Ultimate Loyalty: Worship in a War Zone - 250407

Speaker A Hello, I'm Blair Lemke. Welcome to Let God Speak. Reformer Martin Luther said, I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer. He knew that prayer was the priority that empowered and organized the rest of his daily activities. Joshua and the Israelites had crossed the Jordan and were now on enemy territory. Ahead lay challenges in the war zone too great for them to overcome by themselves. Today we are going to discuss Israel's priorities. Were they on weapons, strategies and manpower, or were they on worship and heart preparation through ceremonies that would sharpen their spiritual perception and calibrate their loyalty to the Lord? Stay with us for this important discussion. On our panel today, we have Lena Yoon and Rod Butler. Welcome. Speaker B Hello. Speaker C Hello. Speaker A Let's begin with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would send your holy spirit to lead and to guide us as we study your word today. Speaker B In. Speaker A In Jesus name, Amen. Well, with the commencement of the conquest of Canaan, the Israelites took time out and rededicated themselves to God. Today we are going to discuss four times that they did this. The seemingly irrational decision to circumcise the Israelites while on enemy territory, celebrating the Passover in the face of imminent danger, building an altar to worship God while the conquest was in full swing, and and finally setting up the tabernacle when seven tribes in Israel had not yet received their inheritance. These were priorities to ensure that God was with them. Let's start with the matter of circumcision. And we'll read in the Bible Joshua chapter 5, verses 1 through to 3. The Bible says so it was when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea and heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan before them, the children of Israel crossed over, that their hearts melted and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel. At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives for yourselves and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time. So Joshua made flint knives for himself and. And circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. Lena, what is the significance of what we've just read this circumcision act here? Speaker C Yeah, so the significance of circumcision was that it was a physical sign that the people were in the covenant relationship with God and it was first given to Abraham. And God actually gave the covenant to Abraham and told him to circumcise his household 500 years before. So we can find this in Genesis, chapter 17, verses 10 and 11. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants. After you, every male child among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Speaker A Mm. Okay. So we find it very clearly there in scripture. Let's have a look here in Exodus, chapter 12. And we're going to read verse 48. The Bible says, and when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it. And he shall be as a native of the land, for no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. The Israelite males here had to be circumcised to partake of the Passover. Why weren't the children of Israel already circumcised here? Speaker B Rod? That's a good question. They. They'd broken the covenant. And we get this picked up if we go to Joshua, chapter five, and we're going to read verses eight and nine. It says, and it came to pass when they had done circumcising all the people that they abode in their places in the camp to lower hole. And the Lord said unto Joshua, this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Therefore, the name of the place is called Gilgal. Unto this day, that phrase, the reproach of Egypt is really important because when they came out of Egypt across the Red Sea, the miracle, then they were given manna and water. But what did they do when they got to the border? They didn't listen to the two faithful spies. They listened to the two unfaithful spies, and they didn't go in. And they therefore broke the covenant. And so for the rest of the time in the wilderness, they were a people with a broken covenant. And for them to have the passover, as it says, they needed to be circumcised when they crossed the Jordan, all those that had died in the wilderness for their unfaithfulness, the new generation had to be circumcised. Speaker A Yeah, this is quite a trend with the Israelites, isn't it? This unfaithfulness that they exhibit time and time again. Maybe not too dissimilar to us. We like to point our fingers at the Israelites, but there's many lessons we can learn too. I want to know though, why would God wait until the Israelites had crossed over the Jordan river and they were then on enemy territory? Why would he wait until they were in enemy territory before he instructed Joshua to circumcise the people? Speaker C Yeah, so this is pretty interesting. And God had the Israelites wait on the other side of the Jordan until. Until, you know, the river was at its height, full height, in flood. And so God's instruction to Joshua to renew the covenant. So sign was done at a time when the people were most conscious of God's miraculous act of bringing them across the other side of the Jordan safely. And also the importance of like moving forward, going forward regardless in the covenant relationship. And also the other thing that we can notice here is that people would have remembered God's all the way and how God led them and also his miracles. And also because of that, they were able to remember all these things and also wanted to be in the covenant relationship not by force or anything, but voluntarily and from a thankfulness, gratitude, and as a voluntary act of worship. Speaker A Yeah, it's certainly an unusual place to recommit yourself to God in the middle of enemy territory, but maybe the most important place to recommit ourselves to God. Why, Rod, how long would it take this process of circumcising? Speaker B It's a good question, but we don't know. The Bible