The Book of 2Samuel covers the 40-year reign of King David, Israel’s greatest king. The first half of the Book covers the first 20 years of David’s reign. These chapters cause us to rejoice with David over his many triumphs. The last half of David’s reign is covered in 2Samuel 12-24. As we read these […]
Living the Kingdom on Earth
In today’s reading, Israel’s greatest king, David, becomes established on the throne of Israel (2Sam. 5:1-5). A couple of other events occur which have monumental impact on the shaping of biblical salvation history. First of all, David captures the city of Jerusalem (2Samuel 5:6-12). This city becomes the capital city of the Davidic kings and […]
This reading from the last half of 1Samuel begins with Samuel anointing David as the 2nd king of Israel (1Sam.16:1-13). The most prominent feature of this kingly anointing is that Saul remains the king of Israel for many years. In fact, most of our reading today reports the many attempts by Saul to kill David. […]
In the Book of 1Samuel, the 3 main characters are: Samuel, the last of the Judges; Saul, the first of the Israelite Kings and; David, the second and greatest of the Kings. In 1Samuel 1-7, the focus is on Samuel. In the early growth of Israel as a nation, the only other person who had […]
The wonderful Book of Ruth is sandwiched between the end of Judges and the beginning of 1Samuel. The story narrated in Ruth occurs during the days that the judges ruled Israel (Ruth 1:1). This narrative brings a welcome relief to the crass idolatry of Micah and the Danite tribe in Judges 17 & 18 and […]
The Book of Judges covers the first 350 years of Israel’s history in Canaan, the Promised Land. It is a dark and sad time in the life of God’s people. The Israelites served the LORD while Joshua was alive and in the lifetime of the elders who were contemporaries of Joshua. But then we read […]
The Book of Joshua covers a period of 25 years, and describes one of the most memorable conquests in history. “The occupation of this small strip of territory scarcely larger than the country of Wales, though it led to no further results in the way of conquest, has nevertheless to a great extent molded the […]
[Note: Pastor John asked me if I would post for day 16 an article that I wrote back when I was working through the 90 day challenge in 2010. Hope you find some thought-provoking insights from Joshua in this article. ~ Derek]
Interesting enough the book of Joshua is one of the most difficult books in the bible to wrap my head around. I can deal with Job, Leviticus and Ecclesiastes. But Joshua? How do you deal with a God whose agenda is merciless ethnic cleansing which goes way beyond our moral “war laws” or “humanitarian rules of war”.
How do you deal with a God who says, “don’t just kill the armed men, but slaughter all of the women and all of the children and babies too and don’t forget about the animals”? How do you reconcile the God revealed in Joshua with the God revealed in the Person of Jesus who said, “Suffer not the little children to come after me” and again, “if you cause one little child to stumble, may a millstone be strung around your neck and you be cast into the sea.”
How do you deal with this verse:
When we started our reading in Deuteronomy a couple of days ago, we mentioned how this Book could be looked at as a covenant renewal document. Moses is about to die, and Israel is about to be led by Joshua across the Jordan River into the Promised Land of Canaan. Deuteronomy is filled with references […]
The basic requirement that the LORD makes of His people, Israel, is found in Deut. 10:12,13: “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God, with all your heart […]