After the death of Moses the Lord’s servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant. He said, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Therefore, the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites, across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them. 3 I promise you what I promised Moses: ‘Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you— 4 from the Negev wilderness in the south to the Lebanon mountains in the north, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all the land of the Hittites.’ 5 No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.
6 “Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. 7Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. 8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. 9 This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:1-9
We are traveling through some sad but exciting territory today, but rest assured, God was not surprised by any of the events. He knew the day and the hour of Moses’ death, and He knew and had been preparing Joshua to lead His people. From the death of Moses to Joshua receiving God’s call to lead Israel across the Jordan River into the promised land. The call of Joshua came with a promise that just as He had been with Moses, God would now be with Joshua. No one would be able to stand against him as long as he lived, because God would not fail him or abandon him.
With this promise comes instructions that read like a secret to success.
Be strong and courageous.
Be careful to obey all of the instructions Moses gave you.
Do not turn away from them.
Then you will be successful in everything you do.
Study the Book of Instruction continually.
Meditate on the book, day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it.
Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.
Following Moses’ death and Joshua’s call to lead, I encourage you to journey a little further in the story. It is here you will find the two men that Joshua sent in to spy out the land that they were to enter. This is also the story of Rahab the prostitute, one of the most beautiful stories in the BIble, a story of faith and salvation, a story of love and God’s faithful provision and miraculous victory for His people as we travel just a little further and watch as the walls of Jericho fall – giving Israel entrance into the city.
God may be calling you to something that seems impossible. Know that nothing is impossible with God. He is at work in all the details and will be with you through it all. You only need to trust Him.
Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. Daniel 9:9 NET
Wow! I know I’ve said it before but it is worth saying again – I am loving this study of Daniel and the various Scriptures from others like Jeremiah and Peter where we get to see the interwoven tapestry of God’s fingerprints and hear His voice in both the Old and New Testaments.
I also love that Daniel is seen chasing ‘Scripture squirrels” as I do. We see it today in verse two of chapter nine, where Daniel describes how he came to understand from “the sacred books” that the number of years for the fulfilling of the desolation of Jerusalem, would be 70 years. Please excuse me for overusing the word “love” in this post but I simply love his response to the realization that the “end time” wasn’t far off. Oddly enough, his first response wasn’t shouting praises but rather what seems to have been somber, rather gut-wrenching prayer. It was a serious, sackcloth and ashes and fasting prayer. It was a fervent from the-heart prayer of praise, petition, and confession- not just for himself but for the Nation of Israel.
Daniel acknowledged God’s greatness and faithfulness. He confessed the rebellion of the people, who were unfaithful, wicked sinners who had sinned against the Lord God—the great and awesome God. Then, he cites what I call a “But GOD” moment, writing, “YET the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving—even though we have rebelled against Him.“
Over and over, Daniel cries out to God on behalf of His people, Israel. – As I read it, I could hear the depth of his sorrow over the depth of their guilt. Listen to Daniel’s confession: “We have sinned against You! … We have rebelled against You by turning away from Your commandments and standards … We have done what is wrong and wicked … We have behaved unfaithfully toward You … we have not obeyed, we have ignored the messages of the prophets, we have not turned away from our sins … We have not obeyed the LORD our Godby living according to His laws that He set before us through His servants the prophets … All Israel has broken Your law and turned away by not obeying You.” Three more times he says “we have not obeyed … we have sinned and behaved wickedly.”
If you have ever heard or asked the question, “So what is sin anyway?” Daniel makes it clear in his prayer that sin is disobedience to, or breaking, the law of God. Ignoring and rebelling against the teaching of God is sin. All of this, Daniel confesses, is worthy of the calamity and humiliation that came upon Israel by God’s own doing. – Jeremiah’s words in Jeremiah 25:3-12 verify the reality that while God allowed the captivity of His people, it was because they had not listened to what God had said through the prophet, which angered the Lord their God. “Thus,” the LORD said to them, “you have brought harm on yourselves.”
