Non-inclusion
in the Kingdom of Heaven Part V
Judges
17:1-13; 18:1-31
Revelation 7:5-8
December 15, 2024
For the last three weeks I have
been teaching on Non-inclusion in the Kingdom
of Heaven.
Today is lesson four with the same
title, but with an interlude,
As I have a subtitle:
Preparation for Inclusion in the
or
Preparing for the Day for
Which All Days Were Made
I do not ever
remember, in preparation for a lesson, in all the years I have
been doing this, ever
encountering as many scriptures in reference to the
theme today. The truly have mushroomed, I trust that is
the work of the
Holy Spirit. Will you pray that God will sort them out and
make a convicting
sense of them to each of
us, whether we are saved or whether we are lost.
Last week I ended the lesson with
a profound question that I had come across
during that week:
What do we
live for, if it is not to prepare for a hereafter life, and
for the day for which all days were made?
In Romans 14:5 is a
passage of Scripture that I would like for us to consider this morning:
“One man esteemeth
one day above another: another esteemeth every
day
alike. Let every man be fully persuaded
in his own mind.”
Some
time long ago, I ran into a saying:
There
are three kinds of people in the world:
·
Those that make things happen.
·
Those that watch things happen.
·
Those that do not know anything is
happening.
I
guess of this scripture, that there are those:
·
who esteem one day different from another,
·
who esteem every day the same, and those
·
who do not esteem any day.
Esteem
according to the dictionary means: respect and admiration.
As
used in Romans 14:5 κρινει - krinei - decide,
assess/determine,
discriminate/separate,
and so to judge.
“One man esteemeth one day above
another: another esteemeth
every
day alike. (the word alike is
in italics. This addition is not needed
in the
translation, the meaning being that every day is especially regarded as
sacred. Vines.
Are you curious, like myself, as to how many days there have
been
in our lives thus
far? For me today, December 12, 2024, is
number 29,684.
God has mercifully given me these days to prepare for the
Judgment Day!
According to Acts 17:31, the will be one for “...He hath appointed a day
in the which He will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom
He hath ordained; whereof He
hath given assurance to all men, in that
He hath raised Him from the
dead.”
Also Peter says “.....the day of the Lord will come.” (II Peter 3:10)
I am a
blessed man for when I was a pre-teen, the old account was
settled, I could give you the number of the day, and
within a couple
of hours of the time (because of the habits of
country churches in those
days in revival), but I have not bothered to
figure it out because I do not want to
put emphasis on it, as you may not know the day
of your salvation. I
bet, though, that you, like myself, could
approximate the hour. We are
required to be born again through trusting in Jesus
who shed His precious
blood on the cross for us all. We are not required to know all the
statistics.
The only
reason I could isolate the number of the day I was saved is because
I was
saved on my Dad’s
birthday in 1955. I have grossly failed
in many
instances committing gross sins but, because of
Christ’s atonement for
me, MY LIFE HAS NEVER BEEN THE
SAME!
"Rue the day" is an
idiom that means to feel deep regret or remorse
for an event or action:
If you do
not take advantage of the days the Lord has given you to
PREPARE FOR THE JUDGMENT DAY - yea,
even take advantage of
THIS DAY that the Lord has given
you to prepare, and keep putting it
off, no doubt in time, (it may be in eternally
in Hell) you will perpetually rue
each day that you had to “prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:12) - such is
the design of the power of memory in your
soul! Unfortunately,
the ruing will be accompanied “...with weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
(Luke
13:28-29; Matthew 13:42,50) This scenario in your life will be
complicated by witnessing people coming from the four
corners of the
earth into the
because you did not esteem the days of your
opportunity to prepare for
that DAY
OF ALL DAYS, THE JUDGMENT, because in your wasting
of your days you did not redeem the time, nor
number your days to the
application
of your heart to wisdom (Psalm 90:12)
I shall
take the time to read Psalm 90, according to the title:
A Prayer
of Moses the man of God.
