Joshua 11, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: PREPARING GOD’S HOLY PEOPLE

All the billions of Christ followers over the last two-thousand years have this in common:  “A spiritual gift is given to each of us” (1 Corinthians 12:7). God’s body has no nobodies. No exceptions…no exclusions. Our gifts make an eternal difference only in concert with the church. Apart from the body of Christ, we are like clipped fingernails or shaved whiskers and cut hair. Who needs them? He grants gifts so we can “prepare God’s holy people” (Ephesians 4:11-12).

Paul reached into a medical dictionary for this term. Doctors used it to describe the setting of a broken bone. Broken people come to churches. Not with broken bones, but broken hearts, broken homes, broken dreams, and broken lives. And if the church operates as the church, they find healing.  All members help to heal brokenness, “to make the body of Christ stronger!”

Read more Cure for the Common Life

Joshua 11

1-3 When Jabin king of Hazor heard of all this, he sent word to Jobab king of Madon; to the king of Shimron; to the king of Acshaph; to all the kings in the northern mountains; to the kings in the valley south of Kinnereth; to the kings in the western foothills and Naphoth Dor; to the Canaanites both east and west; to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Jebusites in the hill country; and to the Hivites below Hermon in the region of Mizpah.

4-5 They came out in full force, all their troops massed together—a huge army, in number like sand on an ocean beach—to say nothing of all the horses and chariots. All these kings met and set up camp together at the Waters of Merom, ready to fight against Israel.

6 God said to Joshua: “Don’t worry about them. This time tomorrow I’ll hand them over to Israel, all dead. You’ll hamstring their horses. You’ll set fire to their chariots.”

7-9 Joshua, his entire army with him, took them by surprise, falling on them at the Waters of Merom. God gave them to Israel, who struck and chased them all the way to Greater Sidon, to Misrephoth Maim, and then to the Valley of Mizpah on the east. No survivors. Joshua treated them following God’s instructions: he hamstrung their horses; he burned up their chariots.

10-11 Then Joshua came back and took Hazor, killing its king. Early on Hazor had been head of all these kingdoms. They killed every person there, carrying out the holy curse—not a breath of life left anywhere. Then he burned down Hazor.

12-14 Joshua captured and massacred all the royal towns with their kings, the holy curse commanded by Moses the servant of God. But Israel didn’t burn the cities that were built on mounds, except for Hazor—Joshua did burn down Hazor. The People of Israel plundered all the loot, including the cattle, from these towns for themselves. But they killed the people—total destruction. They left nothing human that breathed.

15 Just as God commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it. He didn’t leave incomplete one thing that God had commanded Moses.

16-20 Joshua took the whole country: the mountains, the southern desert, all of Goshen, the foothills, the valley (the Arabah), and the Israel mountains with their foothills, from Mount Halak, which towers over the region of Seir, all the way to Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon in the shadows of Mount Hermon. He captured their kings and then killed them. Joshua fought against these kings for a long time. Not one town made peace with the People of Israel, with the one exception of the Hivites who lived in Gibeon. Israel fought and took all the rest. It was God’s idea that they all would stubbornly fight the Israelites so he could put them under the holy curse without mercy. That way he could destroy them just as God had commanded Moses.

21-22 Joshua came out at that time also to root out the Anakim from the hills, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, from the mountains of Judah, from the mountains of Israel. Joshua carried out the holy curse on them and their cities. No Anakim were left in the land of the People of Israel, except in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod—there were a few left there.

23 Joshua took the whole region. He did everything that God had told Moses. Then he parceled it out as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribes.

And Israel had rest from war.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Friday, July 06, 2018
Read: 1 Samuel 16:1–7
David Anointed King

The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” 2 And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3 And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.” 4 Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?” 5 And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord's anointed is before him.” 7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

INSIGHT
Who taught you how to think about yourself and others?

Long before Samuel looked for a king among the sons of Jesse, God was teaching His children to see below the surface of our skin. From the days of Eden, He has been showing people like us that what happens in our hearts is more important than our outward appearance.

How has God’s interaction with the men and women of the Bible helped you to think about yourself and Him? - Mart DeHaan

Hidden Beauty
By Lisa Samra

People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7

Our children needed a little coaxing to believe that it was worth putting on snorkeling gear to peer beneath the surface of the Caribbean Sea off the shore of the island of Tobago. But after they dove in, they resurfaced ecstatic, “There are thousands of fish of all different kinds! It’s so beautiful! I’ve never seen such colorful fish!”

Because the surface of the water looked similar to freshwater lakes near our home, our children could have missed the beauty hidden just below the surface.

When the prophet Samuel went to Bethlehem to anoint one of Jesse’s sons to be the next king, Samuel saw the oldest son, Eliab, and was impressed by his appearance. The prophet thought he had found the right man, but the Lord rejected Eliab. God reminded Samuel that He “does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

So Samuel asked if there were more sons. The youngest boy wasn’t present but caring for the family’s sheep. This son, David, was summoned and the Lord directed Samuel to anoint him.

