2 Kings 7

Samaria, the capital of the northern section of Israel, was facing a severe crisis brought about by the powerful Syrian army. These adversaries to the east were preventing necessary supplies from entering the city. The king of Israel was distressed and angry. His wrath was directed toward Almighty God and the Lord's prophetic ambassador, Elisha. The king was convinced that this trouble had come from the Lord. Rather than humble himself before the Word of God, the king had committed his government to the goal of murdering Elisha.

The prophecy that came forth from Elisha would have been received as very good news if the king had been willing to receive it. Within one day the famine would be over. Yet even when the king heard a report from four lepers that the Syrians had unexpectedly withdrawn, he did not believe it.

God had worked miraculously to send the Syrians running home in fear. It was the Lord's good pleasure to use four weak and despised witnesses to bring the news back to the king and to the city. These lepers were not at first inclined to share the word of sudden prosperity with their neighbors. They thought only of their good fortune, taking steps to secretly amass as much as they could for themselves.

Thankfully for all those in the city who were starving to death, the consciences of these four men began to be troubled. Their words were very powerful: “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king's household.”

Eventually the king was forced to admit that Elisha had been right in all that he had said. It was a day of good news for the entire city, though one man died in the mad rush of a hungry populace. Even that tragic detail had been foretold by the Lord's prophet.

In this world we do have tribulation. Even the Lord's church faces suffering and persecution. Yet God will rescue us from every evil deed and bring us safely into His heavenly kingdom. (2 Timothy 4:18)

The Lord's providence in our lives does not always feel like great victory. Sometimes He works all things together for His glory and our good in such a way that we might wrongly conclude that He has abandoned and forsaken us. The cross reminds us that this cannot be the case.

One day we will see with our eyes the great rescue that God has provided for us. Until that day, we have the great privilege of announcing to the world that even today is a day of good news.

To keep the news of Christ to ourselves would be poor form. We have the deposit of the Spirit of heaven within us now. The Redeemer has died for us and risen from the dead. The church is bringing a message of eternal salvation to millions all over the world.

Let us join the Apostle Paul in saying, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel.” Let us go forth in the power of our strong Deliverer and bring good news to all who will hear. The Lord has provided food for the hungry that will satisfy our bodies and souls forever. How can we keep the news of this great bounty to ourselves?

2 Kings 6

How could the story of a borrowed ax be worthy of God's concern? Yet the Almighty cares about us. Even the hairs on our heads are numbered. The Lord uses His servant Elisha to recover the borrowed tool, just as Jesus would one day recover tax money for Peter from the mouth of a fish.

This God who is not ashamed to come to our aid in what may seem to be very small earthly matters is the God of heaven and earth. He has angels at His command who do His bidding. Therefore we do not need to be afraid regarding the powers of this world.

The rulers of this world who do not acknowledge the true God will always underestimate His power to save His servants. They suppose that their own use of overwhelming force will surely win the day for their agenda, but God has means at His disposal that they do not consider.

The God who cares about our loss of even a borrowed ax can call forth angelic chariots and horsemen. He can humble the proudest foe without a drop of sweat. He is on our side, but before we get proud or presumptuous, we must remember that He is first on His own holy side. He is in His heavens and He does all that pleases Him. It just so happens that it pleases Him to give His elect the kingdom as joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.

With such a great God showering us with His powerful love, we need not seek vengeance against those who hate us. As Elisha directed the people of Israel in his day, we can bring them food and drink and send them on their way. No weapon formed against us will prosper.

But will we wait for the Lord when we face the substantial challenges of this fallen world? We remember the miracle of the axehead and laugh, but will we find the courage and faith to smile when there is no food remaining in the city?

The Lord is well aware of the difficulties that we face, large and small. No one can hold back His hand. Nothing can stop His will.

We measure how reasonable faith is in the face of affliction based on our own strength and the size of the trouble before us. God looks to His own character and remembers the blood of His Son. His way of considering the facts is better.

Deuteronomy 8

God had promised Israel the blessings of a virtual heaven on earth if the nation would obey His voice. While the Lord had revealed Himself as merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, this did not mean that He would be satisfied with partial obedience. “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers.”

God led Israel through the wilderness for these many years, providing daily bread from heaven. But man does not live by bread alone. The nation needed to pay close attention to the voice of the Lord, hearing and obeying every Word that came from the mouth of God.

For Israel to ignore the voice of the Lord would be to forget God. The Lord warned His people about this danger, a danger that they would particularly face in any future days of prosperity. It would be very tempting for God's people to come to this incorrect conclusion: “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.”

The consequences of this national sin would be dire: “If you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

This voice of God in the Law of Moses came with a promise of blessing for obedience, but also with a solemn warning of curse for disobedience. How could any nation of sinful and weak people keep the whole Law of God in this fallen world?

There could be no doubt that Israel would need a Redeemer. This Savior did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. He kept the whole Law of God, even the eternal covenant between the Father and the Son that commanded the obedience and love of the cross.

This Savior had such a full obedience that He had the power of an indestructible life. He rose from the dead, and He lives forever to intercede for us.

