Judges 1-3:6 Israel now enters a new phase of its history, the period of the Judges. It is a time that we might just as well call “the yo-yo years”. Lacking the strong godly leadership of Moses and Joshua, the people of Israel rapidly descend into idolatry, which sets off a series of up-and-down cycles …
Monthly Archives: March 2023
March 11 / Joshua 23-24
Joshua 23-24 Joshua comes to the end of his life’s journey. Like Moses, before he departs this life, Joshua exhorts the people of Israel to keep the covenant, to continue following the LORD, to cling to Him, and to utterly forsake any and all other gods. Under Joshua’s leadership, Israel is mostly faithful, serving the …
March 10 / Joshua 20-22
Joshua 20-22 And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size. … And when the people of Israel heard of it, …
March 9 / Joshua 18-19
Joshua 18-19 So the men went and passed up and down in the land and wrote in a book a description of it by towns in seven divisions. Then they came to Joshua to the camp at Shiloh, and Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the LORD. And there Joshua apportioned the land …
March 8 / Joshua 15-17
Joshua 15-17 But the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah could not drive out, so the Jebusites dwell with the people of Judah at Jerusalem to this day. Joshua 15:63 However, [Ephraim] did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites have lived in the midst of Ephraim …
March 7 / Joshua 12-14
Joshua 12-14 Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me …
March 6 / Joshua 9-11
Joshua 9-11 Today’s reading covers the bulk of Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land. With Jericho and Ai in hand, Joshua moves on to further territory. But the people of Gibeon (and neighboring towns — a bit north-northwest of Jerusalem) recognize the coming destruction and preemptively undertake a deceptive plan to make peace, claiming to …
March 5 / Joshua 6-8
Joshua 6-8 Achan … took some of the devoted things … and the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of their men… Joshua 7:1b,5a One man sins, and thirty-six other men die. All the spoil from Jericho is to be devoted to the LORD: metal objects are to go into the treasury of the LORD, …
March 4 / Joshua 1-5
Joshua 1-5 The Promised Land! At long last. Forty years after he first spied out the land and urged the people of Israel to trust the LORD to give it to them, Joshua now leads a new generation into that land, the land the LORD promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Joshua sends two (not …
March 3 / Deuteronomy 33-34; Psalm 90
Deuteronomy 33-34; Psalm 90 Today Moses comes to the end of his (earthly) journey, and we bid him farewell. We know him as a prophet, the man of God, the law giver, the servant of the LORD. He is inseparable from the Exodus, the parting of the Red Sea, the giving of the Ten Commandments, …