Paula Price

This was an opportunity for Mary to introduce her son as the Messiah to her family and friends on a big scale. Until now He was not known to all the family or the people who came from far and wide. There were still many who were not aware of who Jesus was and this was center stage, to let people know just who her son was. By asking him to do this at a big important event, the word would spread fast and would reach many when the guest returned to their homes. Jesus was not ready to begin his ministry here, at this place. He receives His instructions from His father per prayer, as to what God wants Him to do. He is not doing His will, but the Fathers will in every aspect of His life and ministry. He states this through out His ministry, "I do the will of my father, who sent me". Jesus prays faithfully before doing anything!. He does only what He is told to do by His Father. Jesus had already been told where to go and when to start His ministry. He was on His way to Jerusalem to teach in the Synagoues for their Holy Festivities. That is were His ministry was to began. It was to be His introduction to the religious community, and to the people. He was suppose to go and teach and tell of what God wanted for his people. That is what he meant when He say it was not yet His time. He knew that doing this would reveal Him as the Messiah. But this wasn't the place for or time yet for Him to be known. He needed to preach and teach the gospel before doing wonders so that people would hear the word of God first. The wonders and miracles would show proof of who he is so that they would believe the word of him when he told them. That is how God wanted to introduce His son to the world. The world needed to hear the word of God and they needed to hear it through Jesus for that was the promise God gave to Israel, His chosen people. Now at this wedding , he is being revealed before completing the assignment he was sent to do! Now, why does Jesus perform the miracle?? It is the will of God that He is obedient to his parents and honors them, just a God expects obedience from us. Mary knew this and perhaps in her eagerness to let people know who her son was, she over stepped and did not realize that God had his own time for his son to be known. But God allowed it .!!! I am not sure as to why Jesus addressed Mary in that way. Perhaps He wanted her to know that it was more important for Him to do God's will, His heavenly Father's will, and that her role as his mother did not override that. She was not as important. What she wanted him to do was not to be before what God wanted him to do. He was not here to do her will. At any rate, He performed the miracle. The wine was beyond anything that was produced on earth!! And it could not be explained nor denied that it happened! The glory of God revealed at a wedding!!.

Joshua's challenge question was are you friend or enemy? Up until this time, God had only made himself known to Joshua through spoken word. Now he is in the flesh and Joshua is not aware of who it is before him. He is caught off guard so to speak, not expecting God to appear before him to lead the people. Now God is demanding the people to follow HIM, and not Joshua. There is no substitute . God is the power and the commander of his army... We are to follow him and do his will in all thing... He has trained his people through obedience to do his will and now he is leading the charge in battle.....

The manna stopped because God made provisions for them to be able to grow food on their own land. The manna was to sustain them until that time .,"

Let us not loose the focus on the lesson here. It is all bout GOD and what he can do!!! Joshua is following the commandments of God. He is doing everything that God is commanding him to do. The stones from the Jordan are to be a testimony of the power of God. How else could they have gotten there from the bottom of the Jordan River??? In that day and time??????? There were no other stones such as those from the bottom of the river sitting around on shore!!!!!!! Generations will view them and ask how they got there.!! They shall not be moved. God said so!!!!!!!! We are not talking about pebbles or bricks that a man can easily lift!!!! These stones are proof of the power of living God!!!!! He gave the strength to remove them from the bottom of the river before he return the water to flow again..!!! It is important to pass on our history to the next generation. Our children today do not understand the struggles we went through because there is no history of it and it is not being told to them. We want things to be better for them than they were for us so we share our struggle, just our triumphs over overcoming. God wants us to remember who he is and what he has done and what he will continue to do for his children who are faithful and obedient. It is not about us. It is all about God!!!! He uses man to show his power, how else would we believe it???? We have to see the physical with our eyes!!! God made us so he knows that!..

Joshua was able to announce the miracle of the Jordan because it was told to him by God. God told Joshua he would do this to make the people believe that he was with Joshua as he had been with Moses. Joshua's faith and obedience to God is what makes him a great leader. There was no prediction of events to happen. It was the direct foretelling of what God was going to do, told to Joshua by God .