We now have a better word than the Law. The Law could only bring life to the one who wholly obeyed all the commandments. We have a healing word from a great Physician who brings life to those who were dead in sin. We have the word of His good news: “Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6)

Deuteronomy 7

The Lord, the God of Israel, was bringing His people into the land that He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants forever. By His command they were to take possession of it.

But there were people already living in that land. God promised to clear away many nations before the Israelites, nations that were more numerous and more powerful than the descendents of Jacob.

God would give these nations over to Israel. Israel was told to defeat and to destroy them. This was the judgment of God upon the Canaanites. Israel was the Lord's agent to bring about what He had determined to do.

We may not like the directive that God gave to His conquest people. Yet we should acknowledge that God is the Lord Almighty. He raises up kingdoms and shatters them. He brings desolations upon the earth, and He will bring peace, exalting His holy Name all over the world. See Psalm 46:8-11. His command to destroy these nations was an expression of His much more extensive power over all of life and death. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Who can stand against Him? He is the Lord. He has a purpose in His mercies and in His judgments. He will glorify His Name throughout the earth.

Why did the Canaanites have to go? God was setting up the land and the nation of Immanuel, God with us. The Messiah would come from Israel. Israel was to be a distinct people, following the Law of God. They could not have a mixed system of faith and life with the people groups in Canaan. They were to sweep them away from this small land in preparation for the coming of the One Answer for all the nations of the earth. Israel was to kill now, but Israel's divine Messiah would one day be killed in this land, not just for Israel, but for the world.

The conquest is more than many can take, though it is only a small portion of the judgment of God against mankind for sin. Many also reject the message of the cross, where the innocent Christ dies for the guilty. Both conquest and cross would come not by popular demand, but according to the eternal purpose of Almighty God, who is is determined to bring peace on earth. Yet before heaven and earth are together in permanent grace and holiness, there will be a day of judgment for mankind.

Israel could not just blend into the world of the Canaanites, intermarrying, bowing down to their idols, following their religious and moral customs. The people of the world's Messiah were to be holy to the Lord, His chosen people.

Israel was not chosen because they were great. They would be great because they were chosen. The love and covenant faithfulness of God always comes first. He brings blessing, even to a thousand generations. But would Israel obey Him?

Christ came as the true obedient Israel. Thousands of generations are blessed in Him. Those who violate His commandments merit his hatred and the destruction that is expressed in the conquest. But on the cross, the Son of God faced the judgment of conquest for His people. To walk away from Christ and the cross is to lose all rational basis for eternal blessing from the Almighty. Christ is the one atoning sacrifice for us.

God had many purposes for Israel. He gave them a great opportunity to obey and be blessed. If they would obey the Lord, they would have great bounty. But if they coveted the silver and gold on Canaanite idols they would be ensnared in the destruction that had come upon those people groups. They did not need to fear the Canaanites. But they did need to fear the Lord and to follow His commandments.

The Lord does not come to us to learn what is right. He is the Almighty One. There is no one good but Him. The conquest of Canaan, the destruction of the Canaanites, the eradication of Canaanite religion; these were all to be accomplished through His direction. Yet salvation for the earth would not come from this conquest. Many generations later, Jesus would die for us. The message of His death and resurrection has become good news all over the world.

Deuteronomy 6

Israel did not choose the nature of the arrangement that the nation had with God. The Lord gave the Law through Moses, and He commanded that His people obey in order to keep right standing with Him in the land.

But many years prior to the giving of the Law, God gave Abraham what Scripture called, “the promise.” The Law did not annul the merciful promise of God. That promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The Law came through Moses, but the fulfillment of God's promise of grace came through Jesus Christ.

Because of Israel's sin, the Law of Moses could not bring life. Only the voice of Christ, calling into being what once was not, could revive us. This miracle of resurrection life could only come from God. We, who hear His voice calling us in the Word, need to believe, and to follow. This is a very different arrangement than “do and live.”

Israel had the Law, but they also had the promise. And from Israel, the Christ would come. He would speak, and the dead would receive life.

The Law was never a mere outward system of ceremonial observance. God commanded the complete obedience of His people, the fullness of love for Him. This is what the Messiah accomplished.

God is one, but this one God is complex, without sacrificing His oneness. This complexity allowed for God to be with God, and for God to come from God to satisfy the demands of God on our behalf. Without this complexity, there could be no salvation. Without the Son of God coming, we would be left with a do and live system, which can only yield death for those who lack perfect obedience; death for Israel under Moses, death for any generations that would follow, and for any others who would bind themselves to the God of Jacob through the Law.

The commitment to obey perfectly may sound possible if we do not understand the fullness of love that God requires and if we have not yet faced the depth of testing that would reveal our faults. For those who have been caught accommodating the idolatrous impulses of our sinful nature, the just anger against us is an insurmountable obstacle. We need a Savior to come. We need to hear His voice, a voice that is something more than the Law of Moses.

The Lord demonstrated our failure to win right standing through Law more than once. Beginning with Adam's fall, we have had repeated opportunities to walk before God and to be blameless. Until Jesus came and worked out the fullness of love on the cross, no man was found who passed the Lord's test.

We need the Redeemer who rescued Israel out of bondage to come for us and to save us. Over many centuries, the inability of the Lord's beloved people to remain with Him based on a do and live covenant was amply displayed. The gift of Jesus Christ takes us beyond the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, beyond the golden calf, beyond the failure of Moses himself to enter the promised land, and beyond generation after generation of idolatry and disobedience. His powerful saving voice of obedience and love is our only secure hope.

