Joshua 11:1-12:24, Luke 17:11-37, Psalms 84:1-12, Proverbs 13:5-6
Today is the 15th day of the month of April. I’m Brian, it’s great to be here with you today. I was just thinking, are we in the middle of the month? And I guess we’re about dead center in the middle of the month of April already. So, three and a half months into this journey together and what an adventure, what a joy to be together with you every day around this global campfire that we call home and let God’s word speak to us. So, let’s get to that. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. We’re working our way through the book of Joshua, which of course is the story of what comes after Moses, right? Moses was responsible for leading people out of slavery and Egypt and through the wilderness for more than a generation, bringing them right to the precipice of the of the Jordan River. And then he stepped back and Joshua took leadership and is taking the people into the land of promise and we have been witnessing all of the intriguing conspiracy about that, how different kings would ally themselves and attack Israel and then Israel would defeat them and take the land. And, so, we are moving our way through of the conquest of the promised land. Today Joshua chapter 11 and 12.
Commentary:
Okay. Today we have the story in the gospel of Luke of Jesus moving through the border between Galilee and Samaria. So, Samaria, Samaritans, right, the remnant of the northern kingdom who were…they were not really accepted as Hebrews at all because they were very, very intermixed and we’ve kind of covered that territory before, but the tension between the two camps was and is apparent in the Scriptures. And, so, there’s these ten lepers, they’re not identifying as Hebrew or Samaritan or anything else, they’re just unclean and outcast because they’ve got a degenerative disease and Jesus tells them to go show themselves to the priest, right? And t’s the one, it’s the Samaritan one, it’s the one on the way, who realizes that he’s healed that comes back to talk to Jesus and Jesus asks, “where are the other nine?” And the implications are fairly apparent. It’s a well-known story and yet, I can’t read this well-known story, even though I’ve known this story as long as I can remember. This is a Sunday school story and I grew up in Sunday school. So, this is a flannel board story for sure. I still, even having known this all my life, I’m still struck by why the other nine people would continue forward. Like, they were gonna die from this disease, it was gonna eat them alive, literally waste them away, disfigure them until they were unrecognizable and kill them. So, if you see and you look down and your skin is clean, I mean, on the one hand, I guess you go to the priest and you get declared clean. I guess what maybe picks me a little bit, pricks me little bit about the story is how entitled we can be as believers. We will claim who we are in Christ and we will work on our identity and we will claim and wield our authority and we just expect like, you know, we’ll claim, “I am a child of the most-high God.” And it’s all true. And yes, we are supposed to have that identity. And yes, it’s true nut then we just come to expect God to kind of be the pushover father that just happens to be rich and just really wants…will write the check to keep us from bothering him and so we come to expect this stuff. And, so, easily we can just take and take and take and take and still be dissatisfied, right? Take and take and take the provision of the Lord and it still not be enough and it never is enough, and we’re always dissatisfied and we’re always grumbling to God about what else we need rather than being like the one and looking down and seeing, “hang on a second. I’m clean and I know what filthy feels like inside and out and I’m clean” and just go fall at Jesus feet. We’re clean, we’re not owed something, we’ve received something that is eternal. So, as you go into your day give that some thought. Invite the Holy Spirit into the places that you are overwhelmingly blessed and it’s still not enough and you are ungrateful in spite of it all. And on one level or another that’s probably all of us. Let’s lay that down as we continue through this season of repentance and sitting with what it cost to offer us our salvation as we move toward Easter. Let’s sit with this today.
And then also in the book of Luke today, Jesus kind of drops a bomb. It’s very common, we know it well, but when we sit down and think of the implications it’s pretty huge stuff. Everyone’s asking Jesus about when this kingdom, He keeps talking about when this is gonna happen, when is the kingdom gonna come because they’re looking for this. Like, they are looking for the kingdom of God and they are looking for a messianic leader to usher in the kingdom. And, for them, it’s the restoration of ancient Israel, for them, it’s the reclamation of the land so that they can self-govern and get rid of all the mixture and get the Romans out and try to wash away all the Greek influence in the Hellenistic era that…they want to start over with a Messiah that will lead them back to God and give them their kingdom back. And, so, they are certainly interested in what Jesus is saying because he’s talking about the kingdom of God. And, so, the obvious question is, “okay, you’re saying the right things, when is this going to happen?” And we do kind of wonder the same thing, “when is this gonna finally happen? When’s He gonna show back up? When’s he gonna establish His kingdom upon the earth? When will this happen?” And Jesus answers the question and it should rivet us, it should give us pause. “The kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs. Just let that sink in. Won’t be able to say here it is or it’s over there for the kingdom of God is already among you this let that sink in. If this is the first time you can…it’s becoming apparent. It’s already happening. We are it. It’s already upon the earth. We are the sons and daughters of the most-high God. We have the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead living within us according to the Scriptures. It’s now. The state of the kingdom is in our hands. Is it on earth as it is in heaven? This is our prayer, but this is also our work. So, although we’re contemplating how we can be ungrateful and how we can be entitled toward God and how we should run back to God because we’re clean be like the one, we also must understand as we take that posture of humility before the Savior realizing we are clean and made new that it is onto something, it is for something, it is because we are here to perpetuate the good news and bring the kingdom, reveal it, make it apparent, make it seen. It’s here and we must reveal it and we do that through our lives. So, at some point we have to decide whether we’re gonna to continue this mixture of light and darkness within ourselves. And that’s going to be the story, is our own personal struggle against our own personal darkness is or if we’re gonna surrender to the light utterly so that all that comes from us, all that emits out of us is light and life and good news because we are like our Savior, we have become Christ like in this world. Big thoughts for today, big thoughts as we head into our workweek.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we thank You, we thank You for the rhythm of Your word and how it will just lull us and comfort us and tell us stories that we can see ourselves in and then it will also confront us head on and force us to actually examine what it is we’re doing here and what it is we believe and what it is Your word is telling us is. And, so, Father, we first humble ourselves and come to You as the one. We know what it’s like to be dirty, filthy, diseased, wasting away, dying inside and You washed us clean, You restored us. We are thankful, and our response is to be in this kingdom that no one can say it’s over there or here it is, because it’s already among us. Come Holy Spirit, may we reveal Your kingdom today in this world. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.