The Israelites are camped at Shittim and they are read to enter and conquer Canaan....before they move out, Joshua gets instructions from the Lord. (If you haven't looked at the Word Frequency diagram of Joshua...check it out...the bigger the word, the more freqently it is used.....LORD is the biggest!).
The Lord tells them that He will never leave them or forsake them and three times He tells them to be strong and courageous. When He repeats something, he wants them/us to take notice.
Joshua secretly sent two spies from Shittim (perhaps he didn't want to cuase people to question his wisdom after the last disasterous attempt of spying.....Joshua needed strategic information before conquering) and the spies met Rahab...this woman is a prostitute/inn keeper with a hope in the city wall.....strategic to seeing the comings and goings of the city. Rahab is one of four women that has a geneology to JESUS........see, by faith, Jesus can use anyone. Rahab is remembered for her faith, not her profession...she is one of two women mentioned in the Hebrews Hall of Faith (Hebrews happens to be my favorite book of the Bible) Rahab rescuses the spies from potential attack by hiding them and sneaking them out with a red rope from the city wall....this time the spy event is successful and Joshua knows they can move.
The priests led the troops by carrying the Ark of the Covenant..the come up to the edge of the River Jordan which is in flood stage....the extremely cool thing here is that BY FAITH the priests toes touched the Jordan (can you imagine approaching this and thinking...OK God.....now what.....you want me to keep moving???) and as soon as they touched their toes to the Jordan, the Lord "piled up" the water so they could cross the Jordan on dry land. Our Lord loves the water, doesn't He?
The Lord instructs that a member of each tribe should retrieve a stone from the Jordan and make a memorial so that future generations could be taught about this......If anyone asked, What do these stones mean? they were to reply, "The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he died it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God....
Now there is some testimony...absolute witness of the miracle of God's power.
Look what comes up from the depths of the sea.
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ooops..."piled" it up, not "died" it up...
ReplyDeleteCarol.....question.....someone pointed this out on facebook.......could that verse about no cross dressing be why some women only wear dresses in some religions? Would that apply today....I mean....I don't wear men's clothes, but I wear pants.....is that considered mena garments? I know this sounds dumb, but her comment on facebook made me think....I work with a teacher who only wears dresses because of her religion...she also does not cut hair or wear makeup...... just curious.....
ReplyDeleteI really like the verse....Joshua 1:5...."...I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you." i am gonna apply this one to me....God was with Moses and never left him...HE was always with him.....and you know what.....HE is always with me and always WILL be! That verse alone put a big smile on my face. I just need to pay attention to the taps on the shoulder....
ReplyDeleteBonnie:
ReplyDeletePeople interpret that definition differently. Some take it very literally as Bible interpretation for wearing dressing all the time. Many scholars don't think that it has anything to do with the actual clothing aspect of it, but of the blurring of the sexes. God created us uniquely male and female for a reason.....women weren't to take men's roles and men were not to take women't roles.....
...wearing "dresses" not "dressing"
ReplyDelete