Genuine Leather Bible

Joshua and Caleb stood before the children of Israel in Numbers 14 ready to give their report of what they saw in the Promised Land. Verses 7 through 9 is their impassioned plea to the people to trust the Lord’s leading.

And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.

Their report was that the land was “exceeding good.” The land flowed with milk and honey. The Israelites shouldn’t fear the Canaanites, though they were giants, because God was on their side. It was time to trust God and receive their promised inheritance.

But the reaction of the people isn’t what we would expect. Numbers 14:10 says:

But all the congregation bade stone them with stones.

Their reaction was to pick up stones and kill the two men who brought the report that God was with them and God would do the work needed to overtake the land. The people could not bring themselves to trust the promises of God. The result is that they wandered in a wilderness for 40 years and all the adults, save the 2 they wanted to stone, died before entering the Promised Land 40 years later.

What is it today that you have trouble trusting God about? Would you rather obey God, or silence the ones who bring the message of victory just because you don’t want to hear it?

Summary of the Book of Judges

Like Joshua, Judges is a historical book. It follows Joshua chronologically beginning with the death of Joshua at 1370 B.C. It covers a period of about 300 years until the death of Samson in 1070 B.C. Judges bridges the period of time when the people had settled into their inheritance but before they were given a king.

The main subjects in the book are the wickedness of the people and the 12 judges. Thus the title Judges.

The recipients of this book are not specifically named. This seems to be the case for all of the historical books in the Bible. The book was written as a reminder to future generations of how God has worked in the past.

Author

According to Jewish tradition, Samuel was the author, but there is no strong proof for this. Clues as to when it must have been written support that Samuel could have been the author. It seems to have been written shortly after the events of the book. There is no reason to think it was not Samuel other than the lack of proof that he was the author.

Date Written

The time period covered in the narrative is about 300 years from the death of Joshua to the death of Samson, 1370 to 1070 B.C. However it was written at a time after Israel had a king. Several times in the book the statement is made such as, “in those days there was no king in Israel.” (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21-25). This is an indication that the author knew there would be a king in Israel. It is as if there was a king at the time of the book’s writing. But it was also written early in this period as shown in Judges 1:21. In this verse the Jebusites still lived in Jerusalem, even though the Bible says that David drove them out in 1003. Therefore the book had to be written after kings were established in the land, but before David drove out the Jebusites from Jerusalem. Or, sometime between 1047 and 1003 B.C. Read the rest of this entry

When I was in school I memorized this poem. Each year we had a poetry contest where we would do an interpretive presentation of a poem or piece of prose. Yes, I know it prose isn’t the same as poetry, but it fit the rules. I always tried to choose a poem that had meaning for me; something I would be glad to have spent the time memorizing.

I could not find much information about Martha Snell Nicholson. I did find out that she wrote quite a bit of poetry and suffered many years from incurable diseases, though I never found out what her illness was.

I hope you enjoy this poem as much as I do.

My Advocate

I sinned. And straightway, post-haste, Satan flew
Before the presence of the Most High God,
And made a the railing accusation there.
He said, “This soul, this thing of clay and sod,
Has sinned. ‘Tis true that he has named Thy name,
But I demand death, for Thou hast said,
‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die.’ Shall not
Thy sentence be fulfilled? Is justice dead?
Send now this wretched sinner to his doom.
What other thing can righteous ruler do?”

And thus he did accuse me day and night,
And every word he spoke, O God, was true!

Then quickly One rose up from God’s right hand,
Before whose glory angels veiled their eyes.
He spoke, “Each jot and tittle of the law
Must be fulfilled: the guilty sinner dies!
But wait—suppose his guilt were all transferred
To ME and that I paid his penalty!
Behold My hands, My side, My feet! One day
I was made sin for him, and died that he
Might be presented faultless, at Thy throne!”

And Satan fled away. Full well he knew
That he could not prevail against such love,
For every word my dear Lord spoke was true!

—Martha Snell Nicholson

If you have any more information on this author I would be curious to know more about her. Leave a comment with what you know.

Summary of the Book of Joshua

Joshua chronologically follows the book of Deuteronomy. In the English Bible it also follows Deuteronomy in order. About 30 years of time are covered in the book of Joshua from 1400 to 1370 B.C. The title of the book comes from the main character, Joshua.

Joshua is a book of history. The first five books of the Bible covered quite a bit of history as well, but their prime focus was on the Law. Joshua is the first of the 12 historical books: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.

