Joshua 7:1 opens with the sobering statement, “the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.” Although we do not find this statement very often in Scripture, we do see many Old and New Testament passages dealing with the wrath of God. The Joshua 7:1 statement is very graphic and could literally be translated, the nose of the Lord burned. What was the Lord burning about in Joshua 7? The Lord was angered over the covenant violation...
A Joshua 2 Selah Moment
The statement “hearing is believing” is perhaps the biblical counterpart to the common expression “seeing is believing.” This statement, “hearing is believing,” definitely characterized the life of Rahab the harlot in Joshua 2. When she welcomed the spies and provided refuge for them from the King of Jericho’s men, she told them what she heard about their God and what she believed. Rahab never saw the Exodus nor did she ever see the march of...
Applying the Gospel to Joshua
“Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.” These are the words that John Sammis wrote in connection with an 1887 Dwight L. Moody evangelistic meeting. In this song, Sammis captured one of the core messages found in the Old and New Testaments. This message to trust and obey seems so simple and so familiar that often we either don’t hear it or we read right over it. Well, I invite you to slow down and...
The Motivating Affect of God’s Goodness
I often find myself pursing the question, how does God motivate His children to accomplish His will, to obediently follow His Word, and to love Him with all of their hearts? I wonder this because as a parent I want to encourage my children to love the Lord and to do His will. I wonder this because throughout my days of ministry both in and out of the classroom, I have made many attempts to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ to follow the...
From Obedience to Christ — Joshua 1:7-9
In this post I want to share with you how I dealt with the obedience theme in Joshua 1:7-9. As I mentioned in a previous post, answering the question “how do I get to Jesus from here” comes after working the details of the text to understand the author’s intention. Once this is done I look for the legitimate canonical trajectories that point me to Christ. In Joshua 1:7-8 the Divine King is calling His servant Joshua to...