Blogging Bible Study: Joshua 7 - Don't Get Cocky

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Joshua 7 is a heartbreaking story...and it follows immediately after a series of amazing events that demonstrated God's power and might on behalf of the Israelites- they'd crossed the Jordan river at flood stage, they were unmolested during a period of extreme vulnerability, they conquered Jericho in a single day's battle.  They appeared to be unstoppable.

Think about that.  If anything demonstrates our extreme weakness when we appear to be strong, it's the story found in Joshua 7.  Victories tend to make us overconfident in our own strength...which is a set up for a fall.  And disobedience ...even well hidden disobedience...pulls us out from under the umbrella of God's protection and blessing.

But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things; Achan, son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them.  So the LORD's anger burned against Israel.  - vs. 1

Israel was blissfully ignorant of the fatal flaw in their support structure.  After the complete and utter destruction of Jericho, they looked around for their next target.

Notice...there is no evidence here that they thanked God for the victory and inquired of Him what to do next.  Had they done so, they might have heard something they didn't expect to  hear.

But, confident that God was with them, they didn't ask for direction.  Joshua sent some folks to spy out the region around the next little town and got the report that Ai was so small, they wouldn't even need to send the whole army, just a couple of thousand warriors would be enough (out of the over 600,000 men of fighting age).

Again, they did not seek God or inquire of Him what to do next or how to do it.  They thought they had it.

They were beyond shocked when the little town of Ai routed their attackers and killed 36 of them.

They had forgotten that the Captain of the Hosts of the Lord was neither for them or for their enemies.  And they thought they were capable of conquering the land on their own.

Joshua was distraught and ...THEN...he fell on his face and asked God what was going on, why He allowed the nobodies to beat them.

God's reply is the same as it would have been had they asked for guidance BEFORE they took off into battle on their own:

"Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep.  They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their on possessions. This is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies...they have been made liable to destruction.  I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction."  (vs. 11 - 12)

God then instructs them on how to find the guilty:  the people were instructed to consecrate themselves overnight, and then present themselves before Joshua and the LORD the next morning, beginning with the tribal leaders.  Punishment would be swift and total:  anyone caught with the plunder would be destroyed, along with everything that belonged to him...wife, children, animals, household goods.

Did you catch that?  The one who is caught...in the morning.

God could have ordered the sifting process to begin right that moment, but instead He sent everyone to their tents to consecrate themselves...to determine if they had broken the covenant.

Because I think that if the guilty party had confessed, there might have been mercy.  The sentence of destruction was against the one who was caught in the morning.

What do you suppose Achan, son of Carmi, did that night?  Did his wife know?  Did he hug his kids?  Or did he believe that it was so well hidden that nobody would find it?  Did he expect to escape?  Did he believe that God didn't see his sin?

Whatever.  He sat tight at home all night and said nothing.

The next morning, the twelve tribal leaders presented themselves to Joshua, and, by whatever process they used, the leader of the tribe of Judah was selected.  So all the leaders of the clans of Judah presented themselves, and the leader of the clan of the Zerahites was selected.  The heads of the families in the Zerahite clan came forward,  and Zimri was taken.  Then each man in the household of Zimri came forward...and Achan was selected.

Be sure, your sin will find you out.  When did Achan begin to feel like maybe he wouldn't get away with it after all?  Do you suppose he believed right up till his name was called that no one could tell it was him?  Or at that point did he see it as inevitable, as the process had marched the guilt right to his face?

At least he answered Joshua's questions honestly.

I saw...I coveted...I took...I hid (vs. 21)

That will preach in and of itself; the progression of sin.  Adam and Eve, David and Bathsheba...same pattern.

The messengers ran to his tent, dug up the newly turned earth, and came back with a robe, silver coins and a wedge of gold.

Achan, all his family and animals and goods were taken to the Valley of  Achor.  The people and animals were stoned, then all his goods...including the plunder he'd taken...was burned.  Finally a cairn of stones was piled above the rubble and left as a memorial...and a warning.


Then the LORD turned from his fierce anger. (v. 26)

 What am I facing that I think, even just a little,  'I've got this'...and don't even think to ask for guidance or direction?  Or, what have I done that I should not have done that I'm trying now to cover up?  Am I pretending, even to myself, that God's instruction doesn't really matter?  If I cannot stand before my enemies with 'things under the ban'  in my life...what do I need to confess and give up to restore my relationship to what it ought to be?

Ten Years at Beer Lahai Roi

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

For some oddball reason I was reading old blog posts over the weekend and I had a bit of a revelation...ten years ago TODAY was the first Beer Lahai Roi post.

So I thought I needed to do some kind of commemorative post.

Some of those old posts are really lame.  I mean, really lame.