Disobeying God is to “break His law,” and this is sin.Sin is deserving of God’s wrath and worthy of exile, but our hope is in this truth that Daniel proclaimed in his prayer: “The Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him.” 🦋
Encouragement from the LGG Journal entry, quotes from p163 –
We all struggle with certain sins we wish we could be done with once and for all. We feel bad asking God for forgiveness for the same thing yet again. God is patient, compassionate, and merciful. There can be a sin that you struggle to forgive yourself, and you think, “There is no way God can forgive me for this!” That is a lie. Don’t allow a lie to keep you from turning to Him to ask for forgiveness and receive it. – When you are praying over a sin, keep remembering that ‘the Lord is full of compassion and mercy” (James 5;11B).
Daniel’s desire was for God’s people to worship Him in the temple and throughout the land. His desire was for God to be honored, praised, and glorified. God’s purpose for sending His people into exile was to discipline, cleanse, and restore them in order for them to renew their relationship with Him. So they’d no longer be adulterous seeking after other gods.
God’s intention for both Old Testament and New Testament believers is that they would be a faithful light to the nations, drawing others to Him.
Prayer, Our Response to the Journey
Heavenly Father, You are full of compassion, Your mercies are new every morning, and Your faithfulness is great. Thank You that through Jesus, we can know Your forgiveness for our sins. Thank You for setting us free from captivity to sin and from the law of sin and death. May we learn from the wayward ways of Your people before us and the prayer of Daniel – that we are meant to obey You – we are not to ignore You or stay in our sin. Instead, we are to love You with all of our being – and Your Word says if we love You, we will obey You. Remove any love of sinning that we might have and replace it with an unfaltering love for You, which seeks to bring You honor and glory. – Amen
The More We Know
Be sure and visit today’s LGG Blog- for more insight.
For God wants you to silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good. 16 Live as free people, not using your freedom as a pretext for evil, but as God’s slaves.
1 Peter 2:15-16 NET
Peter continues his instructions on remembering that what we do matters—certainly with respect to the unbelievers but also, as he points out here, to those in authority over us. He breaks it down a little more in verse seventeen. From his focus on unbelievers witnessing our good conduct in our previous session, Peter’s focus broadens to include all people, the family of believers, God, and the king. The NLT translation says it like this: “Respect everyone, and love the family of believers. Fear God, and respect the king.“
Granted, there may be many times we are tempted to question or, at the very least, wonder why we should respect or honor the ‘king’/governing authority over us; after all, they don’t always lead well. Bibleref.com addresses this very natural question by believers something like this: Though we are foreigners here on earth, we have not been granted immunity, but instead, we are called to submit to every human authority—why? Peter clearly answers this question in verse thirteen of chapter two, when he says: – “for the Lord’s sake.” That’s right, we submit to all authority on earth for the sake of our Sovereign God – and we do so because we love Him and we understand that “the reputation of Christ is built by us, His followers.“
Peter makes it clear that we are not to submit to the world authorities simply because we deem them to be good or right – neither are we to rebel against them simply because we find them full of flaws; but rather we are to submit to their authority over us because God calls us to and to show that Christ is good. By doing so, the good that we do will silence the foolish people. Thus, Peter encourages us to live as the free people we were created to be—doing what God wants and not the evil we would otherwise do.
LIVING THE JOURNEY (APPLICATION)
It is God’s will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you. For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil.
1 Peter 2:15-16 NLT
God wants us to live honorable lives, lives that are obedient to His Lordship over us. He intends for us to live as the free people he arranged (John 3:16) for us to be. For through the death of Christ on the cross and His victory over the grave, those who have placed their faith in Christ have been set free from the law of sin and death, (Rom 6:14-15). God even sent His Spirit to live in us so that we would be equipped to live the holy life He has called us to live. (2 Peter 1:3-4).
