Israel – Page 5 – The Nexus

Morning Musing: Jeremiah 29:7

March 27, 2019March 26, 2019Leave a comment

“Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

How do you live in the context of a hostile culture? As followers of Jesus in an American context, that is a question becoming more and more relevant to our lives every single day. Now, our brothers and sisters around the world and at various times in history have had to live with that question much more pressingly than we have in our lifetimes, but things are changing around us. What do we do? Jeremiah offers some advice to the people of Israel here that we would do well to consider.

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Morning Musing: Isaiah 62:1

February 8, 2019February 5, 2019Leave a comment

“I will not keep silent because of Zion, and I will not keep still because of Jerusalem, until her righteousness shines like a bright light and her salvation, like a flaming torch.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

Do you know who the most impatient person in the world is? A four-year-old with something to say. I think we all know that feeling of having a message burning in our chest and needing so badly to get it out that we almost can’t stand it. As frustrating as it can be living with someone like that, we can all admit that it’s a miserable feeling. Do you know who else has that feeling beyond young kids who haven’t learned well how to evaluate the actual importance of what they have to say? God.

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Digging in Deeper: Joshua 23:6-8

July 25, 2018July 24, 2018Leave a comment

“Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

A major purpose of the Law of Moses was to give the people of Israel a national identity that set them apart from all the other nations around them. Over and over again we see that the Lord wanted them to be different from everybody else. All the other nations, in spite of their own uniquenesses, were functionally the same: They were pagan. Israel, on the other hand, was to be a people of the Lord. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Joshua 9:14-15

July 18, 2018July 18, 2018Leave a comment

“So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

There are three things worth noting in this story. First, the Gibeonites were both smart and wise, if dishonest. They saw the writing on the wall and decided that living as servants was better than being totally destroyed. If they could trick the Israelites into thinking they were not locals slated for destruction, but rather foreigners who came to serve because of how great Israel’s God was, perhaps they would be allowed to live, rather than being wiped off the face of the earth as had happened to Jericho and Ai. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Judges 17:6

July 4, 2018July 4, 2018Leave a comment

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

This, at last, is the theme of the book and its final assessment. The people of Israel had fallen to a place where everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. When a culture reaches this point, anything goes and most of it isn’t good. We each became gods unto ourselves and everything becomes a holy crusade as we try to establish our divine fiefdoms at the expense of those around us. In the end, no one wins. Read the rest…