The Walls of Jericho

The Walls of Jericho

I keep thinking about the soldiers who went to take Jericho. We understand that there are certain methods to warfare. In the Promised Land the Lord had added restrictions, the soldiers were not to cut down food bearing trees, they were not to loot and destroy places of residence. It was very civilized warfare. The Lord knew His people would be living here. When they got to Jericho then all normal rules of warfare went even further out the window. This was a siege situation. Did they scale the walls? No. Build a siege engine? No.The Lord told them to march around the city in full uniform with the Ark once a day for 6 days in total silence. Then on the 7th day to march 7 times blow trumpets and shout and the city 'would be theres'. This takes trust and faith because to a soldier this is not a battle plan. To a man of God it is leaving it all in His hands.

I believe this was  huge test for these men. I don't believe those walls were empty. I believe the men of Jericho were looking on and I don't believe they were silent.  I believe they taunted the Children of Israel, I think the admonition to be silent was the truest part of the test.To not respond to the words of your enemy would have been difficult.  

Joshua 6:10 "And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, "Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout."

They were not just quiet around the walls and blowing off steam in camp. They were silent for 6 entire days. That is a amazing test and one they passed. One the 7th day they marched around the walls 7 times, sounded the trumpets and shouted and the walls came down.

The obedience and faith of these men gained them a city entirely unharmed. The Lord has made promises to us of what obedience and faith can bring us also.

Who Do You Serve?

Who Do You Serve?

We are in the book of Judges and Joshua and I really wanted to analyze leadership choices and fought with that for several days before giving in to the realization that the Lord was not done having me address the issue of Who Do You Serve?

We start out looking at the issue of if the sun "really" stood still in the heavens to provide light while Joshua and his soldiers fought in Joshua 10:12-14.

Some people think that because its not part of science it can't be true. We have made a big deal of how most of the time the Lord follows His own rules of science. He really does - mostly. Not always.

The incident in Joshua is not the first nor the last time that the Lord has interfered with the natural order of things on Earth. He made it rain manna for the Children for 40 years. He brought water from stones, parted the Red Sea, when His son is born a star appears for the Wise Men to follow, when His Son dies there is darkness across the world for 3 days. There is the plague of locusts and turning the Nile to blood. Yes, most of the time He works within His established rules, but sometimes He doesn’t.

Next we look at Joshua's final address to his people before his death.  Now this has been a remarkable campaign in the Holy Land.  A string of successes: the defeat of Ai, building an alter and reading the word of the law to all the people, making the Gibeonites servants, defeating the Amorites, conquering the whole land. 33 Kings were defeated by Israel.  Only one failure, it took two tries to defeat Ai because of Achan.  A remarkable victory.  Yet Joshua knows all to well Israels pattern after victories, to fall away from the Lord. 

The Children of Israel have a history to this point of backsliding. They make promises to the Lord and then forget Him and the promises. At this point now after 40 years with Moses (2 generations) and then years of war taking the promised land Joshua does not want to see them forget again in the promised land and takes heed to warn them. They have a new home, they have a written law, everything is laid out before them and they can prosper here but if they forget the Lord here they will lose everything and he is letting them know it is up to them.

Many of the times we are no differnet if often exactly backward from the Children in this regard. We turn to the Lord in times of trial, in times of need, and fall away in plenty. If we are to serve the Lord in our whole heart it must be in all times and in all ways. 

Laws, Logic, and Blessings

Laws, Logic, and Blessings

Just as we as parents make rules for our children to teach them and keep them safe, our Heavenly Father does the same for us. The rules that we make for our children are not random or abitrary. They are made out of reason. Some rules are forever because the conditions around them never change other rules evolve as our children grow older and are able to make better decisions. As we are better able to comprehend the world, the laws and as we mature we gain understanding of His ways we also earn the blessings that were promised with the laws. One of the most remarkable promises I have read in the Bible was that if we follow His commandments we shall be known as a wise and compassionate people. What an amazing promise and blessing that is, what parent does not want that for their children? If we don't see the logic behind a command that means we haven't gotten there yet, but line upon line, precept upon precept we can and we will.

The Book of Deuteronomy: Keeping the Commandments & Not Worshiping False Gods

The Lord Expands on the Commandments

The Book of Deuteronomy is the last book in the Old Testament written by Moses and in it the Prophet reviews instructions for the Children of Israel from the Lord. He talks about statutes and judgements and then gives promises if they are kept. He states first and foremost "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish it" the reason for this is simple so that "ye may keep the commandments". How can you keep the commandments if they change? He follows that with "Fear the Lord and keep His Commandments" so that your days may be prolonged. The logic of these two together is inescapable, but He follows with reasons, its not just 'do this because I said so as some would have you think'. By following these statutes and commandments He promises "that you may live, and go in and posses the land which the the Lord God of your fathers giveth you", "by cleaving to the statutes you will be known as a wise and understanding people". So following the commandment helps us not only to retain the promised land, but to be wise and understanding. That is a worthy goal.

