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Joshua 9-11 Deep Diving Bible Study

 

GOOD MORNING SIBLINGS!
Today’s readings are Joshua 9-11

Read today’s Bible readings at BibleGateway by clicking here.

Rabbit Trails

Joshua 9:1-15 Notice in this passage that the Israelites did not seek the guidance of YHWH first but made the decision to form a covenant on their own. The Gibeonites held part of the territory within the promised land and as a result, they were among the people dedicated to destruction. This ended up putting the Israelites in a position where they had to choose between breaking their covenant they had made in YHWH’s name or carrying out the destruction of the cities, which they had been instructed to do. This is a classic rock and a hard place situation, and is what often happens when we make decisions on our own, apart from YHWH, which ends up causing us to have to live outside of His full will for our lives.

I found an interesting quote regarding the deception that takes place in Joshua 9

“This account is a warning to the church of all ages against the cunning and dissimulation of the world, which often seeks for a peaceable recognition on the part of the Kingdom of God, and even for reception into it; whenever it may be its advantage to do so”.
~Gerlach

Just who did they make a covenant with?  We go on to read in Joshua 10:2 that Gibeon was known as a great city, even greater than the much feared Ai, and all of its men were known as mighty warriors. The reputation of Israel had spread so rapidly that now to have the warriors of such a great city offer themselves up as slaves to Israel caused the kings of neighboring territories to “fear greatly”.

Joshua 10:7 in the ESV translation speaks of men of valor. Recall that this is the same word translated as “virtue” in the famous Proverbs 31 passage. That passage comes alive with far greater depth when we translate it as valor instead, in keeping with how it is translated everywhere else in the Word. Don’t take my word for it. Use Biblehub to test it with the interlinear feature as I’ve shown you. Check out Genesis 1 notes if you need a refresher.

The sun stands still!

Joshua 10:12-13 “There has been no day like it before or since when YHWH heeded the voice of a man, for YHWH fought for Israel.”

Wow. This whole passage about the moon and sun standing still is something that just takes my breath away to think about. I can’t help but pause and imagine what that was like. And then to have the Father doing what Joshua spoke, goodness! I have to marvel at the pure state of Joshua’s heart and depth of his relationship with the Father to know that he could speak such things of his own accord.

And then I consider how, often, I hear people ordering the Father around like He is their servant, when quite the opposite is true for anyone who would seek to follow Him.We do not show the Father the reverence that is rightly due to Him.

Joshua 10:12-13 “There has been no day like it before or since when YHWH heeded the voice of a man, for YHWH fought for Israel.”

Joshua 11:6   As it has been before, it is difficult to read about hamstringing the horses. First and foremost, I do not question the Almighty, His wisdom, and His ways, but I do seek to understand Him as best as I am able. With that in mind, I looked into this further and there is some quiet scholarly debate about whether or not the original intent of the word used in the texts meant hamstring or castrate. I have found some examples saying that Hebrew texts originally said castrate but it was consequently translated to hamstring. These are very quiet scholarly voices and I have not been able to find any definitive proof. If anything, I found more proof to support hamstring, but I did want to point out that there remains a possibility (however slight) of a translation error. Regardless, He is God and we are not.

I want to end with some insight from group member, Aletha Bass: 

“We are reading the account of the fulfillment of a long held promise first given to Abraham. I was thinking about how the Israelites must have felt to go through the Jordan on dry ground with the waters piled up behind the priests & the ark of the covenant. Were they remembering another crossing on dry ground through the Red Sea? When their feet first touched the soil of the promised land, were they weeping & rejoicing, calling thanks to almighty Yahweh for fulfilling the promise in their lifetimes?

No sooner are they in the promised land than iniquity & sin occurs. Thinking about what it felt like to enter a long awaited land of promise only to have someone disobey God’s commandment! Yes, all the people were held accountable but I wonder how the innocent felt to be held accountable for that sin.
I can imagine how it would be today for a large group to be held accountable for the bad behavior of one person. Forgiveness is hard to find in those scenarios. Yahweh, it seems to me, was trying to teach a stubborn, stiff necked people about obedience & forgiveness. The lesson is written over & over in scriptures yet today many have not learned that lesson. It seems stubborn & stiff necked people are still ignoring the lesson!

When people talk about how many advances mankind has made over the centuries, they ignore the fact that they’ve forgotten to learn the lessons from the scriptures, that progress hasn’t occurred in that area at all.

When I see the unrest, the discouragement, the desire for “more” we see so often in our society, I’m saddened that we paid so little attention to the lessons God tried to teach mankind.”

 

These notes were a bit briefer than I’d like as I was sitting in the back of a car on the way home from Michigan and it had gotten too dark for me to be able to read my Bible. I’m looking forward to the day when Ricky and I can implement our plan of traveling around a bit and meeting up with some of y’all if the Father wills it.

 

 


Test everything, hold tight to what is good.~ 1 Thess 5:21

We are saved by Grace alone: Obedience is not the root of our salvation, it is the fruit!

May YHWH bless the reading of His Word!