SERIES G --- THE PROMISED LAND --- LESSON 23
COVENANT RENEWED
JOSHUA’S FAREWELL
From Joshua 24
At a certain time, Joshua called together the people of Israel at Shechem. The leaders of the people were present too, including elders, officers and judges. They all came to present themselves before Adonai. Here is what Adonai says, Joshua told them. [Long ago your ancestors, including Terah and his sons, Abraham and Nahor, lived to the east of the Euphrates River. There they worshiped other gods. But I took your ancestor Abraham from that country and led him through the land of Canaan. I gave him many descendants, including his son Isaac. I gave Jacob and Esau to Isaac. To Esau I gave the hill country of Seir to possess, while Jacob and his children went down to live in Egypt. Then I sent Moses and Aaron to Egypt and with them I sent terrible plagues to cause the Egyptians to free my people from slavery. Then I brought your ancestors from that land to the Red Sea. The Egyptians came after them with chariots and horsemen. But when My people cried out to Me, I put darkness between them and the Egyptians and I brought the sea tumbling down upon the Egyptians so that they drowned. Your people saw what I did there and you lived for many years in the wilderness where you saw My miracles. At last, you reached the land of the Amorites east of the Jordan River. They fought you, but I helped you defeat them so you could possess their land. Before your very eyes, I destroyed them. Then Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab began to fight you, asking Balaam to come and curse you. But I would not pay attention to Balaam, so he blessed you and Israel was not defeated. You crossed the Jordan River and made your way to Jericho. The people of Jericho fought you, as did the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. I helped you defeat them all. I sent hornets before you to drive out the two Amorite kings and their people. You did not defeat them with your swords and bows. No, it was I Who gave you this land for which you did not work and cities which you did not build, the cities which you now call home. I even gave you vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.] Then Joshua continued; Worship and honour Adonai and serves Him with sincerity and truth. Put away the foreign gods and idols which your ancestors served when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt and serve only Adonai. Choose today whom you will serve! Will you serve the gods of the Amorites who lived here in this land? As for me and my household, we will serve Adonai! The people all answered, we will always serve Adonai and will never worship the other gods. It is Adonai Who freed our ancestors from the slavery of Egypt and Who did all those great miracles for us to see, keeping us safe as we made our way here through all those people among whom we passed. It is Adonai Who drove out these people before us including the Amorites who lived in this land. Therefore, we will serve Him, for He is our YHVH! Then Joshua answered the people, will you be able to serve Adonai? He is a Holy and Jealous Elohiym. If you turn away from Him and serve foreign gods, He will turn upon you and hurt you. He will destroy you, even though He has previously done many good things for you. We will serve Him, the people said. Then you must always remember what you have said here, Joshua replied. You have made a decision to serve Him. We will remember, the people said. We are our own witnesses to what we have said. You must destroy every idol that you may now have and turn your heart to Adonai completely, said Joshua. We will worship only Adonai, the people answered. We will obey His Voice alone. That day Joshua made a covenant with his people, a permanent agreement between them and Adonai. He wrote the words of this agreement in the Book of the Law of YHVH and then set up a great stone under the oak tree beside the tabernacle. This stone is a witness, said Joshua. It has heard all that you have said. It will speak against you if you break your promises to Adonai. Then Joshua sent the people away, each person to his own home. Later, Joshua died at the age of a hundred and ten. He was buried in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath-serah, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. While Joshua and those who were elders lived, Israel served Adonai, for these people knew what Adonai had done for them. At Shechem, they buried Joseph’s bones, which the people of Israel had carried from Egypt. The burial field was a parcel of ground which Jacob had bought for a hundred pieces of silver, about two hundred dollars, from the descendants of Hamor, the father of Shechem. It had become the inheritance of the descendants of Joseph. Eleazar the son of Aaron also died and he was buried on the hill that was given to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.
