free - take one “beware lest any man spoil you through · steps he is to take in moving israel...

In our last segment, we began ouroverview of the Book of Joshua. We talkedabout how it was finally time for Joshua tostep forward and take the lead in a way henever had until Moses was not just gone intothe mountain but the search for andmourning over Moses had finallycome to an end. Withthat, the Book of Joshuabegins by telling usGod came directly toJoshua as He hadMoses before himand encouragesJoshua with thefact He was withJoshua just like He hadbeen with Moses. God does notdrag this out for any time though as Godgets right to instructing Joshua with whatsteps he is to take in moving Israel across theJordan and claiming the promised land.Thus, our last segment covered the spiesgoing across the Jordan; the nation crossingthe Jordan; and their marching around thecity for seven days. This brought ouroverview through Joshua chapter 6 verse 16,and we will pick up this time with verse 17.

Of course, verse 16 brings us to that

point where Israel had marched around thecity once for six days and on this seventhday they had marched seven times aroundthe city. Verse 16 conveys the words Joshuahad instructed the people about what to doafter they had made that seventh trip and thepriests blew loud and long with their shofars.The people were to shout, not as a way to

take the city but because God hadalready given it to them. Inverse 17 we are givenmore of the details of

what Joshua had told thepeople concerning Jericho.

Those words told Israel,Jericho was accursed;

everything it was made of,everyone in it, everything it

contained, and the idea of thecity itself! The only exception to thiswas Rahab and her family because she hadhelped the spies and they had sworn to herthey would spare them. Everyone who hadfollowed the instructions of being in herhouse at the time this all happened wasspared, but everyone else was accursed rightalong with the city itself. Joshua makes itclear the nation was not to take anything ofJericho. This kind of instruction was alwayshard for Israel as it would be for any people.

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Taking the spoils of war for one's self wasjust part of the payment for fighting thefight, or it was the purpose for which youwere sent to attack a certain place. However,God wished to make the point here that Heso often did with Israel that this was notabout worldly gain, this was aboutdestroying the corruption and making roomfor the things of God. That is why Israel isinstructed everything was accursed andnothing was to be taken out of the city. Allof it was to be destroyed and left as rubblefor time to deal with. The only exception toartifacts was that the silver, gold, and vesselsof iron and brass could be sanctified to Godand put in the treasury of the tabernacle. Inthis, we see God showing us how He canredeem the things He wants unto Himself inspite of the fact the vast majority of whatnormally might be spared is destroyed. Itshows the point, God makes the choices, andin this case the metals that could be melteddown for creating something new could bespared but only for the purposes of God'swork!

With these instructions already in theirminds the people would end their seventhcircle around the city and hear the blast ofthe shofars they had been instructed thepriests would give, and they would shout!With this shout, both the people of Jerichoand all of Israel would see one of the mostamazing things they had seen God do forthem. Without doing anything more, likebattering them or pressing upon them, thewalls of the city would simply fall down flatall on their own. Israel would rush in tobegin the work of attacking what was left ofthe city and its people. In the utter confusionthe people must have experienced at thismoment and the devastation the city walls

falling could cause all by itself, destroyingthe rest of the city, the people, and evenanimals had to be easy work. At this pointthe two spies that had made the promise toRahab had been instructed to head to herhouse and make sure her and her familywere brought out unharmed. This may bethe most amazing part of all as Rahab wasable to originally help the spies because herhouse was on the wall of the city. Everyonein such structures should have been the firstto die, but God had protected that part of thewall and everyone in her house along withit. The men would go in and bring out thatfamily and the things they owned. Thefamily would not be made a part of thechosen nation, but they would be put outsidethe camp of Israel where they'd be safe. In apoetic way, this family represents the first ofthose who would learn from Israel'sexample of serving God by just living closeto the nation. This is the true work the nationwas set up to accomplish, and we see in thisfamily being the only ones spared, the truthmany are called but few are chosen! (Matt.22:14)

Rahab would live close to the nation'speople for the rest of her life, but the rest ofJericho was destroyed. Israel would burn theheap of rubble that once had been Jericho,and Joshua would stand up at that time tocurse anyone who ever rebuilt this city. Ifanyone did they would end their lifechildless as they would lose their first-bornat the start of building, and by the end theywould lose even their youngest. TheCanaanites had become a very corrupt andwicked people. Jericho was to remain adesolate place; a monument of what it wasGod had sent Israel into the land to do.Anyone who even considered rebuilding the

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city would get a chance to end their illadvised work by seeing the death of theirfirst-born. (I Kin. 16:34) This should nothave just been a general bad thing as in oneloses a child, but the first-born hadparticular importance in any family. This iswhy God killed all the first-born of Egypt atPassover to make a final attempt at gettingPharaoh to do what he should. The factPassover was/is so important to Israel andremembered every year should have madethe death of a first-born that much more ofan impact on anyone in Israel who mightthink of rebuilding this city.

The destruction of Jericho did exactlywhat God had promised Joshua it would do.The fame of Joshua would spread not justamong Israel, as they would gain greatconfidence in him on that day, but alsoamong those of the land. As fearful as manymay already have been of Israel's invasion,now they had seen how capable Israel wasto simply run them all down. Sadly,everyone in Israel did not stay pure in whatJoshua had commanded them concerningJericho. Thus, the very next place Israelattacked did not go as well. Joshua wouldsend spies to Ai which was the next majorcity to the west and slightly north of Jericho.These spies would go up and come backwith the opinion that it would not even takeall of Israel's fighting men to take the place.They believed only two to three thousandmen could do the job. Joshua would sendthree thousand men to attack the city butthey would be defeated, and thirty six menof Israel were killed as the men of Ai chasedthem in retreat. After the greatencouragement of how easy it was to takeJericho this was a surprise to say the least,

and Israel's belief they were going to easilytake this land was greatly harmed. Joshuaand the elders of Israel would go to thetabernacle and fall down before the Ark ofthe Covenant to speak to God about this. Asthey mourned this loss in the tradition ofripping clothing and putting dust upon theirheads, Joshua's words show us howdifferent he was from Moses. Moses wouldlikely have told the people they hadobviously done something wrong beforeGod for this to happen, and then he wouldhave went before God and asked why Godhad him lead these people out if this is howthey were going to be? After starting out atthe burning bush telling God he was just ashy guy who could not do the work, we seeMoses go forward with the training andforcefulness of a king. This is what he hadbeen taught while being raised in Pharaoh'shouse, but his good heart was shown in thathe rose up and smote an Egyptian forbrutalizing one of Israel. This combinationmade Moses the perfect man for the job, butIsrael had been so disobedient Joshua wasleft to finish that job and lead Israel in thisconquest of the promised land.

Being a very young man as Israel leftEgypt, Joshua seemed to cling to Moses'side from the start. It is obvious he greatlyadmired Moses and the work he did. Inbeing one of only two out of twelve spiesthat believed Israel could take the land some40 years earlier, Joshua showed his heart fortrusting in God. However, now the burdenwas totally on Joshua as the leader. He couldnot lean on Moses or look to him to find theanswer. It had to be difficult now for Joshuato believe God was with him as He had beenMoses, and Joshua shows that in his words

as he comes before God. What is interestingabout Joshua's words is that they so greatlymirror the words of the generation that wasleft to die wandering in the wilderness. Theyoften asked why did God or Moses bringthem out of Egypt to die in this land or bekilled by an enemy? They would often capthis with their idea it would have been betterto remain slaves in Egypt than have to sufferthat fate. In this new generation of Israel thepeople did not know Egypt, or it was a longago faded memory from childhood. Theyhad gone forward most of their days asadults to cut the path they needed to get tothe east side of Jordan where they wipedmany people off the map and claimed theland for themselves. As easy as it was fortheir fathers to say it would have been betterto be slaves in Egypt, it was far easier forthis generation to claim what Joshua reflectsin his words. Joshua asks God why Hebrought Israel, not out of Egypt, but acrossJordan if they were just going to die here?He then caps that off with the thought, itwould have been better to stay on the eastside of Jordan where they already had goodland, than to have come over here.

