Tag Archives: Daily Bible Study

Daily Bible Study

March 15, 2019 Bible Study — Age Is a Number, When Some Need To Slow Down, Others Are Still Going Strong

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 begins by listing the conquests which Israel had made during Joshua’s lifetime.  I find it interesting that the passage gives the borders of the land which the Israelites took control of east of the Jordan River, but only lists the kings which they defeated west of the Jordan.  East of the Jordan the passage describes the borders of the land they controlled after defeating the kings whom they defeated, while west of the Jordan it describes the area in which the kings they defeated lived.  Then the passage describes the unconquered land which they were to include when dividing the land up among the tribes.  The passage tells us that this was the state of things when Joshua was forced to acknowledge that old age meant that he would no longer lead Israel to further conquest.

So, with this state of affairs, Joshua, Eleazar the priest, and leaders from the tribes divided the land among the tribes.  The division was done in such a way that all of the tribes were satisfied that it was appropriate and fair.  In the middle of this, Caleb, who was a contemporary of Joshua, comes forward and asks for his allotment.  Caleb declares that he is 85 years old, but still able to fight.  From this we see that we should not have the same expectations for everyone.  Joshua, about whom I will repeat that he was a contemporary of Caleb, needed to recognize that he could no longer lead the Israelites in war and would soon die.  Caleb, on the other hand, was still prepared to go out and serve God by conquering the land which would belong to his descendants.  Each of us needs to judge to what God is calling us based on our own situation, not by comparing ourselves to others.

Daily Bible Study

March 14, 2019 Bible Study — The Land Is Naturally Divided

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 10-11.

The kings of the land had learned what the Israelites did to Jericho and Ai.  They wanted to keep the Israelites from doing the same thing to them, but the Israelites were still a nomadic people with no location they could be forced to defend.  However, once they had allied with the Gibeonites, the southern kings saw their chance.  Joshua demonstrated both his tactical leadership and the fighting prowess of the Israelites by marching overnight to relieve the siege of Gibeon.  Joshua caught the southern kings by surprise because they thought the Israelites were too far away to relieve the siege in a timely fashion.  Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about this account is that even though the king of Jerusalem organized the attack on Gibeon, Jerusalem is not one of the cities listed among those which Joshua conquered after this battle.

Some time after this, the northern kings joined forces to fight the Israelites.  There are a couple of interesting things about this account of the second group of kings.  First, the area controlled by the northern and southern kings corresponds loosely to the later division of Israel into two kingdoms.  Second, the way in which the northern kings gathered for war suggests that once the Israelites conquered the southern cities they began to settle down, giving the northern kings targets to strike if they were not met in battle. Finally, after Joshua had conquered and taken control of the towns which had entered into the northern alliance the Israelites, for the most part, ended their conquest of the area.  We know from later accounts that they had not completely taken control of the area, that some areas were still controlled by those who were here when they arrived, but nonetheless the Israelites had taken control of all of the land which they could settle at this time.

Daily Bible Study

March 13, 2019 Bible Study — The Importance of Seeking God’s Guidance

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 the Gibeonites came to the Israelites seeking a treaty, the leaders did what they thought was due diligence.  They looked at the food the Gibeonites had brought with them and at their other supplies.  All showed significant age, suggesting that the Gibeonites had come from a great distance.  So, the Israelites made a treaty with them, despite God’s command not to make a treaty with anyone living in the land.   Reading this story I can think of several things which they could have done to avoid making this mistake.  But that misses the point. The Israelites trusted in their own judgement and failed to seek God’s guidance.  No matter how sure we are of our own judgement on an issue, we should seek God’s guidance through prayer.  How God will deliver that guidance will vary from situation to situation.  Perhaps He will give us an insight, perhaps He will have someone give us advice, or perhaps something else, but we should always seek His guidance. 

Daily Bible Study

March 11, 2019 Bible Study — The Importance of Memorials

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.

When the spies Joshua sent out to spy out the land around Jericho needed a place to stay for the night, they went to the house of a prostitute because that was a place where strangers could go to spend the night with no questions asked about why they were there.  It did not work out that way because someone recognized them as Israelites when they went in to Rahab’s house and thus we learn a lesson about how God works.  No one had preached about God to Rahab.  In fact ,as best we understand the way the religion of that time and place worked, she was a priestess (of sorts) to the local diety.  Rahab had a choice to make and she chose the side of God.  She did not know much about God, or what it took to serve Him, but she had heard the stories about the Israelites and knew that she did not want to be God’s enemy.  We should live our lives so that when others preach to those who have heard about us those who hear go, “Yes, I want to be like them.”