COMMENTARY
THE TOMBS OF JOSEPH AND JOSHUA
Each new generation of Israelites faced a critical choice. Should they commit themselves to obey YHVH and His Law or should they turn to their own ways? As Joshua’s final act, he led the people to make their personal covenant commitment to YHVH: [We will worship only Adonai. We will obey His voice alone.] While alive, Joseph never left Egypt after his brothers sold him into slavery. He was re-united with his family when they came to Egypt for food during a great famine. Though they settled there, Joseph was sure that they would all eventually leave for the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and their own father, Jacob. In fact, Jacob had given Joseph a special blessing, promising him a mountain slope in the new land. Before Jacob died, he asked his sons to bury him there. Since Joseph was a high official in the Egyptian court, he was mummified when he died, which preserved his body. Hundreds of years later, when YHVH led them out of Egypt, the Israelites honoured Joseph’s request. They took his mummy with them, protecting it through all their years of wandering in the desert wilderness. When the tribes finally settled in Canaan, they buried Joseph in Shechem. The name itself probably comes from the word for {slope.} The traditional site of Joseph’s burial ground is there to be seen to this day. Like Joseph, Joshua lived to be a very old man. He was buried on his own land, at Timnath-serah in the hill region of Ephraim. At one time, the Canaanites had built a shrine to the sun at the place. They called it Timnath-heres, {Sacred Territory of the Sun.} Since the Israelites did not want to pay tribute to a false pagan god, they changed some letters and Timnath-heres became Timnath-serah or {City of Depravity}; an insult to the Canaanite deity. Today the area is called Joshua’s City. There are several tombs there that might be Joshua’s. Tradition has settled on one and it is often visited by travellers to Israel.
This is the only email I'll be sending out this week. We will be out of town all week, recording 5 sessions for Shabbat Night Live with Michael Rood and Scott Laird. I'll tell you all about it when we get home, but please be praying for us this week. I'll try to post pictures here each day.
https://archive.aweber.com/new....sletter/awlist642586
Parashat Mishpatim
Shemot - Exodus 21:1 to 24:18
1st Aliya - 21:1-19
2nd Aliya - 21:20-22:3
3rd Aliya - 22:4-26
4th Aliya - 22:27-23:5
5th Aliya - 23:6-19
6th Aliya - 23:20-25
7th Aliya - 23:26-24:18
https://twitter.com/Israel/sta....tus/1624691517217550
Heartbreaking.
Israel ישראל (@Israel) February 12, 2023
These are the two brothers, Yaakov Yisrael age 6 and Asher Menachem age 8, murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Fridays attack.
May their memory be a blessing. pic.twitter.com/5ObMIKQbG3
Thought for Today: Sunday February 12:
When you look back at where you have been in your past with your faith, you will see that what you have become, is a whole lot further down the road from where you were. You will then remember that the times you have taken your eyes off Moshiach, obstacles were and can be frightful things. But remember! When YHVH gives you a gift, it is eternally good – and love is always the reason He gives. Thank You Adonai, for all the gifts. Thank You for grey days, busy days and even days when everything seems to go wrong. When it is gloomy, we depend on You Adonai to brighten our lives with Joy; when we get too busy, we trust in You Elohiym to give us strength; when things go wrong, we lean on Your Grace to sustain us.
