a fighting force against the Midianites.  While Gideon is most famous for putting out the fleece for confirmation he had understand the Lord's direction, what is often overlooked is what he did out of obedience immediately without delay--defying his father's house and tearing down the altar of Baal, all without knowing exactly how his father would react.

Gideon didn't need a fleece to know whether it was God's will to tear down the altar to Baal; that altar was an abomination to the Lord.  And today, we don't need a fleece to confirm whether or not following His commandments are the right thing to do.  That is "obedience 101".

While the lack of negative repercussions around tearing down the altar were no doubt an encouragement to his faith, going into battle was still a very scary thing to Gideon.  This nuance illustrates where so many of us find ourselves.

Where many of us struggle, even mature believers, is knowing if we are truly hearing His Holy Spirit on specific matters or if we are pursuing our own imagination.  This is further complicated in that sometimes He gives us choices; the beauty of this is that we collaborate with Him; His plans become our plans and desires.  The pain is, if we are honest we are woefully aware of our own shortcomings and we want to be right!

When should you "put out a fleece?"  A fleece should be used when other normal methods have been exhausted.  First, if you are not regularly reading and studying the Bible, when you need to hear from Him you may be directed back to obedience 101--His Word.  The Lord will never ask you to do anything that violates His laws and His character.  Second, He gives us the body of Christ in that we can have many wise counselors to talk and pray with.  (NOTE:  If you haven't been regular in fellowship with the body, you may also need obedience 201 - getting to know them and allowing them to know you.)  The Lord can ask us to do some pretty unusual things, but if we are not in His Word and His Church we are at peril of being directed by the enemy rather than the Lord. 

Lastly, remember that when we are earnestly seeking Him and His will, He has guardrails up so that if we do try and go a wrong direction, He will gently close that path and lead us to another.  If you are like Gideon and you don't really have anyone you can talk to about what you need to decide, remember to give the Lord time to speak.  If it His will, He is never late and He is never in a hurry.  May the Lord guide you today and if a confirmation is what is needed, help you see that confirmation so there is certainty in the way you should go.

"Obedience with a side of doubt"

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Where was Barak putting his trust? Clearly, he was putting his ultimate trust in Deborah and not God.  I wonder why it was so important that she go along.  Maybe he thought God was going to say something else and he needed her to hear it.  Maybe he had a crush. Maybe he needed her constant reassurance.  Picture this: Barak says, "Ok, Deborah, we go now? you sure?"  Do we trust God's messenger more than God Himself? Now, we could give Barak a little bit of a break--he didn't have the Bible like we do. But, he did have the specific direction from God through Deborah. We really can't give ourselves a break, however.  We have the Bible (God revealed to us) and the Holy Spirit (the Helper)! Yet we trust so many other things: books, podcasts, friends, counselors, ministers, and others. These are all good things, of course, UNTIL we depend on them more than God.  Be empowered today!  The Lord is speaking to YOU today through His word and His Holy Spirit!

This chapter tells us God's reason for leaving several nations in the promised land:  they were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord's commands.  From the beginning, they failed this test.  They intermarried with those who worshiped foreign gods, and slowly they forgot God and began to worship them as well.  God gave them over to their desires, which would lead to pain, slavery and destruction.  They would cry out to God for mercy, and he would raise up a judge to deliver them.  That judge would lead the people until he died, where, once again the people would fall back into sinful habits.  This would start the cycle all over again.

This cycle will happen throughout the book of Judges...throughout Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, leading to the exile...throughout the prophets...and, unfortunately, continues today.  We allow the world to influence our lives rather than influencing the world for Christ.  We begin to join in, forgetting the truth we know in Christ.  Before we know it, we are no longer worshiping Christ at all...we are bowing at the feet of idols.

The only way to break the cycle is to ask for a deliver.  Fortunately, we have the Holy Spirit working to sanctify us and make us more like Christ.  He is prompting us to tear down those idols and return to true worship.  He is calling us with the words we've been studying in 1 Peter on Sunday mornings.."be holy."

Where are you in this process right now?  Are you being enticed by the world?  Are you obeying the Lord's commands in a place that is not your true home?