Deuteronomy 5

Israel was to hear the Law and then to do the commandments of God in order to live. We have found “do and live” to be death for us because of our sin.

This does not mean that we can replace “do and live” with “do what you want.” Licentiousness will not be freedom for us, but a slavery worse than the bondage in Egypt was for the Israelites.

We need to hear the voice of the Son of God calling us to a new resurrection life. Hearing His voice, we come to life, and we follow Him. If we follow Him by the gift of the Holy Spirit, we will have the fruit of the Spirit in increasing measure, and there is no law against the fruit of the Spirit. This is how we will “do.” If we dedicate ourselves to “do and live” we will die. If we dedicate ourselves to “do what you want” we will only be conformed to the pattern of this world. But if we hear the voice of Jesus who raised Lazarus from the grave, then we will live, and even do, by the work of the Spirit who teaches us to follow Christ and to keep the law of love.

Knowing this, we use the law, not as a way to life, but to hear of our need for the voice of Christ. Our Redeemer loved the Law of God and kept the Law for us. He alone accomplished the “do and live” paradigm for our sake. Now we hear Him and rise from the grave of hopelessness, sin, and death.

He heard the Law of His Father, even all the way to the cross. He knew His Father's will to deliver us from bondage, and He accomplished that will with the fullness of divine love.

Consider how well Jesus obeyed the ten commandments:

1. He knew and perfectly followed the One God.

2. Idols had no hold on Him. He knew His Father, and heaven was His home.

3. He loved the Name of the Almighty, though those who claimed to be law-keepers dishonored His Name. He kept the Name of His Father in His heart with the perfection of the most earnest filial obedience.

4. He made a way for us to enter an eternal Sabbath rest. He became our Sabbath. When the law was first given in Exodus 20, remembering the Sabbath was grounded in God's work of creation, for God rested on the seventh day. In the second giving of the Commandments in this chapter, that rest was grounded upon God's mighty work of redemption and the mercy that we need toward those who are still enslaved. Christ has worked out our redemption, and now we are free. We begin our weekly life with His Word to us that calls us to rest in His resurrection. Then our works proceed every week from the power of His redemption and calling.

5. He obeyed His earthly parents, but much more than this, He heard the voice of His Father from heaven. He said what His Father told Him to say. He did what His Father told Him to do.

6. He was far from murder. He had the words of life.

7. He kept Himself from all adultery. He died for His bride, the church, composed of Jew and Gentile. His cross was the fullness of a husband's faithfulness and love.

8. He did not steal. He gave instead. He who had the riches of heaven for our sake became poor, that in Him we might have an eternal inheritance.

9. He gave a true witness with His life. In everything that He said and did, He was the true Word.

10. He did not covet. Nothing that this world has to offer could turn Him away from His eternal purpose.

We have violated every commandment, in thought, word, and action. But Christ has obeyed for us, and then He died to pay our debt.

Now we hear His voice and live. We do not come to Mount Sinai any more, that frightening place where we lost all hope in ourselves. We come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the company of myriads of angels, to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Our inheritance is safe in heaven, and with Jesus, we shall inherit the earth.

2 Kings 5

In Luke 4:27, when Jesus was rejected in His hometown of Nazareth, He said, “There were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” The cleansing of Naaman was an occasion to consider the merciful plan of God to bring His life-changing love to the nations.

The king of Israel had no sense of this moment. He saw the letter from the king of Syria requesting healing for Naaman as a provocation. He said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.”

This request for healing had not originated with Naaman or with the king of Syria, but with a little servant girl from Israel who had been carried off to Syria in a raid against Israel! This girl saw the need of Naaman and believed that the God of Israel, working through His prophet Elisha, could bring healing to this valiant enemy commander.

The faith of the little girl touched her mistress, Naaman's wife, and then touched Naaman, reaching even the ears of the king who wrote the letter to the king of Israel. The king of Israel was not able to receive these events in faith but only in fear. He could not see that the true God was working personally through various people who cared for each other. God was making His power and His being known through the people He chose to use.

When Elisha heard about the panic and despair of the king of Israel, he understood how the Lord was working. Elisha was used to confront the king of Israel and to heal in a way that greatly surprised Naaman. Once again, Naaman's servants played a very important role in the Lord's display of power. They convinced Naaman that God might work in ways that the commander had not anticipated. Naaman needed to submit to Elisha's instruction. “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”

Naaman was cleansed, though not in the way that he had imagined the miracle would happen. He was not only delivered from leprosy. He was changed spiritually. He knew that the God of Israel was the only God, and he was determined that he would only worship Him for the rest of his life.

Naaman wanted to bestow riches on Elisha. Here again, the prophet understood the moment. This was not a time for the Lord's servants to get rich by telling lies. It was a day for God's people to testify to the truth and to give without receiving.

It was also a day to record a testimony that would be further understood in a future generation. When Messiah came, He would add the final commentary to this amazing episode. This healing of a Syrian was a sign that God's powerful kingdom love would be rejected by the faithless in Israel but would be extended even beyond the borders of Israel to those who would believe and be cleansed.

