Triple digits, what an amazing feeling this is. I know for a fact that this is absolutely a great habit now. It is hard to skip a day and not feel bad about it. Way to go everyone following along.
Joshua 13 really did not give me much. We read over the land that was distributed to some of the clans by Moses. We also find out that Joshua is now old and still has lands to conquer in the promised land.
Joshua 14 tells us about the land given to Caleb. Caleb was one of the spies that Moses ordered into the promised land to see what all it held. He is the only other one besides Joshua that told the truth of what they had seen. He is now asking for the land that Moses had promised him. Joshua holds up what the Lord and Moses had commanded and gave him his share of the promised land.
Joshua 15 has a lot going on in it. We read about the land given to the tribe of Judah. Just from the reading their land sounds like it is a very large quantity of land. We also see very quickly a glimpse of a few more battles that took place. Caleb even offered his daughter as a prize for one of those battles. I could never imagine offering my daughter as a prize. I mean really where is love in that type of relationship. He is setting her up for disappointment in my opinion.
Our last portion of Luke 10 gives us a very familiar parable. The parable of the good Samaritan. In this parable Jesus is trying to teach to an expert of the law. This expert stood up in the group and proceeded to ask Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him what the law said and the expert promptly replied with the correct answer. By now I hope that we all know what those laws are. They are "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' and 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Luke 10:27) Now, this so called expert wants a little further clarification on who exactly is his neighbor. Jesus answers him by telling the story of the Samaritan. One thing of note that you should know going into this story is that the injured man and the Samaritan were of two different clans. These clans despised each other. In this particular story though the Samaritan took mercy on this injured man. Why, I really could not say. All I can say is that he was doing what was right by the Lord. He helped this injured man and even took steps to keep him well until he was completely healed. How often can we say that we did something of that nature? Many of us in today's society go about our own business and do not attempt to help anyone else out unless it can get us ahead. Well, guess what? Helping anyone and everyone out will get us ahead. Jesus asked us to help others and in doing so we are helping Him. Please note our previous reading in Matthew 25:31 - 46 about that. Jesus then told him the expert that he should go and act as the Samaritan had acted. Showing compassion and mercy to every one, friend or enemy. The last short portion of this chapter holds a very profound message. We see Jesus entering into a house and two women choose two very different routes. Martha the lady of the house begins to make preparations for her guest while her sister Mary sits at Jesus' feet and hangs on every word that he says. This upsets Martha and she tells Jesus about it. Jesus calmly replies to her that Mary has made the better choice. I am sure that this did not go over well with Martha. I can just picture her throwing a little temper tantrum and stomping out of the room. What does this little section of reading really tell us. It tells us that we should be hanging on every word that God has said. God put Jesus here on Earth to teach and we should be clinging to those words and worrying about nothing else. Is Jesus going to allow you to enter Heaven because you cooked him a meal and did not listen to his teachings or because you set, listened, took to heart and went out and shared all of those things that He taught? I do not think it will be the first option, if it was it would be extremely easy to get to Heaven.
Tomorrow's reading is:
Joshua 16, 17, 18 and Luke 11:1 - 28
13. When I read the part about Joshua being old I figured he would die in this chapter.
ReplyDelete14. I thought it was interesting that the Lord had not only kept Caleb alive to receive his land, but had also maintained his strength so he was still like a young man.
15. I thought the part were Caleb's daughter asks him for a present was kind of funny. You get the impression she wasn't real happy about being offered as a prize and now she's going to dig at her dad a little bit.
10. Is it sad that my point of reference for the Bible is often Veggie tales movies. The Good Samaritan parable is the story of Flibber-o-loo. As always I'm looking on the other side of things, I feel bad for Martha. I understand the story and I get and agree with what Jesus is saying, but if Jesus came to you house what would you do? We are driven by a sense of hospitality, especially when we have a revered guest. I think that Martha was trying to show her love to Jesus by making him a comfortable guest in her home. She made the mistake of being more concerned with what she had to offer Jesus then what Jesus had to offer her. A mistake for sure, but now she has to be remembered for it forever, when all she was trying to do was make sure that this Guest that she dearly loved was well cared for.