hasn't told us. But what we do know, there was a lot of males we read earlier in verse three, they had to make flint knives. So they had to make their knives. They had to have a lot of people circumcised. It wouldn't have take. It would take a long time. We don't know exactly how long, but it would have taken probably maybe a day or so. And we also know that that whole process of circumcision there was a healing aspect which is important. If you go back to the story of Shechem where the prince of Shechem raped the daughter of the story Dinah or Dinah, we have here it's chapter 34 of Genesis, and we're going to read verse 25, it says. And it came to pass on the third day when they were sore. So this whole process, they got to be circumcised, then they've got to be in their tents till they feel better. The actual process of circumcision from starting to finish takes quite a while. But the Bible doesn't tell us how long, just tells us when they started, which was on the 10th day of the first month. Crossing the Jordan. Speaker A Well, interesting. This process of the circumcision took place while they were in enemy territory, as we pointed out a minute ago. What lesson can we take from this that they had this take place in enemy territory? Speaker C Surely there's a lot of lessons for us to learn. And so quite often our everyday life presses us with an urgency of important things, such as looming deadlines and commitments at work and in universities. You know, also like, we often tend to forget the most important thing and, or our priority, which is the daily renewal of our commitment to God. So what we need to do is to put God first even before we begin our day by having a morning worship or, you know, prayer. And so we need to spend time with God by reading the Bible, studying the Bible and talking to him in prayer. And then we ask God to be in charge of our day and ask him to lead us through the challenges in front of us so we can find, we can go and read a very famous and well known Bible verse Matthew, chapter 6, verse 33. Here it says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Speaker A Yeah, it really is an amazing idea and it really does make me think of that, that quote that we started on from the famous Martin Luther, you know, where he highlighted how important it was for him to, even in the midst of busyness, start with prayer, start with a dedication to God and his Word. And I always find that sort of thing inspiring. It is a powerful lesson for us to learn. So Rod, after this circumcision of the young males that were born in the wilderness, did they then attack Canaan? Did they begin their conquest against Canaan at this time? What happened next? Speaker B No, they had another priority. And I read before verses 8 and 9, if we go to verse 10, it says, and the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at even in the plain of Jericho. So they've just been circumcised and rather than sort of say, okay, let's get on with it now. No, we're going to keep the Passover. So again, this is in face of the enemy. So this is, this is impressive. Speaker A Impressive faithfulness for all of the weaknesses of the Israelites. We see here a couple of examples and there's other places in scripture as well where they do take time to prioritize God. And this is an important lesson for all of us. How long did it take to celebrate the Passover, Lena? Speaker C Yeah, so the Israelites Finished crossing the Jordan on the 10th day of the first month. We can find this in Joshua chapter 4, verse 19. Here it says now the people came up from the Jordan on the 10th day of the first month and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. So this was the time when the Passover lamb was selected and killed and eaten four days later on the 14th day of the first month. And what is interesting here is that we can see that they, the Israelites must have had a lot of livestock with lambs to be able to celebrate the Passover. And this Passover maybe even less than four days. But what is more interesting here too, and the males would still have been recovering from circumcision while they had the Passover, you know. Speaker B Yeah. Speaker A Wow. It's, it's quite back to back priorities putting God first. Speaker B It really highlights prioritising, doesn't it? Speaker A It certainly does. And Rod, maybe you can share a little bit more on why Joshua took the time here to celebrate the Passover given what we've just discussed and that they're still in enemy territory. Speaker B Well, Joshua and Caleb actually came out of Egypt and they didn't die in the wilderness because they were faithful. And Joshua saw that when they came out of Egypt and they had the Passover, he saw the miracles, he saw God's leading God's blessing. So as far as Joshua was concerned, he recognized that God would lead them if they were faithful. And here he is now embarking on this great conquest of this new land. Joshua saw the similarities. When they were leaving Egypt, they were embarking on this conquest to go to the promised land and they had to pass over here. They were, they crossed the Jordan, they're in the promised land, but there's a whole people in front of them that need to be moved out. So he saw the need to have the Passover, he wanted that blessing of God and he wanted God's assurance that God was with them because without God they would not have succeeded. Speaker A Lena, what was the symbology of the Passover at this time? Speaker C Yeah, so it not only represented redemption of the firstborn, but also redemption of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. But the main symbology was in the sacrifice of the spotless lamb, you know, pointing forward to Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of world. And you know, the Israelites obviously learned this from the tent sanctuary services in the wilderness. So we can find this in John 1:29, 36. So 29 says the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold, The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And we're going to