Sadly, Gehazi, Elisha's servant, could not see the wisdom in declining Naaman's generosity. The result was that he received Naaman's disease.

How are we to know God? How are we to experience Him? Do we see that He calls us to hear and believe, and that He loves to work through the weak? The Lord knows that His servants cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve God and also look for evil gain. We must see what God's purpose is in Jesus Christ, and especially in His cross and resurrection. We must find our place in His unchanging eternal counsel.

When we do, we will begin to see that God gives His instructions to us through His authoritative Word revealed in community. We are to be with one another, together considering the times, and waiting for the voice of God in the Scriptures. The Lord knows how to lead us. He opposes the proud and the greedy, but He gives grace to the humble.

2 Kings 4

Sin came into the world through one man, and with sin came death and misery. All of the people groups that have lived on the face of the earth have felt the sting of poverty, barrenness, disease, and grief. But God, who is rich in mercy, was not content to leave the world in this state of brokenness.

In the days of Elijah and Elisha, He gave powerful testimony to His own healing plan. There were many people in great need in that day who did not see God's miracles at work. But some few got a glimpse of a better era that would come into the world through Jesus Christ.

When Jesus came to Israel preaching and teaching the kingdom of God, His message was accompanied by heavenly signs. These signs, reminiscent of the miracles of Elijah and Elisha, testified to a coming kingdom consummation when the blessings of heaven would be revealed fully upon the earth.

In this world we have tribulation. Weak people face grinding poverty. Parents lose their children. Scarcity and misery bring much sorrow upon whole communities. But God has overcome the power of sin through His Son.

Elisha gave oil to a needy woman. He gave healthy and plentiful food to the hungry. He raised the dead.

Jesus, the Son of God, performed even greater signs. He fed thousands with just a few loaves, and turned water into wine. He repeatedly healed the sick. He even raised a man who had been in the grave for four days.

But Jesus was more than a prophetic miracle worker. He is the Bread of Life. He is the Resurrection and the Life.

Like the miracles of Elisha, Jesus' great works were a sign of the ultimate victory of heaven. But far better still, in Jesus' resurrection the kingdom of heaven has come.

When the Lord returns with the fullness of heaven and earth, death shall be no more. Neither shall their be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things will have completely passed away.

At present we live in that time between the inauguration of the kingdom of God and the fullness of that kingdom coming. God still answers prayer from heaven, and even sends His Spirit upon millions, bringing life to the dead through the preaching of the gospel. Yet the poor are with us, and we mourn the loss of those we love. But now, because of our Redeemer, our hope for a glorious kingdom of resurrection fruitfulness has been perfectly secured.

Today is a day of faith. Trusting in Jesus, we persevere even in poverty and trial with a measure of the joy of the Lord. As Jesus wept at the death of His friend, we also weep. But we commit our loved ones to the earth with the sure hope of the coming day of the consummation of the glorious kingdom of Christ.

2 Kings 3

While the next son of Ahab to reign over Israel was better than his father and brother who reigned before him, he was still judged by God to be an evil king. The pattern of false worship that began with Jeroboam continued to the next generation of the northern tribes.

The international affairs of Israel became an opportunity for the king and the people to either seek the Lord or to ignore Him. The crisis before Israel involved the nation of Moab. The king of Israel sought an alliance with brothers to the south in Judah and with the neighboring nation of Edom.

Jehoshaphat was king of Judah at this time, and in the face of the distress that this alliance of three nations faced, he sought a prophet of the Lord who might lead them in hope. The king of Israel had concluded that the Lord had brought them to a place with no water in order to give them all into the hand of Moab. The true Word of the Lord through Elisha was very different. God would provide water and would give victory to Israel and Judah.

The king of Moab was desperate. He sent 700 swordsman to break through the lines of the allied kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom, but they could not. He then sacrificed his oldest son, the heir to the throne, hoping to bring wrath from heavenly realms upon the forces that stood against him.

Shockingly, it worked! We are presented with this disturbing conclusion at the end of the chapter: “And there came great wrath against Israel. And they withdrew from (the king of Moab) and returned to their own land.”

How could this be? We know that God was angry with Israel because of their idolatry. The kings over the northern tribes had led the nation in evil ways, teaching them to worship images that were created by the hands of men. Though God did bring a measure of victory through the Word of Elisha, he limited that victory. That limit of the advance of Israel was understood to have happened in connection with the Moabite king's sacrifice of his own son.

There is no biblical commentary on this event that would provide an authoritative word for us in order to lift our confusion. We do know this: Israel had become like the nations in Canaan that God had thrust out of the land in the days of Joshua. According to the warnings of Moses and the prophets, the Lord would one day do what He had promised. He would send them into exile.

We also know that God's eternal plan was to bring salvation to all the people groups of the earth through a descendant of David, a man who himself had Moabite blood. The Lord Jesus, the long-expected Son of David, would give His own blood in order to bring an astounding victory to those who would call upon His Name from every tribe and tongue and nation.

God did not approve of child sacrifice. The actions of the King of Moab were prohibited according to the Law of the Lord. Yet He used the occasion of this desperate measure to stop the forces of Israel, Judah, and Edom from taking a land that He had not given to them permanently.

