April 12--What One Life Can Do

The people God uses to bring his saving story through keep surprising and encouraging me. Because if he'll accept the worst woman in town, there's hope for everyone, as you'll see in Joshua 5-6, Luke 15, Psalm 82, and Proverbs 13:1.

Click here for the written post of today's episode.

Eve reads her Bible journal aloud on this episode.

Click here for the FREE Yearly Bible Reading Plan she uses.  

Transcript

Joshua 5-6

Luke 15

Psalm 82, Prayer, Proverbs 13:1

SPEAKER_00 0:00

April twelfth What One Life Can Do I won't be reading the scripture references for those. Please check the written post. Teaching our children at home was fun when it was easy, but Josie Love, our fourth child, still couldn't read by age eight, though I tried everything I knew. Homeschooling five kids was challenging enough, but dealing with her learning disability made it kind of awful. I found a learning therapist to help us, but doing therapies with Josie Love for two hours every morning, even on weekends and all summer long, made it a drudgery for both of us that would last six years. My oldest three went on to other schools. The eldest was at UGA double majoring in English and history. He called me to say he was going to have to drop the history major because he couldn't keep up with the reading. I asked Josie Love's therapist what she thought about speed reading courses, hoping one might help him, but she didn't recommend it because the problem with a slow reader is usually that they don't read properly. The best way to help him was to use Josie Love's materials and teach him to read again. I laughed out loud when she said it. The idea of our twenty one year old son sitting down at our kitchen table again and learning to read using his little sister's books seemed preposterous, but when he came home for Christmas, a diagnostic tool told us that was exactly what he needed. So there he sat the following summer in our kitchen, breaking words apart and putting them back together. It was tedious work, but he was motivated and diligent, and by the end of the week he'd finished a year's worth. After graduating from UGA, he went on to law school and now works as an attorney. I marvel at the way God brought us Jessie Love, the missing piece to our family puzzle. We adopted her at birth because we loved her and wanted her, along with her soft brown curls and caramel skin, her penchant for running everywhere she went, and her singing at the top of her lungs. He gave her what looked like a disability then, but it became a golden key that unlocked her brother's future. Her disability turned golden also taught her the value of discipline and gave her a dogged determination. She outworked us all and went on to UGA, where she played college soccer and is now a college professor at NKU. What can one life do? Today's passages say The Old Testament chapters are Joshua five to six. It was finally time. God carried his people out of Egypt through the ocean, into the wilderness, across the Jordan and all the way to the edge of the land he's promised them, and it's time to start the military campaign to take it over. His instructions about what to do after the walls of Jericho fall are to go in and kill everything that moves, except for the prostitute Rahab and her family, who cut a deal with the Israelite spies when they came to check things out weeks before. God orders a total takeout of every man, woman, child, and animal, but for Rahab, because quote, everything in Jericho is under a holy curse and offered up to God, end quote. But why save Rahab? If God was as ruthless as he sounds, ordering the killing of an entire city down to horses and house cats, why bother with a whore that nobody values, least of all God? After all she lives a life of debauchery, destroying families, amping up VD and STIs. There's nothing good to say about her that would merit God's favor on a day when he's told Israel to toss compassion and mow down the rest of the town. But we can't get around Rahab because the fact that God spared her and her family means that God didn't toss compassion. I look back in the text and the truth dawns slowly. God didn't mow down the town unjustly because he gave them plenty of time to repent and turn to him. From the time it's recorded that hearts sink and courage drains from the kings of Canaan at the beginning of chapter five, they have several weeks and maybe more to come to Joshua in peace to make a deal or to turn to Israel's God or to beg for mercy, just pick one. After all, during that time the Israelite men have all been circumcised, they've celebrated the Passover, and they've harvested food, which would have taken quite a bit of time. The king of Jericho knew who Israel was because the story of their leaving Egypt was legendary, and he had to know they'd come calling after they sent spies into Jericho the first time, which he knew about, but didn't do anything about. Of course, we don't know how he occupied himself during those waiting weeks, but we do know that he didn't send a peacemaking delegation to Israel. He didn't send a committee to learn what it takes to please Israel's god either, and he didn't lead a citywide cleanup for their sky high sin, which was egregious. Jericho was involved in sacrificing babies to their idols as burnt offerings of worship, and they forced their virgins into prostitution for the sake of idol worship too. We can be sure that a city that exploits the most vulnerable among them, infants and virgin girls, is involved in other deplorable activities. When there's no justice for the innocent, humanity hits rock bottom. God gave the king of Jericho time to think things over when the spies first made their appearance. He had several more weeks to decide what to do after Israel crossed the Jordan. He also had an additional six days to get right with God once Israel showed up outside his city's walls and started marching and trumpeting. Every day that the priests and soldiers took a turn around Jericho, every person inside had the chance to turn to God like Rahab, but nobody did. In the end, their choice to stay terrified behind their high walls rather than break through and repent is on them, not on God. Rahab received mercy, and she was the last person who deserved it, so we can be sure that God would have extended the same mercy to anyone else who turned to him. God has a soft spot for the lowly, the weak, the poor, the oppressed. His words about taking care of widows and orphans aren't suggestions, they're commandments, and they're found throughout the Bible. God fights for those who are beaten down, denied justice, marginalized, and he won't stand by and let the innocent continue to be slaughtered. I have a hunch that God had another mission in mind for Israel's conflict with Jericho besides justice for its victims. God was sending Israel in to save the one lost sheep he loved best, a hooker who heard about him and was given the faith to trust him. As a result of Rahab's faith, she finagled a deal to save herself and her family when the walls fell in. She also finagled a deal to save the rest of us when the bottom drops out too. How so? Rahab and her family were taken in by Israel as outsiders, but they didn't stay on the fringe. They were grafted in. Rahab married an Israelite and gave birth to Boaz, who was the father of Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of King David, who was the great, great, great, and so on, grandfather of Jesus, the long awaited Savior of everyone who wants him. Rather than Rahab being the add-on in the story of Jericho, Rahab is the side plot you didn't see coming that sneaks in and swallows up the whole story. The sparing of Rahab is proof of God's goodness to save the last person you'd expect and the only person who asked. God let Jericho fall to avenge its victims, a judgment long overdue, and he also let Jericho fall to save Rahab so he could bring the Savior of the world through her one precious life to save you and me too. God goes to greater lengths and breadths, heights and depths than we can fathom to bring each of us home to him, no matter who we are or who we've been. What can one life do? With your one life saved and set free, you can join up with God and advance his kingdom too. Note you can click at the link at the bottom of this section in the written post for archaeological evidence for the fall of Jericho as the Bible describes it. The New Testament chapter is Luke 15. Pharisees criticize the sorts of people that Jesus attracts, but Jesus tells them they just don't get it, because there's more rejoicing in heaven over one sheep who's found than over ninety-nine who don't need rescuing. There's as much rejoicing as if a lost fortune is found as when a prodigal rises up and heads home to his father. The only one who isn't rejoicing is the elder brother who refuses to celebrate his younger brother's return. Grace isn't fair after all. Somebody screws up and rather than getting a boot in their backside, they're given a barbecue. But this is what life in God's kingdom is like. You mess up, but rather than getting what you've got coming, you get forgiveness, you get kindness, you get called God's beloved son or daughter. The father tries to pull the older brother into the party, but he refuses. He'd rather sulk and stew. He'd rather earn his way, thank you. He'd rather be left out of the party than feel the sting of grace. Like the elder brother, I sometimes feel insulted that I can't be good enough to earn my way into God's favor. But once I realize that no one is good enough to earn their way, my piece of humble pie went down a little easier. The freedom that comes when you stop hiding all your stuff is well worth what it costs to get real and fess up, because the joy never stops, and neither does the celebrating with the Father who flat adores you. What can one life do? With your one life you can make all heaven twist and shout. From Psalm eighty two. The scene is a courtroom where God puts all judges on trial for corrupting justice and for letting the wicked get away with murder. They were appointed to help God bring justice to their little corner of the universe, but they failed and now they're busted. The world is falling apart because of their negligence, the psalmist says, and yet it's also not. He reminds us who's the glue holding, quote, the whole world in your hands, end quote. When judges and people in general let us down, we can find security in the fact that their role is tiny by comparison to the God who holds everything together. What can one life do? With your one life, you can put your trust in God and find peace despite chaos. Prayer. God, thank you for dropping walls, moving mountains, and walking on water to come for me. Thank you for the privilege of being your daughter. Make my one life count for you. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs 13:1. Wise children listen to their parents, foolish ones live as they please. Josie Love's adoption story is at the link at the end of this written post. Passages in Joshua, Luke, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve de Bartleaban Roebuck.