Joshua 6 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: No More Curtain - April 8, 2022

On Calvary’s Hill Jesus cried out in a loud voice and died. Then the curtain in the Temple was torn into two pieces, from the top to the bottom. What did fifteen-hundred years of a curtain-draped Holy of Holies communicate?  Simple—God is holy!

God is holy, separate from us and unapproachable. Even Moses was told, “You cannot see my face because no one can see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). God is holy and we are sinners, and there’s a distance between us. But Jesus hasn’t left us with an unapproachable God. “There is one God and one mediator between God and men; the man, Jesus Christ” (1 Timothy 2:5).

When Jesus’ flesh was torn on the cross, the curtain was torn in two. With no hesitation we are welcome into God’s presence—any day, any time. The barrier of sin is down. No more curtain.

Joshua 6

Jericho

Jericho was shut up tight as a drum because of the People of Israel: no one going in, no one coming out.

2-5 God spoke to Joshua, “Look sharp now. I’ve already given Jericho to you, along with its king and its elite forces. Here’s what you are to do: March around the city, all your soldiers. Circle the city once. Repeat this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven ram’s horn trumpets in front of the Chest. On the seventh day march around the city seven times, the priests blowing away on the trumpets. And then, a long blast on the ram’s horn—when you hear that, all the people are to shout at the top of their lungs. The city wall will collapse at once. All the people are to enter, every man straight on in.”

6 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and told them, “Take up the Chest of the Covenant. Seven priests are to carry seven ram’s horn trumpets leading God’s Chest.”

7 Then he told the people, “Set out! March around the city. Have the armed guard march before the Chest of God.”

8-9 And it happened. Joshua spoke, the people moved: Seven priests with their seven ram’s horn trumpets set out before God. They blew the trumpets, leading God’s Chest of the Covenant. The armed guard marched ahead of the trumpet-blowing priests; the rear guard was marching after the Chest, marching and blowing their trumpets.

10 Joshua had given orders to the people, “Don’t shout. In fact, don’t even speak—not so much as a whisper until you hear me say, ‘Shout!’—then shout away!”

11-13 He sent the Chest of God on its way around the city. It circled once, came back to camp, and stayed for the night. Joshua was up early the next morning and the priests took up the Chest of God. The seven priests carrying the seven ram’s horn trumpets marched before the Chest of God, marching and blowing the trumpets, with the armed guard marching before and the rear guard marching after. Marching and blowing of trumpets!

14 On the second day they again circled the city once and returned to camp. They did this six days.

15-17 When the seventh day came, they got up early and marched around the city this same way but seven times—yes, this day they circled the city seven times. On the seventh time around the priests blew the trumpets and Joshua signaled the people, “Shout!—God has given you the city! The city and everything in it is under a holy curse and offered up to God.

“Except for Rahab the harlot—she is to live, she and everyone in her house with her, because she hid the agents we sent.

18-19 “As for you, watch yourselves in the city under holy curse. Be careful that you don’t covet anything in it and take something that’s cursed, endangering the camp of Israel with the curse and making trouble for everyone. All silver and gold, all vessels of bronze and iron are holy to God. Put them in God’s treasury.”

20 The priests blew the trumpets.

When the people heard the blast of the trumpets, they gave a thunderclap shout. The wall fell at once. The people rushed straight into the city and took it.

21 They put everything in the city under the holy curse, killing man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey.

22-24 Joshua ordered the two men who had spied out the land, “Enter the house of the harlot and rescue the woman and everyone connected with her, just as you promised her.” So the young spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, and brothers—everyone connected with her. They got the whole family out and gave them a place outside the camp of Israel. But they burned down the city and everything in it, except for the gold and silver and the bronze and iron vessels—all that they put in the treasury of God’s house.

25 But Joshua let Rahab the harlot live—Rahab and her father’s household and everyone connected to her. She is still alive and well in Israel because she hid the agents whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

26 Joshua swore a solemn oath at that time:

Cursed before God is the man
    who sets out to rebuild this city Jericho.
He’ll pay for the foundation with his firstborn son,
    he’ll pay for the gates with his youngest son.

27 God was with Joshua. He became famous all over the land.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Friday, April 08, 2022

Today's Scripture
Psalm 27:1–6
(NIV)

27 Light, space, zest—

that’s God!

So, with him on my side I’m fearless,

afraid of no one and nothing.

2     When vandal hordes ride down

ready to eat me alive,

Those bullies and toughs

fall flat on their faces.

3     When besieged,

I’m calm as a baby.

When all hell breaks loose,

I’m collected and cool.

4     I’m asking God for one thing,

only one thing:

To live with him in his house

my whole life long.

I’ll contemplate his beauty;

I’ll study at his feet.

5     That’s the only quiet, secure place

in a noisy world,

The perfect getaway,

far from the buzz of traffic.

6     God holds me head and shoulders

above all who try to pull me down.

I’m headed for his place to offer anthems

that will raise the roof!

Already I’m singing God-songs;

I’m making music to God.

Insight

Some of David’s expressions of courage might leave the impression that he lived with the confidence that no harm or evil could touch him. Yet many of his songs, including Psalm 27, suggest that he knew what it meant to fear and tremble in the presence of his enemies (10:1; 13:1; 22:1–2). So David’s point is not that he’s never desperately afraid. Rather, despite his fears, he acknowledges that his strength and hope are in God (27:9–14). Time after time, he senses enough danger to pray, “You have always been my helper. Don’t leave me now; don’t abandon me, O God of my salvation!” (v. 9 nlt). Because he knows that his enemies are still a force to be reckoned with, he reminds himself to “be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (v. 14). By: Mart DeHaan

Permanent Address

One thing I ask from the Lord . . . that I may dwell in the house of the Lord.
Psalm 27:4

Not long ago we moved to a new home just a short distance from our old one. Despite the close proximity, we still needed to load all of our belongings onto a moving truck because of the timing of the financial transactions. Between the sale and purchase, our furnishings stayed on the truck and our family found temporary lodging. During that time, I was surprised to discover how “at home” I felt despite the displacement from our physical home—simply because I was with those I love most: my family.

