Greetings from Croatia, I am for a few days as a part of an ADRA European Refugee Summit. What do I have to do with refugees in Europe? Well I happened to preach a message on this topic on a Sabbath the Director of ADRA, Jonathan Duffy was sitting in the congregation, and one thing lead to another and here I am to present that same message to this crowd. I do this tomorrow morning and so I covet your prayers.
And now to our continued journey through the Bible in 2016. Today’s reading is Joshua chapters 11-15.
Once again in the first few chapters of this reading we see an abundance of war. If you have not already I would encourage you to go to my last post on Joshua here to read my thoughts in how I relate to all this blood shed.
Honestly these chapters are mainly war records, 31 kings conquered. And inheritance records, etc..
There were however a couple points/lessons that caught my eye.
First it is mentioned several times within this reading,
“Only the tribe of Levi he did not give an inheritance…”
Why?
“the offerings by fire to the Lord, the God of Israel, are their inheritance, as He spoke to Him.” (13:14 also see 13:44)
This laid the foundation for Paul’s statement in regards to those who are working in ministry (1 Corinthians 9:3-18) that they aught to make their living through what is “collected” as a result of the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:14) i.e. the generosity of the people. I like this system and I am grateful to God for it, I am not to get rich off an inheritance but simply to trust in the Body of Christ, His church, to sustain me and my family.
Second, in chapters 14 and 15 Caleb son of Nun is mentioned several times. In chapter 15 verses 13 to 16 even though it just looks like a general record of inheritance, that his inheritance is singled out and several lines are dedicated to what he did with that inheritance without saying it shows the value of this man! If you don’t know why he is held in such high-esteem? Well 14: 7, 8, 14 gives reference to it, but the full story is in Numbers 13 & 14. We’ll read about it sometime this summer in our reading plan, but you may want to read it now to understand the significance of this focus in Joshua 14 & 15.
Let us all be Caleb’s,
“He followed the Lord God of Israel fully.” (14:8, 14)
Tomorrow’s Reading: Psalm 6-8