These words show a weakness onJoshua's part that I don't believe any of ushave even the beginnings of a right to judgefor so many reasons. That aside, it is therenonetheless, but what we see in Joshua wasthat he goes before God to make thiscomplaint. Therein lies a big key to thedifference in what Joshua does. Thosecoming out of Egypt often attacked Moses.Moses had to be the firewall between thepeople and God, and he often took heat fromboth sides. The people needed Moses to bethere many times or they would not havesurvived God's wrath. A mistake man made

on the first day he fell into sin was in thesepeople. Adam and Eve hid from God insteadof running to Him to ask for help. I wouldsay Joshua was pushing it a bit by usingthese words before God, but at the sametime he was the leader upon whom theburden fell. He was there on his knees withdust on his head, humbly before God. Aswrong as they may seem, he did not speakhis words in a defiant stance of turning backto the east and giving up. He didn't say themout of anger that God dare let this happen.No, Joshua is truly pleading with God as towhy. He is seeking answers and hoping tohear God's voice. All this shows us the greatdifference not just our actions and wordsmake, but the attitude with which we conveythem. Attacking the minister of God insteadof going to God Himself for the answers youneed is always the wrong thing. There arepeople, like other ministers and certainlythose who have the gift of prophecy, whomight seem to attack a minister whendelivering words of instruction God isgiving, but that is why each of us must knowin our heart what we are doing is donebecause God told us to and not because wesimply feel a certain way. If we haveproblems we need to go to God, and nomatter how angry we may be we must do itwith the humility and understanding of Whowe are speaking to. This is the place Joshuawas in.

The second part of Joshua's words areconcerning the fact he was worried abouttwo things at this point. Maybe no one wasmore knowledgeable than Joshua about howmuch the people turned to grumble againstMoses. The people said enough directly toMoses' face for him to be clear on theirdispleasure. However, Joshua was that

4 The Bible As A Book continued on pg. 21

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In our last segment, we talked aboutthe conversation Abraham and Isaac had asthey walked together up the mount whereAbraham was to sacrifice Isaac to God. Wetalked again about how hard it had to be forAbraham to do this, knowing that humansacrifice was not something The One TrueGod wanted. However, God had asked it ofAbraham so he had taken the fire, the wood,the knife, and his son to do just that. Wediscussed how all the things Abrahambrought had meaning, and a lot of what wasdone foreshadowed what Jesus came to dowhen giving His life for us all. We alsostarted talking about the question Isaac askedhis father about where the sacrifice was sincethey had all the elements necessary to offerone but not the sacrifice itself. In doing this,Isaac no doubt understood what was goingon, but wanted his father to confirm to himor explain further what it was this all meant.That brought us to discuss Abraham's answerin Genesis chapter 22 verse 8, and that iswhere we will continue this time.

As we started looking at the wordsAbraham spoke we talked last time aboutsome of the overall meaning Abraham wastrying to convey to his son. To start this timewe want to look at the words themselves a bitmore before we move on. One of the firstthings we don't want to miss is the factAbraham does not say, “God will provide alamb...” He says to Isaac, “God will providehimself a lamb...” This may not comethrough with the power it does in the originallanguage once it's translated into English,

Following the Biblical Stream:By Philip E. Busby

but this is a great example of how well theKing James Bible did/does and why we don'twant to be bringing every verse, if any verse,of the Bible into “modern English.” This isnot because modern English can not totallydo the job, but the point most want to makewhen saying they are bringing the Scripturesinto today's English or modern English is notto just get rid of the thees and thous. No,what they mean most of the time is they wantto make it more like the English wecommonly speak today which is a very weakpedestrian language. It's meant to get usthrough the day, which means it'sspecifically not meant to convey any deeperthoughts. This is a problem when translatingScripture in particular as there is no deeperwriting than the Word of God.

A point many do not think about is thateven at the time the King James Version waswritten, it was not done in what might becalled the “street English” of the day. This iswhy we often call it, “The King's English.”There was a pure form of English spoken bythe nobility that was not so much spoken bythe common person who knew “English.”While people of that time were far more useto the thees and thous and a few other thingsin the King James we feel are out of dateand/or not clear on what they mean, those ofthe day still needed a certain level ofeducation to grasp it all. Mind you, it was notas big a gap as it is today, and that is actuallysaying something about how low a languagewe daily speak now. It was not common forthose without wealth and/or of nobility to get

much of an education that went beyondlearning a trade; often just something theirfamily already did. This means almost nocommon person sat in a language class ofany kind. They only knew what they hadheard from others. Today many have theability to go to school and learn a languageif not more than one. In most “developed”countries it's even a requirement to beeducated to a certain level of literacy or atleast attend school for a certain number ofyears. My point is simply that if any peoplehave an excuse for complaining the languageof a writing as important as the Word of Godis too complex or high an English for them,it's not modern people. It’s just gotten thatbad, and we've just gotten that lazy that evenif the King James was redone into a collegelevel English of today most would stillcomplain about how hard they think it is tounderstand.

All that said, there is still the point thateven the King James English is not able togive us all the original language containedand neither would a high college level oftoday's English. At the same time, there aresubtle things like the way these words areput together which bring a lot of the meaningthrough. Without stretching the point outand saying something like, “God will be thesacrifice he will provide...” It states, “...Godwill provide himself a lamb...” In ways Ihave a hard time imagining those who knowHebrew well could ignore, Abraham istelling Isaac The Messiah would be GodHimself in some form. Abraham did notknow what that form would be exactlybecause the triune nature of God had notbeen revealed to men in the detail Jesus wasable to show it to us. However, not only dothose of the Jewish religion today believeThe Messiah cannot be God Himself, they

are leaning on a religious thought developedby those putting together the doctrine wholived even before Jesus came. This is exactlywhy it was unacceptable for the Jewishreligious establishment of the day to seeJesus as The Messiah. The power ofreligious thinking was/is so strong it did notmatter how many things Jesus did to showHimself to be The Messiah or how powerfulHe was showing He was of God in anundeniable way, the fact He also showedHimself to be equal to God was blasphemyand demanded the punishment of death asthey saw it. (John 3:1-2, Phili. 2:4-8)

This is amazing because it is clear inwhat Abraham said that he understood TheMessiah would be God Himself. Of course,it's easy to sidestep this with a lot oftechnical excuses and claim that's not whatthe wording means for one reason oranother, but this is a denial of the simpletruth Abraham was conveying to Isaac. Isaacwanted some kind of further information asto why they were about to do what they wereheaded up that hill to do, and Abraham couldhave simply said, “Son, only God reallyknows.” Abraham could also have saidsomething along the lines of trying to makea longer consideration of his understandingabout what would one day be the case, but healso did not do that. That point is why it'sgood the King James Version does notbelabor or drag this statement out into alonger sounding explanation in an attempt tocapture even more of what the originallanguage conveyed. For even in the originallanguage Abraham was being simple aboutthis and straight to the point. It was not aboutbeing ignorant of anything that was going onand why, but it also was not about ponderingthe point. Abraham simply tells Isaac, aswell as those of us who still read this today,

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that there was something about what theywere about to do that had deep meaning, andthey would do it because it was what Godhad asked. However, as we talked about lasttime, the real point was that what they did ordid not do was about being or not being apart of God's plan unfolding. It was notabout stopping it or doing the tangible workof moving it forward in a literal sense. Thisis not to say what Abraham and Isaac diddidn't have a profound impact on ourunderstanding of God's plan and our faith,but to say only Jesus could come and giveHimself to actually cleanse us of sin. OnlyJesus can be The One to stand on JudgmentDay and tell The Father this one is Mine,redeeming us by His choosing.

