6:17 - God's judgement is never about ethnicity, it is about the condition of the heart. Everyone in Jericho had the opportunity to react as Rahab did, but they did not.
7:11-12 - Jericho was a sacrifice to God...Achan stole God's sacrifice, defiled the offering to God. That's generally not a good thing.
7:26 - In answer to defiling the sacrifice and stealing what was dedicated to God, Achan and his family have to pay the ultimate price. For her sins, they were sacrificed along with the things they stole.
8:5ff - I really like that God expects His people to be creative and wise. Did you notice that they don't just roll up to Ai and attack? they still use their intelligence and strategy to pull off an incredible victory. This is really good leadership insight. Leaders shouldn't just show up expecting God to do everything for them...God has gifted us uniquely for a reason.
8:26 - They are consecrating the land, making it holy by destroying he evil within it.
8:34 - I love that they never fail to remember who they are ad why they have had success. W can learn alot from that.
9:24 - Again, we see heart of God for all people. These non-Jewish people are spared because they believed in the power of God and they humbled themselves before Him.
2 comments:
Ch. 7. When you try to face trials on your own without the protection of God, things will generally get ugly. How many times have we seen that repeated in the scriptures and in life.
God's justice is hard to understand sometimes in light of the gospel, but I do believe He is the same God as in Joshua's time. I still feel bad for those (if there were any) in Achan's family that were innocent and truly devoted to God. But than again maybe everyone in the tent new of the sin yet said nothing.
Ch.9. To me it does get a little confusing at times. God has always told Moses that they will destroy all the inhabitants of the land. I don't recall a condition of "unless....", but there have been obvious examples(as in this example) of those that were spared (remeber Rahaba few chapters ago).
Maybe it is as simple as this, God gives a command and those who are found to be in obedience are spared, and those who are not perish.
I like the contrast between chapter 7 and 8 where the Israelites were defeated at Ai, then conquered Ai. It really shows the power of devotion and faith when trusting in God.
7:12 Gods is telling us that if we are to have a relationship with him and tuely be in his presence that we need to get ride of our "devoted things" that are taking precedence before God.
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