1 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst
formed the earth and the world, even from
everlasting to
everlasting, thou art God.
3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest,
Return, ye children of
men. hou turnest man to
destruction.
You turn man to dust, and say, 'Return, O children of
man!'" signifies the fleeting
nature of
human life, emphasizing that humans are created from dust and will
ultimately return to dust, highlighting God's power over life and death, and serving
as a
reminder of our mortality compared to God's eternal nature; it essentially
says
that God
can bring humans back to nothingness as easily as He created them from
dust.
I
appreciate the teaching set forth in Psalm 138:8 - “The Lord
will perfect that
which concerneth me: thy
mercy O Lord, endureth for ever: forsake not
the work of thine own hands.”
Or to death, as the Targum, which
is the destruction of man; not an annihilation of body
or soul,
but a dissolution of the union between them; the words may be rendered,
"thou
turnest man until he is broken" F2; and
crumbled into dust; thou turnest him about in
the
world, and through a course of afflictions and diseases, and at last by old
age, and
however by death, returns him to his original, from whence he came, the dust
of the earth, which he becomes
again, ( Genesis 3:19 )
( Ecclesiastes 12:7 )
the grave
may be meant by destruction:
4 For a
thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is
past, and as a watch in the night.
5Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in
the
morning they are like grass which groweth up.
6 In the morning it flourisheth,
and groweth up; in the evening it is
cut down, and withereth.
Compare
Psalm 103:1-19:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul:
and all that is within me, bless His
holy name.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all His benefits:
3 Who forgiveth
all thine iniquities; who healeth
all thy diseases;
4 Who redeemeth
thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with
lovingkindness and tender mercies;
5 Who satisfieth
thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is
renewed like the eagle’s.
6 The LORD executeth
righteousness and judgment for all that are
oppressed.
7 He made known his ways unto
Moses, his acts unto the children of
8The LORD is merciful and
gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous
in mercy.
9 He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger for
ever.
10 He hath not dealt with us
after our sins; nor rewarded us
according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His
mercy
toward them that fear Him.
12 As far as the east is from
the west, so far hath He removed our
transgressions from us.
13 Like as a father pitieth his children,
so the LORD pitieth them that
fear Him.
14 For He knoweth
our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field,
so he
flourisheth.
16 For
the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the
place thereof
shall know it no more.
17 But the mercy of the LORD is
from everlasting to everlasting
upon them that fear Him, and His
righteousness unto children’s
children;
18 To such as keep His covenant,
and to those that remember His
commandments to do them.
19 The LORD hath prepared His
throne in the heavens; and His
kingdom ruleth
over all.
7 For
we are consumed by thine anger,
and by thy wrath are we
troubled.
8 Thou
hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light
of thy countenance.
9 For
all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years
as a tale that is told.
10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason
of strength they be fourscore years, yet is
their strength labor and
sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly
away. (this verse emphasizes
the futility of life, its brevity, with its
troubles and sorrows, and the need
to
live each day to the fullest - AI
Overview- Artificial Intelligence is
even in theology -
since this statement is biblical I have included it - CY 2024 - caveat emptor)
I recommend a perusal of What Does the Bible Say about
Turning 80
on Facebook. (I may
want to do a lesson on this. God permitting!)
11 Who knoweth
the power of thine anger? even
according to thy
fear, so is thy wrath.
12 So teach us to number our
days, that we may apply our hearts unto
wisdom.
13 Return, O LORD, how long?
and let it repent thee concerning thy
servants.
14 O satisfy us early with
thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad
all our days.
15 Make us glad according to
the days wherein thou hast afflicted us,
and the years wherein we have
seen evil.
16 Let thy work appear unto
thy servants, and thy glory unto their
children.
17 And let the beauty of the
LORD our God be upon us: and establish
thou the work of our hands
upon us; yea, the work of our hands
establish thou it.