For part of his life, David lacked a physical home. He lived life on the run from King Saul. As David was God’s appointed successor to the throne, Saul perceived him as a threat and sought to kill him. David fled his home and slept wherever he found shelter. Though he had companions with him, David’s most earnest desire was to “dwell in the house of the Lord”—to enjoy permanent fellowship with Him (Psalm 27:4).

Jesus is our constant companion, our sense of “home” no matter where we are. He’s with us in our present troubles and even prepares a place for us to live with Him forever (John 14:3). Despite the uncertainty and change we might experience as citizens of this earth, we can dwell permanently in our fellowship with Him every day and everywhere. By:  Kirsten Holmberg

Reflect & Pray

When have you felt most at home in God’s presence? How can you know that Jesus is your constant companion and that He’s always with you regardless of where you are and what you’re going through?

Loving God, I thank You for being my permanent address. Help me to recognize You as my most faithful companion who’s with me wherever I go.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, April 08, 2022

His Resurrection Destiny

Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? —Luke 24:26

Our Lord’s Cross is the gateway into His life. His resurrection means that He has the power to convey His life to me. When I was born again, I received the very life of the risen Lord from Jesus Himself.

Christ’s resurrection destiny— His foreordained purpose— was to bring “many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). The fulfilling of His destiny gives Him the right to make us sons and daughters of God. We never have exactly the same relationship to God that the Son of God has, but we are brought by the Son into the relation of sonship. When our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new life— a life He had never lived before He was God Incarnate. He rose to a life that had never been before. And what His resurrection means for us is that we are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we will have a body like His glorious body, but we can know here and now the power and effectiveness of His resurrection and can “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Paul’s determined purpose was to “know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10).

Jesus prayed, “…as You have given Him authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him” (John 17:2). The term Holy Spirit is actually another name for the experience of eternal life working in human beings here and now. The Holy Spirit is the deity of God who continues to apply the power of the atonement by the Cross of Christ to our lives. Thank God for the glorious and majestic truth that His Spirit can work the very nature of Jesus into us, if we will only obey Him.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy.  Shade of His Hand, 1223 L

Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 10-12; Luke 9:37-62

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, April 08, 2022
The Light in Your Night - #9195

We had rented this nice cabin in the mountains, and we really didn't want to leave it much. The view across the valley was like a painting. It would change as the sun changed and the weather changed; all kinds of moods, you know, like you see in the mountains.

I had looked at the mountain across the valley from us many times, but I finally took a good look in that direction at night. That's when I saw it - the cross. There was a lighted cross on top of the mountain, glowing in the night from a vantage point where it could be seen all around. Actually, that cross is there all the time but you don't really see it until it's dark.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Light in Your Night."

You know, for many of us, the greatest discovery of our lives came when it was night; one of those dark times that we all go through in our life. A lot of people have learned that when it's night, you can see the cross, often for the first time in your life.

The cross - that awful place where Jesus was brutally crucified - turns out to be the ultimate proof of how much God loves you and me. If it's sacrifice that proves love, then we don't ever have to wonder how God feels about us. God the Father gave up God the Son to absorb the guilt and the hell for every wrong thing you and I have ever done. There's never been a greater sacrifice. There's never been a greater love.

But we can know about what happened on that cross. We can be around it for years and still miss that forgiveness, that love, even the heaven that Jesus died to give us. Maybe you've been kind of skirting the issue of dealing with Jesus personally. Maybe you feel someone's been pressuring you about Jesus, and that's just made you resist Him even more. Maybe it's pride that's kept you from having a life-changing encounter at the cross, or it could even be your Christianity, because you've had so much Christianity you thought you had Christ.

It's easy to go very busily about the routines of your life and never really see that cross until...it's suddenly night time. Something happens to your health, to your family, to your job, whatever you've counted on for security. And none of your answers, none of your fixes are enough. That's when a lot of people look up and finally see the cross, shining there in the night, showing them where hope is.

In John 12:32-33, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus said, "'When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to Myself.' He said this to show the kind of death He was going to die.'" See, that was it - lifted up to die on a cross. But there would be a magnet in that old hunk of wood; a magnet that would draw the people He died for right to His side. It sure did that for me.

Which is exactly why you might be feeling that tug in your heart right now. Jesus is drawing you to come to the cross, to give yourself to Him; to find what you've spent your whole life looking for. All those religious hang-ups, all those lame arguments, all the proud resistance, all the spiritual pride that just drops to the ground at the foot of His cross and you finally belong to the One you were made for.

If you've been doing it without Jesus all these years, for whatever reason, and you want this to be the day you finally experience Him for yourself, would you tell Him that right where you are, "Lord, I turn from the running of my own life. I am pinning all my hopes on You because You died for me, and You walked out of your grave so you could walk into my life and I want you to today."

If that's what you want, I think our website is a good place for you to go right now. Because that's where I've laid out in a very simple and non-religious way exactly what the Bible says about how to be sure you belong to Jesus, and how you can know that every sin of your life's been forgiven; how you can know for sure you're going to heaven. I hope you'll check it out. It's ANewStory.com.

Look, maybe it's night right now, not because God doesn't love you, but because He does. He doesn't want to lose you. His cross shines very brightly in your night.

Once you meet Him there, it will never be night in your soul again.