Read: Joshua 9:3-10:43; Luke 16:19-17:10; Psalm 8:1-18; Proverbs 13:4
Gibson was an important royal city full of good fighting men but even they were afraid of the Israelites and God. They knew they were helpless against Joshua’s God so their only hope was to trick Joshua into making a treaty with them. Joshua didn’t ask God first and hastily decided on his own to believe them. When he realized he had been tricked and they lived in the promised land, he decided then to ask God what to do. God told them to make them slaves and make them carry their water and cut their wood. The other five kings heard about what Gibeon had done and they combined forces against Gibeon. Since Israel had made a covenant to help them, Joshua had to fight for them. When the battle went into the night, Joshua commanded the sun to stand still and it did. They were able to continue fighting and God gave them the victory. God’s army threw down hail stones and killed more than Joshua’s people did. The five kings hid in a cave so the Israelites rolled a stone to keep them there then they hung them on a tree (just the opposite of what happened to Jesus). Then they put the kings back in the cave and put the stones back over the mouth of the cave.
Joshua and his army continued to conquer seven more cities. Remember that kings of the armies of the enemies of God stand for principalities. They have to be put to death. We can’t just hid them away and expect to be rid of them. Keeping those kings in the cave would have been a mistake.
In Luke, Jesus told a story of a rich man and a beggar. The tables were flipped when they died. The beggar was secure and blessed where the rich man was tormented with fire. The gulf between them was even greater than on earth. The rich man asked Abraham to send someone to his father’s house to tell them about hell. Abraham told the man that they had Moses and the prophets to warn them. Then the rich man said that if someone could rise from the dead, they would repent. Abraham disagreed. He told the rich man that if they wouldn’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they wouldn’t believe even if someone rose from the dead.
Jesus was speaking to the scribes and teachers of the law. They refused to believe the law they were so bent on keeping and they killed all the prophets which would include him, so they wouldn’t believe his resurrection either.
Then Jesus turned to his disciples and gave them a lesson on offenses. They should not be the ones who offended people but if someone offended them and asked for forgiveness, they were to give it. When the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith, he told them that it only took a small amount of faith to move mountains. Then Jesus encouraged them not to stop doing the things they knew to do. All this shows their faith.
Lord, help us to keep doing the things we know to do even if we don’t get the desired results. You are working through our faith.
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