Those will be the moments when itreally matters and why it really matteredJesus came and actually physically gave Hislife. It's not to say there is anyone who canlegitimately say, “What right does Jesushave to save that person and not me?”However, this is the perfection of God and itshows us something about how we shouldlive our lives. We are told in the NewTestament to abstain from all appearance ofevil and things like, a better name is rather tobe chosen than great riches. (I Thes. 5:22,Prov. 22:1) These can seem like hard thingsto navigate, especially in a world where somuch evil is called good and so much goodis called evil. (Isa. 5:20) How do we choosewhat is right and what is wrong in certaincircumstances. If we give this world'sthoughts credit, more and more, it will seemcorrect when we are judged as totally wrongfor believing certain things that used to beconsidered the good and right way ofthinking. There is almost always this

struggle in the political realm and now moreso than ever! So many things that fordecades were considered the “Christian”way of thinking governments should run theaffairs of a country and laws should bemade, can now be looked at as hateful anddiscrimination. This means doing things thatwill give us a good name in the eyes ofpeople who have accepted the wrong andrejected the right will be impossible if wecontinue to hold to that which is right. It willseem in the eyes of the world that we are notonly failing to abstain from all appearance ofevil, we are the evil! Believe me, I havefought this within the church itself overseveral decades and watched this kind ofwrong judgment be the reason true believershave no place in a lot of churches. Thewrong way of looking at what is right andwrong has so totally saturated our modernworld and gotten into our churches, the rightlooks wrong and the wrong looks right tomore and more people.

So what are we to do as true believersin God's ways? Can we really abstain fromall appearance of evil and choose a goodname over riches in a world so turned on itshead? The answer is yes, because in the endit is not about what pleases man but God.This again brings us to the critical fact wesee the golden rule as being that we love TheLord our God with everything we have, andthe second one is to love our neighbor asourselves. (Matt. 22:34-40) If we put Godfirst in all things then He is our guide, ouranchor. It is God who dictates the right andthe wrong through His Word and theconviction power of The Holy Ghost. Weshouldn't care what man thinks over whatGod thinks. We shouldn't care what man

says over what God says. To us, abstainingfrom all appearance of evil means we abstainfrom all things that would make it seem weare violating God's Word. What is importantis not that man agrees with us, but that othersare clear we do what we do because we feelit is what God has asked of us. This verypoint is in what Paul says in Romans 14:22-23 “ Hast thou faith? have it to thyself beforeGod. Happy is he that condemneth nothimself in that thing which he alloweth. Andhe that doubteth is damned if he eat, becausehe eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is notof faith is sin.” We stand before God and dowhat we do unto Him. This is what peopleshould see when they look at us. If theyjudge us as bad for what we do they shouldat least see that what we do is because webelieve in God and His ways.

Now, this point was widelyunderstood in the past, and that is why itbecame a common thing for people to say toothers, “I can't believe you think you're aChristian!” or “And you're suppose to be aChristian?” People love to try to shake ourfaith, and at times maybe it seems to work,but these are not the times to be stuck inreligious mud and say well I do what I dobecause it's what I was taught or because it'swhat I have always done. No, these are thetimes that mean so much that we have beenin God's Word on a regular basis. If we haveslipped away from being in His Word, theseare the times that show us we need to getback. If we do what we do in faith it meanswe do it because we believe it is whatpleases God, and we believe that becausewe've looked into the subject for ourselves.We know it's in the Word of God, and if wedon't know it we should seek it. We shouldseek the truth in any matter from GodHimself not just listen to men. “Blessed is

the man that walketh not in the counsel ofthe ungodly, nor standeth in the way ofsinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.But his delight is in the law of the LORD;and in his law doth he meditate day andnight.” Psalms 1:1-2

As for loving one's neighbor as one'sself, that part becomes simple once we'vefollowed the true Golden Rule. We caneasily do unto others as we would have themdo unto us because we are only interested indoing our best to please God. When othershate us for what we believe or try to judgeus, we know our sincerity for serving God iswhat they are seeing. We may be mostlyright or we may have many flaws in ourthinking, but when people see we are tryingour best to obey God that is doing unto themas a true believer would want done tothemselves. True believers should all desireto see everyone striving to serve The Lord.This is not just in the fact we will feel morecomfortable knowing others are not lost butalso in that it takes the burden off our hands.If we see others doing the things they do ina true attempt to do as they feel God wouldwant of them we can discuss the ways wedisagree, but we should feel no burden to domore if others do not accept what webelieve. This is why we are told in Romans14:13 “Let us not therefore judge oneanother any more: but judge this rather, thatno man put a stumblingblock or an occasionto fall in his brother’s way.” When wedegrade into demeaning the faith of othersby saying to them things like, “And youbelieve you're a Christian?” We are not onlydirectly judging them as not someone who'sgoing to make it to heaven, we may verywell cause that person to becomedisheartened and truly stop even trying tofollow God.

8FBS continued on pg. 17

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period we really see the reason anyone candoubt the Jews we know today are those weknew as the chosen nation of the past.However, as we continue to follow the historywe find the Jews as a people did continue.Due to world events shifting around themthey end up in very different lookingcircumstances for a long time, but what isamazing is we can continue to follow theJewish people even through these darkest oftimes, which unlike things such as theBabylonian captivity, ended up lasting forcenturies not decades! Following the historyis what we will continue to do in this study,and in so doing see how God has preservedHis people.

By the end of the Kitos War, we findthere was a new emperor of Rome namedHadrian. His placement on the throne asTrajan's rightful successor was suspicious.However, he was accepted by the military,and not long thereafter accepted by thesenate. This might have been the end of thematter, but shortly after this, four Romansenators were executed on the basis they wereconspiring against the empire. This broughtsome suspicions that Hadrian had them killedsimply because they had opposed hisplacement. Over the long term Hadrian wouldhave a back and forth relationship with thesenate, but as was the case for most emperors,he would mostly do as he pleased and hispolicies would certainly effect how thingsplayed out with the Jews. In talking about theactions of the Mesopotamian Jews during theKitos War, we found their real reason for

“Is it true that the Jews are God'schosen people? I have a Christian friend whosays the Jews were not God's chosen people.”

In our last segment, we talked about thesequence of events that made up the KitosWar. As we discussed, so many of theseevents were really self contained in that onedid not take place due to the other. This isparticularly true of the events inMesopotamia where many Jewishcommunities were totally wiped out by thiswar in spite of the fact these communities hadrose up for far different reasons than thosewho rose up in Libya, Egypt, and Cyprus. Inthe end, one of the biggest takeaways fromthe Kitos War is that it was not just used as apropaganda tool in order to blame the Jewsfor the Romans’ mismanagement of theempire, but it was also used as an excuse tooppress the Jews that much more. Thisincluded not just the outlawing of the Torahbut also direct bans on Jews living in certainparts of the empire. When the Romans madeJudah a direct province of the empire theyalso made its official name Judea. In manyways this was used as a way to startnarrowing down what the Romans saw asJewish land to just that southern province.However, all this was just the beginnings ofan attempt to wipe clean from the memory ofthe world that any of this land was the Jewishhomeland.

Following the Kitos war things reallybegan to get dark for the chosen nation in away it had never been before. It is in this time

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What About God’s Chosen People?Part XXXVII

From Living Springs’ Questions and Answers

rising up was due to Rome's overreach asTrajan attempted to expand the empire. Whatis ironic is the Jews in Judea did not do muchduring this war. In spite of this, following theKitos War, Judea would be put under heavyscrutiny and looked at as a trouble spot for theempire. Thus, in what is certainly anoverbearing move by the empire, Romewould actually permanently station an entirelegion of the Roman army in Ceasarea just tokeep an eye on the Jews. This was the LegioVI Ferrata, which means “Sixth IroncladLegion,” and Judea would remain their postfor the next two centuries!

To show what an overreach this was onthe part of Rome, we only need look at howHadrian began to change Roman policy. Oneof the most controversial shifts in policyHadrian brought about was to end theexpansionist ambitions. This would not bejust in the idea he would no longer pursuegreater and greater territory as Trajan haddesired to do, but Hadrian would pull backfrom much of the eastern territory Trajan wassaid to have made part of the empire. Thiswas another move that upset many in theempire. Military families had fought long andhard and sacrificed much to go with Trajanon these eastern campaigns, yet Hadriansimply abandoned much of that gain. Thismade the fact many Jewish communities inMesopotamia were wiped out completelyeven sadder, as it was all done by Rome forreasons Rome would now abandon. Hadriansimply did not like the idea of an empire withsuch great boarders that they needed constantvigilance to protect. Instead, he favoredboarders which were secure and fairly easyfor the empire to hold. In this, there is awisdom that Trajan seemed to lack, butbefore we give Hadrian too much credit wemust understand some of his deeper thinking

that made him desire this.