One of the goals that we have is to let other people know of the truth, however one thing that happens sometimes is people end up falling in love and marrying people who don't share their beliefs. The Lord warns about this. Marrying outside of the covenant can bring conversion to other gods however as we are either enticed by the faith of our spouse or not given support in our own faith by our spouse. The Lord did more than warn against marriage outside the covenant for the Children of Israel, he prohibited it and gave the reason why at the same time. In Deuteronomy 7: 3-4 “ Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.” When you marry outside your religion it is harder to stay faithful to your beliefs, it is not impossible, but it is harder because depending on your position you have anywhere from less support to outright opposition. What you don’t have is your  partner working with you to help you grow and understand and walk the path, something each and every child of God deserves. We must be joined in a covenant marriage to enter the Celestial Kingdom, a marriage must be bound in the Temple to last for eternity. If Satan can make us forget this then we think that marriage in the Temple and making our marriage work is not important.

When that marriage produces children we have even further responsibilities. "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" We have a responsibility to teach our children the word of God. The more we can teach them and not by rote, but teach them to love the Lord and love His word the better we are doing our job.

The Lord knew that to teach children the parents had to love the Word also. Its the same as if you want to raise a child who loves to read - they should see you reading. So what did He tell the Children? "And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." The Children of Israel ended up taking this command literally creating phylacteries and mezuzah. The phylacteries are tiny pieces of parchment with scripture written on them that are folded and put into leather boxes about 1 ½ inch square that are tied to the head or over the bicep. The mezuzah (Hebrew for doorpost) is similar except the scripture is inserted into a tiny, cylindrical box and attached to the door frame. They came into use when the children of Israel took the word of the Lord literally. Not taken literally you would take the word of the Lord into your mind and into your home, keeping in the front of your mind & keeping your house for the Lord.

After giving instructions to parents  Moses goes on the relay the instructions about worship. Heavenly Father warns in clear and with no uncertain terms that we are not to worship anything or anyone but him. He goes even further to say that if anyone tries to entice us into doing so we are not to take pity on them and “neither shall you spare them” no matter if it be brother, sister, son, daughter or friend. Romans 1:25 elaborates on the foolishness of those who worship the things He created rather than the Creator changing the truth of God into a lie.

By reading His Word for ourselves we find out that the Lord has reasons for His rules - Keep the Commandments and grow wise, study the word and learn to love it that you may teach your children. There are reasons and promises for them all.

Continuing thoughts on Balaam and Balak

Pondering Balaam and Balak

Earlier this week we talked about Balaam and Balak. What a tragic end Balaam comes to. He starts out appearing to be a man trying to follow the Lord and ends as a warning reminder of the Prophet of a man who not only fell away but led others astray.  What do we need to do in our own lives to prevent this? The Prophets give us the answer every time they speak, the answers are in the scriptures when we read. There is no great revelation here except to us when when realize what we have been putting above the Lord. Pray, study the scriptures, Keep the commandments and above all put the Lord first in your life. The answers don't change, what we do with them does. 

Walking the Fine Line ... and Falling off: Balak and Balaam

Walking away from Temptation

When we meet Balaam in the book of 22^nd Chapter of Numbers he is a man who knows the Lord and appears to be trying to follow Him. Balak, the King of the Mooabites, has seen the Children of Israel enter his lands and was afraid. There were a lot of them and he wanted Balaam to smite and curse them with the power of the Lord. When Balaam came before the Lord he had his answer, the Children are blessed and the Lord will not curse them. He gave this answer to Balak’s people who told him and sent higher ranking princes to ask the same. However, what Balaam didn’t do at that point was leave or refuse to take this any further.  The book of Numbers doesn’t say so in exact words but it appears that Balaam may have been enticed by the lifestyle or by what Balak could do for him.  At this point he was not a complete loss because he was still trying to walk the line between the Lord and Balak, telling them he could only do what the Lord said, the Lord said if they asked he could go with them, he went with them without them asking. The Lord sent an Angel to block him.

Many of us walk this same line today. We want both the Lord and the world. We want to serve him and have the good things that the world can offer. We must remember two things, we cannot serve two masters and the admonition to care not for what we will eat or wear. That last part is so hard for me. I like to plan everything out.

A few chapters later we find that Balaam is still with Balak who was able to provide alters and rams (the best sacrifices that a rich man could offer) in three different locations, yet none of this swayed the word of the Lord, Balaam knew this and still stayed with Balak. Balaam had been taken out of his world and was being shown the world of the King and it tempted him yet he did not want to disobey the Lord. He was still trying to walk the line between the two.

The last we hear of Balaam in the book of Number is Chapter 31 and it is that he was slain, he was guilty of causing the children of Israel to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor and Eleazar the priest was living with the Children of Israel. Balaam is remembered in by Peter in 2 Peter and John in Revelations as a man who led the Children of Israel astray by teaching them to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication.

It is obvious from this that Balaam lost his balancing act and fell away from the Lord and led others astray when he did so. Temptation gained the upper hand with him and led him to disaster.

Who Is Actually Blocking Our Way?

Who Is Blocking Our Way?

We are into the book of Numbers. I have never read this book before.

Numbers 22:23 

" And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way."

Many of us, myself included, immediately assume when we find our way is blocked that we are being blocked by the adversary. While this is undoubtedly true at times, we also need to consider that at times our way may be blocked by the Lord and His angels keeping us safe and on the right path.

When we find our way blocked we must pray, however often we pray to have the path unblocked, we must remember to pray to find out if we are on the right path.