Category Archives: Bible Study

Joshua and Encouragement

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The education, the training, and a mentor who walked with him for 40 years; Joshua had the whole package on his resume.  God had His eye and hand on Joshua for a long time.  God knew that Joshua could do the job He had called him for, but He also knew Joshua needed encouragement.  In Deuteronomy 1:38 and 3: 28 God tells Moses to encourage him.  Moses in 3:21 does encourage Joshua and it continues in 31: 6, 7, and 23 by telling him to be strong and courageous.  This encouraging continues in the Book of Joshua chapter 1; God encourages Joshua and so do the leaders of the tribes of Ruben, Gad, and Manasseh.

Joshua gave what he got in Joshua 10: 25 when he encourages the leaders of the people to be strong and do what God called them to do.

I guess the life lesson here is your leaders need to be encouraged.  They give a lot when they are doing their job so speak into their life and encourage them.

Joshua By the Books

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One study technique that I use is to list references from my concordance to get a good look at what I am studying.  Doing this for Joshua gave an interesting twist to this study.  So the first post in this series will be Joshua by the Books of the Bible.

Exodus Chapters 17, 24, 32, and 33  This is where we first meet Joshua and God puts him in the history books:

  • He leads the army against the Amalekites
  • Goes with Moses up the mountain and utters the phrase, “Sounds like war in the camp” when they come back down.
  • He is identified as Moses’ “young aid” that does not leave the first “tent of meeting.” 006-moses-joshua“Young” here may refer to the fact that he is in his twenties and not married.

Numbers Chapter 11, 13, 14, 26, 27, 32, and 34

  • He wants people to be stopped because they are prophesying, his “youth” is recognized again as Moses corrects his attitude.
  • Moses does a name change; it goes from Hoshea (deliverer) to Joshua (Yahweh saves).
  • He is associated with Caleb and exploration of the Land and recognized for their positive attitude and faith.
  • He is credited with having the Spirit and is to be commissioned to lead when Moses dies.
  • Gets orders from Moses, sited as having wholeheartedly followed God
  • He gets the important job of assigning the land once the conquest is over.

Deuteronomy 1, 3, 31, 32, and 34

  • The first three mentions of Joshua are to encourage and commission Joshua as the new leader.
  • Joshua is with Moses while he sings his final song.
  • Chapter 34 is the commissioning with laying on of hands and the imparting of the 005-moses-joshuaSpirit to Joshua.

Joshua  Some of the notable things about Joshua that is in his book is where he was encouraged, Chapter 1, and he then prays for the sun to stand still and encourages his commanders, Chapter 10.  In his farewell speech Joshua (24:15) delivers the great quote, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”  I find that an interesting verse because he has no children listed in the genealogies.  He also left no successor to lead Israel as recorded in Judges.

Judges Chapter 1 and 2

  • Israel is asking God who will lead them since Joshua is dead.
  • Joshua’s age at death is 110, which means he lead them approximately 50 years after the initial conquest.

1 Kings 16:34 tells of the curse that Joshua put on the rebuilding of Jericho.

1 Chronicles 7:27 list his family line in the tribe of Ephraim.

Nehemiah 8:17 refers to the celebration of Booths and compares it to Joshua’s time.

Acts 7:45 Stephen is telling of Moses, Joshua, and the Tabernacle.

Hebrews 4:8 states that Joshua did not give the people rest and that a new Sabbath is yet to come.

In looking at the verses it seems that in the narrative Exodus Joshua was trained, in Numbers he is established in the community, Deuteronomy he is launched as the leader, and in Joshua he does the job that was assigned to him.

Pics belong to Sweet Publishing/FreeBibleimages.org and were found in http://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/joshua-challenge/

A Look at Holy Week

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The ancient Hebrews used a lunar calendar, this means that the 1st of the month was during the New Moon phase and that would make the 15th of the month the Full Moon phase.  It was fun to connect the days of Holy Week with the lunar calendar; it just shows the orderliness of our God.

Day of our week Day of the  lunar calendar Passover Holy Week events
Sunday 10th Choosing and prepping the lamb The ride into Jerusalem, people prepared the way
Monday 11th Jesus cursed the fig tree and cleared the Temple courts,
Tuesday 12th Explained the dead tree and taught the people
Wednesday 13th He was prepared for his burial at the dinner
Thursday 14th Lamb is slaughtered and prepared at twilight Room prepared, Passover observed, prayed in the Garden
Friday 15th Burned any leftover lamb Trials and crucifixion
Saturday 16th Jesus preaching to the spirits in Hell
Sunday 17th He rose and showed himself to select people

The first Passover, when the Lord kept watch to bring the People out, they started for Succoth.  The starting point was Rameses; the distance is about 30 miles so that was a long walk on very short notice.  Pharaoh actually ordered them to leave.  The celebration observes seven days of bread with no yeast because that is what happened on the first Passover.

