{"id":13919,"date":"2021-01-25T21:00:40","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T04:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joshua_22_21-30-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-01-24T16:01:15","modified_gmt":"2021-01-24T23:01:15","slug":"joshua_22-31_23-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joshua_22-31_23-5\/","title":{"rendered":"The Witness of the Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joshua 22:31-23:5 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Joshua 22:31-23:5.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joshua 22:31-34 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, said to Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, “Today we know that the\u00a0LORD\u00a0is with us, because you have not acted unfaithfully toward the\u00a0LORD\u00a0in this matter. Now you have rescued the Israelites from the\u00a0LORD’s hand.”
\n32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, and the leaders returned to Canaan from their meeting with the Reubenites and Gadites in Gilead and reported to the Israelites.
\n33\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They were glad to hear the report and praised God. And they talked no more about going to war against them to devastate the country where the Reubenites and the Gadites lived.
\n34\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And the Reubenites and the Gadites gave the altar this name: A Witness Between Us that the\u00a0LORD\u00a0is God.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 31-34:\u00a0\u00a0Phinehas and the rest of the delegation return and report to the western tribes of Israel what the eastern tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh (collectively, \u201cTeam RGM\u201d) said.\u00a0\u00a0The western tribes are pleased with Team RGM\u2019s response and decide not to go to war against them (v31-33).\u00a0\u00a0The Reubenites and the Gadites call the altar that they had built \u201cA Witness Between Us that the LORD is God\u201d (v34).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0The phrase \u201ca witness between us\u201d appears three times in Joshua 22 to describe the altar built by Team RGM.\u00a0\u00a0Just as the altar was a witness between Team RGM and the rest of the Israelites \u201cthat the Lord is God\u201d (v34), so I am reminded that\u00a0the cross is a witness between heaven and earth, between God and mankind, that the Lord is God, that God loves every person in this world so much that He gave His one and only Son Jesus Christ for us<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Other faiths will point to ideas and philosophical concepts.\u00a0\u00a0But in Christianity, what we point to is an actual moment in history when God used a cross as a witness between us and Him to speak of His tremendous love, grace and mercy toward us.\u00a0\u00a0The cross where Jesus died is the greatest witness between us and God of God\u2019s heart for this world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joshua 23:1-5 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0After a long time had passed and the\u00a0LORD\u00a0had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then old and well advanced in years,
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0summoned all Israel–their elders, leaders, judges and officials–and said to them: “I am old and well advanced in years.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You yourselves have seen everything the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God who fought for you.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain–the nations I conquered–between the Jordan and the Great Sea in the west.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God himself will drive them out of your way. He will push them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God promised you.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-5:\u00a0\u00a0Joshua had led the Israelites in entering the promised land, conquering it, and allotting the various parts of it to the tribes of Israel.\u00a0\u00a0God had used Joshua in tremendous ways to help the Israelites step into their God-given destiny.\u00a0\u00a0Now that Joshua is \u201cold and well advanced in years\u201d (v1) and knows that his days are numbered, Joshua acknowledges the fact that the Israelites have still not taken full possession of the promised land, and that there are still some other nations living in the promised land that need to be driven out.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In verse 5 Joshua says that \u201cThe\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God himself will drive them out of your way. He will push them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God promised you.\u201d<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0The entire work that God is doing and the entire story that God is writing will not accomplished by any one person or any one leader.\u00a0\u00a0Your leaders, even the greatest ones, will come and eventually go, but God will never leave you or forsake you and is faithful to complete the work He is doing in your life (see Philippians 1:6).\u00a0\u00a0He Himself will do it, through means or another.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You for the cross, the greatest witness between us and You of Your great love for us.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You that even when leaders come and go You will never leave and You will be faithful to complete the good work You started in us.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Joshua 22:31-23:5.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joshua 22:31-34 (NIV)\u00a0
\n31\u00a0\u00a0And Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, said to Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, “Today we know that the\u00a0LORD\u00a0is with us, because you have not acted unfaithfully toward the\u00a0LORD\u00a0in this matter. Now you have rescued the Israelites from the\u00a0LORD’s hand.”\u00a0
\n32\u00a0\u00a0Then Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, and the leaders returned to Canaan from their meeting with the Reubenites and Gadites in Gilead and reported to the Israelites.\u00a0
\n33\u00a0\u00a0They were glad to hear the report and praised God. And they talked no more about going to war against them to devastate the country where the Reubenites and the Gadites lived.\u00a0
\n34\u00a0\u00a0And the Reubenites and the Gadites gave the altar this name: A Witness Between Us that the\u00a0LORD\u00a0is God.<\/p>\n

On verses 31-34:\u00a0\u00a0Phinehas and the rest of the delegation return and report to the western tribes of Israel what the eastern tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh (collectively, \u201cTeam RGM\u201d) said.\u00a0\u00a0The western tribes are pleased with Team RGM\u2019s response and decide not to go to war against them (v31-33).\u00a0\u00a0The Reubenites and the Gadites call the altar that they had built \u201cA Witness Between Us that the LORD is God\u201d (v34).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13919"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13920,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13919\/revisions\/13920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}