We cannot say with confidence what the Lord was doing on that unusual day so long ago when he seemed to fight against Israel through the blood of the son of a Moabite king. But we can testify with confidence to this eternal truth: God sent His own Son to die for the ungodly. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Deuteronomy 4

God had given His people through Moses the written Word at Sinai in the form of ten commandments. As they were preparing to enter the promised land, Moses instructed them to keep the commandments of God.

This was the way that life under the Law would work: Do them and live. Do the commandments and take possession of the land. Do them and keep the land. Don't add to them. Don't take away from them. “Do them and live” turned out to be a burden that neither we nor our fathers could bear.

At Peor, Moses reminded Israel, they had not done the Law. Their disobedience brought death.

Now as they prepared to go into the land, the people needed to keep their souls diligently. They needed to teach their children the content and the context of the ten commandments. They needed to know their heritage, how they came from God, and how frightening it was when the Lord gave the Law to Israel.

The account of disobedience in the wilderness, the failure of idolatry at Horeb, must never again be committed. They must not worship the stars, They must remember their deliverance by God from Egypt. They must not forget the Lord's covenant. Their God, the God who loved them with a holy jealousy, was a consuming fire.

Yet the same God who was a consuming fire, was and is a God of mercy. Even if they faced exile, even if the few that remained in the land worshiped gods of wood, they could still remember the Lord, and call out to Him in their desperation. They could seek Him and find Him if they searched for Him with all their heart and soul.

How much more should you be assured that Jesus, who died for your sins, will hear you when you cry out to him with hatred of your sin and a sincere devotion. It is time, even now, to return to the Lord your God, and to obey His voice.

We have a God who speaks. We have a God who delivers His people from bondage. We have a God who is more powerful than our enemies.

Who is against you today? Is it your own sinful flesh? Even your flesh, which is a very stubborn and powerful adversary to your soul, is not able to withstand the power of the Spirit of the living God. That Spirit is continually being poured out upon the church by the exalted Son of God in our day. We have a Helper who has won a victory for us over sin and death. We have a new way to follow the Lord, for God has provided for us an everlasting city of refuge in His Son Jesus Christ who is in us.

“Do this and live” never worked for us. We needed the cross-bought gift of the Holy Spirit. A better way has now been revealed through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Live and do.” By the mercies of God we live, and by the Spirit of God we follow the Lord.

Deuteronomy 3

In Deuteronomy 2, Moses spoke to the people concerning the land of Sihon. The victories east of the Jordan River may have helped the Israelites in their faith. We may guess at the human reasons as to why these events took place, but the Lord will not allow our horizontal explanations to be the last word here. Above all the affairs of nations, the Lord is God.

That story continues now with a second king, Og of Bashan. The Lord said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites.”

The conquest generation gained a taste of the Lord's provision for them through victory in battle even before they entered Canaan. The justice of God against the nations had begun.

Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had already experienced the power of God in conquest. The battle for Canaan itself was still to come for all the tribes, but the people of these two and a half tribes were finding peace in their inheritance.

These early experiences of conquest had a point that Moses pressed upon Joshua: “Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you are crossing. You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.”

Moses was eager for the later stages of true conquest in the land of Canaan. He wanted to stay on earth to be with Israel in victory, but the Lord would not listen to him, though He did allow Moses to see the land from afar.

What lessons can we learn from this account of Israel's early steps toward the promised land?

Our New Testament mission began in such a different way with the power of Christ's suffering love and the death of the cross. Even today that worldwide mission of the church continues in the way that Jesus led. We do not go forth to kill, but to suffer and die for His Name. This could only be a victorious plan by the power of God. The Lord is just as committed to win through the cross today as he was in a very different age to bring a much smaller victory through the conquest of Canaan. Our “promised land” is heaven. While we are already there because of our union with Jesus Christ, there is also a sense in which we have not yet arrived. Yet the Lord is giving us a generous taste of our new home even now by His gift of the Holy Spirit.

We die daily. We offer up our bodies as living sacrifices in the Name of Christ. But we also rise again every morning to newness of life in the joy of the Lord. We are engaged in serious warfare, but we battle not against flesh and blood. We are called to put to death our sinful nature. Our flesh insists that the cross and the resurrection is the wrong way for us, but this way of Christ is the way of true power. It is the way that our Redeemer leads His church.

We live and die according to God's decree. When the time comes for our earthly labors to end, God takes us to higher ground, and we can view the story of the victory of the Lamb from a more beneficial vantage point. Until that day, we can trust Him with the timing of our journey, and with the future that He has for us beyond our earthly days.

Deuteronomy 2

God was giving the land of Canaan to His people, the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all those who were adopted into their number. He commanded them to take that land by conquest.

That did not mean that He was giving them every land on the face of the earth. The land of Seir belonged to the descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother. The lands of Moab and Ammon belonged to the descendants of Lot, Abraham's nephew.

God had spoken concerning Israel in the wilderness. He had blessed them for forty years with great provision. Moses said to them, “You have lacked nothing.” But he also said concerning the Passover generation that, “the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished.”

But now the time had come for Israel to move into their possession, the land of Canaan. This was not their idea. It was the plan and gift of God. He would put the dread and fear of them upon all peoples.