But some of them are good.  Like, I don't actually remember writing them so it's like reading someone else's  work.  And I get smacked upside the head, figuratively speaking, all over again with a revelation that I still haven't implemented.

Ten years...lotsa room to grow yet.

Just for grins...here's the first image I posted:

Which was from the first Bible study-ish post, on using a four color pen marking system.

Hard to believe it's been ten years.

Tell you what, if I get 10 comments on this post, I'll do a giveaway.  Cause, you know, I have to have enough to make drawing worthwhile. 

Dunno what that will be...maybe a book, maybe something else.  We'll see what strikes my fancy.

If you've been around with me from the beginning...or if you just found the blog recently...thanks so much for stopping by!

Ten years.  Wow.

Blogging Bible Study: Joshua 5:13 - 6:27 - Victory with a test

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I broke my 'one chapter a week' plan just slightly; the last 3 verses of chapter 5 are actually part of a conversation that's continued in Chapter 6, so  we'll put it together.

Joshua apparently went off by himself to have a look at the city they would have to conquer to move anywhere in the land that was promised to them.  And, on his walk, he ran into a guy blocking his path, looking at him with a drawn sword in his hand.

Kinda intimidating, if you ask me.

Joshua, however, approached him, asking, 'Are you for us or for our enemies?'  ...IE, 'Whose side are you on?'

The guy replied, 'Neither.'

The question is NEVER...'Whose side is God on?'  the question is ALWAYS...'Who is on God's side?'  And God's side always involves WAY more than one or two issues.  Now the Israelites were following God's instructions as they moved, you'd think that would be a pat answer, 'I am with YOU, Joshua!'  But even the people of God mistake their ambitions for God's plans and get off track (more on that later).  Joshua went to have a strategy planning session for how HE would take Jericho; the Commander of The Army of God stopped him cold and gave him GOD'S plan for taking the city.

Which made no sense whatsoever.  March around it with trumpets sounding once a day for seven days?  Then march around it seven times in one day and YELL when they finished?  What kind of military strategy is that?

Joshua didn't question his instructions.  He took them back to the people, and that's what they did.  Just as instructed.  Trumpets.  Ark of the Covenant.  Soldiers.  No shouting or taunting or response to anything the people of Jericho did.  Around once and back to camp.  Next day, same thing.  Next day, same thing...until the seventh day.

On the seventh day, they got specific instructions to shout when the trumpets sounded after the seventh circuit.  And they were to allow only Rahab and her family to survive, as had been agreed.  Furthermore, everything in the city was to be destroyed, except the gold, silver, and bronze, which were to be put into the treasury to be used for God's house.

Pay particular attention to that, it's important.  The NIV refers to all the plunder of Jericho as 'devoted things', the KJV uses 'accursed'.  I kinda like the NASB, which refers to the plunder as 'things under the ban'...neutral, neither cursed nor blessed, just banned.    And there were two different categories of things under the ban...the gold, silver and bronze, which was to be given for use in God's house, and everything else, which was to be devoted to God and destroyed.  They were to keep nothing of Jericho for themselves.

But as for you, only keep yourself from the things under the ban, lest you covet them and take some of the things under the ban, so you would make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it. - Josh 6:18, NASB

So instructed, when the priests blew the signal after that seventh circle around the city, the people shouted and...those massive walls fell.

Imagine standing there that day and feeling the ground shake and seeing the walls collapse, just as God had said they would.  What encouragement to the soldiers who went in and took the city.  The two who had come as spies went to Rahab's house and escorted her and her family out to safety; the gold, bronze and silver were set aside, and everything else in the city was burned.

Joshua pronounced a curse over the city, which proved to be prophetic and was recorded as fulfilled in 1 Kings 16:34, although we don't have details on how it came about.

So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land. -- 6:27.

Am I quick to follow God's leading, even if it doesn't make sense?

Blogging Bible Study - Joshua 5:1-12 : Roll the Past Away

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

In the 'Look how God makes everything work together' category... Joshua 5:1 reports

Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.'  (as usual, all scripture today from the NIV '84).

Not only did God's miraculous intervention 1) get the Israelites from the east side of the Jordan to the west side 2) prove Joshua as the leader of the people and 3) provide a memorial for folks to reference for generations to come, it also put so much intimidation on the folks on the west side of the river that they bolted up their cities and hid.

Which was perfect, because the Israelites were going to be particularly vulnerable for the next few days.

See, the law of circumcision had not been enforced while the people were traveling.    So the entire generation of fighting men had not been circumcised, which is a prime commandment for the offspring of Abraham.  Now that they had entered the land that God promised them, it was time to renew the covenant.  Joshua made flint knives, and the entire male population was circumcised.