In light of what we have said so far, and that far from the the Book
of Judges - I
want to bring to your attention the following people
and whether
they ever used a day of their lives, which God had given,
to prepare for the Day of All Days?
·
Micah
·
Micah’s Mother
·
Micah’s son, who became his
Dad’s priest, (ever salvaged)
·
the Levite (who turns out to
be Moses’ grandson)
·
the dissatisfied Danites
·
the five Danites
selected to look for another inheritance
·
the careless people of Laish
·
the six-hundred warriors with
weapons of war, sent to
conquer
the city of
·
you
·
me
[1]Tribal Allotments Of Israel | IBible Maps
5 And they said unto him, Ask
counsel, we pray thee, of God, that
we may know whether our way which
we go shall be prosperous.
6 And the priest said unto them,
Go in peace: before the LORD is
your way wherein ye go.
7 Then the five men departed,
and came to Laish, and saw the people
that were therein, how they dwelt
careless, after the manner of the
Zidonians, quiet and secure; and there
was no magistrate in the
land, that might put them to shame
in any thing; and they were far
from the Zidonians,
and had no business with any man.
8 And they came unto their brethren
to Zorah and Eshtaol: and
their
brethren said unto them, What say ye?
9 And they said, Arise, that we
may go up against them: for we have
seen the land, and, behold, it is
very good: and are ye still? be not
slothful to go, and to enter to possess
the land.
10 When ye go, ye shall come unto
a people secure, and to a large
land: for God hath given it into
your hands; a place where there is
no want of any thing that is in
the earth.
11 And there went from thence of
the family of the Danites, out of
Zorah and out of Eshtaol,
six hundred men appointed with
weapons of war.
12 And they went up, and pitched
in Kirjathjearim, in
wherefore they called that place Mahanehdan unto this day:
behold, it is behind Kirjathjearim.
13 And they passed thence unto
house of Micah.
14 Then answered the five men
that went to spy out the country of
Laish, and said unto their brethren,
Do ye know that there is in
these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a
molten image? now
therefore consider what ye have to do.
15 And they turned thitherward,
and came to the house of the young
man the Levite, even unto the
house of Micah, and saluted him.
16And the six hundred men
appointed with their weapons of war,
which were of the children of Dan,
stood by the entering of the
gate.
17 And the five men that went to
spy out the land went up, and came
in thither, and took the graven
image, and the ephod, and the
teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the
entering of the gate with the six
hundred men that were appointed
with weapons of war.
A good report is brought back by the spies
who suggest that the Danites
should possess Laish. So a party of six
hundred warriors is formed, and they
take with them their families and possessions. On the way back
to Laish,
they stop by Micah’s house and rob him of his idols and his
priest. Then the
Danites capture Laish, burn it, rebuild
it, and live in it. They rename the city Dan.[2]
18 And these went into Micah’s
house, and fetched the carved image,
the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the
priest unto them, What do ye?
19 And they said unto him, Hold
thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy
mouth, and go with us, and be to us
a father and a priest: is it better
for thee to be a priest unto the
house of one man, or that thou be a
priest unto a tribe and a family in
20 And the priest’s heart was
glad, and he took the ephod, and the
teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst
of the
people.
21 So they turned and departed,
and put the little ones and the cattle
and the carriage before them.
22 And when they were a good way
from the house of Micah, the men
that were in the houses near to
Micah’s house were gathered
together, and overtook the children of
Dan.
23 And they cried unto the
children of Dan. And they turned their
faces, and said unto Micah, What aileth
thee, that thou comest with
such a company?
24 And he said, Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the
priest, and ye are gone away: and
what have I more? and what is
this that ye say unto me, What aileth thee?
25 And the children of Dan said
unto him, Let not thy voice be heard
among us, lest angry fellows run
upon thee, and thou lose thy life,
with the lives of thy household.
26 And the children of Dan went
their way: and when Micah saw that
they were too strong for him, he
turned and went back unto his
house.
