The Rambling Disciple

Finally the second of God's great promises to Abraham have been fulfilled. This nation, Israel, now has its own land. Throughout the book of Joshua we have seen how time and again God has kept his end of the covenant between Israel and himself. He has given them victory against nations and peoples much stronger and larger than their own. Under Joshua's leadership the people of Israel followed God's commandments, but now Joshua is dying. The question of leadership arises. There is no human king ruling in Israel. Who shall the people follow? God or themselves? Background We do not know who wrote the book of Judges. The book itself does not name anyone in particular. Long standing tradition has held that the prophet Samuel wrote the book. This makes sense, given that he is the last of the judges. Still we don't actually know who the human author is. What we do know is that Judges is meant to be read with Joshua. Thematically they run together. Judges picks up ...

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares YHWH. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9 As we have a discussion about Israel's conquest of Canaan we need to keep the above verse in mind. God, by the very nature of being God, is above and beyond our complete understanding. This is important to remember as we talk about anything concerning God. We don't have all the answers, and that's just fine. The Conquest of Canaan How many of you have had questions concerning Israel's conquest of Canaan? Some of you may have never thought much about it. Others may have decided that it's wise to leave the subject alone. Whatever your thoughts on the subject may be, for quite a number of people (Christians included) the conquest of Canaan is troubling. So what is the conquest, and why is it troubling to people? The conqu...

At the end of the Pentateuch Israel is left in an interesting situation. Moses is dead. The original Israelites who left Egypt, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, have all perished while wandering in the wilderness. So far only one of the promises that God made to Abraham has come true; that he would be the father of a great nation. As the book of Joshua begins, Israel stands on the cusp of witnessing God fulfill another promise. God had promised Abraham that his descendants would have a land of their own, the land of Canaan. Now Israel waits on the east side of the Jordan river, ready to invade and take what God has promised them. Background The book of Joshua does not explicitly mention who wrote it, and neither does the rest of the Bible. It does make mention of Joshua writing things down (8:32 and 24:26) which has led to the tradition that Joshua is indeed the author.  The book of Joshua is the first of the historical books, so called because they record the his...

The purpose of the Law is to reveal a holy God to humanity and to train humanity for a life of faith. We have looked at the Law multiple times now and I think we recognize the importance it plays in our faith today. Before we move forward in the Bible there are a couple of very important concepts that have been introduced in the Pentateuch that need to be addressed. As the Law has shown us the holiness of God, it has also shown us something else; sin. Sin is one of the most misunderstood aspects of Christianity. We aren't all that clear on what sin is, primarily because we don't really talk about it. Sure we talk about various types  of sin (gossip, lust, greed, etc.,) but rarely do we actually talk about sin itself. One of the primary purposes of the Law was to teach Israel what sin is (Romans 3:20), so it is fitting that we talk about sin now. First a very important distinction needs to be made; one that we haven't always recognized. Temptation does NOT equal sin. Jus...