Joshua 5, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Jesus’ Victory Cry - April 7, 2022

“It is finished!” Jesus cried. Stop and listen. Can you imagine the cry from the cross? What was finished? The history-long plan of redeeming man. The message of God to man. The works done by Jesus as a man on earth were finished.

A cry of defeat? Hardly. Had Jesus’ hands not been fastened down, I dare say that a triumphant fist would have punched the dark sky. This is no cry of despair. It is a cry of completion. A cry of victory. A cry of fulfillment. Yes, even a cry of relief: “Take me home.” Come, ten thousand angels! Come and take this wounded one to the cradle of his Father’s arms. Farewell, manger’s infant. Take this Son to his Father. He deserves a rest. Bless you, holy ambassador. Go home, rest well. The battle is over! It is finished.

Joshua 5

 When all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and the Canaanite kings along the seacoast heard how God had stopped the Jordan River before the People of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts sank; the courage drained out of them just thinking about the People of Israel.

2-3 At that time God said to Joshua, “Make stone knives and circumcise the People of Israel a second time.” So Joshua made stone knives and circumcised the People of Israel at Foreskins Hill.

4-7 This is why Joshua conducted the circumcision. All the males who had left Egypt, the soldiers, had died in the wilderness on the journey out of Egypt. All the people who had come out of Egypt, of course, had been circumcised, but all those born in the wilderness along the way since leaving Egypt had not been. The fact is that the People of Israel had walked through that wilderness for forty years until the entire nation died out, all the men of military age who had come out of Egypt but had disobeyed the call of God. God vowed that these would never lay eyes on the land God had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. But their children had replaced them. These are the ones Joshua circumcised. They had never been circumcised; no one had circumcised them along the way.

8 When they had completed the circumcising of the whole nation, they stayed where they were in camp until they were healed.

9 God said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt.” That’s why the place is called The Gilgal. It’s still called that.

* * *

10 The People of Israel continued to camp at The Gilgal. They celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the plains of Jericho.

11-12 Right away, the day after the Passover, they started eating the produce of that country, unraised bread and roasted grain. And then no more manna; the manna stopped. As soon as they started eating food grown in the land, there was no more manna for the People of Israel. That year they ate from the crops of Canaan.

* * *

13 And then this, while Joshua was there near Jericho: He looked up and saw right in front of him a man standing, holding his drawn sword. Joshua stepped up to him and said, “Whose side are you on—ours or our enemies’?”

14 He said, “Neither. I’m commander of God’s army. I’ve just arrived.” Joshua fell, face to the ground, and worshiped. He asked, “What orders does my Master have for his servant?”

15 God’s army commander ordered Joshua, “Take your sandals off your feet. The place you are standing is holy.”

Joshua did it.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Thursday, April 07, 2022

Today's Scripture
Genesis 24:12–20
(NIV)

He prayed, “O God, God of my master Abraham, make things go smoothly this day; treat my master Abraham well! As I stand here by the spring while the young women of the town come out to get water, let the girl to whom I say, ‘Lower your jug and give me a drink,’ and who answers, ‘Drink, and let me also water your camels’—let her be the woman you have picked out for your servant Isaac. Then I’ll know that you’re working graciously behind the scenes for my master.”

15–17     It so happened that the words were barely out of his mouth when Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel whose mother was Milcah the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with a water jug on her shoulder. The girl was stunningly beautiful, a pure virgin. She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came back up. The servant ran to meet her and said, “Please, can I have a sip of water from your jug?”

18–21     She said, “Certainly, drink!” And she held the jug so that he could drink. When he had satisfied his thirst she said, “I’ll get water for your camels, too, until they’ve drunk their fill.” She promptly emptied her jug into the trough and ran back to the well to fill it, and she kept at it until she had watered all the camels.

Insight

Some might believe that the prayer of Abraham’s servant equated to testing God (Genesis 24:12–14). But the servant was in no way trying to manipulate the Almighty. He lived in a thoroughly pagan culture that habitually sought the guidance of false gods and inanimate idols. His prayer indicates a deep abiding faith in the one true God. The servant brought the challenge facing him to God, and He honored that faith. Verse 15 states that “before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder.” Whenever we truly turn to God, He meets us where we are. By: Tim Gustafson

Real Hospitality

Offer hospitality to one another . . . use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
1 Peter 4:9–10

“Kumain ka na ba?” (Have you eaten?)

This is what you’ll always hear as a visitor in many homes in the Philippines, where I’m from. It’s the Filipino way of expressing care and kindness for our guests. And regardless of your reply, your host will always prepare something for you to eat. Filipinos believe that true kindness isn’t just saying the standard greeting but also going beyond words to show real hospitality.

Rebekah too, knew all about being kind. Her daily chores included drawing water from the well outside town and carrying the heavy jar of water home. When Abraham’s servant, who was very thirsty from his journey, asked for a little water from her jar, she didn’t hesitate to give him a drink (Genesis 24:17–18).