This is a lesson in how to approach God on a spiritual level. Everything that the Israelites are ask to do by God is a lesson on what is require of God in order to receive his blessings and his protection. In order to be in the presence of God we must be pure, clean , spiritual. The people are learning how to clean themselves, to be sanctified consecrated and holy before God. We can not be partakers of the inheritance if we are dirty, sinfully, unholy or unrighteousness... These are not the same generation that was delivered from bondage in Egypt, remember? They died in the wilderness... this generation has to be taught over on how to please God and what He expects, especially for the one who may not have been taught because the rituals were not passed down or keep, or they may have adopted other tradition from peoples they came in contact with. So God is preparing them and showing them what is required to be His chosen people, so they in turn can teach the world and others who they come in contact with. This whole book is a lesson in faith and obedience.

God is preparing the people to enter the land that is promised to them. They are ordered to leave by God to take possession of the promise land. They were only suppose to camp there until God gave the order for them to leave. Perhaps it is was a rest stop to help recovery from the long journey and to prepare themselves for what was to come. God had a plan and their obedience was vital to that plan. They were learning how to obey and trust in God for all things and learning to expect God to supply all there needs.

The fact that she was willing to hid the spies because of what she heard about their God and how He dried up the Red Sea and how He fought and destroyed their enemies and other kings. Rehab believes that Yahweh is the one true living God and is powerful beyond any god that she knows. Her faith and fear of Yahweh is greater than her fear of the king and the soldiers. A faith needs to be deep enough to produce a change in ones life. Rehab's belief was deep enough for her to change her way of life and repent and accept Yahweh as her God.

Why do we focus on a person's sin.? We have all sinned.... Jesus came to redeem us from sin. Every disciple Jesus chose was a sinner once. God looks beyond our faults and sees our needs. We have need to be saved from sin. One sin is just as bad as another whether it is prostitution, lying , murder,.... a sin is a sin... there are no degrees.....God hates sin. the act of sin, not the person who is sinning. Jesus came to deliver us from sin. We are all under grace. It is because of God's love for us that he gives us grace.... he does not want to see us lost...She is honored because of her faith and her belief in God and because she repented and accept God and turned from sin.... I am redeemed bought with a price, Jesus has changed my whole life. If anybody ask you just who I am tell them I am redeemed.... That is why Christ died on the cross..... to redeem us from sin and back to God.

I believe God honors Rehab for her faith in Him and in her confession in believing Him to be the real and living God. It is in this instance that she is forgiven of sin and is saved from being destroyed with the city. Our focus should be on the reason she is willing to hide the spies, because she believes in their living God and has fear of Him and that fear is deeper than any fear she has for her government and the soldiers. She fears Yahweh more than any punishment she would receive from hiding them from the king. She has stated this to the spies, that they had heard of how their God dried up the Red Sea for his people to escape and all the other miracles that were done. She and her people had great fear of their God and did not want to fight against Him!!!! She recognizes Yahweh and calls Him by His name as being the powerful and the only one true and living God. This is why God honors her and protects her.

The spies were sent to learn of the cities layout and of its defense and how to enter it for battle. I think they lodged in Rehabs house because the soldier's would not have thought to look for them there had someone not told them they were seen going there. They were known for their religious beliefs and association with sinners would not have been acceptable. I do believe that God sent them there for it was in his plan to laid the way for the birth of the Messiah. It is through the linage of Rehab that the promise would be fulfilled. God always has a plan and we are called according to his purpose.

God is promising that as long as we are under his protection, He will not allow anything to harm us. Of course we are required to trust and obey him at all times, which means we must pray and commune with him daily and constantly as he has required of us. It is through this communion, this daily walk, this constant prayer and talk with him that he makes his presence known to us and ministers to our daily needs. We are to continue in the faith in order to receive the promises of God for our lives.

