The One Year Bible TLB (84 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
The Lord makes us strong! Sing praises! Sing to Israel’s God!
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Sing, accompanied by drums; pluck the sweet lyre and harp.
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Sound the trumpet! Come to the joyous celebrations at full moon, new moon, and all the other holidays.
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For God has given us these times of joy; they are scheduled in the laws of Israel.
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He gave them as reminders of his war against Egypt where we were slaves on foreign soil.
I heard an unknown voice that said,
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“Now I will relieve your shoulder of its burden; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.”
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He said, “You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you; I answered from Mount Sinai
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where the thunder hides. I tested your faith at Meribah, when you complained there was no water.
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Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings. O Israel, if you will only listen!
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You must never worship any other god, nor ever have an idol in your home.
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For it was I, Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Only test me!
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Open your mouth wide and see if I won’t fill it. You will receive every blessing you can use!
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“But no, my people won’t listen. Israel doesn’t want me around.
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So I am letting them go their blind and stubborn way, living according to their own desires.
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“But oh, that my people would listen to me! Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths!
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How quickly then I would subdue her enemies! How soon my hands would be upon her foes!
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Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him; their desolation would last forever.
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But he would feed you with the choicest foods. He would satisfy you with honey for the taking.”
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A wise youth accepts his father’s rebuke; a young mocker doesn’t.
April 13So, early the next morning, Joshua brought the tribes of Israel before the Lord, and the tribe of Judah was indicated.
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Then he brought the clans of Judah, and the clan of Zerah was singled out. Then the families of that clan were brought before the Lord and the family of Zabdi was indicated.
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Zabdi’s family was brought man by man, and his grandson Achan was found to be the guilty one.
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Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the God of Israel and make your confession. Tell me what you have done.”
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Achan replied, “I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel.
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For I saw a beautiful robe imported from Babylon, and some silver worth $200, and a bar of gold worth $500. I wanted them so much that I took them, and they are hidden in the ground beneath my tent, with the silver buried deeper than the rest.”
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So Joshua sent some men to search for the loot. They ran to the tent and found the stolen goods hidden there just as Achan had said, with the silver buried beneath the rest.
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They brought it all to Joshua and laid it on the ground in front of him.
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Then Joshua and all the Israelites took Achan, the silver, the robe, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, donkeys, sheep, his tent, and everything he had, and brought them to the valley of Achor.
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Then Joshua said to Achan, “Why have you brought calamity upon us? The Lord will now bring calamity upon you.”
And the men of Israel stoned them to death and burned their bodies,
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and piled a great heap of stones upon them. The stones are still there to this day, and even today that place is called “The Valley of Calamity.” And so the fierce anger of the Lord was ended.
8:
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Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid or discouraged; take the entire army and go to Ai, for it is now yours to conquer. I have given the king of Ai and all of his people to you.
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You shall do to them as you did to Jericho and her king; but this time you may keep the loot and the cattle for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.”
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Before the main army left for Ai, Joshua sent thirty thousand of his bravest troops to hide in ambush close behind the city, alert for action.
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“This is the plan,” he explained to them. “When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away.
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We will let them chase us until they have all left the city; for they will say, ‘The Israelis are running away again just as they did before!’
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Then you will jump up from your ambush and enter the city, for the Lord will give it to you.
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Set the city on fire, as the Lord has commanded. You now have your instructions.”
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So they left that night and lay in ambush between Bethel and the west side of Ai; but Joshua and the rest of the army remained in the camp at Jericho.
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Early the next morning Joshua roused his men and started toward Ai, accompanied by the elders of Israel,
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and stopped at the edge of a valley north of the city. That night Joshua sent another five thousand men
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to join the troops in ambush on the west side of the city. He himself spent the night in the valley.
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The king of Ai, seeing the Israelis across the valley, went out early the next morning and attacked at the plain of the Arabah. But of course he didn’t realize that there was an ambush behind the city.
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Joshua and the Israeli army fled across the wilderness as though badly beaten,
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and all the soldiers in the city were called out to chase after them; so the city was left defenseless;
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there was not a soldier left in Ai or Bethel, and the city gates were left wide open.
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Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Point your spear toward Ai, for I will give you the city.” Joshua did.
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And when the men in ambush saw his signal, they jumped up and poured into the city and set it on fire.
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When the men of Ai looked behind them, smoke from the city was filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. When Joshua and the troops who were with him saw the smoke, they knew that their men who had been in ambush were inside the city, so they turned upon their pursuers and began killing them.
