Joshua – Page 2 – The Nexus

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…

Digging in Deeper: Joshua 7:1

July 13, 2018July 12, 2018Leave a comment

“But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

The story of Achan is an interesting and sad one. The people were coming off a major victory. Their first stop on their tour through the land of Canaan had ended with them sacking a significant military outpost in the city of Jericho. The city was famous for its incredibly high and thick walls. The walls were so massive that archaeologists today can see in the various layers of rubble around the city where this battle took place. So, the people are high on a sweet victory, but then things take a turn for the sour. What happened? Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Joshua 5:13-14 Part 2

July 6, 2018July 5, 2018Leave a comment

“When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, ‘Are you for us, or for our adversaries?’ And he said, ‘No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.’ And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, ‘What does my lord say to his servant?'” ( ESV – Read the chapter)

Now, in the first part of this commentary, I talked about Joshua’s response to the commander of the Lord’s army and our need to submit our plans to the Lord if we want to have any hope of meaningful success. I said something in that first commentary, though, that bears unpacking here. I said the appearance of the commander of the Lord’s army changed not just Joshua’s response and the way the rest of the story played out, it also changed our whole framework for understanding it. Let me explain. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Joshua 5:13-14 Part 1

June 29, 2018June 28, 2018Leave a comment

When we prepare to fight the battles we are facing, we draw lines and put people on one side or the other. We look at each person we encounter as either an enemy or an ally. This is natural. People have always done it. But, as Joshua learned here, while we may be able to do this with people, when it comes to the Lord, we must ask a different question: Are we on His side? Read the rest…

Job One

June 18, 2018June 20, 2018Leave a comment

This past Father’s Day I issued an encouragement and a challenge to dads. If we take the Scriptures at face value, we are the ones primarily invested with the responsibility of passing on our faith to the next generation. In what follows, I talk about how exactly to do it. Thanks for reading.

Job One

As most of you know, I am a Kansas City Royals fan. I know…this has been a tough summer. But three years ago, it wasn’t. Three years ago was the best summer to be a Royals fan since…well…the summer before (there’s even a children’s book about that one that is on the shelves at home). But before that you have to go back 1985 to find one of comparative excitement. As for the summers in between, I’ll be honest: They were pretty rough. There were four seasons when we lost more than 100 games (for my non-baseball fans that’s a notable mark of having had an exceedingly bad season)…three of which were back-to-back-to-back. There were many more when we were just generally bad. The badness occurred at pretty much all levels from the top of the organization to the bottom. Read the rest…