After the death of Joshua we now move into the Chapter of Judges.  In Chapter one it explains how Israel fights the Canaanites.  The Lord sent Judah to lead this fight.  They had an agreement with the Simeonites to help each other win their battles.  The Lord was with them and they did prevail. One Canaanite king named Adoni-Bezek fled but eventually was caught.  Judah's men cut off his thumbs and toes.  This was the punishment that this particular king had issued to seventy kings that he had defeated.  I thought it was interesting that Adoni-Bezek said that God was paying him back for what he had done to the seventy kings who were issued this punishment.

It seems as though Adoni-Bezek knew what he was doing would not please God.  So why did he continue to do it?  When the punishment was administered to him he felt like he deserved God's punishment.  Did he not think that his actions had consequences?  Eventually, he was taken to Jerusalem and he died there. 

Do we continue to do things that aren't pleasing to God?  Maybe not things like cutting off someones fingers and toes.  Do we do destructive things to our own bodies and minds?  Are we hurting others with our words?  Do we think we will not get caught doing these things that are not pleasing to God? 

14“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

I don't think I can tell you how much these two verses strike at the heart of how I feel about our current "Christian" culture.  It seems that the Church globally is of two minds on a lot of issues lately, however God is not.  Referring to yesterday's post, there is only one truth and it is God's.  In churches today there seems to be a second "truth" circulating and it's the lie that being a fan of God is enough. 

You may be asking "What's wrong with being a fan of God?!?  Isn't that what God wants?"  The simple answer is no... God wants followers, or dare I say it fanatics.  Yes, fanatics.  The word fanatic comes from the Latin word: fanaticus and it means: to be inspired by God! 

What's the difference between a fan and a follower of God?  Well a fan is an enthusiastic admirer.  They may cheer and put on the show that they are gung-ho for God but there is little proof or fruit of their commitment.  Even more saddening when a fan of God begins to doubt His power they very quickly turn to other things of this world.  A follower of God on the other hand is the player on the field in contrast to the fan in the stands.  Followers are actually involved in the work of God.  They are the ones not only seeking the exciting and joyful opportunities but also the difficult and painful ones as well.  Followers understand that the life God calls us to through the gospel is not one of just knowing information about God but knowing Him personally in a passionate way.  Followers realize that God is first among all things in life! 

Jesus says it this way in Luke 9:23:  “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.  Not be a fan of me but follow me!

In today's passage Joshua was trying to help the Israelites understand that you can't sit on the fence, you can't be lukewarm, you can't just me a fan of God because it gains you nothing but frustration and heartache.  Choose this day whom you will serve, as for me and my house we will follow the Lord.

If you would like to read more about this idea of being a follower instead of a fan I recommend a book by Kyle Idleman titled appropriately "Not a Fan". 

Two unfortunate events we might handle quite differently if they happened to us: 1) a bite from a poisonous snake, and 2) hitting a finger with a hammer. Both events will send messages to our brains immediately. But the snake bite will send us to seek help. Why? Because while both events are painful, only one is potentially fatal.

In today's chapter, the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh are given their blessings from Joshua to depart and go across the Jordan river to their land allocations. Now the Jordan river was not a small stream one just hopped over at leisure any time of year. It could create separation and loss of communication. We then read that they built an altar to the Lord--a great impressive altar.

When the children of Israel (the rest of the body) heard of this altar, they responded as though they had been bitten by a poisonous snake--for good reason. They knew and remembered what would happen if anyone of the tribes defied the Lord and started practicing idolatry. As we learn in the later verses of the chapter it was not a snake bite, but a lack of communication. However, the diligence to be cautious and respond quickly was essential in keeping the spiritual health and blessing of the entire nation.

In our church body today, do we think of ourselves as members of that body or individual persons, untouched by the troubles and sins of others among us? Truthfully, any weakness in our own church body affects the rest of us, whether we are aware or that weakness or not. Sin (like a snake bite) in a member can poison the rest of the body (and they may not even know why they are not well)!

What is a member of the body to do? First, fellowship with the rest of the body. That means time spent so that you know who you have willingly joined with. Pray for that body. And put fear of the Lord ahead of modern political correctness-- biblically address sin in the body before it poisons the whole. If you have spent time with members of the body, you should grow to love them in the Lord enough to help them correct course, or if not possible, elevate to church leadership. The Church body must be kept whole if we are to function fully in the Holy Spirit. In this case, peer pressure has its meaningful function!

