JOSHUA 19:1-20:9
JOSHUA'S INHERITANCE: Joshua received his inheritance "according to the Word of God". He asked for and received "Timnath-serah" (it means "a portion of the sun" and refers to his famous miracle when the sun stood still) which was in Mt. Ephraim, a mountainous and rugged land. He was later buried there (Josh 24:30).
CITIES OF REFUGE: We are saved from death and wrath by Jesus' death. Romans 8 says "there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
RESPONSE: "The Avenger of blood" is the Law. When we cling to Jesus and His death on the Cross, we are saved from death. "Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses." (Heb 10:28) Jesus, Who lives in us, has satisfied the "Avenger". "We might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;" (Heb 6:18-20) What is that REFUGE that we have within the veil? What is my prize and my goal? "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." (Rom 8:29) "Within the veil" in the intimacy of worship, there I see God's intent and purpose is for me to be changed into His same Image. This promise is an "anchor for my soul" - it holds me steady and safe in my emotions. It brings an end to my running away, and rids me of hopelessness and guilt. Jesus is my refuge.
DIVINE VISITATION: An intense, sudden interruption where the natural is intersected with and impacted by God's manifest presence. Jerusalem didn't recognize it when it came. That made Jesus weep - not because He wanted recognition, but because the hardness of their hearts impoverished THEM. So Jesus "visited" the Temple and cleansed it of the unclean and self-preserving activity.
"DEN OF THIEVES" Here's one for you! What is a "den of thieves" ? Back in John 10:10, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees, who had just asked Him a question in John 9:40. Here is His answer: "He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber....The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:" The same people who were defiling the Temple, were also harming the "sheep" by imposing heavy burdens of legalism and religious exercises on them - it was destroying their capacity for God. The "thief" in the Bible is not the devil! It is the religious bigot who skirted all his issues with God, came up with an alternative to Truth, and then demanded everyone to believe him instead of the Bible! RESPONSE: When I live according to Un-Truth, I am being robbed, and eventually it will kill me. When I cling to anything other than Jesus Himself, I will be destroyed because I am clinging to "some other way". When I make religion something external and temporal, I am being robbed, killed and destroyed! My heart is meant to be "a house of prayer". A place where I can be with God. Where I can worship Him in intimacy and satisfy my abysmal hunger to belong. Anything less than that will destroy me.
PSALM 88:1-18
IN THE DARKNESS WHEN GOD DOESN'T ANSWER: This is the saddest chapter in the Bible. It may be prophetic of Jesus' last week. Groaning but not complaining or bitter. When our circumstances contradict the promises of God. When our circumstances contradict the promises of God. But even in the bottom of the pit, all of life still has to do with God. Everything I go through in life must drive me straight to God. Exo 20:21 shows us that God is to be found in "thick darkness". Our greatest fear in the darkness is that God has cast us off. In that time I allow myself to be driven to God because MY REALITY is in the throne of God.
PROVERBS 13:12-14
Only the righteous can be truly happy, because happiness assumes a peaceful and righteous relationship with God. The nature of one that is marked for ruin is that he despises (counts as not worth reading) the Word of God. He is destroyed because he has despised his cure. A "fountain of life" is water that satisfies our deep thirst for God.
RESPONSE: I've been in darkness before. It reminds me of the verse in Gen 15:12 of Abraham, "a horror of great darkness fell upon him." And in Job 19 Job said that God had overthrown him and removed all his defenses. Joseph was put in a prisonhole in shackles, and David spent 13 years living in caves. WHAT'S UP??!!! Apparently this is a common experience to anyone close to God's heart. Even Jesus felt forsaken in the end. What is God doing? God is demonstrating to the principalities and powers His wisdom in choosing man to rule with Him. At precisely the moment when we feel abandoned, we are actually the object of heaven's close scrutiny! They are ALL watching us! Let's keep that in mind, and be at our best clinging to God in those times.
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