27 And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest
which he had, and came
unto Laish, unto a people that were at
quiet and secure: and they
smote them with the edge of the sword,
and burnt the city with
fire.
28 And there was no deliverer,
because it was far from Zidon, and
they had no business with any man;
and it was in the valley that
lieth by Bethrehob. And they built a city, and
dwelt therein.
29 And they called the name of
the city Dan, after the name of Dan
their father, who was born unto
was Laish
at the first.
30 And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the
son of Gershom,
the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests
to the tribe of Dan until the day
of the captivity of the land.
31 And they set them up Micah’s graven image,
which he made, all
the time that the house of God was in
*
region of the
home of the tabernacle, which contained the ark of the covenant. The
the Covenant and the Tabernacle were installed in
conquest of
was in
the Philistines, where it was captured. (Google)
In Jeremiah 7:12-15
12 But go ye now unto my place
which was in Shiloh, where I set my
name at the first, and see
what I did to it for the
wickedness of my
people
13 And now, because ye have
done all these works, saith the LORD,
and I spake
unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard
not; and I called you, but ye
answered not;
14 Therefore will I do unto
this house, which is called by my name,
wherein ye trust, and unto the
place which I gave to you and to
your fathers, as I have done
to
15 And I will cast you out of my
sight, as I have cast out all your
brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
(A
Pulpit Commentary Homily on Jeremiah 7:12-14)
It is to many minds impossible
to avoid a feeling of deep sadness when we
look upon the ruins, noble even in their desolation, of
some former
beautiful and august sanctuary of God. There are many such
scattered over
this and other lands: Tintern, Furness,
pictures them when in the zenith of their glory, with their
many stately
towers and tapering spires, their long-drawn aisles and
lofty roofs, the
glorious vista of high-arched nave and choir and glittering
sanctuaries
stretching away further still in the dim distance, the gleaming
altars, the
magnificent service, the vast throng of kneeling worshippers,
the soul
enchanting music, and the murmur of myriad prayers. The memories of
saintly men and women who have worshipped and are buried
there crowd
upon the mind, and we wistfully wonder where and why that consecrated
genius has flown which had power to rear for God shrines so
glorious as
those whose ruins we are beholding must once have been. It is
sad to think
of such glory and beauty as these forsaken shrines once
had gone forever.
The Jews who came back from the
Captivity wept when they thought of
the glory of the ancient temple, which they never more
might see. But if
the departure of material glory may cause sadness to the
mind, how much
more the departure of that which is spiritual! If we
mourn that we shall no
more have the presence of some fair temple of the
Lord, how much more
when we lose the Lord of the temple! And it is such sadder loss that
Samson - Judges 16:20-21
The wife of Phnehas
- I Samuel 4:18-22
—
I. THERE ARE FEW MORE MOURNFUL HISTORIES THAN THAT
OF
Hebrew
sanctuaries. There for full three hundred years the ark of God
remained and the priests of the Lord ministered. As soon as the promised
land was mainly subdued, Joshua brought the ark of God
from Gilgal, near
the
hence its safety, it being off the great highways of the
land.
otherwise might have been chosen as especially sacred, was yet
in the
hands of the Canaanites. Hence
of Ephraim, and of their great ancestor Joseph, a tribe
which more and
more had been coming to the front amongst their
brethren, was chosen for
the sanctuary of the ark of God. There, as afterwards at
tribes
went up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of
thanks
unto the Name of the Lord.” (Psalm
122:4) What glad festivals;
what gracious deliverances; what Divine responses to their inquiring of
the Lord; what holy memories of thronging worshippers, of accepted
sacrifices, of saintly priests and prophets who had dwelt there, were all
associated with that shrine at
came to present her offerings, to pour out her prayers and to pay her vows.
