Jeshua

Since I began writing Carpenter’s Corner about 15 months ago we’ve been systematically looking at the first five books of Moses and now come to the end. From the creation of the very first individuals, to the death of Moses at the entrance to the Promised Land, we have weekly taken a glimpse at God’s plan of salvation for the entire world. We discovered the gospel recorded for the first time in the pages of Genesis 3:15. We watched as God provided for Himself a sacrifice as Abraham readied to plunge a knife into his one and only son Isaac. God halted his sacrifice and  provided a substitute ram that was caught in the thicket Gen 22:1-14.

We watched in disgust as Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, then in amazement as God used this tragedy to save the Hebrew people from one of the worst famines in the history of the world Gen chapters 42-47. God prepares his servant Moses to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt and into the desert where He provides for them over and over again throughout the books of Exodus and Numbers. Then as the walls of water from the Yam Suf are piled up the fledgling nation of Israel are guided safely through the sea to the waiting desert on the other side where over 1.5 million men women and children are cared for by the Lord for over 40 years.

We climbed up the top of the mountain with Moses as God gives the world The Ten Commandments and discover that it would take more than the blood of bulls and goats to take away our sin. Again in Leviticus chapter 16 and 17 we ponder a  “word picture” describing  our future salvation through the scapegoat who is led and released unharmed out into the wilderness while the other goat is killed for our sin debt. We also learned that the blood of animals would only cover (atone) our sin and that this ritual would have to be repeated over and over again each year…that is until Jesus showed up.

Now as we reach the very edge of the desert we see an elderly Moses looking into The Promise Land before he passes on to be with the Lord. And in God’s perfect timing and purpose we discover that “The Law” that was given to Moses on top of the mountain would not be able to take us into The Promised Land. It would take a more perfect and precious sacrifice to take away our sins and allow us entrance into the presence of God almighty.

So it is not by chance, but design that Joshua is the one chosen by God to lead the nation into a land flowing with milk and honey. Even the very name of the book “Joshua” means “Yahweh is Salvation” and is the Hebrew form of Jesus in the New Testament. God used the law as a schoolmaster to teach us that we need to receive His One and Only Son as the way or provision to reach Him.

Let’s take one final stop before leaving Deuteronomy and look at a very interesting provision God commanded in Deuteronomy chapter 25, the role and duty of the Goel or kinsman redeemer in a Levirate marriage. When a woman’s husband died and she had no son to carry on the family name the brother or nearest relative had the obligation of marring her and providing a son. The living brother was the dead brother’s Goel or redeemer. He was also the avenger of blood who had the obligation to take revenge on another family should the need arise. The kinsman redeemer was also responsible to redeem the estate that a nearest relative might have sold to escape poverty. This selfless act would insure that the asset remain in the family.

What’s so interesting about this provision is that it comes at a point when the Israelites are standing on the edge of the Promised Land but can’t enter in until Joshua leads them. In much the same way, Jesus Christ is our Goel, our redeemer and it’s only through Him that we enter into the Promised Land. That is why the church is referred to as the bride of Christ. Jesus is our kinsman redeemer; He alone avenges our blood and redeems all that is lost through the curse of sin. In chapter 5 of Revelation we see a future scene in heaven where Jesus, the Lamb who was slain, is the only One who can receive the scroll, read or even look at it. We watch as Jesus becomes our kinsman redeemer and takes the title-deed or ownership of planet earth! So imbedded in the Name of Jesus Christ is a great truth that “Yahweh is Salvation” Halleluiah!

Rock solid

Most of us probably have read or heard about the Ten Commandments that Moses received on top of Mount Horeb in Midian. Many of us remember seeing Charlton Heston as he portrayed Moses in the classic Cecil B. Demille film The Ten Commandments. But what is usually not understood by most of us is that there were actually two sets of stone tablets; the first set Moses broke into pieces as he arrived back at base camp. In chapter 10 of Deuteronomy we read as God instructs Moses to make another set of tablets. This may be a small point, but I believe it is significant as it points out from the very beginning that man would never be able to keep the law that was etched into cold, hard stone. Instead man would choose to follow his own path towards destruction breaking God’s law every step along the way.