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Then the Israelis who were inside the city came out and began destroying the enemy from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught in a trap and all of them died; not one man survived or escaped,
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except for the king of Ai, who was captured and brought to Joshua.
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When the army of Israel had finished slaughtering all the men outside the city, they went back and finished off everyone left inside.
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So the entire population of Ai, twelve thousand in all, was wiped out that day.
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For Joshua kept his spear pointed toward Ai until the last person was dead.
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Only the cattle and the loot were not destroyed, for the armies of Israel kept these for themselves. (The Lord had told Joshua they could.)
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So Ai became a desolate mound of refuse, as it still is today.
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Joshua hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening, but as the sun was going down, he took down the body and threw it in front of the city gate. There he piled a great heap of stones over it, which can still be seen.
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Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel at Mount Ebal,
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as Moses had commanded
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in the book of his laws: “Make me an altar of boulders that have neither been broken nor carved,” the Lord had said concerning Mount Ebal. Then the priests offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings to the Lord on the altar.
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And as the people of Israel watched, Joshua carved upon the stones of the altar each of the Ten Commandments.
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Then all the people of Israel—including the elders, officers, judges, and the foreigners living among them—divided into two groups, half of them standing at the foot of Mount Gerizim and half at the foot of Mount Ebal. Between them stood the priests with the Ark, ready to pronounce their blessing. (This was all done in accordance with the instructions given long before by Moses.)
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Joshua then read to them all of the statements of blessing and curses that Moses had written in the book of God’s laws.
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Every commandment Moses had ever given was read before the entire assembly, including the women and children and the foreigners who lived among the Israelis.
9:
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When the kings of the surrounding area heard what had happened to Jericho, they quickly combined their armies to fight for their lives against Joshua and the Israelis. These were the kings of the nations west of the Jordan River, along the shores of the Mediterranean as far north as the Lebanon mountains—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
Jesus now told this story to his disciples:
“A rich man hired an accountant to handle his affairs, but soon a rumor went around that the accountant was thoroughly dishonest.
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“So his employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about your stealing from me? Get your report in order, for you are to be dismissed.’
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“The accountant thought to himself, ‘Now what? I’m through here, and I haven’t the strength to go out and dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg.
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I know just the thing! And then I’ll have plenty of friends to take care of me when I leave!’
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“So he invited each one who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe him?’ ‘My debt is 850 gallons of olive oil,’ the man replied. ‘Yes, here is the contract you signed,’ the accountant told him. ‘Tear it up and write another one for half that much!’
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“‘And how much do you owe him?’ he asked the next man. ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ was the reply. ‘Here,’ the accountant said, ‘take your note and replace it with one for only 800 bushels!’
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“The rich man had to admire the rascal for being so shrewd.
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And it is true that the citizens of this world are more clever in dishonesty than the godly are.
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But shall I tell
you
to act that way, to buy friendship through cheating? Will this ensure your entry into an everlasting home in heaven?
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No!
For unless you are honest in small matters, you won’t be in large ones. If you cheat even a little, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.
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And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?
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And if you are not faithful with other people’s money, why should you be entrusted with money of your own?
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“For neither you nor anyone else can serve two masters. You will hate one and show loyalty to the other, or else the other way around—you will be enthusiastic about one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
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The Pharisees, who dearly loved their money, naturally scoffed at all this.
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Then he said to them,
“You wear a noble, pious expression in public, but God knows your evil hearts. Your pretense brings you honor from the people, but it is an abomination in the sight of God.
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Until John the Baptist began to preach, the laws of Moses and the messages of the prophets were your guides. But John introduced the Good News that the Kingdom of God would come soon. And now eager multitudes are pressing in.
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But that doesn’t mean that the Law has lost its force in even the smallest point. It is as strong and unshakable as heaven and earth.
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“So anyone who divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
God stands up to open heaven’s court. He pronounces judgment on the judges.
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How long will you judges refuse to listen to the evidence? How long will you shower special favors on the wicked?
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Give fair judgment to the poor man, the afflicted, the fatherless, the destitute.
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Rescue the poor and helpless from the grasp of evil men.
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But you are so foolish and so ignorant! Because you are in darkness, all the foundations of society
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are shaken to the core.
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I have called you all “gods” and “sons of the Most High.”
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But in death you are mere men. You will fall as any prince—for all must die.
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Stand up, O God, and judge the earth. For all of it belongs to you. All nations are in your hands.
The good man wins his case by careful argument; the evil-minded only wants to fight.
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Self-control means controlling the tongue! A quick retort can ruin everything.