We are barren without the love of God. When we walk in sin and do not obey God, He denies us and takes away his love and his protection. The sense that Jerusalem was barren means that they did not have the love, the joy , the peace of God. Jerusalem is the people of God who believe and walk in his word and do his will. Who trust and obey and live according to the purpose of God. Jerusalem was barren as long as they sinned, but when they turned from their wicked ways and ask God for forgiveness and once again walked in holiness and righteous, they were no longer barren. God made his promises of the covenant true just as he said he would. "your maker is your husband" means that God is our maker, for he made us in his own image, therefore we are his people. the church, which is made up of the saved, those whom God has added to His church, we are the bride and Christ is our husband. He will love, provide and protect us as long as we are obedient to Him. He will provide joy, peace, comfort, happiness, whatever we need, he has promised to provide.

"No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you; Be strong and of good courage...for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you; turn not from it to the right hand to the left, that you my have good success wherever you go. this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you SHALL have good success. Have I not COMMANDED you?? Be strong and of good courage, be not frightened, neither be dismayed. for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go..." these are Gods words to Joshua.....he is to lead the people and to instruct them also to do the same as God has instructed him.. it is a command.... to be strong and very courageous.... and to do all that the book of the law has instructed....( to walk in his word and do his will.) This is what is expected today as it was then... they were written for all who believe in God and seek him. God fights our battles... the battle is not ours to fight... we are to be strong and courageous and to do what he commands us to do..... our battle is to be obedient.. not to worry or fear.....but to trust and obey.....(Joshua 1:5-9)

In this scripture God is speaking to Joshua and giving him instructions on how to lead the people as he did with Moses.. I do not know why we seek to reason and ask questions of what is meant by God's word. he requires us all to meditate, which is to read his word daily, which will keep him and is word in us and with us constantly. Jesus communed with the Father every day to seek instructions from him on what His will was for him in the day. We have the word, the bible, that has been given, to know what God requires of us and how to obtain his will for us daily. We are to walk n this word and seek him and do what he is asking us to do, if we want eternal life with him. Just as God is instructing Joshua to lead the people and show them and tell them what He requires of them, they must as we must do everything according to his will and purpose. I don't know what Eastern meditation is, and I'm not concerned with it either, for that will distract me from doing God's will. When we accept Christ as our personal Savior we must read and meditate on His word to commune with the Father because it is through him that God works in our lives and in our hearts. God sees the heart of us. He knows our hearts and our minds.. There is nothing hidden from him. He sees, all and knows all. The book of Joshua is a continuation of instructions for God's chosen people on being obedient to God's will and what will happen when they are and what will happen when they aren't. The promises of God. Today, there is only one people of God. Salvation is promised to all who will believe and trust and obey in the word of God. There is no denominations. No Jew or Gentile. Just God's people, Christians, who are called by his name, according to His Purpose. He adds to this church, we can not join or no man can accept or add to it. Read Acts 2, during Pentecost... "and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved..."

The songwriter wrote " where he leads me I will follow". The old testament is the example of the faithfulness of God to a people who will trust in him and obey his command or his word. We get caught up in the physical and forget that God is spiritual. We are spiritual. The physical will pass away, but the spiritual is eternal. God has given Joshua a command and tells him exactly where to go and what to do. The "conditional promise" is, if you do what I tell you, and go where I send you, I will give you. That is the promise that God offers to all who trust and obey. I want to receive eternal life with Him. While I am here physically, I live to do His will, as I do His will, he provides my needs, whatever they are. That is his promise to his people who walk in his word and do his will. He tells us to not be concern about physical things but to live for the spiritual and when we do that he supplies whatever physical we may need when we ask in his name. God is concerned about the soul of man, the spiritual. Man is concerned about the physical because that is what we understand. We process the teachings of the Bible as worldly possessions because it deals in physical lands and worldly and earthly history. but it is only an example to live by, to show how to obtain that which is promised, which is spiritual, and that is salvation from sin and to live with God eternally. The land that was promised, is promised , the "Promised Land" is HEAVEN....." where God reigns". To live with Him in all His glory. The bible uses symbolism and metaphors to give man something which he understands to compare with. Plain and simple......let's hear the word of God, the whole 66 books of the bible...... Genesis 1... " IN THE BEGINNING GOD''......REVELATIONS..." I AM THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA, THE BEGINNING AND THE END, SAYS THE LORD, WHO IS AND WHO WAS AND WHO IS TO COME, THE ALMIGHTY". . . Those who hear the word, believe, confess, repent and walk according to His will and His word, who keep His commandments shall not perish but have everlasting life. Not physical but spiritual life. That is the promise of God to all who believe. The body is physical, it returns to dust... the soul is spiritual, eternal... we live to God.