Not one of all the Lord's good promises to the house of Israel failed; everyone was fulfilled. vs. 45

If none of the promises to Israel failed, than we can rest in that none of the promises made to us will fail either.

I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me...John 14:6

My grace is sufficient for you... 2 Corinthians 12:9

On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you...John 14:20

For I am convinced that neither dearth nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord...Romans 8:38-39

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose...Romans 8:28

And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus...Philippians 4:7

These are just a few.  What other promises has God made us that we can rest in today? Leave them in the comments section. They will be a blessing to everyone who reads them!

In the Israelite law, if a person had been murdered, then a family member was designated the "avenger of blood."  They and they alone could exercise justice for those who had been killed by killing the murderer themselves.  One could see, however, how the idea of "murder" could be taken out of context...if a person was killed accidentally, a family might be angry enough to seek out justice anyway.  So God created these cities of refuge so that someone who was a part of such an accident could stand trial with the elders before the avenger of blood could take his or her life. 

So these cities of refuge provided safety from harm...but only for the innocent.  Those who were guilty of premeditated murder had no place to hide...the avenger of blood had every right to demand justice.  From the Old Testament to the New, the story is the same...there must be justice when a sin is committed.

Praise God for the work of Christ on the cross!  Even though our guilt is certain and premeditated, He becomes our city of refuge.  Not only that, but He paid the price for my sin...He faced the avenger of blood that demanded justice for our actions.  He gave his life so that the guilty could find refuge in Him and be innocent again through His blood shed on the cross. 

This Chapter sounds a bit like attending a homeowner's association meeting. It is dry, with names of cities and people that don’t really mean anything to us today. Most of the cities probably do not exist with the same names that are used in the book of Joshua. In one verse the territory is divided based on a tree in the city of Zaanannim. For some reason that act of being very specific about the explanation of division of land really gives me comfort.

In our everyday duties and jobs that often seem so mundane and sometimes boring. This Chapter speaks to me by showing the importance in everything we do. It seems the Israelites had been procrastinating. They put off dividing these last seven territories. So the priests called a meeting to make sure this was finished. They made sure it was completed according to the Lord’s command.

I have a tendency to put things off until a later time. Sometimes we just need to sit down and do the small tedious jobs. Ask ourselves if we are doing it the way the Lord wants us to do it? And be happy that we are well enough to do the things we can do for the glory of our Father.

Joshua 18 can read much like a land survey. But in the midst of describing which tribes received land and where, you find something very exciting about the ministry of God. 

Of all the tribes that received land, the Levites did  not receive any land. In fact the passage says they did not inherit any land because the ministry of the Lord was their inheritance. I know the normal human reaction is to think that the Levites got the raw end of the deal. But just think about it for a moment.

Some of the happiest moments in my life have been in ministry. You get to witness God do some pretty amazing thing in your life. I have seen the Lord save souls, heal marriages, restore families, heal sickness, and many other things that are too numerous to list. Being part of what the most powerful being of the universe is doing is in no way a raw deal. Instead it is an indescribable privilege.

As believers we have the opportunity to be part of such a glorious privilege. You do not have to be a priest, prophet or preacher. You simply have to be an obedient believer. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

God has a plan for your life and if you follow him in faith you will be amazed with how God plans to use your life to glorify himself.

Here is the simple lesson we can gain from the end of this chapter:  God promises to provide for us the ability to obtain everything we need in this world, and if we desire more we should expect to have to work for it.

This is the hard lesson that the people of Joseph needed to learn here in this chapter.  Joshua followed the Lord directions and divided the promised land among the tribes but the people of Joseph weren't happy with their portion.  Most of us can relate to wanting more in some aspect of our lives.  Let me be clear that their is nothing wrong with wanting more of anything that can be used to honor God.  If the thing we want more of feeds our sinful nature, then it is bad.  The desire to provide for our families, to enjoy the world that God created and to help the less fortunate are just a couple of the things that honor God in wanting more of them. 

The sticky situation comes when we want more of something and feel like we deserve it from God.  It doesn't matter how dedicated and sold out to God we are we don't deserve anything good from Him.  What we do deserve is eternal separation and death, but because we serve a merciful and just God, he has provided a way for us to be redeemed and blessed.

