10/23/2009 9:26 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus:
Judah’s
borders and cities & more of Caleb’s faith
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference:
Joshua 15:1-63
Message of the verses: This
chapter is mostly about the boundaries of the tribe of Judah and the cities that were in the land given
to the tribe of Judah. In the middle of these two sections is
another story about Caleb which demonstrates more of his faith in the Lord, and
it also demonstrates how he was teaching the younger generations about faith in
the Lord.
Caleb had a
daughter and Caleb wanted his daughter to marry, so he offered his daughter to
the man who would attack Kiriath-sepher:
“16 And Caleb said, ‘The one who
attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter as a
wife.’” Now the man who did this was
actually Caleb’s nephew, the son of his brother: “17
Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, captured it; so he gave
him Achsah his daughter as a wife.”
Othniel became a judge in the land
of Israel. Caleb’s daughter wanted some land with
springs on it in order to water the land:
“18 It came about that when she
came to him, she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. So she alighted
from the donkey, and Caleb said to her, "What do you want?" 19 Then she said, "Give me a blessing;
since you have given me the land of the Negev,
give me also springs of water." So he gave her the upper springs and the
lower springs.” This shows that his
daughter had some of the same faith that Caleb had.
One more
point I wish to make before giving the lesson from Dr. Wiersbe’s book “Be
Strong,” and that comes from the very end of this chapter: “63
Now as for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the sons of Judah could not
drive them out; so the Jebusites live with the sons of Judah at Jerusalem
until this day.” I think that it is
possible that the reason that Judah
did not drive out the Jebusites is that most of them did not have faith like
Caleb, but that is only my opinion. The
Jebusites remained in Jerusalem until the time
of David and they bragged that no one could drive them out, but by the grace of
God and faith of David he conquered the city of Jerusalem.
There were still some Jebusites living there in the city of Jerusalem because David
would buy some property from a Jebusite in order to stop a plague that was from
God that was the fault of David. The
story picks up in 2 Samuel 24:16 and actually goes to the end of 2 Samuel: “16
When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it,
the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the
people, "It is enough! Now relax your hand!" And the angel of the
LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 Then David spoke to the LORD when he saw the
angel who was striking down the people, and said, "Behold, it is I who
have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but these sheep, what have they
done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s house.’
“18 ¶ So Gad came to David that day and said to
him, "Go up, erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah
the Jebusite." 19 David went up
according to the word of Gad, just as the LORD had commanded. 20 Araunah looked down and saw the king and his
servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed his face to
the ground before the king. 21 Then
Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" And
David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an
altar to the LORD, that the plague may be held back from the people."
22 Araunah said to David, "Let my
lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for
the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the
wood. 23 "Everything, O king,
Araunah gives to the king." And Araunah said to the king, "May the
LORD your God accept you." 24
However, the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it
from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God
which cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen
for fifty shekels of silver. 25 David
built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace
offerings. Thus the LORD was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was
held back from Israel.”
Now for
lesson #4: “The older generation must
provide for the next generation, not only materially but most of all
spiritually. ‘Senior saints’ must be examples of believers and encourage the
younger generation to trust the Lord and wholly follow Him.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I wrote a lot about the faith of Caleb in
yesterday’s SD, and that faith can also be seen in today’s SD, but I want to
write this morning about a sermon that I heard a very long time ago from a man
who began Open Door Church in Elyria Oh.
His name was Ralph Neighbor and he was on the radio while I was growing
up, but this sermon was given sometime latter around 1975. In the sermon he spoke about being able to
compare Scripture with Scripture in order to get more out of God’s Word. I believe that this SD was what he was
talking about in the sermon and by the grace of God and some hard work I know
more about the Word of God than I did in 1975.
God has given me a great desire to study His Word and I am grateful for
the desire that God has placed in my heart.
Another
thing that I want to write about is the sovereignty of God as it is seen in His
Word. It may have been the lack of faith
in God from the tribe of Judah
that they did not drive out the Jebusites, but this was still in the sovereign
will of God that they remain there as seen in the passage in 2 Samuel. If it was sin on the part of the tribe of Judah then they
must answer it. There are some things in
the Word of God that are very hard to figure out and I don’t think that He
wants us to try, but what He does want all believers to do is to trust Him and
obey His Word: “29 "The secret things belong to the LORD
our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we
may observe all the words of this law.”
My Steps of Faith for
Today:
- Give
myself to the Lord for worship and service for this day.
- Trust
the Lord to guide my path.
- Trust
the Lord even when I don’t know all of the answers.
- Continue
to learn contentment.
- Put on
the spiritual armor for protection in the battle today: The belt of truth, the breastplate of
righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of truth, the shield of faith, the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.
- Trust
the Holy Spirit to search my heart and convict me of hidden sin in my
life.
10/23/2009 10:33 AM