Even before they came to Canaan, the Lord gave to Israel the land of Sihon. Sihon defied Israel and Israel's God and would not let them pass by unharmed on their way to Canaan. His territory became part of the Lord's gift to His people.

The God of Israel is the God of all creation and providence. Kingdoms rise and fall according to His command. His sovereignty over Canaan should not surprise us. He is sovereign over all lands on the face of the earth. He gives them to whomever He pleases.

But there was something different going on in the Lord's gift of Canaan to Israel. The Lord had special plans for Israel that would be central to the fate of the entire world.

First, Israel would need to move forward by conquest, but this conquest would be very limited. It would not even include Edom and Moab, at least not in the days of Moses.

Much later, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a new kingdom of God would be announced to the entire world. The new eternal kingdom of heaven would bring life to the world not by killing, but by dying.

This new kingdom expands even today through the message of the Lord's dying love and resurrection power. The Lord's love will be victorious. His kingdom will never end.

Deuteronomy 1

The book of Deuteronomy was a final sermon series by Moses to Israel as the people of God prepared to enter the promised land according to God's command. He began by reminding Israel about the failure of their parents to believe God and to take the land. That unbelief lead to the death of the Passover generation. Their children now listened to the words of Moses.

That failure of unbelief that led to forty years in the wilderness was first a failure of leadership. God had provided leaders to help Moses in bearing the burden of the congregation. But the men who had a duty to speak for God before the congregation had followed in the direction of fear rather than faith.

The unbelief was also a failure to speak the truth by the spies who were sent into the land. They combined the facts of the good land with unbelief rather than faith, and passed on a bad report to the people.

But in speaking to the conquest generation at the opening of Deuteronomy, Moses not only mentioned the leaders and the spies. He charged the present congregation, the children of the Passover generation, with the unbelief of their parents. “You would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.”

The congregation of the people of Israel was an entity chosen by God with continuity and community in His eyes that went beyond any one generation. There was guilt upon Israel because of the unbelief of the fathers at Horeb, and there were lessons for the people to learn as they prepared now to go where their fathers were unwilling to go.

The unbelief of the Passover generation had devastating consequences for Israel. None of them were able to enter except for Caleb and Joshua. Even Moses would not be allowed to go. This was the power of the discipline of God and the lesson of congregational unbelief and guilt. Unbelief brought mission failure, wandering, and death. Even when Israel heard the word of the Lord against them back in that day, and determined to change their mind and go into the land, it was too late. They only added to their rebellion and to the death of the people by trying to do what God had now prohibited. And the Passover generation wept.

The unbelief of Israel was a fact to be considered. Would the history of the covenant people be an endless repetition of this failure? Though there would be higher points and lower points in the life of the congregation over the centuries, the Lord would accomplish His own purposes.

We now see more clearly what was hidden in shadows when Moses spoke to the conquest generation. We see beyond the tears of Israel. The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. See Romans 11:29. God's full plan for Israel would be accomplished through the gift of a Messiah.

The Messiah would trust and obey, and the true congregation would hear His voice and follow Him. Jesus would carry the sins and sorrows of His people as their divinely appointed Substitute. They would have more than Canaan. The meek would inherit the earth. They would gain the Kingdom as a gift won by the King who died for them on the cross.

2 Kings 2

What words can we use to describe the end of Elijah's days on earth? We cannot say that Elijah died. Elijah was taken up to heaven.

Where is heaven? What is it like to be there?

Prophets had the unusual providence in life of being temporarily brought up into the heavenly council. The Apostle Paul wrote of his own experience this way in the New Testament:

I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. (2 Corinthians 12:2-3)

Paul found it challenging to describe this temporary event.

There remains a mysterious and troubling divide between heaven and earth. Elijah crossed that divide, not temporarily, but permanently. The normal way to go to heaven is through facing death on earth. But this great Old Testament prophet was carried to heaven on chariots of fire.

The Lord appeared throughout the Scriptures in the glory cloud of heavenly fire. In the wilderness, He was a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. Elijah was brought up to heaven in the Lord Himself, surrounded by His angels who ascend and descend on the One who is God with God. (Compare Genesis 28:12 and John 1:51.)

The timing of Elijah's unusual departure was known to His successor and to others among the prophets. There were signs of grief and concern among them in the account that we have in 2 Kings 2. This was not only the normal concern that those who are left behind have at the loss of someone they love. It included the additional question of who would take this great man's place in the work of God.

The Lord's work of testifying about the kingdom of heaven throughout Israel would continue with Elijah's successor, Elisha. He would receive a “double portion” from his master. This double portion was a way of speaking about the largest share of the inheritance that normally came to the oldest son in the case of the death of a father.

The miracle-working and truth-proclaiming ministry of the Lord through His chosen prophet would continue in Elisha much as it had in Elijah. There would be works of both mercy and judgment as this representative of heaven's truth and glory performed signs upon the earth.

2 Kings 2 is about the end of one era and the beginning of a new one. Someone was gone, at least to the senses of those who were left behind. Yet God remained, and He would work through His newly appointed servant.

John the Baptist, and ultimately Jesus, came in the tradition of Elijah. John was the forerunner for the ultimate Prophet of God. His primary ministry was to prepare Israel for her Messiah, and to point to Him as the Lamb of God when the Father and the Son began to make Jesus known to the Jews.