this is symbolism for Salvation which is promised in Isaiah that it will come to pass for all men, that it will be offered to all men not only to the Jews but to the Gentiles as well. Isaiah is foretelling of the coming of the Messiah who will be given to all mankind as a gift of sacrifice from God to redeem man from sin. The old scriptures are a pattern to show the world what is expected from God to have eternal life with him. A people was chosen to show the way to salvation. But when they sinned and did not followed the commandments of God, there needed to be a way to be redeemed back to Him. The old testament foretold this prophecy of a Savior who would redeem man from sin which is fulfilled in the new testament. The chosen people who were the Jews were suppose to teach the world the ways of how to please God. God's plan was to include all man kind not just the Jews in this plan of Salvation so he sent his son to earth to be a light, to show a dying world that there is forgiveness of sin and a way to be made right in the eyes of God again. This is the feast of rich food, Jesus is the feast of the good food which is Salvation. We are saved from sin and redeemed in the eyes of God if we chose to believe and obey and walk in the word of God and do his will.

1 John 2 tells us that we are not to love the things of this world for they are sinful and anyone who loves sin, does not love God. the ways of the world are to please man and self. We were created in the image of God, to worship and do his will. We were created for his pleasure, not our own. We were created to do His will and not our own. Did man speak and create the universe? the earth is the Lord's and the fullness there of, the world and all that dwells there in. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every word into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or evil. This is His promise....... Do you believe??? We are all held accountable for our own actions and when we die, that is our judgment day, to stand before God and be judged. It does not matter if we think now that that time will come in the future. When we die there is no more future. that future is when our spirit leaves our bodies at that time and it is up to how we lived that determines our future....did we live unto the Lord? did we keep his commandments??? While we live and have our being, while there is still breath and blood running through our veins. Let us walk holy and righteous before our God now, and then we need not be concern about where we will spend the future, for we have his promise of where that will be.

This is the warning that God has assigned to Isaiah to tell his people. The wages of sin is death. God has promised His protection to those who walk in his word and keep his commandments. The old testament is full of the stories of how God instructed his people to live according to His will and walk with him and keep his commandments and when they did not, they were destroyed, punished and separated from Him. Man can not serve two masters. We have to choose who we will serve.. God has always promised His favor on those who trust in him and obey his will and his word. he rewards those of us who do. And for all those who chooses to continue to walk in sin and not obey the will of God, death and destruction will be their master. All of these questions are asking the same thing and the answer is always the same no matter how it is worded. The old testament is full of stories of the faithful few who trusted in God and followed him and did what he told them to do. Even thought the promises would come to pass years and years and generations after, they trusted ad believed that God would deliver on his promises and stayed faithful to his word and doing his will. There were those who did not live to see the promise but never wavered in the faith that it would come to pass, because GOD PROMISED IT. Both scriptures, the old and the new, repeat the same promise. God is to be feared, obeyed, and worshipped. There is no other god who can promise eternal life. Those who believe and love and walk with him and keep his commandments are his children and will gain all the promises of the riches in glory with him. Those who continue to sin and will not obey will be destroyed. Let us not be so caught up in the world and what is going to happen to it, but focus on what we are expected to do to ensure eternal life with him. Let us continue to lift up the name of Jesus and let our light shine so that others will see our good works and glorify the Father. Let us continue to testify of his goodness and his faithfulness in our lives so that someone will say, "what must I do to be saved?"