From chapters 11 through 28 of Deuteronomy we find Moses explaining love, obedience, blessings, curses and what will happen to them if they don’t heed all of these laws and regulations God has commanded. In chapter 28 we find 14 verses covering the blessings and 54 verses covering the curses that God promised would befall them if they did not choose to be obedient. As I was reading through this list of curses, I remembered reading about an eyewitness account by the Jewish historian Flavious  Josephus. The text sounded very familiar to me and seemed to document the prophecies Deuteronomy 28:47-57 predicted would happen. 

In 70 A.D. the Roman general Titus commenced a four month siege against Jerusalem’s residents and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims that had traveled to the city for mandatory annual temple feasts.  Josephus recorded horrific, macabre situations that befell Jerusalem from within as 60,000 thousand Roman soldiers were attacking from outside the walls of the city’s defenses. The details of the crimes are gruesome, hard to fathom and made me sick to my stomach. In my excitement I made the mistake of reading this historical account to my wife and father who happened to be with me in the room as I was studying. After I had finished reading they both appeared a bit perturbed and angry that I had shared all these gory details with them and left the room.

The account of the sacking of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. is not for the faint-hearted but if you still want to read about Jerusalem’s fate, you can read about it in Josephus’ eye-witness account. You may also want to read Deuteronomy 28:47-57 which predicted this event from the Roman army’s emblem of the eagle to the horrific cannibalism and suffering that Jerusalem was subjected to. The siege was predicted 1200 years before the event transpired, describing the event almost word for word. It’s so amazing that this kind of depravity could have taken place so close to the Holies of Holy, the place where God would appear to men through Israel’s High Priest. It’s clear that God’s warning about obedience, blessings and curses came to pass and was fulfilled in brutal fashion during the four month Roman siege.

Jesus also talked about this event in Matthew 24:1-2 “Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, ‘Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.’” History records that this event happened as the chilling destruction of the walls of the temple are recorded by Josephus. Also recorded is the fact that Titus’ commanded that the temple complex should remain untouched. The Jewish temple was one of the wonders of the world, a treasure for sure, complete with furnishings overlaid in gold and doors and gates shimmering in silver. He wanted to preserve the architecture of the temple with its white limestone blocks, cedar rafters and boasted that, while the inhabitants were to be trodden down, not a hand should be laid on this building complex.

What happened next was that as the fighting got nearer to the end the Jewish resistance holed up in the temple complex and a Roman solider threw a torch to the large wooden doors and gates. As the silver melted it caused the fire to spread and soon the entire temple was ablaze. The gold and silver covered furnishings melted to the ground allowing the precious molten metal to leak between the cracks in the stone walls and floor.

So the Roman soldiers literally removed every stone, throwing them down over the wall to gain access to the gold and silver and fulfilling Christ’s prediction that not one stone would be left upon another. God’s Word is living, active and sharper than a two edged sword and the stones are still piled up where they landed at the bottom of the wall.

Soft hearts

I’ve been studying the Old Testament so much lately I’m starting to forget that God made a New Covenant with us. It’s so easy to overlook the fact that the apostles and early church fathers and were Jews and that their entire religious belief system was built on the Mosaic Law.  The dichotomy between the Ten Commandments and the age of grace seems at first glance to be clearly divided as the waters of the Red Sea crossing. But even as Moses is breaking the first two tablets of stone, God is using the law to prepare our own hearts to receive the grace and mercy that will one day take the form of His very own Son, Jesus.

