Joshua (Program #8) – The Destruction of Ai

After the wonderful victory at Jericho where the walls of the city crumbled before them upon their shout, the children of Israel then turned their attention to the city of Ai. No doubt full of expectation that this city would be delivered into their hands with equal ease.  But the record in the book of Joshua reveals that just the opposite happened. This time against a much less fierce opponent, the children of Israel were routed. Why such a change?  If the Lord had been with them to such an extent at Jericho what’s the reason that He abandon them now?

Well, the answers do not just tell us something about the history of Israel, they also tell us a lot of about our own history with God.

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Joshua (Program #7) – The Destruction of Jericho

Remember the story of Jericho, for 6 days the children of Israel bearing the ark borne by the priests marched around the fortified city of Jericho.  No doubt as the inhabitants watched from the top of the city wall and sure wondered at the strange behavior of these occupying force.

And then on the 7th day after the priests blew the trumpet and the people shouted and they came about when the people heard the sound of the trumpets that “the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat. And the people went up into the city, each straight ahead, and they captured the city.  And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city with the edge of the sword: both men and women, young and old, and oxen and sheep and donkeys. And Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, Go to the house of the harlot, and bring out from there the woman and all that belongs to her, as you swore to her. And the young men who had been spies went and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all that belonged to her; all her family they brought out and set outside the camp of Israel. And they burned the city with fire and all that was in it;” more…

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Joshua (Program #6) – Taking Possession of the Good Land

Listen to the Lord’s word to Joshua, in Joshua chapter 1, “Moses My servant is dead; now then arise, and cross over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, to the children of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads I have given to you, as I promised Moses…Be strong and take courage, for you will cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.

This was the Lord’s strong word to Joshua, the one God had chosen to replace Moses and lead the children of Israel, not just into the land but also to possess it, to occupy it, labor on it and gain their full sustenance from it.  Actually if our eyes are opened today, we can realize that God is speaking a similar word to us, as His New Testament people, for He had placed Christ before us and has prepared everything that we might enter into Him and to posses Him, as the children of Israel were to possess the good land.

Listen now to Paul’s word in the New Testament Philippians chapter 3:8 “But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.”

The children of Israel were about to gain the good land and we are exhorted by Paul to gain Christ. A real interesting parallel.

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Joshua (Program #5) – The Preparation Before the Attack

The children of Israel were preparing to enter into the good land to do battle with the kings that occupied the land that God had given them to occupy and possess. Prior to their engaging these enemies, Jehovah performed a miracle quite similar to one that He had performed for their fathers, a generation before when they escaped Egypt.  He once again held back the waters allowing them to cross. Only this time not the waters of the Red Sea but the waters of the Jordan River. News of this miracle reached the kings within the land and it caused them no small amount of fear for they realized that God was among the children of Israel once more. Yet the preparation of Israel was still not complete. As we consider the preparation of Israel in Joshua chapter 5, an interesting chapter.

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Joshua (Program #4) – Crossing the River Jordan

On two occasions in the history of the children of Israel God caused waters to be held back so that Israel can pass over.  The first time of course was their crossing of the Red Sea providing them an escape or an exodus out of the land of Egypt. All Bible scholars agreed that this miracle is actually a type of our own baptism affecting our own escape from the corrupt world, that is under God’s condemnation and judgment.

The second time such a miracle occurred was when the children of Israel were crossing the Jordan river, this time providing them an entrance into the good land, the land of Canaan. The interpretation on this point is not so clearly understood. Many believed that this crossing refers to the believers passage through physical death and their entrance into heaven. But as we will see today such an interpretation misses the real significance of the crossing of the river Jordan

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Deuteronomy (Program #25) – The Final Exhortation and Charges, The Blessing of Moses

Deuteronomy, the mysterious little book with a very strange name. Actually it means re-speaking or second speaking as we have seen over the past weeks and this is the an account of Moses re-speaking the law with all of the statues and all the ordinances to a new generation of the children of Israel as they were about to enter into the land of Israel, the good land. But incorporated into this book were page after page of serious warnings of the curses that were befall Israel if they were to not listen to the word of Jehovah.

Near the end of the book, there is a long section, chapter 33, called the song of Moses that accounts in poetic form many incorporated in this book and it concludes this way, a very fitting conclusion to the entire book of Deuteronomy.  “So Israel dwelt securely, The fountain of Jacob in solitude, On a land of grain and new wine; And the heavens over him drop their dew. Happy are you, O Israel; who is like you? A people saved by Jehovah, The shield of your help And He who is the sword of your majesty! So your enemies shall come cringing to you, And you shall tread upon their high places.”

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Deuteronomy (Program #24) – Warning (Implying Grace) (2)

The history of the nation of Israel is the story of both blessing and cursing. Often victorious under God’s divine provision and protection and at other times when they had been especially rebellious against God’s, we see Israel’s suffering attack and even scattered out of the land.

After 19 centuries of such a scattering the Lord fulfilled His prophetic word in Zechariah chapter 1 where He said “Therefore thus says Jehovah, I return to Jerusalem with compassions; My house will be built in it, declares Jehovah of hosts, and a measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem. Cry out again, saying, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, My cities will again overflow with good, and Jehovah will again comfort Zion and will again choose Jerusalem.”  This prophetic word was fulfilled in the last century in the beginning of 1948 and the nation of Israel once again was restored.  The promise of both the blessing and the cursing of Israel that we just referred to can be found in Deuteronomy specially in chapter 28.

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Deuteronomy (Program #23) – Warning (Implying Grace) (1) and Christ in Deuteronomy – The Monument, the Altar, and the Offerings

In the land of Israel near the ancient city of Shechem they are two peaks.  One is called Mount Ebal and the other is Mount Gerizim. The two were separated by a narrow valleys and to this day one is called the Mountain of Cursing and the other is the Mountain of Blessing. Because it was here that Moses commanded the children of Israel to erect a monument to the law and an altar for burn offering and peace offering. Under the law man is cursed but under the cross of Christ were He was offered to God as the unique offering, God and man find peace and the very man that was formerly cursed is brought under the blessing of righteous and Holy God.

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Deuteronomy (Program #22) – The Rehearsal of the Law (16)

Deuteronomy contains a lengthy section, 13 chapters actually where Moses rehearsed or repeated the law that had came down from Jehovah on Mt Sinai. He was repeating it to a new generation of the children of Israel that had never heard it before.

We come today to the final program dealingwith this rehearsal of the law and how it concluded gloriously with the children of Israel declaring that they would keep these commandments and walk in them and Moses saying to them, “today you had declared Jehovah to be your God that you would walk on His way and keep His statues, His commandments and His judgments and listen to His voice and He will set you high above all the nations which He has made for praise and for a name and for honor and that you will be a holy people to Jehovah your God as He has spoken.”

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Deuteronomy (Program #21) – The Rehearsal of the Law (15)

Deuteronomy or the re-speaking of the law has a long portion containing many of the detail statues and ordinances that supplemented the basic 10 commandments. Among these were stringent prohibitions against mixture.  For example, a woman was not to wear a man’s clothing and vice verse. Also an ox was not to be yoked with a donkey to plow a field. These statues even went so far to prohibit the wearing of wool and cotton at the same time.  What does all of these have to do with us as New Testament believers?  Outwardly of course we are not under these same restrictions. But there is an inward, an intrinsic principle which does have a real application for us as the New Testament believers, as we will see in today’s life study of Deuteronomy.

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