Faithful Fridays Two - Joshua

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Joshua is such a good book...if you don't let yourself get bogged down in the allotment of land and cities.  Over and over...when the Israelites followed God's direction, they had astounding success.  When they tried to do things on their own, they made a mess.

But in skimming through, what jumped out at me this time was in chapter 14... good ol' Caleb.

"Now give me this hill country that he LORD promised me that day.  You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said."  -- Josh. 14:12

45 years ago, God had promised him that land (see verse 10).  Now it was time to see the promise fulfilled.  But Caleb wasn't expecting it to be handed to him...he was ready to go out and fight for it himself.

Because he KNEW God would give it to him if he did.

Now...I've been in a season where I'd pretty much decided that there are some things I've been hoping for for years just aren't gonna happen. I don't have a verbatim promise, like Caleb, but there have been small things over the years that kept the hope alive.  Just about every time I'd decided no, that's not going to happen...some small little word would come my way that kept the hope light burning.

Thursday was just such a day.  In staff prayer, I thought again of this dream of mine and told myself that it was still born and I just needed to get over it and move on.  But then...a friend spoke up in prayer, specifically praying against stillborn dreams.

You see???  How can I throw it away when stuff like that happens?

I just need to be ready to work it out when the time comes... hopefully that will be before I'm 85, lol.

Faithful Fridays Two: Deuteronomy

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I almost picked the same verse I picked the first time I did a 'faithful Friday' series...(HERE, if you're curious.  It was a good post).  I laughed at myself and then kept looking...and the next words that jumped out at me today were from Deuteronomy 17:18-20:

When [the new king] takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites.  It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left.  Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

 You know, there is absolutely no indication that ANY king of Israel followed that instruction.

Each king was supposed to hand copy out the entire book of Deuteronomy and keep his personal copy with him all his days, reading from it regularly so he would never forget 1) that he is no better than any of the people he ruled and 2) what those commandments were that he was to keep.  

Things like, don't acquire great numbers of horses, and specifically do not send to Egypt for horses; don't marry many wives or accumulate large amounts of silver and gold (from the preceding verses in the same chapter).

Solomon immediately comes to mind...he did all of those things.  If he had actually copied out his own scroll of the law to read and study, he might have chosen differently.  Maybe.

But I also think it's significant that the king was to remember that he was no better than the folks he ruled...that he had to keep the same law.

How much different would history be if all the rulers were held to the same laws and requirements as those they ruled?

It's not just a good idea...it's not just common sense...it's actually God's instruction.

Rule of law.

Faithful Fridays Two: Numbers

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Numbers could also be called 'The Book of Complaining' because, once Israel left Sinai, the complaints just started rolling on.  The biggest complaint, of course, was the complaint that ten of the spies brought back to the people at Kadesh Barnea...that the people of Canaan were too numerous, too strong, too well-fortified and there was no way they were going to be able to conquer them to possess the land, as God had promised.

But two guys didn't see it that way, and their response to the complaining is my pick for this week:

Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, "The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good.  If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us.  Only do not rebel against the LORD.  And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up.  Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us.  Do not be afraid of them."   (Numbers 14:6-9, NIV84)

But their fellow countrymen would not hear them, and, in fact, threatened to stone them.

That's a minority opinion.  And they might have been stoned for it, had the glory of God not appeared at that moment at the Tent of Meeting.

But...the challenge to me from this verse is that Joshua and Caleb did not back down from their minority opinion.  They stood up in front of everyone and proclaimed it.

I kind of tuck my minority opinions into a safe place and not make a show of them.  Keeping the peace and all that.

God vindicated Caleb and Joshua...and he made them a promise that they alone out of their entire generation would actually survive and live on their inheritance in the promised land.

I find myself wondering if there were others who secretly agreed with them but went along with the noise of the crowd instead of showing support for the minority opinion.  

IF there were...they died with the rest.  In that case, not speaking up was the same as agreeing with the majority.

Ouch.

Faithful Fridays Two - Leviticus

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Leviticus is a rather tedious book to read through; so many particulars of commandments and how tos and do nots...but on a skim through, one phrase repeatedly jumped out at me.  "I am the LORD" is repeated over and over and over.

But I'm looking for one verse/short passage so I noted that repetition but the verse I'm picking is Lev. 25:18 --

Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land.

This is the promise of the covenant; that if the people obeyed God he would protect them and give them everything they needed.  All that was required of them was to follow his instructions.

Sounds like a no-brainer, eh?  But humans are a stubborn lot, who want to have their own say and decide for themselves what's right.  Pride, y'all, that's pride.  And it was the downfall of the Israelites, who didn't understand why they couldn't do the things the people around them did...from their viewpoint, it seemed to work for the others, why not them?

Obedience = protection and provision. Simple.

It grows on ya...

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

 

Just got back from a weekend conference at a place I was sure I'd never see again after we discontinued the girls ministry program we were doing back in 2014...but the boys ministry is still active and my hubby is involved.  So we went to the annual conference for the folks who work in that ministry in churches statewide...at the same conference center/ campground where I took the girls in the classes I taught to summer camp back in the day.

It's the 6th year I've gone.  Coming home, I reflected back on 2016 when I knew just a couple of folks who went; this year, I was greeting friends that I don't often get to see.  We laughed, we played games, we traded coffee cups, we prayed for each other, we listened to exhortations.  

And the conference has grown; I don't know if it's twice as big as it was when we went in 2016 but it's not too far short of it.

At first, I went because My Sweet Babboo had gone without me and wanted me to go.  The first two years he went, it was the same weekend as our church's annual women's conference.  But in 2016 it was a month later.  So, I kinda had no excuse.  I went because he wanted me to.

And, you know, it wasn't bad.

We went back the next year...and the next year...and now, I think of it as one of the best weekends of the year.  If we weren't able to go for some reason, I'd miss it.

And it is nice to get to walk around the pretty conference grounds again.

I didn't think I'd ever get to do that.