[NOTE: For those who are continuing the 1-year Bible reading plan we started on April 1, 2018, just go to the end of this entry and you will find the Day 339 – Galatians 1-3; Matthew 26 summary!]
Joshua 21 records the distribution of cities and pasturelands to the Levites. According to Moses’ instruction, the Levites didn’t receive a territory in the Promised Land along with the other tribes. Instead, they received cities and pasturelands in each of the territories of the other tribes. The strategic value of this distribution is obvious: Levites would live throughout the entire land of Israel. They would be able to help guide their relatives to carry out the practices of worshiping God faithfully. At the end of the chapter we read:
45Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. Joshua 21:45 (ESV) While not surprising, the statement is so powerful. God is always good, and His good promises to us always come to pass, not one of them has ever failed or will ever fail. We can stand on that solid rock in our lives, regardless of what we might be enduring at any given moment.
Joshua 22 tells us of the return of the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh to their homes on the eastern side of the Jordan River. They had fulfilled their commitment to help their kinsmen take the Promised Land, and now Joshua sent them back with His blessing. As these two-and-a-half tribes returned home they built an altar, which nearly caused a war. The remaining Israelites thought the altar was to offer sacrifices to pagan gods, but the Reubenites, Gadites and half-tribe of Manasseh explained the altar was for their children. They wanted their children to remember they were part of Israel. Living apart from the rest of the tribes, they foresaw a day when their children might forget that. The altar would remind them. With that explanation all were satisfied and the situation ended peacefully.
Joshua 23-24 record the final words and instructions of Joshua to the Israelites. He reminded them of how good God had been to them, and how God had fulfilled His promises and blessings to them. He also told them if they forgot to follow the LORD in the future, they would receive His curses. Joshua’s message was plain and clear: follow the LORD and be blessed; abandon Him and be cursed. Finally, Joshua spoke a brief history of the Israelites and all the LORD had done for them. Then he offered the famous statement: 15And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15 (ESV) Notice Joshua offered three choices to the Israelites: 1) They could serve the gods of their slavery, their past in Egypt; 2) They could serve the gods of the Amorites in whose land they lived at the moment; or 3) they could serve the LORD, who had been with them in the past, was with them in that moment, and would be with them forever. So often, we look to our past and hold onto something from it with the kind of intensity that is to be reserved only for the LORD. Sometimes we look around and grab onto something of this world in which we live, with an intensity that is to be reserved only for the LORD. The best action is to grab onto the LORD with that kind of intensity today, tomorrow and forever.
As we return to John 11, we return to the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Every time I read this chapter, I’m reminded of the absolute power Jesus has over life and death. He waited until Lazarus died to return to do something about Lazarus’ sickness. The mourners who gathered at the tomb murmured the same thing many of us have murmured as we have watched a loved one grow sicker and sicker and eventually die: “If He were here, our brother (friend, mom, child…) wouldn’t have died.” We see the short-term value of having our loved one with us. Jesus sees the eternal value of where all of us are going. The difference is Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus died and came back to life. All my loved ones who have died, have stayed dead…but that is only from my perspective, from a physical perspective. One day each of us will die to this life, unless Jesus returns first. That means each of us will be in the tomb and hear what Lazarus heard: Arise! Wow! In the short-term it must have been such an amazing blessing for Mary and Martha to have their brother back. In the long-term, the eternal-term, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus will always be together with Jesus. That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote, “We don’t grieve as the rest of people who have no hope…” We grieve, and while our loved ones are sick, we pray for their healing, so we don’t have to grieve. But always, always, always–we have hope, because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, as we believe in Him, we have the promise that we will never die.
Day 339 – Galatians 1-3; Matthew 26
Today we turn to the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians. In this letter, Paul reminds the Galatians they received freedom from sin and death through Jesus. We might wonder why Paul needed to remind a group of pagans (most of the Galatians were Gentile idol-worshipers, before they were born again) to remember their freedom in Jesus Christ. The short answer is a group known as the Judaizers came after Paul, and told the Galatian believers they needed to follow the Jewish law to follow Jesus. The Judaizers caused problems wherever Paul went, because they couldn’t let go of the past, and their Jewish heritage. Paul reminded the Galatians they didn’t receive freedom by following the Law, and they wouldn’t keep it that way either. This is a helper reminder to us, because we don’t gain the freedom of Jesus in our lives by grace through faith in Jesus, and then keep it by adhering to a rigid set of laws. We do good works after our salvation, but not to keep our salvation. We do them because we have salvation, and we want to demonstrate our gratitude for it.
In Galatians 1, Paul’s greeting is brief and he moves right to the point of his letter: he wants to know why they are trusting a “different gospel.” He reminds them he was once a zealous proponent of the Jewish faith, but after trusting Jesus as Savior and Lord, and being sent by Him to be a messenger of the gospel, he no longer trusted in his heritage, but in Jesus. The implication is they needed to do the same.
In Galatians 2, Paul notes he was received by the apostles in Jerusalem, and they did not seek to have him change his message to the gentiles. Indeed, Titus who was with him was not made to be circumcised as a sign of being a Jew. The leaders in Jerusalem gave their blessing on Paul’s ministry to the gentiles. Their only charge was that he remember the poor, which he writes he was eager to do. Paul also tells of Peter coming to Antioch and living among the believers there as a gentile, but when some of the Jewish believers came, Peter drew back from them. Paul’s response was to rebuke Peter to his face, for this change of behavior. Paul shows us both that he was of equal standing with Peter, and that when we have a problem with a brother or sister in the Lord, the proper way to address it is face-to-face.
In Galatians 3, Paul reminds the Galatians they were saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, and received the Holy Spirit through Him, and not through the Law. He asks them if they received the Spirit and the power to do miracles through the Law or through faith in Jesus? The answer is obvious. Paul goes on to point out that Abraham is the father of those who believe through faith, because God promised to bless the nations through Abraham. Abraham lived hundreds of years before the Law came into existence. The Law itself was given only to keep us on the right path until Abraham’s “seed” that is Jesus came to fulfill the promise God made through Abraham. Paul reminds the Galatians that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but we are all one in Christ Jesus. Paul was not denying that individual differences exist among us as Jesus’ followers, but all those differences break down in our common salvation through Jesus!
As we return to Matthew 26 the beginning of the end has come for Jesus. He was anointed at Bethany, by a woman who used an expensive jar of perfume to anoint Him. While some complained the perfume could have been sold and the money used to feed the poor, Jesus affirmed the woman’s act and said wherever the gospel is preached she would be remembered. Judas then goes and agrees to betray Jesus to the Jewish leaders. After this the disciples eat the Last Supper with Jesus, and Jesus tells them one will betray Him, Peter will deny Him, and all will desert Him. After the meal, they go to the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prays, and the disciples sleep. Eventually, Judas comes with soldiers from the priests and they arrest Jesus. Jesus is tried by the religious leaders and found guilty. Peter is accused by a servant girl and others of being one of Jesus’ followers and he denies it. As Peter hears a rooster crow, he remembers Jesus’ prediction and goes out and weeps bitterly. The chapter reminds us, none of us is without fault when it comes to our relationship with Jesus. We do well not to be too hard on the disciples, because had we been with them, we would have been among those who deserted Him, or denied Him.