"It's not fair!"-- How many times have you heard that from your kids (or from yourself?)  The premise that we are all born with a sense that there should be fairness is an often used idea for the existence of God.  The challenge of fairness, however, is that it looks different from our own particular viewpoint than it does from someone else's.

In today's reading, the land assigned to the tribes of Manassah and Ephriam are described.  They were early in the lottery for land assignment.  (It is interesting that a people who knew that God determined all things would accept the terms of "drawing lots" but it perhaps gave them a measure of involvement. Interestingly, the words spoken over Simeon and Levi on their father Jacob's deathbed (Genesis 49) come to pass further still in this land assignment.  Simeon is nestled inside the land of Judah and the Levites are scattered among the cities of Israel with no clear border.

Whether they thought this was fair or not, the scales for true fairness belong to the Lord, who's point of view (justice) is perfect.  He not only sees everything now, He says everything that was or ever will be.  What might look very unfair from our own points of view does not make it unjust in the eyes of the Most High.

If you are looking at a situation today and wondering, remember He is perfect and so are His judgements.  Take comfort that He leans on the side of grace and mercy... (for having to give up His only Son to die for the sins of all of us...THAT wasn't fair at all).

Is the Lord your confidence?  Caleb could have answered this boldly, "YES!"  First, he obeyed God. Second, he believed God for the promise Moses made. Third, he stepped out boldly to claim what was rightfully his. This confidence Caleb had came from his obedience to God. And in order to obey God, Caleb had to humble himself before God. We live in a world that goes in a completely opposite direction from this testimony. The world thrives on self-centered confidence, which may look like it works on the outside. However, if we look deeper than the ego that this type of confidence produces, we see that it doesn't work at all.  Peel away the top layer and we can see broken relationships: marriages, parents and children, and within the self. "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." (1 John 2:15-17) "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." James 4:6

This chapter begins the third section of the book of Joshua.  The first five chapters deal with the preparation of the Israelites for the coming battles.  The second section, chapters 6-12, provide a description of the battles and the defeated kings.  Now we come to the last section...a section devoted to the allocation of the land that has been conquered.

It doesn't sound very exciting, does it?  We're going to see list after list of the tribes and the areas that would belong to them.  We're going to see that God had a very specific plan that includes a bunch of places that we won't recognize.  These would be chapters that we might want to skim through if we weren't reading a chapter a day through this blog...but we would be missing the truth that is contained in them!

We begin with a very simple, yet profound statement:  Joshua, there is still a lot to do, but you are old.  Most scholars believe that Joshua was near 100 years old at the time.  God was saying, "There's a lot left to do, but you won't be the guy to do it..it's time to pass the vision on to others."

That can be a very difficult thing for a leader....to hear God say, "Your time is through.  You've been faithful, but it's time for someone else to lead."  We want to see things to a full completion, but there were many times in scripture that God told a leader that someone else would take up the cause...in fact, Joshua was one of those "someone else's" when he took over for Moses. 

We are not called to do any more or any less than what God calls us to in this life.  Just as we trust Him for the plan, we must also trust Him when He tells us something we may not want to hear.  God always knows what He is doing!

This is not likely to be the most interesting read for many in the 21st century.  In essence, it is a list of the kings and territories conquered by the Israelites.  If we think back to start of the book of Joshua, Moses has just died and Joshua has become the new leader.  It would seem that Joshua would have much to fear in that he had just lost his leader right as they were about to enter a relatively unknown land to claim it.  In Joshua 1:5-6, God says to Joshua, "No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.  Be strong because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them."  That's a pretty bold promise.

So Joshua 12 in part serves as documentation of the promise made being fulfilled.  That is very comforting in and of itself.  However, knowing that God keeps His promises becomes much more profound as we continue reading through the Old Testament.  For example, in Micah 5:2, we will read, "But you, Bethlehem though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."

I have read the Old Testament a fair amount before.  For some reason, as I read through it this time, it seems more relevant to what is to come in the New Testament.  One can read Joshua 12 as a simple listing of the conquests of Israel.  On the other hand, one can look at it as a continuing pattern of  fulfillment of promises made.  If one couples that with the promise of what it is to come, it becomes much more meaningful to me.

There is something unique and special about the book of Joshua. With a few exceptions, it is a wonderful example of how life can be lived in faithful obedience to God.

