Wed.’s Devo - Taking the Land

Read: Joshua 9:3-10:43; Luke 16:19-17:10; Psalm 83:1-18; Proverbs 13:4 The people of Gibeon were next on Joshua’s trek across the land so they knew they had no hope militarily in protecting themselves. Instead, they resorted to what they were good at which was deception. One of the cities they were from means “village of the covert arts.” They were skilled in witchcraft. They planned to trick Israel into making a covenant with them. They took old moldy bread and cracked wineskins and put on old clothes. They met Israel and told Joshua that they had traveled from a great distance away. They wanted to make a treaty of peace with them. Joshua did not ask the Lord. I wonder how different this would have gone if he had just asked God. God would have revealed the truth about them and they wouldn’t have made a treaty with them. But, Joshua was deceived by them and believed that they were foreigners and made a treaty with them only to find out later that they lived close by. Instead of being able to get rid of them and all the idolatry that they carried, he made them woodcutters and water carriers for the community. The king of Jerusalem, Adoni-zedek heard about what the Gibeonites did by allying with Israel and he gathered four more kings with him to fight them. They fought at Gibeon. God had told Joshua not to be afraid of them because he had given them the victory. God fought with hail and killed more than they did with their swords. When Joshua prayed to let the sun and moon stand still, it did. It was noon and the day lasted until Joshua and Israel won and defeated their enemies. During the battle, the five kings had escaped into a cave. Joshua had ordered the cave to be barricaded with stones to keep them inside until the battle was over. Then, they brought the kings out and Joshua told his commanders to put their feet on their necks. He told his men, “Never be afraid or discouraged because the Lord is going to do this to all of your enemies.” Then Joshua impaled the five kings. As the sun was going down Joshua instructed for kings’ bodies to be put in the cave and the rocks put back over the opening which still remains today. Joshua then captured the towns of all the kings they had taken before he returned home. I can’t help but notice that what Joshua did to the kings was what Satan did to Jesus by putting a rock over his tomb and guards to guard it. These kings couldn’t escape but Jesus did. Jesus’ angels burst the rocks and he came out of his grave. These kings died in their grave and never resurrected to life. They resurrected to death. The key to spiritual warfare is to get the principality, the king, and then you can spoil his goods. In Luke, Jesus was still talking to the Pharisees about their love for money. He told them the parable about the poor man, Lazareth and the rich man. Lazareth, who was not esteemed highly on earth was comforted and exalted in death, but the rich man, though esteemed highly on earth, was tormented in death. He was trying to show them that the tables will turn on them in the afterlife if they don’t repent of their sins now. He also said that even if God sent someone to rise from the dead, they wouldn’t listen to them. He was fore-telling their future. Jesus talked to his disciples about forgiveness. Now is the time for forgiveness. Now is the time that we serve the Lord. When we die it is too late; what we do in life affects eternity. Lord, help us to live for eternity and love our future more than we love our present.