I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 18-20.

    After the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh had taken control of the land designated to them (at least to some degree), there were still seven tribes which had not taken any land. Joshua asked them to send out scouts into the remaining land so that he could divide it up among them. When they returned, it was discovered that there was some land within that given to the tribe of Judah which had not been claimed. That land was given to the tribe of Simeon. Which means that the tribe of Simeon was within what later became the Kingdom of Judah. This is yet another example of what I said yesterday about how reading these passages about how the land was divided up can provide us insight into things which happened later.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 15-17.

    I struggle to know what to make of today’s passage. It is primarily a list of the territory given to some of the tribes. This is useful information for later when we read about the Philistines in Ekron and Ashdod, cities which were part of the land given to the tribe of Judah. There is also the story of how Caleb offered his daughter in marriage to the man who led the attack against one of the towns in his territory(the story gives us no idea of her age at the time, but it seems likely that Caleb was no longer young when she was born). The final item of note is that the tribes of Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh were unable to completely drive the people out of the land they were given. Every time I read this I wonder if perhaps the Israelites should have conquered only the land they could fully control and then pushed the other people out over time as they expanded, rather than conquering as much of the total territory as they could leaving pockets of foreigners (foreign to the Israelites) which were too strong for them to overcome.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 12-14.

    The passage describes the Israelite conquest of Canaan and mentions that Joshua was an old man at this time (considering that he was, at the youngest, not much younger than 20 when he left Egypt, he would have been at least 60 by this point). However, the thing that always strikes me was Caleb asking for his land. First Caleb recounts that he was one of those who had scouted the land over 40 years earlier and reminds Joshua that he was one of those who at that time believed that Israel could conquer the land. Despite being 85 years old, Caleb was ready to take the land which had been promised him, land which was inhabited by the people of whom the Israelites had been so frightened 45 years older that they resisted entering the Promised Land at that time. He was confident that with God on his side he would be able to take possession of the land, even at 85 years of age. At 85 years of age, Caleb was still a fighter for the Lord, will I be? Will you be?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 8-9.

    When they Gibeonites heard what the people of Israel had done to Jericho and Ai, they decided to try making a treaty with them. Knowing that the Israelites were determined to conquer the entire local territory, they made a plan to convince the Israelites that they lived a long distance from them. When the Gibeonite envoys arrived to make a treaty, the leaders of Israel did everything they could think of to determine if the Gibeonite story was true. However, they failed to take the one action which should have been their first. They failed to ask God for guidance in deciding whether or not to make a treaty with the Gibeonites. We sometimes make the same mistake when we make decisions. We look at the pros and cons of the decision and if the pros outweigh the cons we go for it. We even take into account whether it appears to be God’s will. However, that is not enough. We need to seek God’s guidance on these decisions. I am not going to try to tell you how to go about seeking God’s guidance, the way to do that varies from person to person and from situation to situation. However, I am going to tell you it is vitally important to do so. I know that I do not always do so and often regret those decisions where I did not.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 1-4.

    Today’s passage can be divided into three parts:Preparing to enter the Promised Land, Rahab and the spies, and Crossing the Jordan. There are two parts to the part about preparing to enter the Promised Land. I am only going to touch on the first part of that. God gave Joshua advice which every leader will benefit from. Meditate on God’s word day and night. Study it and follow its principles. If you do this you will be successful in everything you do. Remember that God will be with us in everything we do. God will not abandon us, nor will He fail us. This is not conditional on us studying and following His word. However, if we do not study and follow God’s word, we will fail ourselves.

    The story of Rahab and the spies gives us a great example of faith. Rahab acted to protect the spies before she extracted a promise from them to be kind to her and her family. Why di she do this? She tells us why. She had heard what God had done for the people of Israel and she recognized that He was the Supreme God above all other gods. She recognized God’s power and His will and acted accordingly. She did not wait for the promise of benefit to herself or her family to do what was right. She acted in faith with no assurance that she would receive any benefit from doing so.

    When the Israelites crossed the Jordan River they built two monuments to God’s power. One of them was an example which was probably never seen again. They built two stone altars. One in the middle of the riverbed of the Jordan River and one where they camped for the night after crossing the river. The second was built from stones taken from the riverbed of the Jordan River. These stones would have been distinctive, as any stones which spend any length of time in a moving body of water develop several characteristics. As a result for generations afterwards this altar would have stood as a testament to them crossing the dry river bed of the Jordan River. There are times when it is useful for us to do similar things in our lives, to build monuments to how God has used His power in our lives. Those monuments do not necessarily need to be physical.
    As an example, I struggled long and hard with whether asking my wife to marry me was God’s will. God assured me that I had made the right decision. This story is how He did that. Several things happened over the summer leading up to our wedding which made it clear where we should hold our wedding reception. When we reached out to the caterer to see if we could schedule his hall he responded by saying, “I am sorry but I am booked every Saturday for the next two years…except for September 23. The couple who had reserved that date just called yesterday and cancelled.” September 23 was the date we had chosen for our wedding. Whenever my wife or I question whether or not we made the right decision to get married, one of us says, “I’m sorry but I have no dates available for the next two years…except for the day you want.”