But then Rebekah did even more. When she saw that the visitor’s camels were thirsty, she quickly offered to go back to draw more water for them (vv. 19–20).  She didn’t hesitate to help, even if it meant making an extra trip (or more) to the well and back with a heavy jar.

Life is tough for many people, and often a small gesture of practical kindness can encourage them and lift their spirits. Being a channel of God’s love doesn’t always mean delivering a powerful sermon or planting a church. Sometimes, it can simply be giving someone a drink of water. By:  Karen Huang

Reflect & Pray

Who do you know who might need some encouragement? What act of practical kindness can you offer to encourage them?

Heavenly Father, open my eyes to the needs of people around me. Give me the wisdom to know how to show kindness and care to them.

Learn more about the stories in Genesis with Our Daily Bread University's online course.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, April 07, 2022

The Collision of God and Sin

…who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree… —1 Peter 2:24

The Cross of Christ is the revealed truth of God’s judgment on sin. Never associate the idea of martyrdom with the Cross of Christ. It was the supreme triumph, and it shook the very foundations of hell. There is nothing in time or eternity more absolutely certain and irrefutable than what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross— He made it possible for the entire human race to be brought back into a right-standing relationship with God. He made redemption the foundation of human life; that is, He made a way for every person to have fellowship with God.

The Cross was not something that happened to Jesus— He came to die; the Cross was His purpose in coming. He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). The incarnation of Christ would have no meaning without the Cross. Beware of separating “God was manifested in the flesh…” from “…He made Him…to be sin for us…” (1 Timothy 3:16 ; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The purpose of the incarnation was redemption. God came in the flesh to take sin away, not to accomplish something for Himself. The Cross is the central event in time and eternity, and the answer to all the problems of both.

The Cross is not the cross of a man, but the Cross of God, and it can never be fully comprehended through human experience. The Cross is God exhibiting His nature. It is the gate through which any and every individual can enter into oneness with God. But it is not a gate we pass right through; it is one where we abide in the life that is found there.

The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them.  The Place of Help, 1032 L

Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 4-6; Luke 9:1-17

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, April 07, 2022

Someone Else's Fault - #9194

Years ago there was a cowboy hero, and a young boy who thought he was a big deal. The boy was me. And my parents bought me this plate with my hero's picture on it and an inscription that said, "That a boy! You cleaned your plate." I wanted his approval very much, so I just kept cleaning my plate...and filling it so I could clean it again. By the time I was in high school, I weighed 210 pounds. And whose fault was it that I was so heavy? I've told many people - it was the fault of that cowboy hero, of course. Well, at least I wish I could have blamed him.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Someone Else's Fault."

I've always been joking, of course, when I blamed my "clean your plate" hero for my teenage weight problems. But it's no joke that blaming someone else is, for most of us, one of our favorite ways to account for something in our life that shouldn't be there - whether it's a bad attitude, a bad habit, a bad situation, or a bad relationship.

This attempt to dodge the responsibility for our actions is nothing new. Centuries ago, the prophet Nathan was sent by God to confront King David with his sins of adultery and conspiracy to commit murder. David had slept with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his most loyal soldiers, and then arranged for that man's death in battle. When David learned that Bathsheba was pregnant, well, he knew he had a serious problem on his hands and he tried to cover it up. But Nathan approached David with the parable of a rich man who had owned many sheep and a poor man who owned one little lamb. When a traveler came for dinner at the rich man's house, the rich man killed the poor man's one little lamb for dinner. David was enraged at this rich man's outrageous crime, and he angrily said, "The man who did this deserves to die!"

Then Nathan said these four chilling words to the king, "You are the man!" And in 2 Samuel 12:13, our word for today from the Word of God, "David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the Lord.'" That moment of painful honesty was the beginning of David's deep repentance and the restoration of his shattered relationship with God. It took a while, but David finally accepted the responsibility for what he had done. And the healing began that moment.

That's how it will begin for maybe you, someone who's listening right now. As you look at that bad situation, the mess, the problems, you've got two choices - blame someone else or accept your part of the responsibility for that broken or strained relationship, for that negativity, for that conflict, the mess, or the trouble. Many of us hide from taking responsibility for our situation with some kind of a victim copout.

Maybe you've honestly been hurt. You've been wronged, and you can't do anything about the other person taking responsibility for what they've done. But you can accept the responsibility for the way you've handled it,maybe for the wrong things you've tried to excuse by the wrong things someone else did. Those who have been victims - and those who have been victimizers - never get free until they realize that they are now the victims of their own choices, not someone else's.

There's an old spiritual that goes something like this, "Not my brother, not my sister, but it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer." That's a great place to start - looking in the mirror and asking, "Lord, what do I need to change?" Taking responsibility: that's the price of healing and the price of greatness.