For a few days, they would not have been in any shape to fight anything (reference the decimation of Shechem, back in Genesis 34).  But the folks around them were so terrified of the Israelites and their God that no one ventured near them to see that they were, um, indisposed.

After the circumcision was completed, God made an interesting statement to Joshua.  He said, 'Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.' (v.9).  So, of course they named the place Gilgal, which sounds like the Hebrew for 'roll'.

Now, it had been 40 years since they left Egypt; everyone who was over the age of 20 when they left had died in the desert (except, of course, Caleb and Joshua).  Most of them wouldn't even remember Egypt.  But they had the identity of slaves and nomads.  It was time for that to change.  It was time for them to let go of the past and move into the future they'd heard of all their lives.  It really was happening.

While at Gilgal, two other significant things happened...one, they celebrated the Passover, and two, the very next day, they ate what was available from the land around them, which meant that the manna stopped.  Manna was pretty much the only diet they had known; it must have been odd for them to get up in the morning and not see the manna lying about on the ground as it had every other day.  But it was a new place and a new paradigm.

The reproach...the shame, the former identity, the old way of doing things...was rolled away.  It was time to move into what God had for them.

What old habits, thought patterns, even ways of doing daily life need to change in my life to move into what God has for me?  What has been a good thing in its time, but that time is past and I need to let it go?  Recognize that cutting off that old stuff may be painful, but know that God has this and will Himself make sure I have time to heal.

I Am Adamant Launch Team

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I did something I've never done before.

I joined an online study group.

At least, I think that's what it is.

I got an email a while back from Messenger International, John and Lisa Bevere's ministry, offering a pre-sale deal on Lisa's latest book, along with a bracelet gift and access to online studies.  I pondered it for a while,  and, when I got the final 'tonight's the last chance!' email, I decided to jump in.

After all, it's a study on truth...and since I have concluded that my core passion is truth, I just figured it would be a good idea.

Today the package came.

She called everyone who signed up for it the 'launch team'; the package shipped the day the book was released.  I've read a bit of the first chapter; so far, I'm nodding 'Yes!'.  I'll admit to being pretty impressed by the back story of 'adamant' and the implication of that to the Rock, the Cornerstone...and it's just starting.

So I'm not sure how this whole 'launch team' thing is going to work or how much time I'll actually have to jump into the online studies/podcasts but I think it's going to be a good thing.

I'm going to need some good study after I finish the book I began last month...I need to just dig in and finish that.  Lots of blog material coming up, I think.  :-D

Blogging Bible Study: Joshua 4 - Build a Memorial

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

When we last left our heroes, the Israelites had just crossed over the miraculously-dried-up Jordan and the Levites who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant were still standing in the middle of the riverbed.

God reiterates His instructions to choose one man from each of the twelve tribes, and then describes the task for which they were selected:

...tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight. (V. 3)

Joshua elaborates just a bit, telling them, "Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder."

This ain't no little painted pocket rock; these were to be big stones, as big as each one could carry.  They were to be stones with a purpose.  Stones with a message.  A witness and a testimony to people yet unborn.  He explained,

"In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?'  tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD.  When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.  These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."

The events of that day make such a remarkable story that the whole thing is summarized for emphasis.

The priests remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the LORD had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua.  The people hurried over...about 40, 000 armed for battle crossed over before the Lord to the plains of Jericho. (vs. 10, 13)

And, here's the kicker, which may have been why God brought them around to the east side of the Jordan to enter the land, instead of sending them north from Kadesh:

That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses.  (v. 14).  Moses led them out of Egypt with a miraculous water crossing; Joshua brought them into the Promised Land with the same sign.  If any of them had doubted whether God would be with Joshua as He had been with Moses, that settled all the doubts.

God instructed Joshua to tell the priests to come up out of the riverbed, and they carried the Ark up on the western bank, in Canaan.

No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.

The people set up camp at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho, and there Joshua set up the stones that had been taken from the riverbed, and Joshua repeated,
"In the future, when your descendants ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.'  For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had all crossed over.  The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried 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.'  (vs. 22 - 24)

Verse 9 states, And they are there to this day. ...when the book was actually written down as part of the books of history.

Crossing the river on dry ground was a pretty spectacular sign to the folks in that day, one that is harder to miss, maybe, than the works God does in our lives today.  But those current day works of God are no less deserving of memorials, and we are no less in need of them.  When times get tough, a memorial...whether it's a physical object of some sort to look at and be reminded, or a journal entry with details written down...to remind us of what God has done in our lives to bring us to where we are goes a long way towards giving us the courage and motivation to keep going.

What are the memorials in my life that I  return to in order to remind myself of what God has done for me and why I am in this place at this time?  How can I be more mindful to create such memorials in the future?  Is there anything  I need to take the time to make a memorial about right now?