Often we look at people only on a surface level and don’t always take the time to see their inner, sometimes hidden, beauty. We don’t always value what God values. But if we take the time to peer beneath the surface, we may find great treasure.

Heavenly Father, thank You for not valuing people based on outward appearances but instead by looking at our hearts. Help me to take the time to see beyond simply what my eyes can see in order to discover true and lasting beauty.

God can help me to see the inner beauty in others.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, July 06, 2018
Visions Becoming Reality
The parched ground shall become a pool… —Isaiah 35:7

We always have a vision of something before it actually becomes real to us. When we realize that the vision is real, but is not yet real in us, Satan comes to us with his temptations, and we are inclined to say that there is no point in even trying to continue. Instead of the vision becoming real to us, we have entered into a valley of humiliation.

Life is not as idle ore,
But iron dug from central gloom,
And battered by the shocks of doom
To shape and use.

God gives us a vision, and then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint. Every God-given vision will become real if we will only have patience. Just think of the enormous amount of free time God has! He is never in a hurry. Yet we are always in such a frantic hurry. While still in the light of the glory of the vision, we go right out to do things, but the vision is not yet real in us. God has to take us into the valley and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the point where He can trust us with the reality of the vision. Ever since God gave us the vision, He has been at work. He is getting us into the shape of the goal He has for us, and yet over and over again we try to escape from the Sculptor’s hand in an effort to batter ourselves into the shape of our own goal.

The vision that God gives is not some unattainable castle in the sky, but a vision of what God wants you to be down here. Allow the Potter to put you on His wheel and whirl you around as He desires. Then as surely as God is God, and you are you, you will turn out as an exact likeness of the vision. But don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever had a vision from God, you may try as you will to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never allow it.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
When you are joyful, be joyful; when you are sad, be sad. If God has given you a sweet cup, don’t make it bitter; and if He has given you a bitter cup, don’t try and make it sweet; take things as they come.  Shade of His Hand, 1226 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, July 06, 2018
The Beautiful Dead-End Bridge - #8215

It's a very impressive bridge. We saw it as we traveled near the Ohio River years ago. As you looked at it from the city where we were staying, it appeared to be complete. But when you went a few blocks and you looked at it from downriver, some additional information became apparent-in fact, important information. The bridge was only partly completed. It would get you part way there, and then it would drop you in the river.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Beautiful Dead-End Bridge."

Every religion, including yours and mine, is in a sense, a bridge that starts us in the direction of where we all hope to end up for all eternity-heaven. Sadly, every religion, though, is a bridge that doesn't get you all the way across. Most religions look like they'll get us to heaven, but they won't. They can't.

God makes that clear in many places in His Book, including in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Romans 3, beginning with verse 20. He says, "No one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law." That means doing good things and not doing bad things. "Unless we are righteous-free of the stain of sin-we can't enter a perfect God's perfect heaven."

Romans 3:23 goes on to say, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That's "fall short". Every one of us, no matter how good we try to be, it falls short of God's holy and perfect standard; falls short of ever living in His perfect heaven. So a lot of religious folks are living in this deadly false security, believing that somehow our goodness and our religion are going to get us where we want to go. But that security is actually a bridge to nowhere.

Thankfully, the next verse has some good news. It says that all of us who have fallen short of being with God can be "justified (that means made right with God) freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Redemption means that it took Jesus paying the price to get us back for us to ever be right with God. And that's what He did when He died that awful death on that awful cross. That was love for you like love you've never known. He loved you too much to lose you. So He paid the price for your sin; the price you should pay. Bottom line: Jesus is your only hope. Not Christianity, not a religion about Jesus, but Jesus.

Every religion, every morality is ultimately dependent on my efforts to get God's approval. But in Ephesians 2:8-9, God clearly says, "It is by grace (which means undeserved love) that you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works." Now if God says it's not by works that we get to Him, why would we depend one more day on what He clearly says won't work? Our only hope is His Son. Our only hope is Jesus' death for us and His resurrection from the dead that proves He can give eternal life.

Honestly, what are you depending on to get you to heaven? That's the life-or-death question. If it's anything or anyone else other than total trust in Jesus Christ, you're not going to make it. He's the only bridge that reaches all the way across from our sin to God's heaven. Every other bridge will fail you. Every other bridge will cost you heaven, no matter how beautiful the bridge is.

And God is coming to you today with this message because He wants you to spend eternity with Him. That's why He's moving in your heart right now, calling you to abandon all other hopes and put all your hopes in His Son, Jesus. If you're not sure you've done that, please don't risk one more day without Him. Tell Him, "God, I have no hope but Your Son, and today I'm turning my life over to you completely. I'm putting all my trust in Jesus to be my Rescuer from my sin." 

Listen, our website is there, really created for you for such a time as this so you can nail down your relationship with God and be sure you belong to Him and that you're going to heaven when you die. The website's ANewStory.com. Please go there today.

You can go to sleep tonight knowing where you're going when you die; knowing you're going to heaven because Jesus is going to get you there.