2012-05-11
Good Morning Dear Ones,
We return to the story of how the Jews kept their faulty covenant with the Gibeonites and what God did, in order to mine the precious truths from this story. You’ll remember that back in DT 7: 1-2, God had commanded the Jews to kill all the Hivites and other peoples in Canaan in order to get the polytheist beliefs and practices cleared out of the Promised Land. DT 7: 1-2. “When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations-the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you – and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally and show them no mercy.” The Gibeonites, a clan of Hivites, tricked the Jews into believing they were from afar and thus, wanted to enter into a covenant of mutual peace with them. Without consulting God, this covenant was made, and afterward, the Jews kept it. Now, we need to more closely examine what God did in this situation.
The five Amorite kings joined forces against the Gibeonites, who in turn, asked for the help of the Jewish army. JS 10: 7-8, “So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of the will be able to withstand you.’” The Amorites were confounded by the Lord before the Israelite forces. These enemies of the Gibeonites and Israel fled. While they were descending from Beth-Horon through to Azekah and Makkedah, hailstones poured out on them from the sky [from the Lord], which were strong enough and large enough to kill them [JS 10: 9-11]. These killed more of them than the Israelite swords did. Joshua considered what the Lord had done afterward and didn’t take it for granted. He realized that the Lord had protected Israel, because of her obedience to His rules for keeping a covenant, even though His advice wasn’t sought in forming it beforehand. In other words, God meets us at the point of our obedience. I am quite sure things might not have worked out this way, had the Jews made this covenant out of disrespect for the Lord or had they known the Gibeonites were a clan of Hivites and not strangers from afar. Our God is extraordinarily wise and compassionate. Joshua understood the importance of keeping his word.
This is by far not the only time God demonstrated His loving kindness. Remember the story of the combined armies of Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites coming to attack the Israelites in Jehoshaphat’s time, in 2 CH 20: 1-30? As with Joshua, King Jehoshaphat acted with obedience and reverence to God in leading his people to pray first and ask for God’s help. The Lord claimed this battle as His and gave them specific instructions as to what to do or not do [2 CH 20: 15, 17]. 2 CH 20: 24, “When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground; no one had escaped.” God had confused and confounded them, so that these enemies of Judah had turned on themselves. The Jews were left safe at His hand once again. God has the power to vanquish our enemies. After the men returned to Jerusalem, they rejoiced and thanked the Lord for this victory. Other potential enemies feared the Israelites and thought twice about attacking them, for awhile at least [2 CH 20: 29-30]. From this, we can learn our God has the power to grant rest to His weary believers.
There are strict commands for holy living throughout the Scriptures. One that comes to mind in this situation is COL 3: 15, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” This is harder to do, especially when provoked to be afraid or angry, but we must do it as God’s covenant partners, unequal with Him through we be. We must also remember to offer praise, honor, glory, and thanks to our God often, because it is through His generosity that such things as our protection and provision happen. Believe it or not, God has forgiven me for not even noticing His presence in my life for 25 years! He understands the difficulty of my childhood, because of His compassionate wisdom. Today, I serve Him with greatest thanks, because He is giving me a chance to use the abilities He gave me to serve others. Today I read RO 8: 31-39 at the funeral of the daughter of friends [this daughter who left for heaven at the age of 52]. I thank the Lord for their entrusting me with this task, and also for reminding me to end today’s devotion with RO 8: 38-39. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, with be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
PRAYER: O Lord, we come to You in reverence to express our desire to learn to better trust You. Throughout Your word, You have given us stories of people who were victorious because they obeyed and trusted You. Obedience is a tough issue for us, as we have sinned greatly in that area. We have let human emotion get in the way of wisdom, and we have listened to many false teachers-humans who are self-absorbed and foolish. We look for easy answers to complicated issues. We are impatient and often unwilling to come to You first for guidance. Through the apostle, James, You have told us, in JAS 4: 7, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and He will flee from you.” We live in a world surrounded by the work of the devil. Bombarded with so many ads to make us more materialistic, encouraged to paint permanent tattoos that are often lifting up evil causes on our bodies, we find so many creative ways to rebel against Your teaching. We forget to turn first to You, but rather try to follow less reliable and true human sources for help in times of trouble. We beseech You to teach us humility and gentleness. We ask You to show us how to demonstrate the fruits of the Holy Spirit. GA 5: 22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” You are a God filled with goodness, and thus, we ask you to fill us with goodness too. PS 16: 1-2, “Keep me safe, O God, for in You I take refuge. I said to the Lord, ‘You’re my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.’” We use Your words to express that which comes from our innermost beings, our desire to let the Holy Spirit win the war against our fleshly outer beings, that we wish to shuck off. PHIL 2: 4 helps to describe the Paradigm that Christ showed us. “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” This kind of unselfishness is something we should live by in the conduct of our own lives. Most of all we should have strong enough faith that we can place our trust in You whether or not we are saddled with burdens. PS 33: 19, “How wonderful are the good things You keep for those who honor You! Everyone knows how good You are, how securely You protect those who trust in You.” We thank and praise You, Lord, for Your presence in our lives and the love You have for us. In Christ’s holy/mighty name. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: The Holy Spirit directs me to begin a new segment of these “Our Covenant” messages called “Covenant Assurance.” In the meanwhile, the prayer that we just said is one meant to be offered with a honest, contrite, and open hearts-open to the Holy Spirit’s leadership. It takes His time and patience for the Lord to wait for us to be ready for some of the lessons He has for us. He is willing to wait for the perfect time, because He loves us. But we must be about the task of cooperating with Him in our sanctification. God reveals Himself in our daily lives. 2 CH 16: 9, “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” We must recognize the monumental importance of our covenant relationships with Him and with other believers or potential believers around us. This is a bond that demands respect and attention. Like anything else, it is nurtured by our efforts to improve in our obedience to the Lord and willingness to look for Him in every aspect of our lives. PS 107: 43, “Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.” Herein we find the real value of a covenant relationship which is nurtured with Him. Our God loves each of us and wants more than anything to find reasons to bless us. After all, His main desire is to eventually lead us through the Holy Spirit to gain eternal life, spending it at His side in heaven [JN 6: 39-40; EPH 1: 4-5]. How can we forget that He gave His only begotten Son for us, so that we might be saved through our faith and His most excellent grace [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]? Praise and thanks be to Him forever!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15