The trouble with Hadrian is that he wasgreatly in love with the Greek culture, andonce again, this would bring great trouble forthe Jews. It was Hadrian's desire to see theempire return Greece to its former glory, andin turn to see the Roman Empire as a wholefully turn to the Hellenistic ways. This has agreat deal to do with why he did not favorexpanding boarders. He returns us to thethinking that culture could be the conquerormore so than armies and weapons. Thus, itwas his desire to see those in the RomanEmpire become a grand example to the worldof what a great society following the Greekway of life could be. This caused Hadrian toturn from a military focus to a cultural focus.Obviously one of the things the Jews didduring the Kitos War was destroy manytemples. These were both Greek and Romantemples as well as some more ancient ones inEgypt, but it matters not how new or old thesestructures were, they represented falsereligion just the same. That is why the Jewstook the opportunity to destroy them. TheJews may in many ways not have been on theexact right path of serving God as they shouldhave been, but they did understand, in maybea greater way than they ever had before, justhow much false religion was their trueenemy. This was a little too late in that thebest way for Jews to remain clean was to liveon a land of their own and keep that landpure, but the message was getting through insome form and that could be a good thing.

In a practical sense the Jew'sdestruction of pagan temples ended up beinglittle more than a symbol of Jewishdispleasure with those of the world desiringto oppress the Jew's way of life, because itwould be short-lived. The Kitos War takes us

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from a Roman emperor whose focus was onland expansion of the empire which did notreally have to effect the Jews so much in theend, to an emperor focused on the culture,and that was never good. It was as if Hadrianwas returning the Jews to the time when theGreeks ruled the empire, and there was littleto no good thing for the Jews during theGreek reign. Much of what the Jews had“accomplished” during the Kitos War wouldbe reversed as Hadrian made it a large part ofhis reign to see many temples rebuilt andrestored to their former glory. He would notjust rebuild temples but also be veryambitious in building new ones. The bigproblem with an emperor who wants to makeculture the conquering tool of his empire isthat this building of new temples and grandplaces of culture was not something Hadrianwas going to simply do at random, or just forpeople and places who greatly desired to be apart of his grand vision. No, building suchplaces was a calculated move on Hadrian'spart as he looked for places important toother cultures as religious centers, and inthose places he sought to build temples inorder to help integrate the cultures intoHellenistic thinking!

As one should be able to guess, thismeant one of the most significant placeslooked at as a place needing such a thingwould be Judea! What place in the empirewould such an emperor see as most needinga conversion to a “better” culture than Judea?Obviously, if Hadrian wanted to, he couldhave looked back and found the recordswhich would have told him how this did notplay well in the past when the Greeksthemselves attempted such a thing. However,one has to wonder if Hadrian did look. Did hemake his moves against the Jewish culture

knowing the past and feeling he was justpowerful enough to do what the Greeks couldnot, or did he not know the past and this wassimply history repeating itself? This is aquestion we can not fully know the answerto, but it does not really matter because again,as one should be able to guess, Hadrian'squest to Hellenize his empire would bringhim straight to Jerusalem!

Hadrian would visit Jerusalem in 130A.D. Of course, there was not much to visitat the time because the first Jewish-Romanwar had seen not just the destruction of thetemple but of the city itself. The city hadoften been seen as a troublesome place forthe empire, and the first war was used as anopportunity to raze Jerusalem to the ground.The historian Josephus records thatJerusalem was so thoroughly razed to theground by those who demolished it thatnothing was left which could persuadevisitors it had once been a place of habitation.In what is likely more Roman propaganda, itis recorded that Hadrian came proposing therebuilding of Jerusalem as a gift to the Jewishpeople. No matter the record there is noreason to believe Hadrian had any intent ofrebuilding Jerusalem for Jews. This mighthave been said as a way to lure the Jews intonot resisting this rebuilding effort as it tookplace, but Hadrian was all about buildingcultural centers that promoted Greek culture,of which there could not be a placesymbolizing more opposition to such an ideathan Jerusalem. As some Jews held out hopeHadrian might actually be intending torebuild Jerusalem for the Jews, it becameclear very early on that he instead intended tobuild on the ruins of Jerusalem a city in hishonor which would be a Roman colonydedicated to pagan gods. He would name the

city Aelia Capitolina. The first part, Aelia isin honor of Hadrian's family, and Capitolinais a way of dedicating the city to the godJupiter.

Of course, there is nothing about thiswhich would please the Jews, and obviouslyit would do just the opposite and enragethem. To make matters worse there wouldalso be a new Roman governor of Judea bythis time who was very much so not on theside of the Jews. This governor's name wasQuintus Tineius Rufus, also known as TurnusRufus the Evil. This man would be put incharge of the building of Aelia Capitolina,and he would show no respect for the Jewishhistory of Jerusalem in doing so. Thebuilding would begin in 131 A.D., and Rufuswould see to the foundation ceremony. Thislaying of the foundations of the city wasbegun by plowing up what was to be thecity's boarders. This included plowing up theTemple Mount itself. It would have been badenough if Hadrian's plan had been aboutbuilding a city off to the side of the TempleMount, but it would seem his intent was tobuild a specific temple to Jupiter directly onthe Temple Mount. While the Jews had beengreatly discouraged by the losses sufferedduring the first Jewish-Roman war, they hadrealized there was little they could do to resistRome and not acted again. As we havecovered, the Kitos War was not really aboutthe freeing of Judea, and might never haveincluded events in Judea if it had not been forleaders of that war fleeing to Judea andmaking it their last stand.

However, now Jerusalem itself wasbeing violated and this included the TempleMount. There had also been other pressuresput on the Jews as they watched the Romanpolicy favor non-Jews on the land. Various

privileges of how to claim and use the landwas given to non-Jews coming into Judea asa way for the Roman government to diminishthe Jews as a people and encourage a non-Jewish population. At the very least, it couldbe said Rome's policy was about attemptingto water down the Jewish population to thepoint they as a people would simplydisappear into the greater population of theRoman Empire. If nothing else, it was likelythe Romans hoped the Jewish religion wouldfade, and that alone would mark the end ofany troubles the empire would have withthem. This might have seemed like a goodpolicy to pursue against a people who hadalready lost two wars with the empire. It wasvery political in its thinking, as instead oftaking a direct approach of outlawing Jewishculture altogether there would simply be afading of it as new generations of Jews foundit to be the unfavorable lifestyle. This was agreat underestimating of the Jewishdedication to the Law, and all these eventswould contribute to the start of a thirdJewish-Roman war.

The third Jewish-Roman war is knownas the Bar Kokhba Revolt. This is due to thefact a lead man in this uprising was a mannamed Simon bar Kokhba, and his rise topreeminence has to do with something wehave touched on over and over in this study.Again, we come to that fact Jesus came to theJewish nation at a time when relations withRome were about as good as they were evergoing to be. We often think about therelationship between Jews and Rome at thetime of Jesus as being not so great. However,that is a lack of historic perspective on thefact things got a whole lot worse. Not only isthat true, but at the time of Jesus' comingRome actually desired to work with the Jewsand saw them as very much a contributing

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people to the empire. This is not to suggestRome did not do many things that angered theJews, but the Jews saw themselves as entitledto be a totally free people having to answer tono empire or higher authority other than GodHimself. This would have been ideal, buteven before Moses died he made it clear thatto have such blessed circumstances the nationwould need to follow God with their wholehearts and perform the law with purity. Thisthe Jews had not done, and while God hadgiven the Jews a great victory over the Greeksat the time of Hanukkah's events, the Jewshad a long way to go in getting things right asGod wanted them.