When the Israelites crossed the Jordan, Joshua had them take 12 rocks from the center of the riverbed.  They set those twelve stones up as a memorial to their crossing of the Jordan.  I want to note that these rocks were not just any rocks, they were rocks which had been on a riverbed for an extended period of time.  As a result they would have had a different appearance from rocks that you would find lying on the ground or which you might dig out of a field when you plow it up.  Anyone who saw this memorial who knew anything about rocks would have known they came from a riverbed.  As we go through life, God provides us with such memorials, things which show that He is working in our lives.  Some of those things will be physical objects, such as this memorial the Israelites built.  Some of those things will be less tangible.  In either case, we must take note that God is showing His power so that we never forget when He has shown us His will.

Daily Bible Study

March 10, 2019 Bible Study –Moses Predicts the People’s Rebellion

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 32-34.

Moses had just called for the people of Israel to accept God’s covenant, and they had done so, when he recited this song for them.  This song predicted that they would break the covenant they had just made with God and suffer the consequences of doing so.  Moses further predicted that God would call people to Himself who were not a people, from among the Gentiles He would call people to Himself to make the descendants of Israel jealous.  He would do this while allowing the enemies of Israel to triumph over them and to persecute them. 

I wasn’t sure where I was going with this when I started, but as I wrote the above I realized something.  When the people of Israel rebelled against God He called forth two groups from among the rest of humanity.  Those whom He called to be His own and make the descendants of Israel jealous, and those who hate and persecute them because they rebelled against Him.  The former are those who recognize that God, the Rock of Israel, is Supreme and strive to serve Him.  The latter are those who serve the gods and demons whom Israel turned to in their rebellion.  Those who hate and persecute Jews (who are the descendants of Israel) do not serve God, rather they are His enemies.  Those who seek to serve God by following Christ must recognize that their calling is to serve as a beacon to draw the descendants of Israel back to serving God.  Those who choose to be the enemies of the descendants of Israel make themselves the enemies of God and will suffer the just consequences for their sins.

 

Daily Bible Study

March 9, 2019 Bible Study — Today We Have a Choice

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 29-31.

Moses makes several points in this passage which I want to bring up.  The first one that strikes me every time I read this passage is not the first one in the passage.  Today we are given a choice, a choice between life and death.  This choice is not a once and done choice.  Rather it is a choice we must make every day.  Will we choose life and do God’s will?  Or will we reject God’s will and choose death?  One day the choice we make will be final, but until then, if we made the wrong choice yesterday, we can always repent and make the right choice today.  Of course, whichever choice we make today will make it easier to make that choice again tomorrow and harder to make the other.  So, it is important to make the right choice each and every day.

I was going to work my way backwards from that to the other point, but as I began to write the next section I realized how what I wanted to write about the other points did not tie together that way.  When we have made the wrong choice time and again so that we are suffering the curses which come from rejecting God’s will, if we turn back to God and strive once more to do His will He will bring us back to Him.  He will change and cleanse our hearts.  It will not be hard to know His will, nor will it be hard to do His will.  If we truly desire to return to Him, He will write His commands on our hearts.  In fact, He has already done so.  When we make the wrong choice and reject God’s will we obscure part of what He has written on our hearts.  Each time we reject God’s will we make it even harder for us to read what He has written there.  However, each time we look at what can still be seen, and there will always be a little bit of what God has written visible to us if we look for it, and choose to follow His will God will wipe some of that obscuring muck away.  That is the beauty of what God offers us through Jesus.  When we fully accept Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins, it is like God has turned a power washer on our hearts.  Of course, it hurts when He starts to wash away some of that ingrained sin and we sometimes try to shelter ourselves from the cleaning.  But we have to open ourselves up to that pain in order to experience the healing which can only happen once God has cleaned all of that gunk out of our lives.

Daily Bible Study

March 8, 2019 Bible Study — If God Made You, What Makes You THink His Instructions Aren’t Your Best Option?

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 27-28.

Moses instructed the Israelites that when they crossed over into the Promised Land they were to set up half the people on Mt Gerizim and half the people on Mt Ebal.    Those on Mt Gerizim would declare a blessing on the people while those on Mt Ebal would declare a curse.  The blessing would be those the people would receive if they followed God’s commands and the curse they would receive if they did not.  Then the Levites would call out to the people a list of things which would bring a curse on the people and the people were to acknowledge that they had heard.

 

Moses then told the people the blessing they would receive for following God’s commands and the curses they would receive for disobeying them.  The blessings and curses were (and are) reciprocal to each other.  I am convinced that these blessings and curses are the natural (and by natural I mean that is the way God designed the world to work) results of following, or not following, the commands which God has given.  If you do the things which the Levites declared would result in a person being cursed in the first part of this passage, the results are likely to be unpleasant.  While a single individual who does a limited number of those things may never realize the harm they bring, a people who does even one of them as common practice will experience the curses listed.  The more a people does any one of these items the more likely they are to embrace all of these cursed behaviors. 

