SOAP Journal – 13 July 2017 (Joshua 22:5)

Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Joshua 22:5

After the Promised Land was parceled out, Joshua summoned the 2½ tribes that settled in the land of Gilead on the opposite side of the Jordan from the rest of the Israelites and releases them from service. They had promised to go to war alongside their brethren and the land was now solidly in the control of the Israelites. There was still conquering to do, but the war was over for a time. Joshua tells the 2½ tribes that they have served faithfully and discharges them with a blessing and a warning. This morning’s verse is the substance of that warning.

In the New Testament (NT), believers are warned not to forsake the gathering together of the brethren (Hebrews 10:25). The 2½ tribes looked to be doing exactly that. And Joshua’s exhortation to the 2½ tribes contains, I think, part of the reason why fellowship is strongly encouraged.

Joshua warns the 2½ tribes to be very careful to observe the commandment and the law … to love the LORD your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When Paul writes similar exhortations to the NT believers, it is usually phrased without the very included. He might emphasize a point, but I cannot recall an instance in which Paul added an emphasis word. The reason for the emphasis is, I think, in the verses preceding Hebrews 10:25. Hebrews 10:23-24 says Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds …. The idea there is that fellowship; being in the company of others who believe as you do and follow the same God you do gives all involved the opportunity to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

If the 2½ tribes had remained with their fellow Israelites and not had a river dividing them, then the near civil war that follows hard on the heels of the 2½ tribes heading home would never have happened. Moreover, the river between them leads later to slow division as deep as language. All of the Israelites should speak the same language, but those in Gilead began to develop a dialect that divided them from their brethren.

Where all of this leads, for me, is to the place where I am reminded that I need regular fellowship with brothers in Christ. I may not live next door to them (although I might) and it may require planning (I do not like to plan), but I need regular time spent with those who have my Savior in common so we can stimulate one another to love and good deeds and so that we help ease the burden and ratchet the intensity of effort down from being very careful to simply being careful. Maybe I will still need to be very careful, but it is still a simpler thing than trying to go it alone.

Thank You, Father, that You have placed us in Your family and that we can support one another and bear one another’s burdens and make walking with You even less laborious. Please give me a willingness and a desire to work at fellowship.

SOAP Journal – 08 November 2016 (Exodus 8:23)

I will put a division between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign will occur.

Exodus 8:23

God, in the midst of the plagues He brings on Egypt, switches gears and the judgments become explicitly localized to the Egyptians. The preceding plagues may have been localized, but nothing is said about it, so there is no way to know for certain. What I know is that the swarms of flies are promised to be only in Egypt. but Goshen will remain untouched by them. This promise would be made all the more obvious by the fact that the Israelites were shepherds — the tail end of Genesis tells me that shepherds are loathsome to the Egyptians, hence the Israelites living in Goshen — and livestock attract flies. Flies will swarm Egypt, but will leave the one place you would expect to see them alone.

I take comfort in the knowledge that God is able to put a division between His people and those under judgment. Not only a division, but a stark contrast. I, like the whiny Israelites of old, may not be the best follower of God, yet God is still able to keep me as He kept them.

Father, thank You for the reminder that You set a distinction between those who are Your own and those who are not. Please etch this reminder in my heart now and in the days to come.

Distinction — A Division between God’s and Not God’s

“And I will put a division between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall occur.”

Exodus 8:23

So this Pharaoh, who thought he was a god, gets a memo from The God delivered by Moses and the memo is this: I’m going to lay the smack down on your people and there isn’t thing one you can do about it. My people, meanwhile, will be just fine. This is pretty much how God rolls, in my experience.

See, there are always people who think they can do what they want to or with God’s people. History is littered with fallen empires that tried to destroy Israel. When Christianity showed up on the scene, it didn’t take long (from a historical perspective) for someone to realize that legitimate Christianity is good for an empire. That’s a blog for another day (potentially years from now).

Look through history and there are other places where there is a definite line between God’s people (Jews) and the rest of us. During the time of the Black Plague, Jewish people were not as affected by it. The reason? The sanitary laws in the Old Testament caused the rats that carried the fleas that carried the plague to be off somewhere far from the Jews. No plague-carrying fleas meant few to no people with the plague. There was a division; a distinction between Jew and Gentile. Israel’s history since its reincorporation after WWII has been one of a nation that, statistically and strategically speaking, would have been wiped out multiple times and yet the nation remains. Other nations would have been destroyed. Israel has not. There is a division between God’s people and those who are not God’s people.

Christians, those who are legitimately God’s people (I cannot say whether or not anyone is, I don’t know hearts), are distinct in multiple ways. In the workplace, Christians who are being obedient to Christ will work hard—as if we’re working for Christ Himself—but not be hung up on raises or promotions or anything like that. It’s not that we don’t appreciate those things, they’re just not the be all end all of our workplace experience. In our families, Christians being obedient to Christ will put our family before everything except our relationship with God. Our spouse and children (if any) will take priority. This means you will run into husbands who check with their wives, not to get permission but to verify that there are not any plans that will be interrupted. My friends are getting used to this state of affairs. In my case, it means I need to get up with my alarm and spend my time with God and get out the door early enough to have some time with my wife and daughter before the sun goes down and my daughter goes to bed. It seems odd, but it is just one of a dozen ways that I can prioritize my family and in so doing be obedient to my Lord. And it will be distinct. It will be different.

God is interested in marking His people as His own, but I need to cooperate with that plan. He was interested in making a distinction between Israelite and Egyptian and He is interested still in making a distinction between those who are His and those who are not. He wants the distinction to be evident not to demean those who are not His or to hurt them or humiliate them but that some of them might make themselves His when they see how He treats those who are His own.

God, may I be cooperative with that today … and every day. Please teach me to work with You in showing the difference that You want to show. Not to be obnoxious about the difference or anything like that, but to simply live and work and act as Your child should act.