The Jews were far from a stable enoughpeople to be ruling without anyone over them,if for no other reason than the world was adangerous place where powers such as theRomans and Parthians sought territory andglory for their respective imperialistic ideas.Of course, God could protect the Jews fromsuch powers no matter how insurmountablethat task might seem. However, if we knowwhat the Bible is showing us, we see Godraising His hand of protection more and morefrom the nation based on their unwillingnessto follow Him in purity is how the dynamicworked. This is why in totally following Godthe nation would see great blessings, but innot following God they would experience thegreat trouble caused by a world who hates thethings of God and certainly the people whorepresent it, in spite of how much thosepeople may or may not purely live it. Thus,being under the Roman rule as the Jews wereat the time of Jesus was a great opportunity tolive under the secular protection of an empirethat saw them as simply one of the manyethnicity in the empire. This was as good athing as the nation could ask for consideringhow far from the perfection in following God

they were at the time. This made it the besttime for The Messiah to come and use thisopportunity to teach and restore the nationinto the perfect ways of the Law.

Sadly, we know the Jews did not takethat opportunity. They believed, should TheMessiah come, He would be the one to freethem from any and all rulers other thanHimself. Jesus was crucified primarilybecause He showed He had no intentions ofdoing that, and a great opportunity was lost.All that said, the problems with believing TheMessiah would be such a figure did not endwith Jesus coming and being rejected. No,that is why man having false beliefs withinhis religious system is so dangerous! Failingto accept what Jesus offered at His comingonly meant as the years wore on the Jewswould experience the downhill slide that wasinevitable for them to experience without thehelp of The Messiah. The nation wouldfollow the same path they would havefollowed had Jesus not come. Sure the growthof the church effected events some, but this isso early on and before what calls itselfChristianity became a religious force of itsown, the effects are practically irrelevant. Thesimple truth of the matter is that the Jews as anation and more importantly as a religionawaited The Messiah's coming to set themfree from their troubles. What religiousthought patterns had done was takesomething the Law made clear was onlygoing to be granted to a nation whichfollowed God with sincerity and turned it intoa right. The Jews believed they had the rightto their temple as the people of God. Theybelieved God had an obligation to fulfill Hispromise to them which they saw as beingfreedom from secular rule outside the nation.Since none of this was true there was only onething for religious minds to do, and that was

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to grab on to any and all threads of things thatmade it seem it was true!

The Jews had experienced at the timeof the Babylonian captivity the fact that only70 years after the temple had been destroyedthey were allowed to return and rebuild it.The fact this would happen was evenprophesied by the prophet Jeremiah. (Jer.29:10-14) Instead of seeing this as somethingthat happened and therefore was a prophecygiven and fulfilled, it was as if the Jews hadput this idea into doctrine. It was believedthat just as it had been at the time of thecaptivity, the temple destroyed by theRomans would also be rebuilt in 70 years.These are the kinds of things Satan loves toplay with. People have already given himwhat he needs in the part he could not forceupon them. All he has to do is work withleaders and individuals who are willing tolisten to his suggestions to bring things that atfirst glance might seem to be nothing butunfortunate timing. The temple had beendestroyed during the first Jewish-Roman warin the year 70 A.D. It would take some timebefore the Jews in any place would attempt torise up again. However, the Kitos War wouldeventually take place and make things evenmore desperate feeling for the Jews. At a lossas to what to do the Jews would simply try toendure for a time, but now just as they passedthe 60th anniversary of the destruction of thetemple a Roman emperor chooses to rebuildJerusalem. At first it was believed he woulddo this as a favor to the Jews, and hope nodoubt sprang up that they were, once again,on the verge of seeing the temple rebuilt!Then it was found just the opposite was goingto take place, and while they stood able to donothing it seemed, the Jews watched as theTemple Mount and the city of Jerusalem was

prepared to have built upon it a temple andcity dedicated to a false god.

If you've been paying attention you cansee how dangerous this made the Jewishreligious thought at the time. Only a handfulof years now stood between that 70 year markfor the rebuild and this laying of a foundationfor Aelia Capitolina. To the Jewish mind thishad to mean only one thing; The Messiah wasgoing to appear as the conquering hero theteaching said He'd be, and He would not onlyput a stop to the building of this abominationover Jerusalem but see that the temple wasrestored! This caused there to be a flurry ofMessianic fervor. While history does not giveus the details, there can be no doubt, knowinghuman thought, that there were any numberof people thought to be The Messiah at thetime. Anyone who seemed to fit the bill ofbeing a leader who might accomplish the goalwas probably singled out by at least a few asbeing who they thought The Messiah was.This was truly the time Jesus warned of whenHe said there would be many claiming to beThe Messiah, but they should not go out afterthem. (Matt. 17:22-24) When we think aboutthose words of Jesus, we can see the bigpicture of how we should not be fooled intobelieving some religious leader or anyoneclaiming to be The Messiah really is.However, we see in the specific events of thetime we are studying how, more so than anoverall fear, this could be a problemthroughout the time we await the return ofChrist, we are shown a great cautionary taleof where religious thought in general can takeus.

For that we turn to the man namedSimon bar Kokhba. Scrolls found amongwhat are collectively known as the Dead Sea

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Scrolls tell us his original name appears tosimply have been Simon bar Kosevah. TheKosevah would have indicated where hecame from or simple been a family name.However, this man, for various reasons,gained momentum in being a man believed tobe a great leader. It might simply have beenhis passion for an attempt to free Judea orother factors, but what is interesting is that itseems this man did not rise up claiming to beThe Messiah. Instead, he simply did his partin organizing the revolt that would eventuallybear his name, and it was a Jewish sage of theday who considered Simon The Messiah.This sage would give him the title BarKokhba, which means “Son of the Star” inAramaic. This was inspired by Numbers24:17 which is a verse the Jews of the dayhad to be greatly excited might be fulfilled intheir time! It is said, and the Talmud tells us,that not all the religious leaders wereconvinced this man was The Messiah. In theTalmud he is often referred to not as BarKokhba but as Simon bar Koziba, whichmeans “Son of the Lie.” However, how muchthis was really something done in the day andhow much this was later ascribed to him afterit became clear he was not The Messiah theybelieved him to be is hard to say for sure.History is not just written by the victors,some parts of it are written by the survivors,and as dark as Jewish history from those dayswas, this is certainly the case when it comesto that time period.

In any case, the truth of the matter isthat there was a great fervor over the idea TheMessiah would appear, and that added to thenumber of people at least willing to join thisrevolt. The political and social circumstancesof the day also show us the Jews were a bitlike a cornered animal. It seemed at the timethere was little to nothing to lose in

attempting to revolt, once again, against theRomans. Judea was already being givenprimarily to strangers and the city ofJerusalem was being desecrated. Surely Godwould not let this stand, and no matter if TheMessiah was leading the nation or not, surelyGod would give the chosen nation victory!Thus, the Jews would determine the time wasright to try again, but this time unlike theother times their intent would be to rise up avery organized revolt. They were all too clearon the way the first war had gone, and evenmore clear on what a failure the Kitos Warhad been for the Jewish people as a whole.This revolt needed to be well organized if itwas to not just have success but long-termsuccess in taking and holding the promisedland for the Jewish people. These facts addedto the importance that the revolt be led bymen the nation believed in. It mattered not ifyou believed Simon was The Messiah or not,what was universally known is that this timethe nation could not go off disorganized andfollowing various leaders. Thus, Simon and aJewish scholar named Eleazar of Modi'imwould be the lead men in this revolt, and theJews willing to participate would followthem.

The Bar Kokhba Revolt would beginin 132 A.D. In what might have been aplanned poetic start to this third war with theRomans, it would begin in the city ofModi'im. Modi'im is situated about 19 mileswest of Jerusalem, and it was the originalhome of the priest Mattathias and his fivesons who had led the spontaneous eventswhich ended with the rededication of thetemple, and which Hanukkah celebrates.From this town the new revolt would spreadquickly across the countryside as the Jewswould rise up to take back their homeland.This action would quickly cut off the Roman

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garrison stationed in Jerusalem and halt theprogress of building that city into the paganmonument Hadrian wanted. Of course, itwould be the job of the Roman governorRufus to respond to this sudden crisis, but itwould appear his efforts were unsuccessful.Rufus would be so unsuccessful in halting oreven slowing the revolt he simplydisappeared from the records not long after itall started. Some have speculated that hisinability to handle the revolt, if not Rome'sanger he had let it begin at all, caused him tobe removed from his position in disgrace.However, there are later records of him andhis family enjoying the privileges of being inRome's favor, and this would indicate Romewas not as displeased as it might haveseemed. In any case, Rufus did not succeedin stopping this revolt as it moved quicklyacross Judea and even did heavy damage tothe Roman legion, Legio X Fretensis, whichhad been brought to Jerusalem possibly inanticipation of just such actions by the Jews.

