Don't Be Ignorant

The Lord wants the children of Israel to see what happens to those who do not obey His voice. Nothing has changed. He also wants His people to see what happens to those who do heed His voice. Still, nothing has changed.

This is what happens in Joshua 8. The Lord wanted Israel to see what happens to the enemies of God. The result ended up being that cities all around heard about the power of the Lord, His mighty hand and outstretched arm. The Israelites were once again reminded of how the Lord is with those who obey Him.

Earlier, in Joshua 7, thirty-six Israelites died in the 1st battle of Ai because Achan took some accursed things from Jericho and disobeyed the Word of the Lord. God has all wisdom and understanding and told Joshua to set up an ambush behind the city of Ai. Ai was unaware of the ambush behind the city but saw the Israelites approaching the front of the city. Ai mustered up some men of war and ran out against the Israelites.

The funny part is that Joshua had the children of the Lord put on a show. They acted like they were scared and ran away, leading the men of Ai away from their city, abandoning it. While the men of Ai pursued the men of Israel, the ambush that Joshua had set behind the city went in and burned down the city after taking the livestock, gold and silver.

In Joshua 9, The Hivites, also known as the Gibeonites, lied to Israel saying that they were from a land very far away. They had traveled from a far country and so that’s why their bread was all moldy. However, they heard of all that Israel had done to the kings on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan. Furthermore, these mysterious foreigners from a distant land heard about what the Lord our God did to the Egyptians. They didn’t want any trouble and wanted to make a peace treaty with Israel.

Well, instead of getting more info and going before the Lord about this situation, the children of Israel believed the Hivites and swore to them. A covenant of peace was created. Israel didn’t seek the Lord’s counsel and they devised plans against the Spirit of the Lord. Consequently, the Hivites, also known as the Gibeonites became their woodcutters, watercarriers, and servants.

Joshua actually cursed them saying that they would never be free from slavery because they lied about who they were. The Gibeonites explained that they lied because they were scared. Word got to them that the Lord had given the Israelites all the land.

In Deuteronomy 7:1-2, God tells His children not to make a covenant with them or to have mercy on them. Sounds to me like Israel disobeyed the command of the Lord again.

Ultimately, God has a plan that is bigger than us and there is no way we can see it until after it is established. Case in point, the thirty-six men that died in the first battle of Ai and then the Lord used that to draw the army of Ai out and away from the city so that it could be sieged.

The Lord’s wrath is gruesome and I don’t want to be in the path of His anger. Some people today think that God’s wrath doesn’t exist because Christ died for us. Like, somehow, God is a nice big teddy bear now and all He wants to do is bless you.

The truth is, that God DOES want to bless you when you love Him and obey His voice. He has made you not guilty and dismissed your case, taking you out of Egypt, and freeing you like a bird out of a cage. That is even more of a reason to make sure that you have His Holy Spirit living inside of you and you hear His voice. If you don’t hear His voice then you are just playing around with religion.

It’s time to do what God has been telling us to do from the beginning. Take a step of faith and go against the ways of this world. Don’t be ignorant anymore. Study His Word, speak it, and live it.

We Are In A War

Remember in Numbers 14 when the children of Israel refused to enter Canaan and God said that because they disobeyed they wouldn’t go into the promised land? They were too scared to go up the mountain and fight the Amalekites and Canaanites because the enemy was too many in number and they had giants. Well, the children of Israel thought that they could get back into God’s good graces by going to war with the Amalekites and the Canaanites after all. It’s like they were telling God, “I know we messed up, but let us go back and do what you told us to do in the first place. Now, we are ready to obey you. Now, after you have punished us.” Moses said, “What? Now you wanna obey the Lord? It doesn’t work that way. He’s not gonna go with you because you disobeyed Him. You didn’t listen to Him. Don’t go up there, guys. You’re not gonna win and in fact, you will fall by the sword.” So, what happened? The Amalekites and the Canaanites attacked the children of Israel and drove them all the way back to Hormah.