Like the other historical books, the recipients of this book are not specifically named. They are books about God’s dealing with His people. It can be assumed that the book was written as a reminder to future generations of how God worked in the past. Throughout the Bible, God commands the people to build altars of remembrance. These altars helped one generation teach the next generation about God. This book (as well as the other historical books) serves as an altar of remembrance today.

Author

The book of Joshua does not specifically name its author. It has historically been held that Joshua himself was the writer of the book. Even if he did not write the book personally, he must have planned the writing of the book. Moses seems to be the author of Leviticus and Numbers, partially proven by the fact that the one to whom God spoke the words of the book was the one who wrote it (Numbers 1:1 and Deuteronomy 1:1). Using that pattern, it appears that Joshua was probably the author of the book of Joshua.

A few verses of the book are written after the death of Joshua. That section obviously had to be written by someone else. That “someone else” may have been Eleazar or Phinehas, Aaron’s son and grandson respectively. Whoever wrote the book (Joshua or another writer) was present at the crossing of the Jordan river into the Promised Land, based on the usage of the first person pronoun “we” in Joshua 5:1. He was an eye witness to the events as indicated by the wording of Joshua 6:25. Read the rest of this entry

The Bible teaches us that the three enemies of the Christian are the world, the flesh and the devil. Yet, we are not left defenseless. We are promised ways to overcome these three enemies as well as given help by the different persons of the Trinity in our battle.

Enemy: The World

When the Bible talks about the world being our enemy it is not talking about the dirt and rock we live on. The Bible is referring to the system and philosophies of the world. This is the constant undercurrent of pride and humanism that says we can anything we want to do in our own power. It is a philosophy that pushes out God. Even Christians are tempted to think that they can live godly lives without the help of God and His guidance. This is the world trying to control our thinking. (John 15:18-25; I John 2:15-17)

Defense: Faith

While I John talks about the world being our enemy to pull us away from God in chapter 2 verses 15 through 17, the book also tells us in chapter 5 verses 4 and 5 that our defense is faith in God. This faith is in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins. Salvation is our defense over the world. This does not mean that we will never be tempted by the world, but that we can overcome the world through faith in God and His work.

Helper: God the Father

The love of God will come along side us and protect us from the world. When we place our attention and love toward God, our attraction to the world will diminish. (I John 2:15)

Enemy: The Flesh

Paul tells in Romans 7 about an internal struggle that he faces. While he wants to do good, he has a war within him because his flesh desires evil. Even the Apostle Paul who wrote half of the New Testament struggled with his own flesh. This internal struggle is shown in Romans 7:14-25. Even after our salvation the flesh is still present with us.

Defense: Walking in the Spirit

However, Paul did not walk away giving us no hope. He opens chapter 8 of Romans with these great words: 

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. —Romans 8:1-5

God desires to guide us through His Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God can help us overcome the flesh. Yes, there is an enemy, but there is also a provided defense. (Galatians 5:16, 17)

Helper: Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit indwells the believer. Romans 8:8, 9 says that the Holy Spirit is within us to guide us through this battle with the flesh.

Enemy: The Devil

The devil is an enemy who confronts each of us. We are powerless on our own to stand against him. However, we are given examples in the Bible of how to overcome this formidable foe. We know the end of the story told in the Bible. We are convinced that the devil will be defeated; but, until then we struggle with a day-to-day battle with him and his attacks.

Defense: Scripture

Jesus Christ gives us a good example of how to deal with the attacks of the devil. The Bible tells us in Matthew 4 when Jesus was tempted by the devil that Jesus quoted scripture as His own defense. The devil even tried to twist God’s Word in his temptation of Christ (Matthew 4:6). Jesus continued to quote scriptures back to the devil.

An interesting contrast is the way in which the devil incorrectly quoted God’s Word when speaking to Eve in the garden. He was able to cause Eve to doubt God’s love for her and Adam because she wasn’t certain of exactly what God had said. This is a good lesson to us to learn what the Bible actually says instead of twisting the scriptures to say what we want them to say.

Helper: Jesus Christ

Of course Jesus is the one who conquers Satan in the end. Jesus has already delivered a death blow to Satan on the cross. The war is already determined, we just have a few more battles to fight. Jesus’ resurrection sealed the devil’s fate. This was all prophesied back in the third chapter of the Bible. God tells Satan in Genesis 3:15 that a child would come who would bruise the head of Satan. The Old Testament is filled with stories of a people eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Redeemer to save them from their greatest enemy—the devil.

Yes there are enemies we must face every day; however, we are also given defenses and protection by God to overcome these enemies.