Thurs.’s Devo - Invest in God’s Kingdom

Read: Joshua 16:1-18:28; Luke 19:1-27; Psalm 87:1-7; Proverbs 13:11 The tribes of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh were given their land. They did not drive out all the Canaanites out of Gezer so they became their slaves. *** Half of Manasseh had land east of the Jordan and half of them had land on the west of the Jordan. One of Manasseh’s descendants had no sons, so the daughters went to Joshua to petition for land for themselves. Moses had promised them that they would have an inheritance along with the men. Joshua honored that promise and granted them land. *** The descendants of Manasseh were also unable to drive out all the Canaanites in their region so they forced them to work as slaves. (Interesting that they could force them to become slaves but they could’t force them to leave.) *** The descendants of Joseph complained that they only got one portion in the land when they had so strong and had so many people. Joshua told them that if their land was not big enough they could clear out land in the forest. Then they complained that the Canaanites that lived in the forests had iron chariots and were too strong for them. *** Joshua told them that since they claimed to be so strong and had so many people they could surely use that strength to drive out the Canaanites. *** Now that all the land was under their control the entire community of Israel gathered at Shiloh to set up the Tabernacle. Seven tribes had not yet received their land because they had not gone and surveyed their allotted territory and taken it. He told them to go and explore the land and write a description of it. They were to bring the description to Joshua and he would cast lots to see which tribe it should go to. *** The first allotment went to Benjamin which lay between the land of Judah and Joseph. It had 14 towns in it. Jerusalem was one of the towns. *** In Luke, Jesus was coming to the town of Jericho. The chief tax-collector of the town was Zacchaeus. He heard that Jesus was coming to his town and wanted to get a look at him. Because he was short, he couldn’t see above the heads of the people so he climbed up in a tree to see better. When Jesus walked by he looked up and called him by name. He told them he was coming to his house to eat. Zacchaeus was elated, but the people of the town were appalled that a Jesus would choose to eat with a notorious sinner. Jesus didn’t see him as a sinner but called him by his name which means “my pure one.” *** When Zacchaeus stood before the Lord he vowed to give half of his wealth to the poor and return to those he stole from four times the amount. That is true repentance. *** Jesus told the story to show that the kingdom of God was not going to appear immediately. The story was of a nobleman who went to a far country to receive a kingdom, then he would return. Before he went he called in ten of his servants and gave them one mina or 50 shekels each which was about three months wages. He told them to invest it well. *** Some of the people of the town hated him and and didn’t want him to reign over them. When he returned after receiving his kingdom, he commanded his servants to make an account of how they had invested his money. *** The first had taken their one mina and turned it into ten. The owner commended him and put him in charge of ten cities. The second had turned his one mina into five, so he was put in charge of five cities. But the third had put his mina in a handkerchief because he didn’t want to make a prophet to have to give it back. He was rebuked for being so selfish. He could have at least put it in the bank and made a profit doing nothing. The owner took his mina and gave it to the one who had ten. When the people complained about this he told them that whoever has will be given more, but to him who doesn’t have it will be taken from him. Then he put to death his enemies who didn’t want him to rule over them. Lord, may we use the gifts and talents you have given us to further your kingdom so you can give us more. All that we have is yours.