Daily Bible Study

March 7, 2019 Bible Study — God Has Blessed Us, So Let Us Bless Others

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 24-26.

The passage contains many miscellaneous commands to the Israelites.  However, there are two themes which go through many of them.  The Lord God redeemed you and look out for those who have fallen on hard times.    The second one follows from the first.  Our obligation to not take advantage of those less fortunate than ourselves and to assist them as we may results from the good which God has done for us.  Why should I treat others with dignity and respect?  Because God has cared for me.  Why should I go out of my way to see that those with whom I have no ties have a chance? Because God gave me a chance.  God has blessed us, so we should do our best to bless others.  If we do, God will bless us even more.  I am not sure why this passage brings this to mind, but it does.  At the end of the movie “Schindler’s List”, Oscar Schindler regrets every dime he spent on his own pleasure because perhaps if he had not spent it that way he could have saved one more person from the Nazi death camps.  

Daily Bible Study

March 6, 2019 Bible Study — Government Officials Held Accountable For Unsolved Murder

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Deuteronomy 21-23.

The commands for dealing with an unsolved murder are interesting.  They assume that if the murder had happened in a town, someone would have witnessed it and it would be solved.  More importantly, the elders of the nearest town were required to offer a sacrifice for the murdered person and vow that they did not commit the murder themselves and that they did not know who did.  Can you imagine what would happen if we had a similar law in place in our major cities today?  What would happen if the mayor and members of city council had to pay out of pocket for every unsolved murder in their city?

There are two passages here concerning sexual purity which are not exactly related but which I am going to touch on together.  The first is something which can be easily overlooked.  The Israelites were allowed to have sex with women they captured in battle.  However, if they did so, those women were no their wives and they had they were obligated to them just as they were to a wife obtained in any other fashion.  This combined with several other passages leads us to the conclusion that the Law only sanctioned sex between a man and a woman if they were married.  There is the suggestion that if a man and a woman have sex, they are married.  

OK, I changed my mind and decided to make this second part on purity its own paragraph.  Several days ago I came across a post on FaceBook which suggested that the idea of virginity as we understand it today was a novel idea when Christians started referring to Mary as a virgin.  This passage shows us that this is not the case.  This passage lays out clear boundaries about determining if a woman was a virgin when she went to her marital bed for the first time.  If a man falsely accused a woman of not being a virgin when he married her, he was obligated to pay a severe fine and to support her as his wife for the rest of her life no matter what happens otherwise.  The point I wanted to make is that while Hebrew, and many other languages of the ancient world, did not have a separate word for virgin and for unmarried young woman, this was not because they did not have the concept of virginity as we understand it today.  Rather, the reason those words were interchangeable was because the social mores of the time assumed that an unmarried young woman was a virgin.

Daily Bible Study

March 5, 2019 Bible Study — God Forbids Child Sacrifice and WitchCraft

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

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

There are several things in today’s passage which I want to highlight.  I am not sure if my thoughts on them are connected, we will see together as I write them out.  God forbids sacrificing children.  Connected directly with that are the practices of fortune telling, witchcraft, casting spells, and speaking with the dead.  When I read the prohibition against sacrificing children I think of the segments of modern society who treat abortion as a sacrament.   However, I had never noticed the connection between sacrificing babies and the other things mentioned here.  Now that I noticed the connection made here it strikes me that I believe the same connection is made throughout the Old Testament.  Further, it seems to me that many of those who promote abortion today believe in witchcraft, divination, and speaking with the dead (and vice versa).

Moses tells us that God will raise up prophets from time to time and that God will personally deal with anyone who refuses to listen to the messages those prophets deliver.  Most importantly, Moses tells us how to recognize such a prophet.  If the prophet speaks in God’s name and what they say does not happen, or come true, they spoke without God’s authority.  We need to pay close attention to this, whether we are listening to such a prophet or we believe that we have been given a prophetic word from God.  There are numerous examples of men throughout my lifetime who sought to increase the clout of their ministry by making dire predictions.  A few of them were men who, until that point, I had held in high esteem as men of God.  When their predictions failed to come true, I dismissed them as spokesmen for God.  In each case, I believe they saw troubling things going on in our society and that those things would lead to disaster.  I believe they were correct in this part, but, in order to get people to change, they spoke a message on God’s behalf which God had not given them.  I believe that they were correct that the things they observed in our society will lead to disaster.  At the time, I believed (and was proven correct) that it would take longer for that disaster to come than they predicted.  It seems to me that they made their prediction in order to cause their listeners to view these problems with greater urgency, but, by doing so, they exceeded the authority which God had given them.