An act of faith … not completely fulfilled for four hundred years!

That’s what Joshua 24:32 represents. “And the BONES OF JOSEPH, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, BURIED THEY in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor ….”

Joseph, long ago, had extracted a commitment from his people that they, upon leaving Egypt some day, would NOT leave his “bones” behind … not in such a heathen place!

Here’s the Biblical history: “And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall CARRY UP MY BONES from hence. So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” Genesis 50:24-26

It took long-range faith to believe God would deliver His people! Keeping a promise made to Abraham decades and decades earlier! Out of Egypt … into the land of Canaan!

And it took deeply-held faith for someone to remember those bones … those centuries later!

But they did remember!

Paul in Hebrews 11:22 takes up this theme, too. “By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning HIS BONES.”

Wow!

Now, having viewed this pristine “example” of faith in action … let’s apply it to our lives.

I’ve been hearing about Jesus’ Second Coming all my days as a Believer, a Christian. I was saved at age 6, in fact, assuredly!

And soon I’ll be 71 years of age, the Lord willing!

Yet … that blessed Event has not happened yet.

In fact, God’s children have been awaiting that Day for nearly two thousand years now!

But, like Joseph of old … we must believe.

We must trust.

No matter how long it may be, in God’s timing!

Even if after death has claimed our bodies!

Because, just like the Jews left Egypt … honoring the promise they made to Joseph about his bones, so will the saints some day leave this earth, via the miracle of the Rapture … honoring the promise Jesus made to us … “I will come again!”

Hallelujah.

This promise is “sure.”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Peter warned us: “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” 2nd Peter 3:3-4

In the face of this skepticism, unbelief … remember the bones of Joseph!

God always keeps His Word.

 

 

In the closing chapter of the Book of Joshua … God is rehearsing some of His “Mighty Acts” (a phrase used of the Lord four times in Scripture, all in the Book of Psalms) done for the people of Israel.

Including verse 12 … “And I (the Lord) sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.” Joshua 24:12

The verb “sent” used here is “shalach” in Hebrew, and is 3 times in the King James Bible translated “soweth!” God scattered hornets everywhere, ahead of Israel as she marched into the land of Canaan! God the Farmer … Jesus, in Matthew 13, is The Sower supreme!

Our Lord sowed swarms of them, I suspect. How do you defend yourself in the face of this type attack?

And the specific noun employed for “hornet” is unusual, to say the least! “Tzsirah” is only used a few times in all Scripture, each being rendered “hornet” as here. But it comes from a root word meaning “to be diseased of skin,” and 6 times means “leprous!” It’s an indication of the “results” of the hornet stings apparently. Swollen, pocked, blemished, itching, irritable skin … that part exposed to the stings anyway.

Wow!

One needs not much “help” understanding how these creatures “drove out” the wicked inhabitants of the land. “Garash” means “troubled, divorced, expelled,” and the like.

Then God issues a disclaimer.

Victory came to the Jews … “Not with their sword, nor with their bow.” But by the Hand of the Lord! Seems like God deserves proper honor and praise for His creative deliverance of Israel, truly!

And how many times, perhaps not always literally but at least spiritually, has God “gone ahead” of us?

Scattering our detractors?

And how few times have we thanked Him for His Acts on our behalf.

Remember today Proverbs 21:31, a retelling of the heart of our Text verse. “The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD.”

The old song is right … “God will take care of you!”

He did Israel.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

In the last chapter of Joshua (number 24) the man of God (Joshua) is reviewing all God had done for the Israelites. All the way back to Abraham, his father Terah really! Quite a history!

Attacks repelled.

Enemies destroyed.

Miracles enacted.

Wow!

Then the Text related the “Balaam affair.” A false prophet hired to curse the Jews! Employed by the wicked Moabites (Balak being their King) to hinder Israel, Balaam a “preacher for sale!”

Joshua 24:9 here encapsulates: “Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you.”

Next, today’s verse, God’s Personal Testimony: “But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand.” Joshua 24:10

Three things “jump” to my attention!

Balaam spoke to God, prayed in essence … only this, GOD TURNED A DEAF EAR! This happened with Saul, King of Israel too. (1st Samuel 28:6, one of the saddest verses in the Bible. “And when Saul enquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.” Saul was by then a rebel, a backslider, nearly a reprobate.)

Point being, God does not hear all prayer! (Another example: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Psalm 66:18)

The Lord WOULD NOT hearken unto Balaam! (The verb for “hearken” is “shama,” meaning “to hear” of course, but also “to obey!”)

Secondly, God apparently turned Balaam’s intended curses into blessings! Wow! Here’s “curse” number one, Balaam against Israel: “How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people (of Israel) shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!” Numbers 23:8-10, not a curse at all!