SERIES G --- THE PROMISED LAND --- LESSON 22
JOSHUA’s FAREWELL
WISE WORDS FROM AN OLD SOLDIER
From Joshua 23
As the years passed, Israel successfully completed its conquest. One day, when Joshua was an old man, he called together the people of Israel, with their leaders; elders, heads of tribes, judges and officers. ‘I am old now,’ Joshua told them. ‘We have seen what Adonai has done for your sake during these past years, for He has fought for you. I have divided the land among your tribes for an inheritance, both the land unconquered and the land that has been conquered, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Adonai will drive out the people before you, so that you may possess the land for your homes, as He has promised to you. But you must be determined that you will observe and practice every Command in the Book of the Law of Moses. You must not turn away from them, even in the least. You must never mix with the nations which are yet unconquered. Do not mention the names of their gods and certainly, do not swear by their names or worship them or serve them but keep close to Adonai your YHVH as you have done until this time. Adonai has driven out before you some great and powerful nations and no one has been able to stand up against you. Each of you has made a thousand enemies run away. Never forget that Adonai fights with you, as He promised that He would do. Be sure then to love Him, for if you turn away from Adonai to join these nations left among you and marry their women and permit your women to marry them, know for certain that Adonai will not continue to help you drive out those nations. They will become a snare or trap, a sore in your side and thorns in your eyes, for as long as you live in this good land which Adonai has given you. Now I am about to die, to return to the earth. Deep in your hearts and souls you all know that not one of Adonai’s good Promises has failed. But just as He has kept all His Promises to you, so He will in the same way bring evil upon you if you break your Covenant with Him and if you go off to serve other gods. At that time, Adonai’s anger will blaze up against you and you will perish quickly from the good land which He has given to you.’
COMMENTARY
THE YHVHS OF CANAAN
For years Joshua had led Israel to many victories. Joshua now reminds them of the YHVH who fought for them and the pathway to future victory. [You must be determined that you will observe and practice every Command in the Book of the Law of Moses.] This is what YHVH had told Joshua when he first became leader and he repeats this to all the people. In late summer all across Canaan the parched fields were often hard and cracked, impossible to plough. Every day anxious eyes searched for signs of the first winter rains. Without rain to soften the earth, the new crop could not be planted in time. The following summer harvest would be burnt to straw by hot dusty winds sweeping in from the south. The people went to the high places of worship to offer wine, fruit and young sheep to Baal, the god of fertility. They believed they must please him and persuade him to bring the rain. But some feared that Mot, the god of drought, sterility and death, held Baal in his power. They believed that years ago the god of death captured Baal in the underworld, causing the earth to stay barren for months. Nothing grew until Anat, the goddess of passion and war, slashed Mot into pieces, scattering his body to the wild animals. They hoped less important gods like Dew, Rain and Fatness would aid Baal in his struggle against chaos. He had many such attendants, including his messengers Vine and Field and a craftsman who could prepare magical incantations. The people recalled ancient battles when Baal’s great power triumphed over enemy gods. Prince Yam, ruler of the unruly ocean currents, once challenged Baal’s control of the earth by dashing huge waves upon the shore. But Baal destroyed the god Sea and the fearful seven-headed monster that lived in the depths. With mixed fear and hope the people waited for Baal to again bring the life-giving rain.
The Third Temple & Sacrifice
God's temple has been rebuilt; His current temple is no longer a physical building on the earth:
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.
John 2:19-22
The Scripture:
“My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them. They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.” ’ ”
Ezekiel 37:24-28
Thus says the Lord, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.
Isaiah 66:1-2
Other verses on the topic:
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning cloud And like the dew which goes away early. Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; And the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth. For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Hosea 6:4-6
“I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5:21-24
Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” The scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no one else besides Him; and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.
Mark 12:29-34
Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
Luke 24:44, 46-47
For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Psalms 51:16-17
... “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word. “But he who kills an ox is like one who slays a man; He who sacrifices a lamb is like the one who breaks a dog’s neck; He who offers a grain offering is like one who offers swine’s blood; He who burns incense is like the one who blesses an idol. As they have chosen their own ways, And their soul delights in their abominations,...Then they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as a grain offering to the Lord, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the Lord, “just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. I will also take some of them for priests and for Levites,” says the Lord. ...And it shall be from new moon to new moon And from sabbath to sabbath, All mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the Lord.
Isaiah 66:2-3, 20-21, 23
The woman *said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus *said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:19-24
#third Temple #temple
Happy Sunday y'all Shabbat Shalom ?✡️?
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