The people of Israel were facing armies that far outnumbered them, had superior weaponry, and more experience in the art of war. Yet you see them succeed time and time again. Never again in the Old Testament do you see such a consistent and dedicated obedience to the Lord by his people.

Several times in the passage you see the phrase, "as Moses commanded." They were following the instruction of the Lord (because Moses only commanded what God told him to). But picture for a moment another possibility. What if they tried to take the land their way, on their terms and with the hopes of getting the credit for all the success. The book of Joshua would be a book of epic failure instead of great success.

We are bound to life a life with more joy and inner peace if we quit pushing against God and start following his lead. Imagine what could happen in the land if husbands, wives, children, employees, employers, pastors and government leaders were determined to follow God above all else. I think we might see a little bit of the book of Joshua in out times when it comes to victory and peace.

I think it's hard for us today to see the brutality described in this chapter and easily relate it to the loving God that the New Testament portrays.  The important thing for us to remember is that our world is still very much controlled by violence or the threat of it.  In fact people today kill for far less than the people of the OT.  Probably the hardest thing for us to grasp is the destruction of an entire group of people like a city.  It seems so destructive and final. 

I don't want to get to dark or heavy but the main cause for our disagreement with these actions is our own plan for our lives.  The truth is very seldom do our lives even closely resemble the plans that we set out with.  If God is who He claims to be in scripture then He is in total control and who are we to say that we are more useful to His cause here on earth vs not.  God has used tragedy over and over in scripture and in my own life to draw me to Him.  How we react in the most difficult times is most often our truest response. God has known the lives of every person that has been slain by His command.  He knows their heart and their spiritual allegiance and their deaths were part of His plan for all of us. 

We don't always understand why God does things the way He does, and we can't exactly ask Him face to face if there was another way.  Much less do we have the right to.  The one encouraging thing we have to hold onto in these situations is that everything that God does is to bring Himself glory for the sake of those that are His children.  We find this reaffirmed in verse 42 of this chapter:

All these kings and their lands Joshua conquered in one campaign,
because the Lord, the God of Israel, fought for Israel.

God fights for those that are His. 

This passage is a tough one.  We see again just how much God hates disobedience. I'm sure all of us are thankful that our last act of disobedience did not result in the stoning of ourselves and our entire families and all of our possessions.  Though we live in the grace of the cross and we have the Holy Spirit as our helper, when we disobey, something still dies. Our heart becomes harder, a relationship grows more distant, influence is lost, a pure focus becomes blurred. There is good news!  Just as the Father is not willing that one should perish, He is also not willing that one of His children stay put in the same place (check out 2 Corinthians 3:18)!  That's why God told His people (and us today) in Ezekiel 36:26, " I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."  It is this heart of flesh that we need to stay obedient and sensitive to the Holy Spirit. 

I want you to imagine that you are one of the Israelites in this passage.  You know there is a difficult battle ahead, as Jericho is well-fortified and strong.  You have a new leader, Joshua, who has not led you into battle yet.  This new leader stands up in front of you and says, "Here is the strategy:  We are going to march around the city once every day for six days.  On the seventh day, we'll march seven times...then, we'll blow trumpets and shout.  God will then give us the city."

What?  Let me get this straight...our plan is to march and shout?  We are going to conquer this huge problem by marching and shouting?  Sure, that makes perfect sense! 

Of course, some of them had seen the power of God first-hand.  Moreover, they had seen the results of disobedience first-hand.  So they marched..they shouted...and the walls fell down.  The city was destroyed...the Israelites had a major victory...and God got the glory.

Sometimes we are asked to trust God in ways that don't make sense to us.  They feel like they are counter-productive to the task at hand.  But we can never....NEVER...go wrong trusting God's plan for us.  Even if it seems unconventional.  Even if it seems like, in our eyes, it won't work.  Even if we think we know better.  We can NEVER go wrong trusting God's plan for us.  Obedience leads to victory...and He gets the glory He so richly deserves!

