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First Reading: Joshua Chapter 7 and 8Joshua 7
7:1 But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things;
Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah,
took some of them. So the LORD's anger burned against Israel.
2 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east
of Bethel, and told them, "Go up and spy out the region." So the men
went up and spied out Ai.
3 When they returned to Joshua, they said, "Not all the people will have
to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary
all the people, for only a few men are there." 4 So about three thousand
men went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, 5 who killed about thirty-six
of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries
and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted
and became like water.
6 Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark
of the LORD, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same,
and sprinkled dust on their heads. 7 And Joshua said, "Ah, Sovereign LORD,
why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the
hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on
the other side of the Jordan! 8 O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has
been routed by its enemies? 9 The Canaanites and the other people of the country
will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the
earth. What then will you do for your own great name?"
10 The LORD said to Joshua, "Stand up! What are you doing down on your
face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded
them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen,
they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. 12 That is why
the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and
run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you
anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.
13 "Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation
for tomorrow; for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: That which
is devoted is among you, O Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until
you remove it.
14 "'In the morning, present yourselves tribe by tribe. The tribe that
the LORD takes shall come forward clan by clan; the clan that the LORD takes
shall come forward family by family; and the family that the LORD takes shall
come forward man by man. 15 He who is caught with the devoted things shall be
destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant
of the LORD and has done a disgraceful thing in Israel!'"
16 Early the next morning Joshua had Israel come forward by tribes, and Judah
was taken. 17 The clans of Judah came forward, and he took the Zerahites. He
had the clan of the Zerahites come forward by families, and Zimri was taken.
18 Joshua had his family come forward man by man, and Achan son of Carmi, the
son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken.
19 Then Joshua said to Achan, "My son, give glory to the LORD, the God
of Israel, and give him the praise. Tell me what you have done; do not hide
it from me."
20 Achan replied, "It is true! I have sinned against the LORD, the God
of Israel. This is what I have done: 21 When I saw in the plunder a beautiful
robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing
fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside
my tent, with the silver underneath."
22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden
in his tent, with the silver underneath. 23 They took the things from the tent,
brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread them out before the
LORD.
24 Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver,
the robe, the gold wedge, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep,
his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor. 25 Joshua said, "Why
have you brought this trouble on us? The LORD will bring trouble on you today."
Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned
them. 26 Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this
day. Then the LORD turned from his fierce anger. Therefore that place has been
called the Valley of Achor ever since.
Joshua 8
8:1 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered
into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. 2 You shall
do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may
carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the
city."
3 So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand
of his best fighting men and sent them out at night 4 with these orders: "Listen
carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don't go very far from
it. All of you be on the alert. 5 I and all those with me will advance on the
city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee
from them. 6 They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city,
for they will say, 'They are running away from us as they did before.' So when
we flee from them, 7 you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The LORD
your God will give it into your hand. 8 When you have taken the city, set it
on fire. Do what the LORD has commanded. See to it; you have my orders."
9 Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in
wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai-but Joshua spent that night with
the people.
10 Early the next morning Joshua mustered his men, and he and the leaders of
Israel marched before them to Ai. 11 The entire force that was with him marched
up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north
of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. 12 Joshua had taken about
five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west
of the city. 13 They had the soldiers take up their positions-all those in the
camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua
went into the valley.
14 When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out
early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking
the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set against him behind
the city. 15 Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back before them,
and they fled toward the desert. 16 All the men of Ai were called to pursue
them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city. 17 Not a man
remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open
and went in pursuit of Israel.
18 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is
in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city." So Joshua held
out his javelin toward Ai. 19 As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush
rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and
captured it and quickly set it on fire.
20 The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising against the
sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction, for the Israelites who
had been fleeing toward the desert had turned back against their pursuers. 21
For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that
smoke was going up from the city, they turned around and attacked the men of
Ai. 22 The men of the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that
they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them
down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives. 23 But they took the king
of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
24 When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the
desert where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to
the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it.
25 Twelve thousand men and women fell that day-all the people of Ai. 26 For
Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed
all who lived in Ai. 27 But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock
and plunder of this city, as the LORD had instructed Joshua.
28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place
to this day. 29 He hung the king of Ai on a tree and left him there until evening.
At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take his body from the tree and throw it down
at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over
it, which remains to this day.
30 Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel,
31 as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelites. He built it
according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses-an altar of uncut
stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the LORD
burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings. 32 There, in the presence
of the Israelites, Joshua copied on stones the law of Moses, which he had written.
33 All Israel, aliens and citizens alike, with their elders, officials and judges,
were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the LORD, facing those
who carried it-the priests, who were Levites. Half of the people stood in front
of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant
of the LORD had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people
of Israel.
34 Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law-the blessings and the curses-just
as it is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that
Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel,
including the women and children, and the aliens who lived among them.
1 Corinthians 2
2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior
wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know
nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came
to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching
were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's
power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom
of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we
speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined
for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood
it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However,
as it is written:
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has
prepared for those who love him"-
10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among
men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same
way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not
received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may
understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words
taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual
truths in spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the
things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and
he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual
man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's
judgment:
16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?"
But we have the mind of Christ.
SUPER HEROES OF THE BIBLE
RAHAB
Rahab was a Canaanite woman of Jericho. She lived in a house built into the wall of the city. She may have been a prostitute or an innkeeper. However, she was a courageous woman, who after hearing about what God had done for Israel, trusted in Him. She hid the Israelite spies in her house so that they would not be apprehended and asked to be saved when Jericho was defeated. When the Israelites fought against Jericho, she hung a scarlet cord in her window and she and her household were spared.
Rahab's faith is testified to in the New Testament: "By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient." Hebrews 11:31 (NIV)
Rahab is also listed as one of the forebearers of Jesus in Matthew 1:5.
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