Today begins a series of lessons from the lives of some people in our own faith history. God has used each man and woman to advance his salvation story toward eternity. Some names are familiar. Others are vague or unknown to us. As we glimpse these very different people and God’s purpose for them, let’s pray we more fully know God’s power in us.
Joshua Leads
 
Joshua 24:15 “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
 
“JOSHUA” – or Yeshua –means “Jehovah (God) is our help” or “Jehovah the Savior.” It is the Hebrew form of the Greek name “Jesus”. As the Son of God lived in perfect harmony with the Father, Joshua’s life was a very personal experience with Jehovah God. Joshua was a warrior. He led Israel’s armies in battles throughout the Wilderness Journey, first recorded in Exodus 17. In Exodus 24 Joshua was as Moses’ disciple, going with the prophet to receive the Law and learning with him at the Place of Meeting. In addition, Joshua was a faithful scout. He is one of two spies to urge Israel into the Promised Land. Then Joshua is a conqueror as he succeeded Moses to lead Israel into and conquer the Promised Land. Serving the Lord, was indeed, his purpose. This I how he lived.  
    This service is the essence of his character. As he declared, “As for me and my household” we know Joshua’s service life began at home. His servant heart begins with his love for God, and he demonstrated that love in leading his children to know God. A vital military commander, Joshua even more was a focused household commander who followed God’s orders. He submitted to God as he served his family, Moses and the nation. In faith, Joshua rejoiced in Israel’s victories and mourned Israel’s sins. His steadfast life anchored a nation in transition.
    Serving God takes many forms. Most importantly it begins at home.
   
Psalms 2:11 Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. 
 
 

Read Deuteronomy 28-29
 
Deuteronomy 28:1-5 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: 3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. 4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock – the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. 5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. 6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
 
FEEL the warmth of a blanket come over you on a cool, rainy night. You have been working outdoors, and you are chilled. You want to sit down in a good chair and have something warm to drink. The day is done. The family is safe, and it is time to relax. You have what you need to rest well, and so you do.
    This scripture is like that, don’t you think? God is covering his people with himself. He is offering to them all they need to rest well in him. There is first the covering of spiritual blessing, “You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country” – blessed wherever you are. There’s also the protection of physical blessing. “Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.” When you truly believe in God and fully believe God, you will joyfully obey his commands. He promises then, that you will know his blanket of blessing always covers you.
 
Relax and Know: God’s warm love is over you forever.
 
I have added a video teaching: Paul lives into Jesus’ resurrection power. https://youtu.be/ImFlrWQQOB4
 

Read Deuteronomy 25-27
 
Deuteronomy 26:19 God has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised.
 
“God has declared he will set you in praise.”  What does that mean to you? I’m thinking of a loving father at graduation time. He sits in the audience and watches his son cross the stage to receive his diploma. He thinks of the difficult times his son has endured, working through the homework, struggling with the math, rebelling against some of his teachers and rejecting his own authority as a father.
    And then he considers his son’s successes. The improvement in his grades from his freshman year to his senior year, his acceptance into college, and this moment of graduation. His son has made it to completion. The difficulties of getting to this day are behind. Today is a day to celebrate. He gives praise to his son. He points him out to a stranger nearby. No one else in the auditorium matters. That is his son, and he is pleased. The Father praises his son in his heart for many things, but most of all he praises his son because he is his son.
    God loves you in this same way. These three chapters demonstrate how God was moving Israel out of their past failures into a promising future as his people. He declares his truth, and they respond in agreement.
    The wonder of God’s love is that he has remained committed to his promises throughout history. You matter so much to your Father he sent Jesus, his only Son, to die for you, so he could welcome you across the stage of life’s challenges – and even rebellion – into life eternal. He loves you so much he has sent his Holy Spirit to teach you, to watch over your daily walk as he guides you to become more as he is. The Father has set his love on you, to keep loving you and encouraging you until your journey is finished.
    Yes, God has gone a long way to set you in praise.
 
Pause and Consider: God is a great Dad.