Pardon the redundancy, but Scripture says it many times, so I believe it’s worth repeating here one more time. What God doesn’t want us to do is use our blood-bought freedom as an excuse to do evil, saying as I have heard many say: It is my Christian liberty to do what I want, go where I want, say what I want, and the list goes on. However, to believe these statements is to misunderstand the freedom we have in Christ. Paul said it like this in his letter to the Galatians: For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another. Remember, God wants us to live as representatives of our Lord Jesus Christ. God wants the good we do to reveal Him and His Spirit in us. This is why we are commanded to love others, just as Jesus has loved us, John 13:34-35 — “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
Honor all people.
That’s a broad statement, but it also makes life very simple for believers. Instead of picking and choosing who is worthy of our respect, God’s will for us is to give respect to every single person. Will everyone deserve such treatment? Obviously not. But Christians are supposed to be known as people who give respect to others because of our obedience to Christ. Period. Bibleref.com
Love the family of believers.
Second, love the brotherhood or the family of other Christians. Again, this is a blanket statement. Peter doesn’t mandate strong feelings here. He does not say, “like each other.” He describes action—an act of the will to give love to every other Christian. Jesus said that the world around us would know we are His disciples by our love for each other (John 13:35). Peter likely has that in mind here. Bibleref.com
Fear God.
When used in reference to God, the word fear is not necessarily a command to live in shrinking terror of God, afraid that at any time He may decide to crush us. God has already demonstrated His love for us and promised us an eternal place in His family. But Peter’s command reminds us to continue to hold His power, majesty, and sovereignty in awe and wonder. We are to continue to fully submit to Him as humble servants, or “slaves,” as in the previous verse. Bibleref.com
Honor “King”.
Finally, honor the emperor, or king. Again, the emperor or king may not be an honorable person. In fact, the emperor at the time Peter wrote this was probably Nero, a definitively evil leader who persecuted the people of God. Still, the command stands. As Paul wrote, there is no authority not established by God (Romans 13:1). We give honor and respect to the king as free and foreign citizens answerable to the authority who allowed the king to come to that throne. Bibleref.com
Question FOR THE JOURNEY
How can you use the freedoms and resources that God has entrusted to you to be a blessing in your community and reflect God’s love and grace to others?
PRAYER FOR THE JOURNEY
Father, we are your servants. We do not belong to ourselves for you bought us with a high price, even the price of Your only begotten Son’s life. We are forever indebted to You for the freedom You purchased and the love You have lavished on us. It is by You and for Your sake that we live and have our being and we are to reflect You in all that we do. As Paul said, we are representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are to give thanks to You through Him. Thus, we are to live as He lived, love as He loved, and obey/submit to Your will as He did – and in doing so – Peter says we will silence the ignorance of foolish people. Father, help us to live as the free people You have created us to be, not using our freedom for evil but for the good, You have called us to do, which is to honor all people, love the family of believers, live in reverence to You, and honor the authority over us, for in this Christ will be seen and You will be glorified! – In Jesus’ name – Amen.
THE MORE WE KNOW
Wonderful insight on these verses is available at the following links by biblerefcom:
“But they—our ancestors—behaved presumptuously; they rebelled and did not obey your commandments. 17 They refused to obey and did not recall your miracles that you had performed among them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. You did not abandon them,
Nehemiah 9:16-17
Today’s journey is spent solely in the ninth chapter of Nehemiah. It opens with a beautiful call to worship. Perhaps you’ve read it before or have been in a church service where it was read aloud – it is one of my favorites and it merits a bit of our attention. While it is not the centerpiece of the chapter verses five through fifteen recount miraculous and compassionate acts of our God. God’s works are extolled. He is lifted high with glory and honor for all He did for His people.
Stand up and praise the Lord your God who is from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and all that is on it the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything and the multitudes of Heaven worship You.