Once it was seen the Fretensis alonewas no match for the Jewish forces, the LegioVI Ferrata was called up to reinforce them.This brought some 20,000 Roman imperialtroops against the Jews, and even this was notenough to bring the revolt under control. Inreality these Roman troops failed so greatlythat the Jews almost took Jerusalem itself!This truth was brought to Rome's attention,and it became apparent that while theRomans were far better prepared to handle aJewish revolt in Judea than they had been atthe beginning of the first Jewish-Roman war,it was not going to be enough. Neighboringlegions of Roman soldiers would have to becalled upon to attempt bringing this to anend. The closest of these reinforcements wasthe Legate of Syria who would come and

bring with him Legio III Gallica. Thegovernor of Roman Arabia would also becalled upon, and he would bring Legio IIICyrenaic. It is also possible by someaccounts that Legio XXII Deiotariana wascalled up from Arabia Petraea but wasambushed on its way to Jerusalem anddestroyed so thoroughly it was disband as animperial legion.

As if that was not enough Romantroops to be called up to Judea, the legionstationed in Egypt, Legio II Traiana Fortis,eventually came as well. By the time all theselegions made it to the area, the Romans hadsome 80,000 troops thrown into this effort tostop Bar Kokhba. Like the first war, onceRome got the picture of how serious thesituation was, Rome was giving this revolt nosmall attention. However, in spite of all thesetroops the Romans were still outnumbered bythe Jewish forces. This alone should showhow invested the population of the Jews wereto this war and its success. The other factorthe Jews had on their side was, unlike theRoman troops they knew the terrain verywell. Rome was once again caught off guardby the Jews as many Jews from outside Judeamade their way there to fight for thehomeland. At this point, the best Rome couldaccomplish was a stalemate with the Jewishforces. This had to be very encouraging to theJews and greatly disheartening to the grandRoman armies who could do little but hunkerdown and attempt to protect themselves.

Until next time, may we each continuallychoose to be the people God wants us to be!


Questions submitted to the Institute,answered by Philip E. Busby.

Sure there will always be those nastypeople whom it seems obvious are nothingmore than evil, who only want what gainsthem something. They're selfish, and all thethings Paul describes in the first of Romans,but that is all still for God to deal with. Wecan do little but focus on living the life Godwants us to live and being the example of thebeliever God wants us to be. (I Tim. 4:12)Striving to be the very best example of abeliever we can be is certainly not trying toplease men. It is pleasing God so others seethat is our focus. If we can perfect that thenwe have what we need and our growth inGod's ways will be ever forward! We haveall sinned and fallen short of God's glory, soit's not about if we are perfect, nor abouthow great a perfection we have made it tooverall. (Rom. 3:23) It's about if we areattempting to go in that direction. God hastaken the burden of worry and judgment offour hands, and if others want to judge us,that's an issue between them and God. Wedo what we must do and what we know to beright. Righteousness is righteousness, notjust because God says it is but because thatis what it is. That brings us back to where westarted this in talking about Jesus beingjudged for saving this one and not that one.No doubt there will be many who willattempt to judge God for not choosing themin the end. We look at the verse in Matthew7:22 where Jesus tells what some will saywho are rejected of God on Judgment Day,and we think of this as people pleading toget into heaven. No doubt there will beplenty of that as people stand before aneternal God and realize they wasted theopportunity this life gave them to be onGod's side. However, the verse is also aboutjudgment.

There will be plenty of people whofeel God is unfairly judging them. They willfeel they did great and mighty works in thename of The Lord and yet here God isrejecting them. In these words Jesus isletting us all know that will do us no good.Why is that so? Because Jesus came andgave His life, a life that was sinless andtherefore death could not hold. Jesus is theonly One to overcome death through Hisperfection. Thus, when we see people asthinking they are perfect when they try toinstruct us of something, we confirm ourunderstanding of how much Jesus has notjust the right to instruct us but to ultimatelyjudge us. We are condemned by ourimperfection. This means what Jesus isjudging is not perfection. It means He ismaking a judgment call only He is worthy tomake. This is what we see portrayed in theBook of Revelation when the scroll with theseven seals is being wept over. It was sadthere was no one who was worthy to breakthe seals and open the scroll. Then, TheLamb that had been slain came forwardbecause He and He alone was worthy. (Rev.5:1-14)

This is the understanding Abrahamhad. Not a full and detailed understanding,like knowing the exact way Jesus wouldcome and die on a cross because a religiousauthority, which Abraham could not evendream would exist, put Jesus there. Not thata powerful government structure would bethe ones to actually nail Jesus to the cross,but an understanding like Revelation gives.Abraham understood he could give his sonbut that was just some representative part ofGod's plan to help others understand.Abraham understood only God Himselfwould be worthy in the end to take the scrolland break the seals; to make all of this life

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and existence continue to have meaning.God's creation would not end with the onefault Adam and Eve made in taking the fruitGod told them not to take of. It would notend with a great flood that would killeveryone and everything. It would not endeven because man destroyed the very planetGod gave us to live on. No, God's planwould prevail and mean something intoeternity, the something God wanted it tomean, which is that those who would chooseHim by a free will would live forever andcommune with Him. This understanding iswhat Abraham wanted Isaac to have. Theywalked that hill not by their own choosing orbecause it's what they had known from theirreligious training was the thing to do. Theywalked it in faith!

Of course, the words “...himself alamb...” is not the end of the sentence.Abraham said the reason God would provideHimself a Lamb was “...for a burntoffering:...” If one does not really know theLaw, your first thought is to take thisstatement as basically meaning God wouldoffer Himself. So Abraham simply relatesthis to an offering or sacrifice that wouldcommonly be given to God and which Isaacwould be familiar with. It seems he's justrelating this to the fact a burnt offering iswhat they were going up the hill to do.However, if one knows a little bit about theLaw, you understand the sacrifices requiredat the temple were symbolic of the sacrificeJesus would one day make on the cross. Thisbelief is why it's so easy for Christians to betaught the sacrifices at the temple weremeant to end after Jesus came because Jesuswas the ultimate sacrifice. On the otherhand, if we really understand the Law we

know something deeper. You see therepresentative side of the Law, of whichthere is no greater and yet basic than thesacrifices and offerings brought by thepeople. You understand these Laws weremade based on the interaction God has hadwith men. It all started with Adam and Eve.It was they who took of the fruit God toldthem not to take of. If they had not done thatthere would have been no need for anysacrifices. In truth that's probably not theway to look at it because there is thecomplexity that if Adam and Eve had notdone it, it seems unlikely that man wouldhave populated the earth and no one haddone it! This is why Jesus was The Lambslain from the foundation of the earth. (Rev.13:8) God knew in giving man a choice therewould be this need to judge at least some.Thus, embedded into the plan of God wasnot just the creation of man and the giving ofa choice to take of the Tree of Knowledge ofGood and Evil but the way to save those whodid fall into sin.