 

Read Deuteronomy 24
 
Deuteronomy 24:1-4 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, 2 and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, 3 and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, 4 then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
 
LET’S see these and other words around divorce as God’s loving grace to protect you.
    In that time and culture of this law, it was easy for a man to discard his wife. God’s command protects the wife from a husband’s spontaneous emotions to divorce. He also protects a husband from a disagreeable wife. “Disagreeable” is understood as one who is morally corrupt. The divorce certificate required a process that included review before the town’s elders. This could cause a husband to stop and think, “Is this really best?” Remarriage to the first husband was also forbidden to protect the woman. “After she has been defiled” refers to the man victimizing the woman.
    Divorce also protects one’s relationship with God. He does not want unbelievers married to believers: 1 Corinthians 7:15 But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. The LORD divorced Israel for their unbelief. Isaiah 50:1 This is what the Lord says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away…because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.” Israel’s exile to Babylon was as a husband divorcing his wife. We can thank God he allowed Israel to return to him.
    Remember marriage completed God’s perfect creation. Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Yes, marriage is a loving partnership designed to protect one another. But sadly, marriage is also the first human relationship corrupted in sin’s curse: Genesis 3:16b “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”  In other words, a wife and husband will be in conflict as she seeks to gain control of the marriage relationship. Yet, the order of authority begins with the man, who is to care for his wife as Christ cares for his church (Ephesians 5).
    God-centered love is love that protects one another:1 Corinthians 13:7 Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. When you live in love with God, you will live in love with one another. Understand marriage has come from God. Treat it as the holy and loving gift it is.
 
Ephesians 5:5 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Matthew 28:16-17 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.
 
WHAT do you think about the end of this passage, “some doubted”? Isn’t it odd Mathew would write of doubt at the culmination of Jesus’ time on earth?
    This is a good lesson in reading all the gospels and the New Testament to know more of Jesus. If you were to read only Matthew’s account of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, you would miss several key references to the disciples overcoming doubt.
    For example, the disciples’ did not believe the women’s report on that first Resurrection Sunday: Mark 16:11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it. Unless you also read Luke’s account of Jesus rising and then walking to Emmaus with two men to reveal God’s complete plan of salvation from the Old Testament. You would also miss in Luke 24 how some disciples doubted the two men’s report of that walk with Jesus.
    Luke also reveals Jesus overcoming Thomas’ doubt; while John reveals Jesus forgiving Peter’s denial. Further, reading Acts 1, you know the more detailed account of Jesus’ last conversations with his apostles. They still wanted to know in Acts 1: 6b “Lord, are you at this time going to Israel?”  
    Thus, when we read Matthew’s brief account of Jesus resurrection, his appearance to the disciples, and his ascension, we must be aware that about 40 days have passed. When Matthew expressed some doubted, he likely is summarizing the disciples overcoming their doubts to come under the full authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.  
    How do we know Jesus is alive? The gospels teach us we are to personally encounter living Christ. That’s why it is essential to spend time in God’s Word, the entire Bible to know the full extent of God’s salvation story for you. Meeting Jesus means we form our mind, heart and hands around God’s Word. Regular, devoted worship in your church, at home and at work lead you directly to him. Speak of his love to others. Introduce him to people who do not know him.
    In these ways, your living Lord will be more alive in you.
 
Jesus Teaches: Doubt goes away when you encounter the living Savior.   

Matthew 27:56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
 
AS the sun began to set into the Sabbath after that awful Friday, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Joseph (not disciples) and the mother of Zebedee’s sons – (Salome, the apostles James’ and John’s mother) prepared to return the day after the Sabbath to anoint his body with customary burial spices. Why would they wait until the third day after Jesus’ death?
    In one word the answer is “Sabbath”. In our culture where we find so very many ways to dishonor the Sabbath, it is difficult for us to understand the Sabbath rest as a worship response to God’s great gift to mankind: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy…the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God… the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8-11)
    Yes, God made the day holy. In other words, he set it apart from the rest of the week, so we would rest and remember him. To rest on the Sabbath is to faithfully receive God’s gift. We believe God will supply our “daily bread” as we work the other six days. The Sabbath reminds us God oversees our every need. The Sabbath day gives rhythm and order to our lives. The Sabbath rest enriches our faith to hear, pray and do God’s Word. And thus, in God’s resting law, these two Mary’s, Salome and other women remembered the Sabbath.
    Note, too, Jesus also rested on the Sabbath as he did at the dawn of creation: “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done.” (Genesis 2:2) Remember, Jesus work was finished. He had begun the new creation with the new testament of faith in his blood shed and body broken. Out of his rest, Jesus would rise from the grave to begin the work of that new creation in Jesus. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
    Do you think you’re too busy or important for a Sabbath’s rest? Remember, rest is the Lord’s command; rest is his example; rest from the world is time to worship God; rest is his way to prepare you for six productive working days.
    Rest in Christ.
 
Jesus Teaches: God’s work week includes a day of rest.
 
The “Resurrection and the Life” calls out,  “Take off the grave clothes and let him go." Here’s number 6 of my resurrection video series: Lazarus  https://youtu.be/h0wDMEwXL3U