Thurs.’s Devo - God Requires Obedience

Read: Joshua 7:16-9:2; Luke 16:1-18; Psalm 82:1-8; Procerbs 13:2-3 The next morning, God continued paring down to Achan. When Joshua asked for his confession, he said he had taken a robe from Babylon, 200 silver coins and a bar of gold. He told Joshua where he had it hidden and they found them and laid them on the ground. Joshua told him that he had brought trouble on them and now they would bring trouble on him. They stoned him and his family and burned everything he owned. *** Now, they could take Ai. God gave them the strategy to set up an ambush to drive the men out of the town then attack from behind and sandwich the men of Ai in between. They wiped out the entire population of Ai and were allowed to keep the plunder from this town. Jericho had been their tithe to the Lord. If only Achan had given to the Lord what was his. *** Joshua impaled the king of Ai on a pole and his body was taken down at sunset and put in front of the town gate. They piled a heap of stones over his body. Joshua built an altar to the Lord on Mt. Ebal. He offered burnt and peace offerings and copied the instructions of Moses onto the stones. He divided the people into two groups and half stood on Ebal and half on Gerizim. the Ark was in the middle. Joshua read the blessings and the curses to them again. *** All the kings of Canaan heard of what had happened so they combined their forces to fight against Joshua and the Israelites. *** Jesus told a story of a man who had been caught mishandling his bosses money. He knew he would be fired so he went to all his bosses creditors and had them lessen their loan so he would have friends when he was fired. The boss had to admire his shrewdness. Jesus said the moral to the story was that the people of the world are more shrewd than the children of God. We should use the same strategy when it came to spiritual matters. If we use our worldly possessions to benefit others we will make friends that will welcome us when we enter into heaven. Jesus concluded that you can’t serve God and money also. *** Jesus came and fulfilled the law and everything the prophets had promised but it didn’t mean that the law was now of no effect. A man who puts his wife away without a writ of divorcement (in other words, the legal requirements) causes her to commit adultery if she was to remarry. The law and its consequences are still in effect in our lives. We are blessed by following God’s laws. Lord, help us to understand what it means to follow the law without stumbling over the letter of the law. The Law is spiritual for us which is much more powerful. Give us discernment to understand.