The prophecy about the future Jerusalem is that all men will be able to have God's salvation, not just the Jews who were chosen to lead the world to Christ, but the Gentiles as well will be include. God has declared that he will be exalted and praised and worshipped whether man choose to believe or not. And those of us who do believe will receive joy and peace that surpasses anything we know here on earth. There is a lot of imagery and suggestive words but they all mean the same thing which is basic and simple, really. God is the ruler and King and He has prepared a place for his people in his kingdom where we shall reign with in in love peace and harmony. All that is required of us to go where he sends us, do his will, love and worship Him and one another, trust and obey Him. Honor Him as our Lord and Savoir, do his will, and not our own.

It is unreasonable to expect anything from God if were are not obeying his commandments. His promises are to those who accept him and love him and keep his commandments. To his people who serve him and do his will who love him and worship him, anything we ask of him he has promised to give. When we serve him he protects us and provides for us. That is his promise to us.

God says that Judah is confused of their identity because they sin and serve someone other than the God to whom they belong. All animals obey their masters and do the masters will except Judah. The things that Judah are doing is not of God. They are disobedient to the will of God who chose them to be his people and his followers. The consequences for Christians today are the same when they do not walk in the word of God. We are separated from Him and death is our punishment. God accuses them of vain worship, of praying and offering sacrifices and prayers to Him for an offering that they do not deserve, for they do not keep his commandments of loving and caring for one another. They pray and ask of God without obedience. They continue in their sin afterward. That is vain worship. God offers his mercy and grace of forgiveness if they would repent and turn back to him and serve him with obedience and do his will.

This prophecy tells us that the Jews will no longer be the chosen people, that all men will come to be the people of God so long as they are obedient to his word. The Jews at this time were chosen to show the way of what will be expected and to set an example for the world to follow. God taught his law to his people so that they could prepare the world to receive the one who will redeem all men back to him. All men, Jews and Gentiles will be able to receive the word of God and be forgiven of sin and have the gift of eternal life. The prophecy foretells of a time when there will be a hunger for the word of God and a peace will come so that their will be no more war and men will live together in peace and harmony.

Judah is confused about who is it's master, it's father, it's maker, it's God. It has become a sinful nation filled with iniquity and evildoers and they have forsaken the Lord their God. The wages of sin is death to all generations who do not obey the word of God and obey his commandments. God accuses them of not taking care of the fatherless and the innocent and the needs of his people as he has instructed them to do. it is unreasonable for Judah to expect anything from God when they have not kept his commandments and they are living in sin. As an alternative God offers to forgive their sins if they repent and pray for forgiveness and become obedient to his word again. He will then restore them and they can eat the good of the land.

Jesus showed us the pattern for communion with God the father. Each day before sunrise he would go to a solitude place to pray alone. That was his way of talking to his father and giving thanks and for receiving his instructions for the day. He would often tell his disciples that he does nothing on his own but he does only what his father does and say. Jesus came to do the will of God the father and his prayer time was his way of communing with God to receive his instructions on what was to be done for the day. The only power that we have comes from God the father. Jesus knew this and lived his live according to the will and the power of God the father. God's spirit lives in us to do his will, not our will. We were created in him for good works, to worship and to do his will. We are nothing except by his will and grace and mercy. He created us for his glory, all things come of thee o Lord and of Thine own have we given back to Thee. I find that my day goes better when I start with prayer praise and worship and it does not have to be long and drawn out just grateful and sincere. But I also just let the spirit led me when I listen and hear him speak. There are days when I spend all day in bible study and on piano singing and worshipping by myself. then there are days when I share devotion time with a prayer partner by phone and we can spend 2 or 3 hours just praying and praising and reading scripture and singing hymns and just lifting each other up in prayer. Communing with God each day is our way of receiving instructions just as Jesus did. For we are here to do the will of God and how do we know what that is unless we talk and commune with Him? Daily!!