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Chapter 1: What are the March reflections in The Bible Recap podcast?
Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Welcome to our March RNC episode. We're aiming to do an episode like this at the end of each month, offering some reflections and some corrections. Let's start with the reflections and look back at all we've covered so far. We just finished the book of Joshua, our seventh book.
Chapter 2: How does the Bible's metanarrative unfold in the book of Joshua?
So let's get the 30,000 foot view on where we are in the chronological timeline of the Bible's overall metanarrative. The Bible is one unified story. Way back in Genesis, God set out to build a relationship with one particular family, but things went terribly wrong when they fractured the relationship through sin. But their sin didn't surprise God.
Chapter 3: What is God's plan for restoring the broken relationship with humanity?
He already had a plan in place to restore this relationship even before it was broken, and He continues working out that plan immediately, undeterred and unhindered by their rebellion. He sets apart a man named Abraham to be the patriarch of this family, and he gives this family a name, the Israelites. They're a bunch of busted people who lie, cheat, and steal.
God blesses them despite their sin, but sin still has its consequences. One of the long storylines of consequence is of the 400 years they spend enslaved in Egypt. God sent a man named Moses to demonstrate his power over the Egyptian ruler who's enslaving them. And eventually, he reluctantly agrees to let the Israelite slaves go. They flee to the desert, led by God and his servant Moses.
Little by little, God gives these people the basic rules of how to have a stable society— All they've ever known is slavery under a cruel dictator. They've never seen good leadership demonstrated. They're a bunch of uncivilized, ungrateful people who have only just met God and Moses, and they're not keen on obeying either of them.
But in the midst of their sin and stubbornness and foolishness, God knows that what their hearts need is Him. So He sets up camp among them in the desert. He's already told them how to have a civil society, so now He begins telling them more about how to interact with Him. That involves establishing a team of people to help mediate this relationship, to make sure everything goes as He commands it.
He sets up a system of sacrifices and offerings and puts together a calendar of feasts to celebrate His provision for them. More than anything, He wants them to remember who He is to them, the God who rescued them out of slavery. He's trying to point them back to the truth that people who recognize Him as God can rely on His pattern of faithfulness even when they are unfaithful.
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Chapter 4: Why did the Israelites spend 40 years in the desert?
But they keep forgetting. And every time they forget, they either get fearful and disobey, or they get prideful and disobey. Their disobedience lands them a 40-year sentence in the desert wilderness. And on top of that, they will not get to move into the land God keeps talking to them about. But the good news is that their kids get to go in—
After all the first generation dies off, God raises up a new leader, Joshua, to lead them into that promised land. Joshua learns to listen to God and do what he says. And as a result, they begin to take the land God promised from their enemies, the Canaanites, who currently live there.
Chapter 5: Who is Joshua and what is his role in the promised land?
This generation of Israelites is living in the fulfillment, at least partially, of the things God promised to Abraham, the first Israelite, way back in Genesis 12. They are numerous, they are a nation in relationship with God, and they're living in the land He promised to give them, even if they're still among their enemies at this point.
Now that they're in the promised land, Joshua appoints plots of lands for all the tribes and remind them that they're supposed to eradicate their enemies who live there. God cares about the intimate details of our lives, even those that might seem beneath his concern.
Just as Joshua is about to die, he makes one final push for them to be thorough with this, and he reminds them that they should never worship the Canaanite gods. They should only worship Yahweh. The people agree to this and promise to follow Yahweh alone. Tomorrow, we enter the book of Judges.
It's a bloody book, but it brings us an important reminder of what happens when people don't follow Yahweh and follow their hearts instead. Okay, that's all for the reflections part of this episode, and we don't have any corrections to add for this month, thank God. However, I do want to add something that I found interesting and thought you might appreciate.
Every year, we hear from lots of you who are grieved or confused or even frustrated by the fact that Moses didn't get to enter the promised land. When I recapped it, I mentioned that he was going somewhere far better to be with God. But for a lot of you, that wasn't much of a consolation.
So I wanted to share something with you that a few of the people in our Recaptains family posted in our official Recaptains Facebook discussion group. Honestly, it's something I'd never thought about, and I knew you'd love it as much as I did.
At least three people in our Recaptains Facebook discussion group pointed out that while Moses didn't get to enter the Promised Land with a bunch of entitled, bitter Israelites, he actually did get to go there. And his experience was far superior to what any of them experienced when they crossed over. So if you stick with us for the rest of the reading plan, you'll get to see it.
We'll eventually hit a part in Matthew 17. It's giving me chill bumps just thinking about it. It's where Jesus is standing on a mountain with Peter, James, and John in a scene known as the Transfiguration of Jesus. And all of a sudden, Moses and Elijah are transported there as well. What a moment.
And according to Luke 9.31, the conversation they were having on top of that mountain was about Jesus' upcoming death and resurrection. The whole experience is so great that Peter offers to set up tents so they can just keep hanging out there. If I were Moses, I might have been thinking, thanks a lot, buddy, but I've already spent my fair share of nights in a tent.
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