Nehemiah 9:5-6
However, verse sixteen brings an abrupt halt to the concentrated worship inducing praises of God and what He had done. The remainder of the passage then goes back and forth from focusing on Israelites rebellious acts despite what God had done for them and God’s goodness. It points out habitual rebellion … their calls of destress … and God’s abundant compassion … that is until He gave them over to their enemies. The passage highlights conviction and confession and having to deal with the consequences of sin. It paints the picture of how God’s people, despite God’s goodness, patience, and compassion toward them, became slaves in the land He had graciously given them to enjoy.
Over and Over it was the Same Pattern
But they rebelled … they refused to obey … BUT GOD did not abandon them … they did atrocious things … BUT GOD showed compassion, gave His Spirit, provided food and clothes … But they rebelled … BUT GOD heard and delivered them … but they turned again and God gave them over to their enemies …
Excerpts from Nehemiah 9
The back and forth rebellion and atrocities of the people versus God’s compassion and forgiveness are bitter-sweet pictures but good lessons and reminders for us today. May we learn from them and strive to be grateful and faithful people of our God! May continually remember that He is forgiving, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in loyal love. The One who has not abandoned us but embraced us through the blood of Jesus Christ, His only begotten son.
Making It Personal – Reflection
When was the last time you were so convicted by the Holy Spirit that it led you to worship? Have you ever experienced this?
Trust in the Lord and do what is right. Settle in the land and maintain your integrity. 4 Then you will take delight in the Lord, and he will answer your prayers. 5 Commit your future to the Lord. Trust in him, and he will act on your behalf.
Psalm 37:3-5
I love the profound yet simplistic passages like this. David, the Psalmist, uses the if this, then that process, which is very much how my brain works. He gives us four directives:
Trust
Obey
Live, or as it means here – Abide ( which is defined by bibleref.com as – more than merely existing or surviving . It is wholehearted engagement! ) This wholehearted engagement most likely looks like what Moses taught in Deuteronomy 6:5 and what Jesus Himself said summed up all of the commandments in Luke 10:27, namely – “You must love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength.”
The fourth and final directive is, “Commit your future to the LORD.”
These directives are summed-up in verse 5, repeating where he started in verse 3 – “Trust in the LORD.” It is worth noting that unless you trustthe LORD, the second, third, and fourth directives are unlikely to be done. When we trust – all the rest will follow, and we will find ourselves delighting in the LORD and seeing Him working in our lives.
The Psalmist says when we choose to live like this, not only will we take delight in the LORD, but that the LORD will answer our prayers and act on our behalf. What great motivation to trust and obey, to wholeheartedly engage as a faithful follower of Christ, and to commit our future to the LORD.
Prayer / Response to God’s Word
Father, You are worthy of our trust and obedience . We want to more than merely exist or survive – we desire to be wholeheartedly engaged with You and in Your work. Help us to faithfully abide in Your Son and find our delight in You.
Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.
Joshua 1:8 NLT
Father, You are good. You are good to encourage us with Your Word – good to guide us by It – to equip us and empower us with It. Blessed are we when we meditate in It day and night – that we may observe to do all that is written in It. For then will our way be made prosperous and we will, by It, have good success. – Yes Father God – You are good! 💜
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 NET
Observations and Application of the Great Commission:
Much like Paul gave Timothy his ‘charge’ or particular ‘ministry’ to do, Jesus gives His disciples a charge to carry out. He actually tasks them with much the same thing – the work of an evangelist, which is to spread the Gospel message. Like Timothy, we are to do the work of an evangelist, spreading the news that Jesus saves, discipling others, encouraging new believers to follow the Lord in baptism, and to obey everything that Christ commanded. We would also do well to remember to encourage others that Jesus is with us, even to the end of the age.
Prayer: Response to God’s Word
Father, You are good and Christ was good to walk with and transform the lives of so many disciples who followed Him. You continue to disciple and train us up today by Your Word and people. May we be faithful to Your commission, whether it is convenient or not – to be ready with an answer for the hope that is within us. Show us how to reach those here and in other countries. And as we go, open hearts and minds to the message of the cross and of our Christ!
Me From the Inside Out 