There she brought Samuel, and there the Lord called him to his high
service
as he ministered before Him. All their truest and noblest life drew its
inspiration from the God who had placed His Name there, and whom there
they went to worship. But at length, under the rule
of Eli, that well-
meaning but weak-willed high priest, priesthood and people alike sank
down into a state of moral and religious degradation from which Eli
was powerless to deliver them. His own sons led the way in abominable
wickedness, and became sons of Belial even beyond others. So
low had
they fallen, that they had come to regard the ark of God as a kind of
fetish, and hence they carried it down to battle against the Philistines,
thinking thereby to certainly win the day. But the ark of God was
taken, its besotted priests slain, and Eli, hearing the dreadful tidings
suddenly, died, a worn-out and broken-hearted old man. From
that hour,
As Psalm 78 tells, “God forsook
men;… He refused the
tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of
Ephraim.” And it
was all because, as the same psalm
tells,
and provoked the most
high God, and kept not His testimonies: but
turned
back, and dealt deceitfully like their fathers: they were turned
aside
like a deceitful bow. For they provoked Him to anger with their
high
places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.”
Wherefore “He was wroth, and greatly abhorred
after, Jeremiah
bids the people of his day go to
God did to it for the wickedness
of the people. They might trace out,
perhaps, the foundations of her ancient walls, and discover
the vestiges of
the former sanctuary; but now no altar bore the sacred fire, the smoke
of no sacrifice ascended, no priest ministered, no God
gave answer,
no song of the Lord went up; the
whole place was probably ravaged and
overthrown by the enemies of
treasure, the ark of God. Well might the wife of Phinehas, in the hour
of her agony, call her new-born, but now fatherless, and
soon to be
altogether her orphan, child, Ichabod, for indeed the glory had
departed, the ark of God was taken, and the Lord had forsaken
remorse which would overwhelm the faithless priesthood and the
godless people, when they beheld that God-abandoned
shrine,
and remembered wherefore
this calamity had come upon them!
Yes, this story is a sad one; but it is most salutary (beneficial) also,
and therefore
we may well heed the word of the Lord which says to us,
go ye now unto my place which was in
at the first, and see what I did to it for the
wickedness of my people
According to Talmudic sources, the Ark of
the Covenant was in
369 years. The
where it was captured.
Dan’s
Invasion and Idolatry -He Reads Truth by Nick Batzig
Some years ago,
my father-in-law was certified to do controlled burnings on his
farm. He had to go through extensive training so he could
learn the procedures
required to burn brush on his property. He was literally
licensed to play with fire.
Needless to say,
my three sons thought this was the coolest thing ever. After all,
what little boy wouldn’t want to take a flamethrower and
burn things! My
mother-in-law, however, was insistent that the boys shouldn’t be
allowed to be
out with their grandfather while he did the burnings since
there was an enormous
threat of getting burned or of a wildfire starting and
consuming everything in its
path—including my sons.
Once
individuals practice idolatry, there is the risk of it spreading like wildfire.
We see this
throughout
account of the Danites and Micah in
Judges 17–18. No sooner had the members
of the tribe of Dan heard about the household gods and
personal Levite that Micah
had taken for himself, than they wanted
those things for themselves.
This was not
pagan idolatry in the strictest sense of the term. This was synchronized
idolatry among the covenant people of God. That’s what made it
so exceedingly
dangerous for them and so abominable to the Lord. Micah had done what many
have sought to do throughout human history—he
personalized his religion so
that it would suit his own desires. The
Danites then envied the idolatrous
liberation that Micah had seemed to attain. Once they took the household
gods and the Levitical priest to themselves, the
synchronized idolatry burned
among them like wildfire, and it burned for many generations (Judges 18:30).
There is a
warning here for us today. While we may not be setting up carved idols
in our homes or among our friends and family members, we are constantly being
encouraged to synchronize the true worship of God based on Scripture with what
seems to fit with our own desires and the practices and values of our
culture.
Idolatry is a
wildfire of rebellion against the Most High God.