John decreased from that moment forward, and Jesus increased. John was clearly the lesser and Jesus the greater.

Jesus Christ went about Galilee and Judah performing great signs of the kingdom of heaven and proclaiming the truth of God. He was more than an Elijah. As John the Baptist had testified, He was the Lamb of God. He bore the sin of many. (Isaiah 53:12)

The day came for the fulfillment of Jesus' ministry. Unlike Elijah, our Lord actually died. That was necessary in order to make atonement for us. But then He rose again from the dead upon the earth, beginning a new resurrection era. He would not need a successor. He would live forever.

Nonetheless, He still had to go to heaven. There He would reign at the right hand of the Father, preparing a place for us and sending forth the Holy Spirit upon the church. He was taken up into that kingdom above before the eyes of His watching apostles.

Consider the importance of that event historically. The apostles went to their deaths proclaiming the truth of the ascension of Jesus Christ. If Jesus did not go up to heaven on a cloud of glory, where did He go? Or were all those men such good liars that they changed the world with their unlikely tale?

In his day, Elijah's amazing journey to heaven was an example of what would one day happen to Jesus. But Jesus went to heaven, not as a mortal man, there to be transformed from mortality to immortality. He was already an eternal man, a resurrection man, who had lived upon the earth in that state for forty days.

Now our Savior lives above. He has won a great inheritance, and the church has been granted more than that double portion which would customarily go to the oldest son. We have become joint-heirs with Christ of the entire kingdom of heaven. Even now we have been given a deposit of the life to come through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Let not your hearts be troubled. Jesus lived, Jesus died. Jesus rose again. Jesus ascended into heaven. Face the challenges of this fallen world with a firm assurance of the truths of our faith which have been proclaimed and believed for many centuries. In the words of the Apostle Paul:

[11] May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, [12] giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. [13] He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, [14] in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:11-14)

2 Kings 1

The son of Ahab, Ahaziah, was king in Israel after the death of his father. Ahab's death took place according to the Word of the Lord that came to the prophet Elijah.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, James tells us in the New Testament, and his prayers were very powerful. James writes, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power.” (James 5:16) The verses just prior to this one give this important message: “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” (James 5:14-15)

Ahaziah was injured. Instead of calling on Elijah, the man of God, whose word had proven powerful again and again, the king turned to a foreign god.

The Lord confronted the king of Israel through His prophet Elijah. Was there no God in Israel? Did the king need to seek information from false gods?

Ahaziah would not humble himself before the Word of the Lord. He presumed to use military force against the prophet more than once. God displayed His great power over the king of Israel by sending fire from heaven at the prophet's command. Still Ahaziah would not receive the Word of God with meekness.

Ahaziah would die according to the Word of God through Elijah, but the final military commander with all his fighting men would live. That final commander learned the obvious lesson from the experiences that were unfolding before him.

There is no point in fighting God. We will lose that battle. We need to come to Him, hear His Word, and receive His eternal healing.

We have a prophet, not just for Israel, but for the world. He is the Righteous Man, Jesus Christ. He speaks through His Word, and He lives forever to make intercession for us.

His reliability is not a theory. It is a fact.

Elijah had proven that he was a man of God. Is the resurrection of Christ from the dead not enough proof for you? If Jesus did not rise from the dead, how can you explain the events that are recorded in the book of Acts? How can you explain the way that God has brought life to so many throughout the world in the centuries that have followed this most amazing sign? If the resurrection is a lie, how can you explain even the simplest undisputed truth that the whole world marks the passage of years in a way that begins with Jesus? How can you explain that the whole world now lives according to a seven-day cycle that begins with the day of His resurrection? How could it be a coincidence that this one Man of God is the fulfillment of so many ancient passages regarding His suffering and glory that were recorded centuries before He was born?

Jesus is risen. His Word has changed the lives of millions of people who have humbly received Him. Will you not humble yourself before Jesus?

Jesus is the Final Word. He gave His life for us, so that we would have peace with God. He is the eternal King. Listen to Him.

1 Kings 22

The final chapter of First Kings contains an account of Ahab's death in a joint military campaign with Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah. God announced the death of Ahab through His prophet, Micaiah. The prophet gave a word that unveiled the hidden work of the heavenly council in the affairs of the earth. The Lord had placed a “lying spirit” in the mouth of all Ahab's other prophets.

Ahab needed the truth, but he was unwilling to hear it. His other prophets had assured him that he would have victory against his enemies. They were wrong.

The death of Ahab was extraordinary. As men make their plans, Ahab should have lived. Ahab made the king of Judah look like the only king on the field of battle. Yet the king of Judah was spared, and a “random” arrow struck the disguised king of Israel in exactly the wrong spot.

The details of Ahab's death were in accord with an earlier word from the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 21:19. Ahab had gone to great lengths to protect his own life, but now he was gone.

The book ends with a brief account of the king of Judah, and the next king of Israel, the son of Ahab. The former is noted as one who “did what was right in the sight of the Lord,” and the latter “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”

What makes a good king good? What makes an evil king evil? One very important factor is his receptivity to the truth. Ahab did not want to hear the truth. It was Jehoshaphat that had to insist that they find a true prophet of the Lord before they went out to battle. Ahab treated the prophet of the Lord with disrespect. He trusted in his own ability to preserve his life.