I have been writing for several years on numbers in the Bible.

  • Thirteen was about how new things started in association with that number.
  • Fourteen actually started events.
  • Fifteen is linked with cleaning things up to celebrate.
  • Sixteen was that God kept His eye on things

I found the connections between those studies and the days of the month for Holy Week interesting.

I have other studies on the days of the Holy Week – Thursday, and post labeled Easter 2015,

Midian – Enemy and Instrument

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Midian – Enemy and Instrument

Midian was a son of Abraham by his third wife Keturah (Genesis 25).  His descendants played an important role in the Exodus story and into the Judges’ time period.   Some experts think that Midian was several groups of people and or a geographic area and not just a single nation.  They start their part in the story of Israel when Joseph’s brother sold him into Egypt (Genesis 37).  This is also where Moses fled when he ran away from Pharaoh; his wife, father-in-law, and children were Midianites.

In Numbers 22 the story of Moab and Midian working together to stop Israel by bringing in Balaam is told.  It seems that Balak, king of Moab, takes the lead and even in Numbers 25 it first mentions Moabite women as being the lure to get Israel to sin.  A Midianite woman is killed in verse 8 and it stops a plague; in verse 16 the Lord says to treat Midian as enemies and kill them because of the deception with the Baal of Peor.  In Numbers 31 Moses is to lead a campaign against them and then he will die.  It must have been quite an attack because many important people including kings and Balaam were killed.

A thought that should disturb the people of God is that sex was used as a weapon in the name of religion to defeat God’s people.  The devil crossed and confused the lines then and is still doing it today.

The other big reference to Midianites is with Gideon in Judges 6, 7, and 8.  This story also ends with the Midianites being beaten severely.    There are references in Psalm 83, Isaiah 9, and 10 that talk about how badly Midian was beaten.  They don’t say if it was Moses or Gideon but the context makes it sounds like the beatings were bad and that a similar beating was wished on the current enemy.

Living in the “now” of troubles and testing compared to analyzing them later will produce two very different views.  This is a “later” point of view; God used the Midianites to push Israel to a deeper walk and expose things that still they needed to deal with.  One example is the army killing the men and keeping the women who were the instrument that got them into trouble.  Even later the Israelites were still dealing with the troubles of Peor, possibly, the girl slaves and the children born from them.  Midianite DNA and mindset were spread into every tribe of Israel, including Levi.  Be careful what you choose to live with no matter how you got it.

The Wonders That Plagued Egypt

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http://www.sofiatopia.org/maat/eyes.htm

Before the Exodus of Israel God did eleven wonders against Pharaoh and Egypt.  I did not make a mistake Moses did eleven wonders, not ten.  The first wonder is in Exodus 7: 10 were Aaron threw down the “rod of God” and it became a snake, probably a cobra.  The court magicians threw down their staffs and they were/became snakes.  (The snakes were probably paralyzed so as to be walking sticks for the magicians.)  All eleven of these wonders/signs defeated an Egyptian god.  The cobra was a symbol of Pharaoh who considered himself a god.

The wonders of blood, frogs, and gnats happened to both the Egyptians and Israelites.  I think this had to happen because the People had gotten too much of Egypt in them and Father God had to get their attention.  These wonders are against water and land but also the attack of the frogs was wrapped up with beer and important food in Egypt.  The magicians could do the snake, blood, and frogs, but the gnats they proclaimed the “finger of God.”  (See Frogs in the Bible and Reflections on Judgments)

During ten of the wonders, Pharaoh hardened his heart and “would not listen” or “let the people go.”  This phrase is repeated many times and three different words are used for “hardened.”  I will look into these words in a separate post.

If you accept the snake as one of the wonders there is a pattern of 1, 3, 3, 3, 1 to the plagues (hard hits).  In the “second three” the stakes go up and only the Egyptians are affected (Exodus 8:22).  I know that people had to deal with dead fish and frogs but in this “three” livestock died, so a loss of food/income hits Egypt.  The plague of the livestock would also be the sixth wonder (six is the number of man) and it hits them in the pocketbook.

In the next three wonders (hail, locust, and darkness) God says he unleashes the “full force of the plagues” (9: 14, 16).  In the plague of hail, people die because some officials would not bring in their slaves and field workers.  This is the first time people died, before this, it has only been animals dying.  The hail would be the “eighth” wonder, eight is the number of new starts, and these last four plagues finally break Pharaoh and the Egyptians.  The People don’t get any of these plagues as God continues to show both sets of people that He is choosing one over the other.

The last “hard hit” of the firstborn is special in that it will purposely affect man and animals.  It also had the potential to affect the People of Israel and Egyptians alike.  If the firstborn of the People were not covered by the blood of the lamb they also would have died.

How about it?  Are you covered by the Blood?  If not please read the “Got Jesus” button at the top of the page.

PIC  http://www.sofiatopia.org/maat/eyes.htm