Jesus came into
this world to be the Great High Priest of His people. He lived and
died and rose again in order to bring us into the presence of God and to make us a
people who worship Him in spirit and truth. Jesus dealt with
the wildfire of our
idolatry by extinguishing the fire of God’s wrath as He hung on
the cross for our
sin. When we keep our eyes fixed on Him, we take our gaze
off the false gods
of this world and return our heart’s devotion to
Him. (Nick Batzig)
The Tribe of Dan
played a significant role in the spread of idolatry in
contributing to the spiritual decline of the nation: The Danites
established an
idolatrous worship center in Laish,
where they set up a graven image and
appointed a Levite priest
In Judges
17-21 we are given two stories of apostasy in
on the tribes of Dan and Ephraim and on the city of
David,
God's choice for king over
chapters that these were the days before
Why is the Tribe of Dan Missing in Revelation
7? | Verse By Verse Ministry International
(taken from Verse by Verse Ministry International)
In these chapters
of Judges, Dan sinned by viewing the land God allotted
to
them as unacceptable, so they
abandoned it. (This is the
origin of the last
twenty-four lessons entitled The Danger of
Dissatisfaction with the
One’s Life .) While passing
through Ephraim, they stole idols from a home
and recruited a Levite to serve
in a false temple in the new territory.
The Tribe of Dan
moved north from their allotted territory in the Bible because
they were unable to successfully defend their land against
the Philistines, who
were located near their original inheritance, so they
sought a new area to settle,
migrating north to capture the city of
considered a more defensible location and less populated by
enemies; this
migration is detailed in the Book of Judges, Chapter 18.
Key points about
the Tribe of Dan's migration:
Their original
land bordered the Philistines, making it challenging to defend against
their attacks.
The Danites sent spies to explore new territory, finding Laish as a suitable place
to settle.
The Danites attacked and conquered Laish,
renaming it Dan, and establishing
their new home there.
This act is often viewed as a form of
disobedience to God's allocation of land,
and the Danites became
associated with idolatry due to the pagan practices
they adopted in their new territory
Dan and Ephraim are both left out of the
list of Israelite witnesses in Revelation 7:4-8.
As a result, Dan
became the first tribe in
Meanwhile, the
tribe of Ephraim, the source of the idols, assumed control over
the land originally intended for Dan. They aided and
abetted the Danites in
bringing idolatry into the
to exclude them from the privilege of preparing
the Messiah's return. (Their absence in the list in
Revelation 7:5-8 is conspicuous -
this is something to cry about, something to mourn over!
It is akin to
Christ’s
words in Luke 13:28-30:
28 “There shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see
Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob, and all the prophets, in the
29 And they shall come from
the east, and from the west, and from the
north, and from the south, and
shall sit down in the kingdom of
God.”
In
today's culture, "non-inclusive"
means language or behavior that excludes or fails
to consider people from diverse backgrounds, identities, or
abilities, often unintentionally
perpetuating bias or discrimination by not actively welcoming everyone
and making them
feel included; essentially, it refers to practices that
leave certain groups feeling left out or
not represented.
(Google)
28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth, when ye shall see
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the
prophets, in the
29 And they shall come from the east, and
from the west, and from the
north, and from the south, and shall sit down in
the kingdom of
God.
30 And, behold, there are last which shall be
first, and there are first
which shall
be last. (Luke 13:28-30)
These
situations spawned the warnings of the last six months of talking to you about
the dangers of being dissatisfied with God’s ordinations! CY -
2024)
But there is a deeper
message in their exclusion. The apostasy of Dan and Ephraim
represented the low point in
up a king from
This is exactly
the pattern that will exist prior to the Lord's return to rule over
Revelation 7, the
Lord is pointing our attention back to the circumstances at the
end of Judges. The final chapters of Judges (17-21) and
the story of Ruth which
follows Judges form a three-part story of the king's
arrival to address the nation's
idolatry. Parts 1 and 2
of the story are found in Judges 17-21 and chronicle
the growing apostasy of
Part 3 of the
story is found in Ruth, where the Messiah's arrival in
(pictured by the arrival of Naomi's son in
These events
picture the greater arrival of Christ to rescue
Therefore, Dan
and Ephraim are missing in the list of Revelation 7 to draw our
attention to the time of Judges, to illustrate that
apostasy as it was in Judges under Dan and Ephraim. And
once again the Lord
will bring
is Jesus Christ. By excluding these two tribes, the Lord
is emphasizing that the
third part of the story is right around the corner.