As we start into Joshua 5, the narrative establishes that Canaanites were already defeated in their hearts.  They had heard of or witnessed the power of God and no longer had courage to stand against the Israelites.  It would seem to make perfect sense for the Israelites to strike right then.  Instead, the Israelites do some things that you are not likely to find in your typical military textbook.  First, they renewed Abraham's covenant through circumcision of the Israelites.  This left them physically damaged and susceptible.  After they healed, they celebrated the Passover.  Again, this would not seem to be a typical way to prepare for battle.  What it did do was serve as a reminder for how they got to where they were.  The cessation of the manna and the eating of the food from the land reinforced the realizations to promises they were seeing in their lives.  Where most military strategists would have been worried about the plan and logistics of the battle to come, Joshua led Israel to consecrate themselves, to remember how God had taken care of Israel in the past, and pointed to the potential fulfillment of promises they would soon witness.

In verse 13, Joshua is near Jericho.  I find it interesting that he was away from the camp at Gilgal.  I suspect that he was scouting ahead trying to figure out how they could possibly attack a heavily fortified city with their limited physical tools.  Then a most unusual encounter occurs.  If you have not already, please read verses 13 through 15.  I am not really sure what to make of this commander.  Is he man, an angel or what?  I am not sure, but I think analysis of this would warrant its own blog.  Back to what happens... the commander of the army of the Lord is asked if he is for Israel or their enemies.  He responds "Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have come."  One might expect Joshua to be upset that this individual did not promise his allegiance to Israel.  However, Joshua falls in reverence.  I think that just like the previously mentioned battle preparations being unexpected, this response is a continuation of the theme.  Instead of worrying how this commander might help Joshua, Joshua instead seeks the will of God for his actions.  Joshua seemed to realize that he could not claim God's allegiance for his own cause.  Instead, he appears to acknowledge that he was to serve for God's purposes.  As odd a military strategy this all seems to be, it is obvious that Joshua is putting a high priority on honoring God, humbling himself before God and seeking His will.  How will it work out for him?  We shall see in the coming chapters, but my hunch is that the results will be as surprising as the method of preparing for battle.

“Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.”

Talk about a promise! The Lord WILL do amazing things among you.  The thing that I was instantly drawn to in this passage was Joshua's call for the Iraelites to consecrate themselves. 

It's a bold thing for a spiritual leader to say God will absolutely do something amazing in your life tomorrow.  Most of the time I feel like it's a surprise to us when God works something out big in our lives.  I think the main reason I feel this way though, is because I don't know that many modern day prophets.  But this is a rabbit trail, what I'm really working through is our need to be consecrated before God does something among us.

I don't think that we must be consecrated for God to work in us because that would mean that we can limit how and when God works, but I do believe that we grow in our faith and ultimately benefit by seeing more of what God does by us being consecrated.  So since we seldom know for a fact that God is going to work in a situation beforehand, we need to be constantly consecrating ourselves!

We must be constantly dedicated to the Lord working in our lives and the lives of those around us.

Have you ever considered what your epitaph will say?  In a way this is Moses' epitaph, and it's pretty good, huh?  there will be no other prophet like him, who met with God as face to face. How will you and I be remembered?  rich, poor, funny, generous, work horse, spiritual, kind? Will we be remembered as someone who knew God? who represented God?  who pointed to God?  who pointed others to God? These are the things Moses is remembered for.  What an example he left! Nicole Nordeman sings a song on this same topic, "Legacy"

I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love?
Did I point to you enough to make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace who blessed Your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacy

It's so easy to be distracted by so many things, so many needs, routines, priorities.  May God give us the focus and desire to leave a legacy that brings Him glory.

Luke 6:27-31:

27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

If there is anyone in the Old Testament that modeled these words of Jesus, it was Moses.  This is the last thing he is going to say to those he has led from Egypt to the promised land...the same people who grumbled against him at the Red Sea, when they were hungry or thirsty, or when they were tired or scared.  These people had been nothing but trouble for Moses for a long time.  If they had only trusted God, Moses would have entered the promised land with them forty years earlier!

Yet, here in his last words, he prays abundant blessings on them.  He prays that each tribe would be remembered and blessed by God as they go forward.  He doesn't pray words of bitterness, but of blessing.  He loves them the way that God loves them, with forgiveness and gentleness.

Most of the time, we give people what they deserve.  In this case, Moses gave them what they needed.  Jesus, in every case, gives us what we need.  Will we be willing to bless those who curse us and pray for those who mistreat us?  Will we be willing to pray for changed hearts instead of vengeance?