go to verse 36 again. The next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as he walked, he said, behold, the Lamb of God. Speaker A Yeah, well, very clearly, the Passover here does point forward to Jesus and his sacrifice on our behalf. If it's such an important symbol of Jesus, why do Christians not celebrate the Passover still today? Speaker B Well, it's an important question, important answer, too. And that reason is the Passover pointed to the Messiah. And when the Passover, when Jesus was the antitype, he was that Passover lamb. When Jesus died on the cross, he fulfilled the whole sacrificial system. And we know this because in Matthew 27:51, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom, meaning that the sacrificial system was over. But Jesus, before he died, he introduced another memorial of what he did at the cross, and that was the Lord's Supper. And I just want to read this from first Corinthians because it's worth going through again. And it says, I'm reading First Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 23 to 26. And this is, it says, this Paul speaking, for I've received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he brake it and said, take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Now remember, Jesus died on the cross, so his body was broken on the cross. He was the bread of heaven. This is so symbolic, verse 25. And after the same man also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. And 26, for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till I come. So here's Jesus introducing a new memorial called the Lord's Supper. Because he was the. The fulfillment of all the Old Testament sanctuary sacrificial services. Speaker A And it is a very meaningful ordinance that Jesus instituted here. But interestingly, Jesus actually adds a detail to the Lord's Supper. And In Matthew chapter 26, verse 29, the Bible says, but I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. Why does Jesus add this extra detail to the Lord's Supper? Speaker C Lena yeah, the Lord's Supper reminds us to look back at the atonement of Jesus Christ for us on the cross. But you know, this verse, Matthew, chapter 26, verse 29 directs us to look forward to Jesus second coming. So that's a difference here. And the redeemed multitude will be passing into the heavenly Canaan for the marriage supper of the Lamb. So we will go and look at some of the verses here. Revelation chapter 7, verses 9 and 10 first. So verse 9 here. After these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could, number of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues, and standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. And also the other verse we're going to look at, Revelation, chapter 19, verse 9. Then he said to me, write, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are the true sayings of God. Speaker A Yeah, so, yeah, very, very powerful passages of scripture that add detail to the importance of the second coming of Jesus and the Lord's Supper. Now, we see in the story that after the Israelites celebrated the Passover, of course this was instructed to them by God. In chapters six to eight, they destroyed Jericho and AI and the conquest of Canaan was well and truly underway at this time. What does Joshua do? Rod? Speaker B Joshua now takes time to follow an instruction from Moses and that is to build an altar and to worship at Mount Ebal. And this is incredible because to get from Gilgal to Mount Ebal is probably 30, 40 kilometres and they've got to travel there by foot. So what they actually do, they. They go out through the land to worship. And if we pick up Joshua 8, 30, 31, and it says here, then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man lift any iron. And they offered their own burnt offerings and the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. So you got to picture the scene here. The war is on, the conquest is on, and they take the time to travel through the land to Mount Ebal to carry out instruction by Moses to build an altar into worship. That's impressive. Speaker A It is absolutely impressive. And I'd like us to have a look. Let's have a look here at that, that command where Moses actually gave the command we're reading here in Deuteronomy, chapter 11, verses 29 and 3. The Bible says, now it shall be when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and in the. And the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not on the other side of the Jordan toward the setting sun in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinth trees of Moriah? So what is interesting about this command, Lena? Speaker C Yeah. So basically, verse 30 has, you know, geographical descriptions and also even names the place which is Gilgal. So to travel from Gilgal to Mount Ebal, as Rod pointed out already, the Israelites had to travel and from Gilgal, you know, through the heart of Canaan. And but while actually they were traveling there and with the Ark of the Covenant and, you know, coming back to Gilgal, but they were not even attacked or ambushed by the Canaanites. This is really incredible because it was because God had put the fear of them on the hearts of the Canaanites. So we can find this in Deuteronomy, chapter 2, verse 25. So here it says, this day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you. Speaker A So what else did they do to worship God here, Rod? Speaker B Well, if we pick up here and again, keep reading. In Joshua, chapter 8, verse 32, it says, and he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. And verse 34 says, if I just go to the page, it says here, and afterward he read all the words of the law and blessings and curses, according to all that is written in the book of the law. So firstly, he took the time to write on the stones the law of Moses. Right? Now you say to yourself, why would you do that? Clearly, he wanted anyone who went there to be able to read and to witness that they were there and they were worshiping. And of course, that last one, which is they not only