Why is the Tribe of Dan Missing in Revelation
7? | Verse By Verse Ministry International
(taken from Verse by Verse Ministry International)
In Genesis 17:8, God promises Abram, even before his name change, “...I will give unto
thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land
wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of
Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I
will be their God.”
In Genesis 15:13-16, God
promises that Abraham's descendants will own the land of
for at that time (400 years
before) “....the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.”
In Deuteronomy 31:7-8, God tells
Abraham that his descendants will conquer the
as a judgment on the
inhabitants
not to fear the Canaanites,
and says that the same God who brought them out of
take them into the Promised
Land. “And the Lord, He it is that doth go before
thee; He will
be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither
forsake thee: fear not, neither be
dismayed.”
The conquest of
and ENTERING INTO GOD’S REST!
They had been
redeemed out of slavery, with all their needs taken care of by the Lord, yet
they forgot their God and lost
their way.
Quickly they fell into sin and idolatry. We’re
talking idol worship
and murder—absolute lawlessness. How could God’s
chosen people fall
so far so
fast? From the outside looking in, the
Israelites’ missteps are plain to see. But in
our own lives, it’s
much easier to lose perspective. The Israelites thought they
could run
their lives better
than God could.
For example, we saw in today’s reading that God
provided land for the
tribe of the Danites, but they found a quiet town to
conquer instead.
Veering from
God’s provision, they left behind a wake of physical and spiritual destruction.
The Lord also
asked the Israelites for their sole devotion, but the Danites
opted for idol
worship (Judges 18:27–31). The Danites, a tribe of
happier, more abundant
future for themselves than the one the Lord had laid out for them.
Sometimes I
wonder, “Am I guilty of this sort of arrogance too? Do I ever believe my
plan is superior to
the Lord’s?” When I forget
the goodness and wisdom of God, I’m
likely to fall into
the same trap of disobedience, foolishly thinking I can create a brighter
future for myself than
the one God has planned. We choose our own plans because we
don’t trust that
God’s plan is actually good for us. Or maybe, like the Danites,
we
forget that our God
has the power to move mountains. Perhaps God calls us to give
our money or time or
energy, but we hold back. Or maybe He lays it on our hearts to
repair a relationship,
but we decide it’s better to sweep the issue under the rug. In the
short term, we think
our plan is less painful and more effective. But if we look at what
happened with
only brings pain and
suffering. May the Danites’
story remind us that we are all utterly
lost without God’s
guidance. We have access to God’s wisdom in Word and Spirit.
Our Father in
heaven knows what is best for us and works for our good. Placing our
trust in the Lord and
obeying Him will not always be easy, but we have a powerful
promise of true life,
flourishing and full of purpose, when we look to Jesus and walk
in His ways. Taken from:
Dan's Invasion
and Idolatry - She Reads Truth -She Reads Truth
Ř
As an occasion for solemn lamentation over
the miserable destiny of
Judas. The “woe” is not spoken so much as a denunciation, but rather in
commiseration. All the
good of life is spoken of as forfeited — and more
than forfeited. “The apophthegm
is rather remarkable when microscopically
examined, for, strictly speaking, nothing would be good to a
man who
never existed. But our Savior’s meaning is not microscopic,
but obvious,
and most solemn. A man’s existence is turned into a curse to him when he
inverts the grand moral purpose contemplated in
its Divine origination”
(Morison). At the
feast of love there is ever a sense of mingled reprobation
(disapproval)
and
sympathy with
respect to sinners.
[1]McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary:
History of
[2]McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary:
History of