Paul conveys this beautifully in chapter 3 of Corinthians: “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men: clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, writing not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on the tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.” Paul summarizes this great truth in a few sentences. “And we have such trust through Christ towards God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter of the law but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

Another incredible scripture-prophecy is recorded by the prophet Jeremiah 600 years before God would give us the New Covenant “Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah- not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Jeremiah 31:31

What a skillfull surgeon God is as He carefully circumcises our hearts. The process starts with  sinners taking the first step of faith and believing that Jesus is God’s solution to our sin problem. Then the Holy Spirit begins to cut away the dead flesh and the calluses that have grown around our hearts. The love of God will soften and restore any yielded heart through the oil and the wine. As our hearts become more pliable they are ready to give God’s love to others who are desperately searching for it. Although God’s plan did not happen overnight but took thousands of years to perfect as He began to prepare the world for the birth of His Son. In fact the entire world had to be at just the right point in history for the arrival of the Messiah.

Are you ready for the Savior? Are you ready for God’s solution to sin? Jesus was born into poverty in a stable only to suffer and die in agony on a Roman cross. We glimpse the humanity of Jesus as He pleaded with the Father that if there be any other way to redeem the world let it be but He ended saying “not My will but Your will be done.” What the law could not complete, the Son of God accomplished while hanging lifeless from a crude device used to execute criminals. Jesus’ death redeemed all mankind in a moment as He said “It is finished” and His resurrection brought forth brand new life! Picture an ugly caterpillar going into a cocoon and in the twinkling of an eye emerges as a beautiful butterfly.  

But just like that caterpillar bursting out of a dark cocoon we to need to have the calluses and scars removed from our hearts. Then as the scales begin to fall from our eyes we can have compassion for others around us who do not yet know the One True and Living God. The more we love the more our hearts will continue to soften, allowing every aspect of our lives to be available to the Holy Spirit for His use.  You won’t have to thump people over the head with the bible by preaching the “Letter of the Law” instead people will see the love of Christ in you and through the actions that flow from your life. Surrendering to the Spirit, being a vessel that God can fill is what Jesus came to model for us all. Remember we are His workmanship created for good works in Christ!

 

The world's only hope

There is so much distraction here in the living world. The chaos that exists in the urban realm continually pounds on us, sapping our will to survive. Progress is an ongoing process and, man in general, has many accomplishments to be proud of, yet we have also left many scars on the world we touch. Our world leaders not only make decisions to drop bombs on one group of people and, from the same planes, drop pallets of food to help the starving. We continue to develop weapons of mass destruction and then prohibit and demonize other nations that pursue the same path. In the meantime, our world’s population continues to grow pushing upwards of seven billion and real possibilities of food and water shortages are on the horizon.

It’s in this day to day struggle that humans try to find some degree of peace in their lives. The pressure of providing for our families is really quite overwhelming to many moms and dads across the globe. It used to be that the family could survive on one income however, today the family unit usually has to have both parents working. This leads many families to become estranged and dysfunctional, increasing the distance between each member of the family. The days of eating family meals sitting at the dining room table are over. In the 1960’s, we left the dining room for TV trays but those are even becoming nonexistent. A covered porch where people would sit and relax, just waiting for an opportunity to catch up on conversation with a neighbor, is but a distant memory.

It’s in the midst of this chaotic fog that human beings desperately try and find peace. We grasp at the first thing that comes along and offers us even a quick moment of solitude. We are so busy trying to find some way of paying our bills that we have no energy or time to talk to each other and our relationships suffer. Even if we do manage to find a thin slice of time to breathe deeply, sigh and let our hair down, we usually end up sitting in front of a flickering TV screen in a mindless moment of escape from the demands of our lives.

We are presently not living up to the quality of life our Creator had originally designed for us. We were designed to live in a world where the lion would lay down with the lamb. To walk in the coolness of the morning with our God, to take time for our loved ones and enjoy each other’s company. The earth, in the beginning, did not grow weeds, thorns or thistles. It was watered by an immense water canopy that protected us from the harshness of the sun’s radiation. As the earth continues to be mistreated by its inhabitants and speeds down a path ultimately leading to destruction, humanity has some hard choices to make.