God still speaking of Balaam, our text verse again, part of it: “But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore HE BLESSED YOU still ….”

Yes, God can turn intended curses … into blessings!

Reminds me of Joseph’s words to his wicked brothers back in Genesis 50:20. “Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.” Amazing!

Thirdly today, God recounts to Israel, yet again concerning Balaam: “So I delivered you out of his hand.” With the verb “delivered” being “natzsal” in Hebrew, “to rescue, to help escape, to recover!”

God’s Omni-competent Protection in our lives!

Wow!

From a single very encouraging verse of Scripture, on a Thursday morning in February! “But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand.” Joshua 24:10

Amen.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

By Joshua chapter 23 Israel was in the Land of Promise. Most the vile Canaanites have either been either extinguished or subdued. And Joshua had grown to an old age, soon to die.

Yet still verse 3 of our chapter today states an amazing truth. In summary of God’s mighty Acts over the past few years, as Israel warred for her Land … Joshua declared:

“Ye have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the LORD your God is He that hath fought for you.”

What God hath done … BECAUSE OF YOU!

The Lord your God HATH FOUGHT FOR YOU!

Astounding!

A whole land, its demographics totally rearranged, because of the Jewish people!

Don’t forget … God gave the earlier inhabitants of that land over 400 years to repent of their sins, their always pushing-the-limits violation of everything righteous and holy and pure.

Even God’s Patience ends at some point!

Then, because of the Lord’s love for His people … yes, for the Jews in this case … God did some “nation building!”

The wicked are (largely) gone.

The Jews are (mostly) in the Land.

And … God did the fighting! Do remember God’s Name back in Exodus 15:3. “The LORD is a MAN OF WAR: the LORD is his name.” Amen!

I love the phrase (in today’s Bible text)  “because of you!”

Don’t forget the whole verse though. “Ye have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto all these nations BECAUSE OF YOU; for the LORD your God is he that hath fought for you.”

Then, earlier this morning, I remembered a similar verse in Proverbs. I had to use my laptop to locate it, but it was still there! “The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright.” Proverbs 21:18

I think this just said that … God is willing to trade the wicked, the transgressors, for the righteous … any day, any time! The noun “ransom” is “kopher” which occasionally means “a sum of money.” If God is forced into a corner … He will sacrifice the wicked in order to save the godly!

Don’t misunderstand … The Lord loves everyone, John 3:16.

But He especially, delightfully loves His Own Children! See immediately 1st John 3:1. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” The word “manner” used here means something like “from another world!”

I can’t get over it!

Christian friend reading here this morning, there is “no-telling” what God has done simply “because of you” either!

One more time …

“Ye have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto all these nations BECAUSE OF YOU: for the LORD your God is He that hath fought for you.”

Ponder this truth today.

Stunned …

Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Someone text me today with a comment on the Lesson … 770-844-7627. Thanks!

 

 

By Joshua chapter 22, most of the tribes of Israel had settled in their own respective territories. Except two and a half of them! Namely, Reuben and Gad and half of Manasseh!

They are the Jews who had chosen NOT to live in the heart of the land God had promised the Israelites!

They would live on the east side (the wrong side) of Jordan, the River Jordan. Just SHORT of the land their brethren would occupy! Not dwelling in the fields they had been commanded to conquer! That way, for these 2 1/2 tribes anyway, fewer giants had to be fought. And more convenience could be enjoyed, they having much cattle and that acreage being much more conducive to livestock! For the sake of ease and financial success … they followed the path of “least resistance!”

Their attitude shows, I believe, a bit of indolence (laziness) about things spiritual … and a bit of audacity about things financial! (Although these people were required to send soldiers to help the other Jews overcome their enemies … in the territory west of Jordan. Still, their wives and children and possessions never set a foot across the Jordan River!)

Little wonder then … this laxity of spirit led to yet another questionable issue in the life of Israel.

When Joshua granted the soldiers that Reuben and Gad and half of Manasseh had sent into war, granted them “leave” to return to their cattle and wives and children … yet another problem arose!

“And when they came unto the borders of Jordan, that are in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh BUILT THERE AN ALTAR by Jordan, a GREAT ALTAR to see to.” Joshua 22:10, Mercy!

They built an (unauthorized) altar by the River, near their self-claimed land!

They were supposed to worship at the Tabernacle wherever it was erected at any given time!

But these men who wanted “ease” for their business enterprises … also wanted “ease” in their worship endeavors!

They built an altar of convenience … merely “to see!”

Which (read all of chapter 22) nearly caused a civil war!

Which fell short of complete obedience to Almighty God!

Which nearly violated the Ten Commandments!

My point today?

Do not be lethargic, lukewarm, listless in your service to God!

Such half-heartedness always leads to spiritual disaster.

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell