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This short but incredibly important phrase appears 45 times in Deuteronomy. More than any other book in the Bible. It also appears in what Jesus said is the Greatest Command, which by the way is also found in Deuteronomy. Do you think that God was trying to emphasize an important point? He not only was, but he IS emphasizing the most important point. God must be mine! These words were repeated so many times in Deuteronomy because the people were about to make a move. Not that they hadn't been moving for the last 40 years, because they had been. But this move was different. They were going to be settling down for awhile. They were coming into the Promised Land. It was full of cool stuff, like furnished houses and planted gardens. All the comforts of home just waiting for their arrival. Really cool stuff. However, there would be a great temptation to forget about God, who had brought them to this place. Funny how that works isn't it? Not really. But that is what happens with us i...

Deuteronomy 6: 5. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. https://bibliajfa.com.br/app/niv/05O/6/5 When asked for his idea of the greatest command, Jesus replied with the above text.  Years ago one of my college professors told the class that we could "love God and do what we pleased". I was surprised by his statement. But as he explained further, I could see how that what he said made total sense. When we love God, we will want to do what he loves. We will want to please him with our conversations, our plans and our thoughts. We will want to do what he wants with all of our being. So, remember, God is love and we are to love him back with everything that we have. 

Numbers 23: 19. God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? This is our problem most of the time isn't it? We think of God as a human. We find it difficult to understand how he can be eternal, all knowing all powerful and everywhere. It does not make sense. We can't fathom him. So we doubt him. We mistrust him. We don't talk to him. We can't see him and thus he is not present. The reality is that he IS all of the above. He is near. He does not lie. What he says he does. It's a guarantee. So, we need to know what he says and is saying. How? All of our knowledge and understanding of God comes from the Word. So pay attention. 

Leviticus is a priest's guide. It tells of sins and sacrifices; how to treat them and how to offer them. It illustrates the impossibility of keeping the Law. It pictures the holiness of God. If we read this holy, technically detailed and thorough book with God's holiness in mind, we will better understand Christ's perfect sacrifice. Jesus fulfilled the Law and thus eliminated the need for other offerings. He made the impossible possible by taking our place at God's alter. He offered his own blood as our perfect high priest. He set us free from the Law's requirements. His perfect, once for all, sacrifice paid the debt I owed. Leviticus is there between Exodus and Numbers to remind us of Jesus' cross work. Thank you dear Father. 

I know that the spies only spent one night in this place, but I think that this story deserves more digital ink. We remember that the children of Israel had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.  40 years is a long time. That walk was a tithe of the 400 years that they had spend as slaves. However, in the conversation that we are privy to in the book of Joshua chapter 2 we discover something amazing. Look at what she said to her two surprise visitors. “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth ...

So, yesterday I proverbially scratched my balding pate in wonder about the quickly traveling "spy news" from the house of prostitution to the palace, and was given a quick response from my lovely wife, of why that news was lightening quick. As I thought further on that story my mind wondered, "Why a brothel? Why didn't they go to a regular hotel or some more 'family-like' place?" Didn't they know that they were on a holy mission? As I showered, and meditated on the question, there came a Holy Spirit whisper. Have you ever had those? I know that you have. You know that they are from the Holy Spirit because they are so revelatory. In a good way of course. "Those spies HAD to go to Rahab's Place!" I almost cried as I thought about the ramifications of that visit some 3,000 years ago. They didn't know it of course, but if those two spies hadn't stayed at that house of ill repute, the universe would have imploded! Rahab and fam...

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. Joshua 2:1 Two spies, sent by the new leader Joshua, tool into Jerico for a friendly visit and find themselves at Rahab's Comfort Inn. How cozy. Soon afterward, that very night in fact, word reaches the king that there are two Jewish spies at Rahab's place. What? Who told him? How did they know that they were spies? How did the word travel so fast? I scratched my balding head trying to figure out the puzzling answers. After my reading of this passage in Joshua this morning I quipped the above questions to my lovely wife, who was on the opposite sofa in our living room, reading her Bible. Without batting an eye she says, "Well of course the news reached the king really fast. Don't you think that because the people were scared spitless that they saw these two lugs enter t...