As I have been reading through Deuteronomy, it’s very clear that God wants the nation of Israel to not only remember Him but to follow His way of doing things. Even as the very Ten Commandments were being etched into the first two tablets of stone, the Israelites, camped at the base of the mountain, were casting an image of a calf to worship. This worship most likely included unbridled sex, alcohol consumption and excess of all kinds. The sight of this mess was too much for Moses and he breaks the first two tablets of stone. He then falls on his face crying out to God to forgive them for their disobedience.

If you think about it, isn’t this exactly what the world is caught up in now? A hurting generation of relationally starved people is bent on reaching out to any pleasurable diversion available. Even portions of the Christian community are walling themselves up into islands of religious activities that look very much like the world that they insist they are not part of. So what is the solution to life? Well, simply put its Jesus Christ.

All other religions focus on bettering yourself in some way, finding peace within your soul or walking a rigid path of self exclusion and denial; Jesus was born to redeem the earth. He alone paid the debt that all humanity owed. He came to the earth modeling love and taught us how to treat one another. Jesus just loved people and He continues to love us even to the point of death on a cross. He showed us that people are the only commodity on the earth that is worth our time and effort. Relationships are the only thing that will continue on the other side of the veil of death. And most importantly is our relationship with God Himself.

Shema

As all men grow older, and near the end of their lives, there seems to be a tendency for them to desire to leave a legacy. Something for friends and relatives to remember them by and, in the case of God’s chosen leader Moses, there is no exception. The greatest accomplishment of Moses is undoubtedly receiving God’s law, the two tablets of stone bearing the Ten Commandments, from the top of Mount Horeb in Midian.

God lays out His plan for a righteous relationship with His people as He gives Moses instructions on how they are to live in His presence and morally how to treat one another. However while Moses is away receiving the Ten Commandments, His brother Aaron is busy back at the Israelite camp smelting down the Egyptian gold to produce an idol for them to worship. When Moses returns from His encounter with God, he finds the Israelite camp worshipping an image of a golden calf. You can imagine his anger and frustration as he hurls the law to the ground breaking the first two tablets of stone.

Years later as Moses is nearing his own death, the scriptures records his legacy as he pours out his heart to all Israel. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is known as the Shema, a section of scripture that frames the entire scope of Jewish theology. It is so revered by certain sects of the Jewish faith that this scroll is literally pinned to their doorposts and some even go so far as to tie this scripture to their hands and foreheads.

 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

I have to admit I have personally taken these verses literally and have written them on areas of my house and objects that make up the architecture of my home. But did God literally mean that we should bind scriptures to our homes, our hands and foreheads or was He implying something else? Was God teaching the Israelites that salvation can only come from God and there is literally no way for anyone man to keep the Ten Commandments?

God wants us to remember Him and what He has accomplished for us. If we look back at the Exodus from Egypt, we discover that the blood of the Passover lamb when spread on the doorposts and lentils of the house spared the firstborn male from certain death by allowing the angel of death to “pass over” the redeemed house. Likewise Jesus too became our “Passover Lamb”, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as He hung and died upon the cross. The night before His death He also instructed us to commemorate and remember that He bought us with a price. By applying His blood to the doorposts of our own heart, we too become His purchased possession and will one day live again with Him!

The blessing of the Shema is that the Lord God is One and that salvation is from Him alone. Even the meaning of the Greek name Jesus or, in Hebrew Jeshua, literally means God is salvation. The Shema is both a blessing and a reminder that God was inviting His people to enjoy a relationship with Him and to walk all the days of their lives in a relationship with Him. God was trying to convey the benefits of sinking His word deep within their minds, their hearts and their souls. God loves us all and desires that we choose to come to Him out of love rather than compulsion.

In closing, I have decided to read the middle section of this great blessing again letting it sink deep within our hearts soul and minds. “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be frontlets between your eyes, you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”  Thank you God for loving us enough to send your own Son to heal and save us from a debt we could never pay. Could there ever be a better blessing than that?