Getting back to our main point, Adamand Eve did take of the fruit and this causedevery human ever born to automaticallyhave the knowledge the fruit had granted. Inthe more immediate situation was Adam andEve's understanding they were naked. Thiswas the most basic of needs and the one theyfocused on trying to solve. By the time Godcomes to the garden they had not solved thatissue with satisfaction, and hid. To be clear,they did not hide because they knew Godwould know what they had done. They hidbecause they were naked! Adam admits thatdirectly, and it is God Who points out theirconcern should have been why they nowthought of that as a problem not just the


problem itself. (Gen. 3:7-11) We should allknow the story about how God had to punishthem and the instructions He gave them, buta small fact that is not so small is that Godkilled animals to make them clothes. In orderto solve what was in their minds the bigimmediate problem they now felt, animalshad to give their lives. This, of course, wasnot necessary in that clothing could havebeen made of any number of things. One cansay it was the easiest way, but was it? I knowyou can argue God wasn't going to take thetime to show them how to weave cloth orhow to make the strands needed to weave.To save time He'd have to have made such athing and just gave it to them to wear with noclue how it had been obtained. That said, andnot to be gruesome here, but God did not justrip the hide off animals and put it on themeither. Skin, or what we often call leather,has to be processed before wearing for morethan one reason. So either way, there is aprocess God showed them in making clothesor He simply gave them something theywere not totally clear on how it had beenproduced. The real point is that God couldhave done who knows what to satisfy this“need” of theirs, but He chose to kill animalsto make their clothes.

Most people think nothing of it today,but how strange it must have been for themto put the skin from a dead animal over theirown to cover themselves. They were used toeating plants, so using plant material to wearas clothes would seem natural but killinganimals would not! What we see in this isthat God specifically illustrated the pointmade in Hebrews 9:22 “And almost allthings are by the law purged with blood; andwithout shedding of blood is no remission.”From there we move to the time of Cain andAbel when we see them bring their offerings.

All the points I normally like to make aboutthis story aside, God shows the two of themthat blood offerings are treated differentlythan non-blood offerings. The attitude ofCain, who got upset about this, is shown inthe fact it became common practice to offerblood sacrifices to God and false gods alike.We could run this down more, but to makethe point, by the time we get to the Law, Godcertainly was not offering illustrations Hecame up with and which men would have towork hard to figure out. In truth, theillustrations in the Law are quite clear, andmaybe would have been to them in their dayfar more than they are to us today. What Goddid in the Law was show both the chosennation as well as all of us the way to dosacrifices and offerings in a way that had allthe correct illustrations. This is what put thesacrifices into the administration of just thepriests at the tabernacle and later temple. Itconstrained them to that spot alone.Sacrifices, and getting the illustration right,is so serious even those of the chosen nationwere not just taught a way to do it and left toindividuals. All this makes one of the biggestrepresentations in the Law, the complexityof it all!

When many people say they don'tunderstand the Bible, they are often talkingabout all these ins and outs which at timescan seem arduous to even read through muchless see meaning in. However, gettingfrustrated at the fact “God made the Law socomplex!” is missing the point. This isserious stuff we are dealing with. Forcenturies before the Law was laid down mandid his thing with this killing animals andoffering them as sacrifices thing. Manyrituals and ways of thinking about it hadbeen taught by religious minded people, andso while the basics of killing an animal is in

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there, it was always shrouded by a cloak ofcomplexity depending on what god youserved and offered to. God took all that andnarrowed it down to one specific way to doit. He told the nation and those outside thenation this is how it's done and who shoulddo it; any other way is wrong. This had thepoint to it that getting it right is moreimportant than just doing it, and there aremany stories in the Word of God whichshow us how people didn't get this point intheir heads. (I Sam. 15:19-23)

All that said, at the time of Abrahamand Isaac walking that hill and having thisconversation we are long before the Lawand even some of the corruption among menthat made the Law necessary to give. This iswhy there was a 400 year developmentperiod from the time of Abraham to thegiving of the Law and establishment of thenation. Abraham and Isaac would have beenfar more clear on the issue of what it meantto offer a “burnt offering” as they weregoing to do and Abraham tells Isaac Godwould one day provide Himself as a burntoffering. However, if we are not familiarwith the Law this point of Abraham's mightnot be as clear and as deep as it should be.The Law shows us there are many sacrificesand offerings to God. We tend to think of allof the ones involving blood as representingwhat Jesus would one day do, and withoutputting too fine a point, as a beginningknowledge that's correct. However, only thePassover sacrifice is so clearly the oneperformed in accordance to the Law thatdirectly represents Jesus' sacrifice. This iswhy Jesus was killed on Passover the yearHe physically died!


The deeper truth is that a personbringing a burnt offering is about therecognition that each of us will have to giveour lives for the sin we have done. That is thewages of sin pure and simple, and I don'tthink enough people who call themselvesChristians really understand that. (Rom.6:23) What Jesus saves us from is not thefact we will die, but the fact we must die. Itis the most basic truth of why our rewardcan't be earthly, nor earthly things of the hereand now! Abraham and Isaac were going torepresent the willingness to give their hereand now to God. To represent the sheddingof their own blood, and as far as they knew,for Isaac this would be literal.Understanding this brings great impact towhat Abraham said to Isaac as Isaac askswhere the sacrifice was. Abraham in essencewas saying, it did not matter if they offeredanimals in representation. It did not matter ifthey were required to offer themselves in aliteral way. Everyone is going to die at somepoint or be changed at the Second Coming ofChrist. (I Cor. 15:50-52) The questions are,do we trust that God has a plan to dosomething about that fact? Do we believethrough Jesus' sacrifice God has obtained therighteous justification to judge us and everyhuman who has ever lived? Are we willingto give up the sin for a season the here andnow allows, to live the life God created us tolive? (Heb. 11:24-26) That is why Abrahamsimply tells Isaac no matter what we do, weall ultimately depend on the fact God oneday willingly offered Himself as a burntoffering for us all!

Until next time, Shalom!

outside man who assisted Moses but wasn'tlooked at as anything too special. I don'tmean to say they didn't respect him, but onlythat on a regular basis Joshua got to hear justhow unsatisfied the people were withMoses. Moses got the blunt end of theiranger, but Joshua was aware of theundercurrent that always flowed and whichcaused God to allow that generation to die inthe wilderness. Thus, one of Joshua's twomain concerns was how he was going tohandle Israel when they choose to run fromtheir enemy. He didn't know how he wouldget them to move forward after such a thing.He didn't know what to say about why Godhad allowed them to be defeated. Thesecond thing Joshua was worried about isanother item we see in human thinking, andit was one Moses brought up on more thanone occasion. Joshua was worried aboutwhat the people of the land and surroundingcountries would think of God after Hispeople were routed in battle. This is humannature. We don't often worry about ouractions or pay enough attention to what Godwants of us in the beginning. This causesGod to punish us, which in many situationsends up reflecting badly on God's ability toprotect and provide for His people. Asbelievers we understand God is able to dowhat He says. Lacking the “faith,” as peopleoften put it, to believe God is/was able, isnot so much the problem. In truth, this iswhy it's hard for us to approach God inhumility. We know He's able andunderstand it was His choice not to grant uswhat we wanted, expected, or thoughtshould happen in any given situation. Nowthere's the problem with lacking humility!

We can murmur and mumble around

about how God didn't do something wethought He should, but this is just like achild who knows their parent could givethem something they wanted but didn't.Obviously human parents make manymistakes, but even with that, often the factchildren are told they will not get what theywant has a point to it the child needs tounderstand. It can be as simple as, no youcan't have ice cream because then you won'teat dinner, or it can be more complex likethe fact the money to buy the item is therebut it's needed for more pressing things likefood, clothing, the electric bill, etc. It isthese larger points that children so often donot get or simply do not care about. When itcomes to God, He makes no mistakes! If Hedoes not do something, even something wefeel He said He would do, we can be assuredthere is a righteous reason for it. There is abigger point or effect to what we wantedwhich we do not see. If we can keep this inour hearts it becomes easier to never makethe mistake of approaching God in anger.The point might simply be that somethingwe must do or get is far more important thanthe sweet treat we would rather have, or itmight be something far greater than that.

