“Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
What Joshua calls the people to here is not some kind of a strong feeling, but to action. This is a command. And it is one they needed to be “very careful” to obey. This suggests that loving the Lord may not be something that comes easily. Is this really the case?
“And Joshua said, ‘Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we have been content to dwell beyond the Jordan! . . .The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Get up! Why have you fallen on your face?'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Joshua was devastated and dismayed. He had put his entire being on the line before the people that God was leading them to occupy this land and drive out its inhabitants entirely. They had crossed the Jordan on dry ground. They had conquered Jericho with its impregnable walls. There was nothing that could stand in their way for the Lord was obviously with them. And then they got beat by Ai. Read the rest…
“But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
This has always seemed like such an odd punishment to me. What would this have been like? Was it instant? Did she gradually start to transform from the feet up or the head down? Is there any kind of a natural explanation for this or was it entirely miraculous? Was Lot aware of it at first? Or, did he go on for some distance before realizing he couldn’t hear her trying to keep up any longer? If only they had smart phones back then! We could have gotten the whole thing on video. Imagine how many hits that would have received as a YouTube post… Read the rest…
“The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
This is the real key of this chapter and, really, one of the main themes of the entire record. There appear to be two goals of the various acts of cataclysmic judgments described in Revelation. One goal is the punishment of sin. God has been patient long enough and now it is time for judgment. It is time to let people see and experience the full weight of their sin. Just like with the nation of Israel in the days leading up to and during the conquest of Jerusalem and the exile, the time for the whole world has come up and sin is finally being judged on a large scale. Read the rest…
“Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Much of the judgment heralded in the prophets is tough to read. It is gloom and doom that sometimes seems to roll on for pages without reprieve. But, if there’s anything we can take from all of this today it is this: Our choices have consequences. Read the rest…
The Nexus 