Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder
Be With Me is a daily 7 minute chronological walk through the New Testament hosted by Michael Smith. It is for everyone who is curious about what Jesus actually said and did in the gospels. Most episodes will leave you with at least one good thought to chew on for the rest of the day. We start with the Bible and hopefully end with Awe. We are walking through the chronological events of Jesus' life and then thoughtfully considering them. It is meant to spur the devotional life of the Christian and the not-yet-Christian. We occasionally venture into the Old Testament when it helps our understanding of the New Testament events. Everybody has 7 minutes. Everybody needs to wonder. Be With Me is hosted by Michael Smith who has absolutely no special qualifications to do a podcast. He is not a pastor. He has not been to seminary. He does not lead a mega-church. He is not a professional and he has no more credentials than you do. He does, however, follow a great God with an observant eye and a curious heart. Each day, he starts with a study bible and aims for astonishment. ‘be with him’ for 7 minutes as he sets out daily to discover the God who invites us to ‘Be With Me.’
Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder
Sitting under the shade of trees we did not plant S29e48 Dt20:10
We all sit in the shade of trees we did not plant.
We Stand on shoulders that are not our own.
Spiritually, we too stand upon inherited blessings that we did not earn. Some of course are from God, and some are from actual humans. For 7 minutes, Consider such "spiritual trees" under whose shade you sit today.
https://youtu.be/KYWGm2PmMsU
Sitting under the shade of trees we did not plant S29e48 Dt20:10
We all sit in the shade of trees we did not plant
Stand on shoulders that are not their own
Spiritually, we too stand upon inherited blessings that we did not earn.Dt20
10 “When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. 11 And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. 12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword, 14 but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. 16 But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, 18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sinagainst the Lord your God.
19 “When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? 20 Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.
Two codes of conduct: for those outside the borders of Israel, those inside.
He has a special code for those INSIDE the promised land, and one for those OUTSIDE the promised land. Those FAR and those NEAR
For cities outside of the promised land, if you draw near to fight it
Offer peace. Here are the terms of the agreement. Choice between
: Labor or your life; Labor for your life
Life for peace. Your very existence is the mercy for that people that did not make peace with the people of God; by extension with God Himself.
Things would have gone better for you if you would make peace with God
Some devoted to complete destruction
Seems violent, harsh, and not very nice
Story doesn’t start with a people group’s complete destruction
There are no innocents. There are none who are not guilty
Remember , they were sacrificing their children to some false god
Back to the concept of Herem. HEREM destruction to an deserving evil people group
Why does He do it? to demonstrate His Hesed.
His faithfulness, kindness to an undeserving evil people group
We must unpalatably watch God Devote an evil people group to destruction to so God can make a pure people, to set HIS LOVE UPON THEM an in so doing, to demonstrate His Hesed. (His faithfulness to an undeserving people group.)****
This people by Setting aside the law of Moses, setting aside a relationshiop with God is to be righteously Set apart for destruction.—
Watch as God exercises HEREM (destruction to an evil people group)
Why did God have to destroy these people? So He could come and get you.
So He could demonstrate His love for you.
As for you
Do not sin against the Lord by disobeying His command for the people occupying this land
There are no surviving rivals to ownership of the land of Israel
Don’t be short sighted regarding the trees. Build siege works with non-essential, non fruit bearing trees
Don’t destroy the means of production
Israel inherits trees they did not plant, cities they did not build, orchards and vineyards and crops they did not plant and houses you did not fill Dt 6:9.
Stand on shoulders that are not their own
Conclusions for today: Things will go better for you if you will make peace with God
Spiritually, we too stand upon inherited blessings that we did not earn. This is pictured in Israel inheriting crops, vineyards, cities, full houses, and yes, trees they did not plant.
Upon favor that is undeserved. It is called grace
How might the Lord ask us to respond to receiving trees we did not plant?
Perhaps we can identify first a tree you did not plant, under whose spiritual shadeyou now sit. Yes Jesus, Yes HS, Yes Father
If we catalogued all the blessing from Them, all books in world couldn’t hold it
Think of the people who are spiritually good to you, served you. Built the building you enjoy, worked on the constitution you agree to, fought for truth and changed the diapers. Who invented the ministry you came to know him under. These are the trees under whose shade we sit.