In the case with Joshua, God respondswith a question that indicates Joshua shouldhave known what the problem was! Godasks him why he laid there graveling in thedirt on his face? God was in no way scoldingJoshua for doing the wrong thing in beinghumble, but pointing out that he needed tobe more like Moses to whom it likely wouldhave been obvious as to why this happened.Why should it have been so obvious? Theanswer lies again in the fact true believersknow God is able. In the case of Joshua andthe nation of Israel it was actually even more

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The Bible As A Book continued from pg. 4

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than that. God was not just able, He hadmade it clear to the nation why He broughtthem over Jordan. He did so to use them toutterly destroy the wicked people of the landand claim it for their own. There was noreason to ask that question, and from morethan one angle God had already answered thequestion about what others would thinkconcerning how this reflected on Him. Oneof the great redundancies that can makesome people tire of reading the words of theTorah is the fact over and over and overMoses tells the people the same basic facts.One of those facts is that if they did rightthey would be blessed and if they did wrongthey would be cursed. It did not matter whatothers thought of what that looked like, foreven when God is blessing His people it canseem to the world He is cursing them. If wego back to our child parent analogy we cansee how much other children and parentswho view confrontation between a child andparent look at it differently. The outsideparent can often see how much the child isgetting upset over something minor when theparent is trying to protect something so muchgreater. However, to the outside child it oftenlooks just like it does to the child who wantswhat they want!

As we view humans' and God'sinteraction with us there is no parentperspective from the outside! We are allchildren. Some of us grow to know a fewthings others do not, but this is just the samething as an older sibling having a betterunderstanding as to why the younger one isbeing told no in certain circumstances. Theolder sibling will still have their ownmoments that boil down to the same exactbasic point as they interact with their parents.

All humans, being children under God,means we all may judge God for what Hechooses to do whether inside or outside thesituation. However, this shows us thestrength, righteousness, and holiness ofGod! He has no one in any way equal to Himto judge Him if He gives in to us. He alsohas no one equal enough to Him tounderstand why He doesn't give in to us orgenerally does what He does. Nor are we ashumans often able to see the cause andeffect even in the end of any situation. Allwe see is the effect and we judge on thebasis of it. This is the argument we are reallymaking when we think God should havedone this or that because of how it reflects“badly” on Him when He does not. Like theoutside child we agree with the inside child,but often when a situation is memorableenough, even the outside child will one daygrow up to understand why the adult didwhat they did. This is where we are ashumans; we have a lot of maturing to do. Wecan't judge God on why He does what Hedoes or does not do, for two reasons. One,we may simply not understand how it is thebest thing for us and the right thing to do inany case. Two, the fact it went the way it didmight be our fault. That brings us back to theimportance of humility, and in this situationthat was certainly called for!

After God gets Joshua's attention Hetells him why they had been defeated. It wasbecause they had sinned in taking of theaccursed things of Jericho. This is describedin the way that is truly important, which isthat they had trespassed the covenant thenation had with God. In doing this they haddisobeyed the instruction of God to thenation, and obeying the covenant had



specifically to do with not just living by theLaw but obeying every word that proceededout of the mouth of God. (Deut. 8:3, Matt.4:4) The wording here is interesting becauseGod does not just say they had disobeyed,He describes what they had done by sayingthey had, “...also stolen and dissembled...”By saying they had dissembled God ispointing out this person is not obvious. Onemight ask, why would someone who haddisobeyed the instructions of God beobvious? For that we need to remember howoften the people came to Moses and flat outtold him how much they disagreed with hisdecision and/or thought what Moses claimedGod said was wrong. They would say thingslike, “We are all part of the chosen nation ofGod. What right do you have to make all thedecisions? We can hear the voice of God asmuch as you!” People often paid for thosewords, and we see an entire generationultimately did. However, what God waspointing out in this case was that the persondid not do what they did because they weresomeone who grumbled about how theywere not allowed to do the thing, or theydisagreed it was something God had said.The person in this case had done what theydid and walked on as if they were doing andagreeing with what God had instructed asmuch as anyone else.

The “stolen” part of the statementwould become obvious later, as it would befound that at least part of what was taken wasan item that should have been put in thetreasury of God. As bad as it was to sodirectly take something God had told thenation not to take, the idea of takingsomething that was to belong to God wasvery egregious! That said, even if the personhad not taken something so obviously an

item to be taken to the tabernacle, it wouldstill be stealing. God wanted Jericho to be aheap of burnt rubble for all to see what Godhad done for the nation of Israel. It was tostand, not just to strike fear in the hearts ofothers on the land at the time, but for all timeas a reminder of what God was/is able to do.Taking anything from the site was theft inthat on that sight is where all the remains ofJericho were to stay. The fact someone hadviolated this even in the smallest way is whyIsrael could not stand before their enemies intaking Ai. God tells Joshua he didn't have toworry about moving the people forward.Their failure at Ai would continueeverywhere they attempted to go because theentire nation was accursed. The only way toturn things around was for this person whohad done wrong to become accursed in theeyes of the nation itself. In other words, thisperson's actions were to be looked at by thenation with as much contempt as God hadover their actions. This answers the questionpeople have about it being fair that an entirenation be punished because one person didwrong. In the end of this world we will allstand before God for our actions alone, andthat's when it would be unfair. In the hereand now it rains on the just and the unjust.(Matt. 5:45) This is part of the reason why,for the individual believer, we must believeto live is Christ and to die is gain. (Phili.1:21) Here we live our lives as the bestwitnesses and servants of God we can be, nomatter what.

Israel needed to learn this lesson in abig way. God had instructed in His Law thatIsrael cut out those who did not want tofollow God's Law. Depending on thecircumstances they were to be anything fromcast out of the nation to put to death. Here the

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themselves against the next day. We have allsinned and fallen short of the glory of God,so it is necessary to instruct the nation tosearch their individual lives so as not to becaught up in the punishment for wrong thatwas coming. (Rom. 3:23) God also wantedthem to remove the wrong from the nationbecause they would be required to carry outjudgment against an individual. This wouldbe done by the hand of the nation as a whole.To be the best ministers of God we can be weneed to be as clean as we can be ourselves.This was a point made to the nation manytimes as well, and we see it here again. Thisalso is why Jesus responded with the wordsHe did the day the Scribes and Phariseesbrought the adulterous woman to stone her.(John 8:1-11) They asked Jesus what theyshould do, and knowing He was a man ofgreat compassion, Who also very oftenemphasized the Law of God to them, theyreminded Him the Law was what instructedthem to stone her to death. Jesus beginswriting something on the ground of whichwe are not told what it was. There can be anyguess as to what it was, but the point hereagain is that the answer to their question wasnot difficult, it was obvious. After theyinsisted, Jesus then tells them the person whowas without sin should throw the first stone.One by one they all left. Jesus asks thewoman where her accusers where and sheanswers, they had all gone. They could notcondemn her, but that fact only meant herimmediate life was spared. What meant farmore was that Jesus told her He did notcondemn her either. However, she needed touse the opportunity to hate sin and do it nomore!

Let's stay in God's Word!

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nation was being required to take on that taskfor obvious reasons, but the real hope wasthe nation would learn this truth for muchless obvious situations. They were notsuppose to overlook something God requiredin the Law someone be cut off from thenation for doing, with the excuse it didn'tseem they were hurting anyone. Until themen of Israel went out to Ai and more thanthirty of them lost their lives, Israel had noidea anything was wrong. This is how sinworks. We often do not know howdisobeying God in one thing caused us not tohave the connection to God and strength weneeded to accomplish something later. Thefact this is a dynamic of how life works andnot so much a specific punishment from Godis why it is necessary for a parent to teachtheir children lessons as they grow up, whichcan at times seem to be blowing the wholething out of proportion. God's Word instructsthat if we spare the rod we spoil the child.(Prov. 13:24) There are those who like to usethis instruction as an excuse to abusechildren, but if we look at it, there is noexcuse. Corporal punishment is meant to bedone out of love and a desire to make a pointvery obvious to a child. To many in our dayany use of such a teaching tool is consideredpunishment never fitting to any crime. It iseven illegal in some places due to that lackof wisdom. We should punish those whoabuse their children, but attempt to instructthose who do not use it with wisdom. Itshould not be done away with.

When it comes to a nation of people, aspanking turns into something much larger,and that is what Israel was experiencing inthis situation. Thus, God tells Joshua to getup and go tell the nation to sanctify


free - take one “beware lest any man spoil you through · steps he is to take in moving israel...

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