2012-04-27
Good Morning Dear Ones,
What happened when Israel entered into a faulty covenant with the Gibeonites, who had pulled a ruse on Joshua and his men about who they were and where they lived [JS 9: 7, 9-13] serves as a lesson to us. We should take God’s instruction about entering into a vow before Him with serious consideration first. You’ll remember that Moses had written back in DT 7: 1-2 instructions that when the Lord gives you the land and has many groups normally stronger than you occupying it, and He gives you victory, you should show no mercy. The basis of this seemingly bloodthirsty command was to rid the land of the practice of idolatry, the evil practice of worshipping many gods. God’s motives in doing anything are always righteous. JS 9: 14-16, “The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord. Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath. Three days after they made the treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites heard that they were neighbors, living near them.” Once the covenant was made between the Pagan Gibeonites and the monotheistic Jews, a period of three days passed before the Jews realized they had been tricked by this clan of Hivites, who were definitely among the group of peoples God had wanted them to clear out of Canaan. But the covenant had been made and was unbreakable, leaving the Jews in a lose, lose situation before God. The command of DT 7: 1-2 had been broken.
It had become a fact that if they hadn’t made this bogus covenant, their land wouldn’t be riddled with divorces and the awful consequences of adultery. Instead their people would have been healthy, righteous, and prosperous. We can look at our own society today, which is also riddled with divorce, adultery, fornication, greed, and other sins which have run rampant. Try to imagine what our lives would be like without these things. Jesus weighed in on the subject of vows, in MT 5: 33-37, giving us the same warnings about them, in the hope that we would think twice before entering into a vow and keep any promise we do make. He knows the negative consequences of not doing this. As for adultery, fornication, greed, or any other sin, He warns us to consider the unthinkable consequences of making these things our lifestyle. On the subject of divorce, Christ is quite clear about His distaste for it, even though He understands the necessity of it in cases of unfaithfulness [MT 19: 9] and later, Paul’s addition of allowing it in cases where a believer is married to unbeliever who will never have faith in Christ and the unbeliever wants to leave the believing partner [1 COR 7: 15]. Since Joshua and the Israelites lived under the Covenant of the Law, I find it quite interesting that Christ replies to a Pharisee’s question about divorce, in MT 19: 8, “Moses gave you permission to divorce your wives because you were so hard to teach. But it was not like that at the time of the Creation.” This would lead me to believe that our God is fully aware of the on-going process of civilizing mankind with less progress having been made in Covenant of the Law times than in Covenant of Grace times. An no, that doesn’t take us off the hook. The Gibeonites became slaves to the Jews, and there was always tension between these groups borne out of their differences. JS 9: 27 refers to the fact that Joshua moved the tabernacle with it’s altar to Shiloh, where is resided until the last days of Samuel [1 SAM 4: 3]. Later the Lord would move it to Jerusalem [1K 9: 3].
I would be remiss in leaving this subject without mentioning an admonition the Lord God was giving to the Jewish priests, the Levites, in MAL 2: 14 at the time the exiles were returning to Israel after the first dyaspora [scattering of the Jews and loss of nationhood; in this case from the Babylonian Captivity]. A number of priests had married non-believers and/or were committing adultery by leaving the wives they had married in their youth in favor of other women. Offerings had been given, but the Lord had ignored them. “You ask why? It is because the Lord is acting as Witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.” In (16), the Lord says, “I hate divorce, and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence, as well as with his garment. So guard yourself and don’t break faith.”
Often I have written about the awful consequences in today’s society of the breakdown of the family unit. Children born out of wedlock or the products of marriages ending in divorce may be “blended” into new families, if one or both of their parents remarry. There is no guarantee that these new marriages with blended families will work out, possibly leading to multiple divorces and other problems. Having been through a divorce myself, I can write first-hand about the complications one goes through, even though my own divorce was absolutely necessary for both myself and my son and did fall into the two areas where permission is given in the Bible. The negative consequences are not only emotional, they are financial, sometimes civil, and always painful. My son and I were blessed by my second marriage which has been a happy one for 35 years and counting, but broken covenants of any kind are a ticket to all kinds of trouble.
PRAYER: O Lord, You are calling us to heed Your words about the taking of vows. They should never be taken lightly or with little forethought and prayer. You give us this direction, and You want us to read stories like those of Joshua and the Gibeonites and the admonitions given to the Levites when they were returning exiles, so that Your evidence supplied will help us better appreciate Christ’s teaching in MT 5: 34-37, MT 19, and 1 COR 7: 12-15. Our lives have their own complications and trials without breaking covenants, but when we knowingly break one we have made, they become even more filled with negative consequences. These are not only to us, but also can infect the society in which we live. We need to understand the obligations we take on when making a covenant, and that takes a certain degree of intellectual, physical, emotional, and spiritual maturity. This certainly could have been one of the things taken up by the author of the book of Hebrews, in HE 5: 12-14. “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food. Anyone who lives on milk is still being an infant, is not acquainted with teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” Inspired by God, Paul began speaking to the quarreling and dissention among the people in Corinth, in 1 COR 3: 1-3, admonishing them for not be ready for “solid food” but still needing milk. We are given the Scriptures by You, our loving God, Who certainly has the right to rebuke us when we are too lazy or stubborn to take advantage of the teaching in them. You want us to “inquire with” You first when we need to make decisions on our choices, just as You always have throughout mankind’s history. We are blessed to have a God as wise, compassionate, patient, and just as You are. Thus, we offer You our praise and thanks, in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I am led to return to the book of Joshua to examine the testing of a covenant, from JS 10, in a new segment, “Testing A Covenant.” In the meanwhile, we need to test whether or not we ourselves have a proven track record of keeping the covenants we make. When we think of the consequences in our own society of refusal to make relationship commitments, we can see those doing this robbing themselves of a great quality of life, of hope, of forwarding their own maturity. On the other hand, those who make promises lightly, especially covenantal ones, and then breaking them, are causing other kinds of negative consequences. There are times when children borne out of wedlock or who are the products of broken homes are more likely to feel worthless and unloved. These are prime candidates for criminal activity, or other kinds of evil behavior. Children don’t want their parents to divorce, and when they are blended into new families with other children, there is no guarantee that the new family members will get along with each other. I’m not neglecting the fact that some blended families work out, just that the potential is there for the parents’ happiness not to be shared by the children of these families. Our God blesses those who live righteously in His sight. PS 84: 10-12, “Better is one day in Your courts than one thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord God is a Sun and Shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk is blameless. Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in You.” Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15