did that, wrote them down, but they then spoke and they read the law so that people could hear. This was so important for all the people to know. This was worship. They were worshiping God. Speaker A Yeah, you make an interesting point. Like you ask that question, why would God have got them to. Why would he written down the words of Moses on these stones? Do you have anything to add, Lena? Speaker B On that. Speaker C Yeah, sure. Because, you know, we tend to forget, you know, we keep talking about it. And although, you know, the altar, we've been there for a long time with those words inscribed on the stones. But even Moses warned the Israelites, right? So we can see that In Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 11, here it says, beware, you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and judge his judgments and his statutes, which I command you today. So this is why we need to actually study the Bible. Not just study it, you know, maybe we should try, you know, to read out loud and even try to memorize Bible verses or even sing hymns, you know, with, you know, all those verses in there. And also the other thing that we can do, probably, you know, we should start writing down our answered prayers and our testimonies and how God has led us in the past because, you know, over time our memory files, we just tend to forget again, you know, so, yeah, yeah. Speaker A There is a lot of power in memorizing things, isn't there? Singing the songs and putting it, writing it on our hearts. And even the New Testament speaks of this as well. Writing God's law on our hearts to impress it upon our minds. So it was a very significant thing that was being done here. Now, Rod, the altar was set up here on Mount Ebal, which was the mount of curses, and the other Mount Jerusalem was the mount for blessings. This is interesting. Why would God set up the altar on Mount Ebal? Speaker B Yeah, look, it seems sort of counterintuitive. You'd think it'd be on Mount Jerusalem, but when you think about it, everything that happens in the scriptures points to Jesus. And in this particular case, this is a lesson pointing to Jesus. We're all cursed with sin. And the altar was built on Mount Ebal, which was the mountain of curses. So here's the altar. Here's Jesus being represented amongst us with our sin. And we had to look to that altar, we had to worship that altar, be at that altar for the sin to be removed. And when we did that, we got the blessings of Mount Jerusalem. So it's a beautiful image pointing to the fact that we can be in a world of sin, but with Jesus, that sin can be taken away from us and we'll get the blessings. Speaker A I love how many illustrations there are in the Bible of different ways that, you know, seemingly insignificant details. You could say little object lessons into the gospel, little foreshadows of Christ and what he does for us. It's very powerful. The more you study Scripture, the more you pull out of it. Let's look at another question here. After they worshipped on Mount Ebal, the conquest of course to Canaan continued. And in the middle of the conquest, which when the central part of Canaan was subdued, Joshua called the assembly of the tribes together at Shiloh. Why Shiloh, Lena? Speaker C Yes. So to be able to answer that question, we're going to go to Joshua, chapter 18, verses 1 and 2. So now the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the tabernacle of the meeting there. And the land was subdued before them. But there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance. So Shiloh had great geographical advantage being in the center of Canaan. And also it was also the place where the 10th century or the tabernacle of the meeting was brought and set up. So this Shiloh was in the middle of the land. And because of that, the Israelites had less than a day's journey to the sanctuary. Speaker B And I'd just like to add to what Lena said here. Shiloh was in the middle of the land. If we go back to Exodus, chapter 25, verse 8, and it says, and God said, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. So here's God putting it in Shiloh, right in the middle of the country. So he's dwelling amongst all his people right in the middle. It's a powerful message there too. Absolutely. God wants to identify with his people. Speaker A Well, we of course no longer have an earthly sanctuary, so we can't look to this place to worship. How do we keep our focus in this age where we don't have an earthly sanctuary? Speaker C Yeah, so we are living in the antitypical day of atonement. And so eyes are to be fixed on the heavenly sanctuary and also our Jesus Christ, you know, mediating as our priests on our behalf as we continue our journey and battle with temptations over modern day problems that challenges on a daily basis. And so we need to live by faith and also in the hope of spiritual inheritance. So we're going to finish off with Hebrews 9:11 here. But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands that is not of this creation. Speaker A Powerful. A great place for us to finish our study today. Jesus and his heavenly sanctuary. Well, Joshua is leading people in an actual war zone and took time to connect the people with God. But what about us? We all live busy lives that sometime resemble war zones. We too need to prioritise to put God first in our busy schedules. We need to express our thankfulness for what God has done and daily continues to do for us. We need to spend time to worship God. Time spent with God will bring many blessings. We're glad that you joined us today on Let God Speak. Remember, all past programs plus teacher's notes are available on our website, 3abnaustralia.org au. You can email us on [email protected]. tell your friends about the program and join us again next time. God bless. SPEAKER B You have been listening to let God speak, a production of 3ABN Australia television. To catch up on past programmes, please visit 3abnaustralia.org.au. Call us in Australia on 02 4973 3456. Or email [email protected]. we'd love to hear from you.