A similar thing happens in Joshua 7 because, once again, the children of Israel disobeyed God’s command. God told them not to touch anything that was an accursed thing from the siege of Jericho. Of course, the children of Israel transgressed the command of the Lord again and they wanted to go out to war. Thirty-six men died at the Battle of Ai because they didn’t obey the Word of God.

Joshua freaked out, prostrated himself before the Lord and started asking why this happened. He thought that they were going to start losing battles now and the children of Israel would be cut off from the face of the earth! Joshua prayed to God and asked why He would let them die. Why did God allow the enemy to destroy them? Also, if news goes out about how Israel lost a battle, then the surrounding inhabitants of the land wouldn’t fear.

I love God’s response here. He is a God that responds and you better make sure that you are wearing big boy or big girl pants when He does. He said, “Get up! Why are you on your face like that? Israel sinned, transgressed my covenant, broke my law, disobeyed me, didn’t do what I told them to do, took some of the accursed things, has stolen and deceived, and put it with their stuff. You won’t win against your enemies when you have become doomed to destruction for not obeying Me. Also, I won’t be with you anymore unless you destroy the accursed things and sanctify the people.”

God Almighty goes on to tell Joshua that he’s supposed to bring the tribes before the Lord, then the Lord will take a tribe and that tribe’s family will come forth, then the household, then the man. After the man is found out, he and everything that he has will be burned because he disobeyed God’s Law.

Joshua got up early in the morning. Joshua brought Israel by their tribes and Judah was selected. I bet everyone was getting nervous, wondering who it was, kinda like the Hunger Games. Who’s going to be picked? It’s certain death for whoever is chosen.

The family of the Zarhites is selected, and a man named Zabdi was taken. The household of Zabdi was brought forth, and a man named Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah was taken. Let the odds be forever in your favor. However, there is no winning against God. This isn’t the Hunger Games at all. The odds are NOT in your favor.

If you’re looking for a biblical boy name, Achan is very rare. I wonder why no one picks him. Poor Achan. Anyways, Achan confesses, tells everyone that he took a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels and hid them in a hole in the ground in his tent.

So, messengers go and find it in Achan’s tent, just like he said and Joshua and all of Israel took Achan, the accursed things, all of his children, all of his livestock, his tent and everything else that he had and the children of Israel stoned them with stones in the Valley of Achor. Valley of Achor means Valley of Trouble. Achan, his children, his livestock, and the accursed things were then burned in the Valley of Trouble/Achor.

The lesson of all this? Obey the commands of the Lord at all times. You might not be winning battles in your life because you’re not listening to what God tells you to do.

Can we win against the enemy while disobeying God now that Christ has died for us? The answer is No. We need to repent from our old ways, leave the accursed things behind. Show me in the Bible where it says that we can celebrate Pagan Holidays and Traditions of Men now that Christ has taken our place. You won’t find it. We show our love for God by obeying Him.

We know how God shows His love for us. We are saved by grace through faith. However, we need to start showing our love for God. Listen to His voice, do what He tells you to do, don’t go to war if you have transgressed His commands because He won’t be with you and your enemies will overtake you. Repent!

Jesus Christ is coming back. Every time the Lord showed up after the children of Israel disobeyed, it wasn’t pretty. Have you ever read the Book of Revelations? It isn’t pretty.

Burn all that is unclean, unholy, and accursed. Get rid of it. God is an all consuming fire and if you don’t get rid of it then He will. Let me just tell you that you better do it before He does. Ask Him to burn away the wickedness in your life. Ask Him to burn away the iniquity in your hearts and minds. Sanctify yourselves. We Are In A War!

This Is An Exciting Title: Joshua 5-6

How do we know that someone has been circumcised in their heart? Well, Jesus says that we will know them by their love. So the question becomes “what is the definition of love?” Not man’s definition of love, but what is God’s definition of love?