When Jesus spoke to the Jews so many centuries later, he said this about God's Word: “If you abide in My Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

The truth must be proclaimed by the Lord's servants. It also must be heard, believed, and confessed by His people.

Jesus came as the true King of the Jews. He spoke the Word of God as a pure prophet, and offered up His life as a righteous priest. If we abide in His Word, we shall know the truth, and the truth shall set us free.

Numbers 36

The account of the inheritance of Zelophehad is now recorded for our consideration for the third time in the book of Numbers. This time a concern is brought by men who were in the same tribe as Zelophehad. Would some of the tribal inheritance of Manasseh end up belonging to other tribes as the daughters of Zelophehad married men from other tribes?

Just as with the original request of the daughters of Zelophehad, this concern was taken very seriously by Moses, who gave instruction from the Lord on this matter. A women who held a portion of a tribal inheritance had to marry within her father's tribe, lest the connection between the territory and the people of the various tribes be completely obscured as women with property intermarried in Israel.

Why does any of this matter? Redemptive history has forward motion. It has a beginning point and it is moving toward a glorious end. The land of Israel and even the land allotted to each tribe was an important element in the plan of God.

Israel was more than a symbol. It was a land given by God to the sons of Jacob with tribal territories that would soon be established. Zeal for that inheritance was not out of place, whether in the area east of the Jordan or in Canaan itself.

People die. That is a big part of what is taking place on earth since Adam disobeyed God. Things fall apart here. Women lose the protection of husbands and fathers through death, desertion, or even abuse. Family bonds fall apart, and there is much disorder and sadness.

The Lord was not content to allow the words, “Things Fall Apart” to be the final motto over this sad world. He had other plans, and He has never abandoned His eternal intentions.

Israel and the tribal allotments were a stage in the forward movement of His purposes. If Israel obeyed the Law, they would do what could be done to keep the land and the people together.

But Law could never bring about the eternal purpose of God. We don't keep law. And the curse of death and myriad forms of decay have their own law.

We needed life, life beyond the death of people we were counting on, life beyond the loss of family land. We needed a new creation.

That new creation would begin with a second Adam, born to a poor woman from the tribe of Judah, but conceived by the Holy Spirit. The salvation that has come to us through Him would bring about not just a restored Israel, but a renewed earth. He has accomplished what the Law could not do. We who embrace the news of His death and resurrection know this now by faith. Soon all the earth will know it by sight.

Numbers 35

The Lord had spoken regarding the tribes that would have an inheritance east of the Jordan. He had also given instructions about the inheritance for those tribes that would settle in Canaan, and had provided men who would help with the distribution of this gift from God. But one tribe was not mentioned, the tribe of Levi.

The Lord was the inheritance of the tribe of Levi, for they would have a share in the various tithes and offerings of the rest of the people of Israel according to His Law. Yet they would need places to live and pasturelands for their cattle.

After settling the broad outlines of the inheritance for all the other tribes, God spoke to Moses about the cities for the Levites. He also provided places of mercy in the land to which people might flee for refuge.

The cities and pasturelands for the Levites were to come out of the inheritance of the other tribes. The Lord specified the number of cities and the dimensions of the pasturelands. He also gave the principle to the people that more cities for Levites would come from the larger tribes, and fewer cities would come from the smaller tribes.

The cities of refuge, three to the east of the Jordan and three in Canaan, would also be among the cities given to the Levites. The Lord specified here the procedures for mercy and justice for these cities, making a distinction between involuntary manslaughter and murder.

Even in the case of involuntary killing, the close relative of the deceased might be moved to seek some punishment as a result of an unfortunate death, and he would become an avenger of blood against an Israelite. The congregations of the cities of refuge would have to sort out these facts.

These cities were not to become a safe haven for those who had committed vicious murders according to prior evil intentions. Murderers were to face the death penalty. But those who were guilty of manslaughter would be protected by the Levites who judged in such cases.

The only place of safety for the manslayer was within a city of refuge. If he left that city he might be killed by the avenger of blood. He needed to stay in that city until the passage of some time, until the death of the high priest.

Judgments of this kind were to be based on an open hearing of the facts, and no one was to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness. There was no provision for release for a guilty murderer. That person had to be put to death, or the land would become polluted in God's eyes. This was the Lord's system of justice concerning the cities of refuge under the care of the Levites.

The Levites were to be dedicated servants of the Lord, attending to the matters of the tabernacle and the Law. They did not have the same kind of life or inheritance that others in Israel would have. The Lord provided for His servants then, and the King of the church, Jesus Christ, commands us to provide for His church today.

Christ and His church have become a city of refuge, not only for those guilty of manslaughter, but for all who are weary and weighed down with burdens that they cannot bear. Even the wretched murderer may find eternal peace in Christ, though the judges of the realms of this world should rightly bring an accounting against those who take the lives of others.

But there is a permanent place of refuge for the vilest offender who truly believes. In that place we have a High Priest who never dies, but who always lives to make intercession for us. Our King and Priest has made perfect peace for us with God, and we are counted as beloved members of the divine household through Him.