Besides taking care of the poor, sick, widows and orphans, which most of us don’t even do, and some of us can’t because we’re a little squeamish, besides taking care of the needy, how do we show our love for God? I mean, do we just boast about His love for us and stop there?

God forbid, no. We worship Him with everything we’ve got every chance we get, no matter where we are and no matter what is going on in our lives.

We become circumcised if we love God. Plain and simple. Once you get rid of the pride in your heart and you humble yourself before the Lord your God, you see that His Word is just what you needed all along. You start realizing just how obeying Him is the best thing you have ever done in your whole entire life. Watch my video called “Who Was and Is and Is to Come”

The new generation hadn’t been circumcised. That’s weird because God commanded the parents to teach His judgements to their children, generation after generation, forever. However, the new generation had to be circumcised first and then they celebrated the Passover. They started to obey the Word of God, which is the best thing you could ever do in your whole entire life.

I also think that it’s interesting how the manna from Heaven stopped here and the children of Israel fed off of the land of Canaan. The promised land. All this while they defeated the enemy. All the people on the other side of the Jordan feared the Lord our God.

The Commander of the Lord’s Army visits Joshua and I love His answer when Joshua asks Him if He is for us or against us. The Angel of the Lord just says, “No.” Like, this is way beyond you and you can’t understand everything that is going on so just No. The answer is just No. This whole thing is out of your league. Then He says who He is that He is the Commander of the Army of the Lord. That’s why He’s there.

Joshua prostrates himself before the Lord and wants to know what His message is for him and all the Angel says is “This ground is Holy, so take your shoes off.” So Joshua took his shoes off. My guess is that he didn’t put his shoes back on after that. I mean, he wasn’t even at Jericho yet and he was already standing on Holy ground before the Commander of the Lord’s Army. After this, Joshua was absolutely positive that the Lord Jesus Christ was with the children of Israel and they would have victory.

Now, everyone in Jericho was scared and no one entered or exited the city because it was also sealed up.

God commanded Joshua to march around the city once a day for 6 days with 7 priests blowing 7 shofars, with a front guard and a rear guard and the Ark of the Lord in the middle. But on the 7th day, they were to march around the city 7 times, and this was done on the Sabbath, and then the children of Israel would shout and the walls of Jericho would come falling down. This is exciting isn’t it?

So, right after God told Joshua what to do, Joshua didn’t wait until he felt like it, he obey the Word of God immediately. So for 6 days, Joshua got up really early in the morning, when he sun was coming up and all the men of war in Israel, the Ark of the Lord, and the 7 priests with the 7 shofars marched around the city of Jericho and then went back to camp, had some lunch, and played scrabble.

Then, on the Sabbath, on the 7th day, the 7 priests with the 7 shofars, Joshua and the children of Israel, and the Ark of the Lord marched around the city of Jericho 7 times instead of just once and Joshua commanded them all to shout and the walls of Jericho fell down. How amazing!

The children of Israel were commanded not to touch any of the abominations and cursed things from Jericho but the gold, silver, bronze, and iron would be given to the Lord.

When the walls fell down, the armed men of Israel charged the city and took it. The interesting thing here is that they devoted the city to the Lord 1st before killing everyone in it. Except for the prostitute who protected the messengers. Her and her whole family got saved along with all their possessions. They even killed all the animals and children.

Then they burned the whole city with fire and devoted the gold, silver, bronze, and iron to the Lord.

So Joshua cursed anyone who tries to rebuild the city of Jericho. Whoever rebuilds the city of Jericho would suffer the loss of his firstborn son.

The lesson here is that we will not be destroyed but we will defeat the enemy when we become circumcised and when we obey the Word of the Lord.

We will see miracles and we will be blessed.

Also, don’t rebuild what the Lord has destroyed. Go and sin no more.

Willingness

Like A Lion

Stiff-Necked

Face Your Fears | Dr. Thomas | Official Music Video

If You Love Me