Joshua 6-7:  Shouting at Jericho and a Do-Over at Ai

In his book on Joshua, James Boyce says that the most exciting lecture he ever heard was by a professor in military science. He held his students spellbound by describing a brilliant military campaign that employed a rapid strike into the heart of the enemy’s territory in order to divide the enemy’s forces. Then they attacked first south and then north. The military commander used psychological warfare to terrorize the enemy, then he attacked with speed and surprise. Boyce assumed this ancient military genius was Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar or Napoleon. Only at the end of the lecture did he divulge that it was Joshua, the commander of the Hebrew forces attacking Canaan. Then the professor also claimed that the British General Allenby in WW I had used Joshua’s strategy when he conquered Palestine in 1917. Allenby crossed the Jordan River and drove westward to the north-south road in the highlands. With the enemy forces divided the British destroyed the Ottomans to the south first, then turned and attacked to the north. This was precisely the strategy of Joshua in capturing the land of Canaan in the Bible’s account of Israel’s conquest of Canaan in the book of Joshua. The first obstacle to Joshua’s strategy was Jericho, located just to the west of the Jordan River. Jericho was a military fortress designed to protect the eastern approach to the land of the Canaanites. Israel could not afford to go around Jericho because it would leave a major enemy force on their flanks. Jericho had to be taken, but how? It had high thick walls with maximum protection, and Israel had no siege towers, no battering rams, and no catapults. All they really had was flint knives and swords.

Only God Could Implement a Plan Like This

The Captain of the army of the Lord who had encountered Joshua in Joshua 5:13-15, outlined a very unique plan to take Jericho. In Joshua 6:2-5, the Lord told Joshua that the battle was as good as won already, for the Lord would fight for Israel. Joshua and his armed men were to march around the city once a day for seven days with seven priests blowing trumpets while marching in front of the Ark, but on the seventh day they were to march around it seven times and when the priests blew the trumpets, the people would issue a loud shout and the walls of Jericho would fall inward.

Maybe you noticed that the number seven is used quite a bit with seven priests, seven trumpets, seven days, and seven circles on the seventh day. All through the Bible the number seven symbolizes completeness or perfection. The blaring trumpets (ram’s horns) were the “jubilee trumpets” used in Numbers 10:10 as religious instruments to announce the presence of the Lord. Therefore the priests were announcing to the people of Israel that God was present and getting ready to do something awesome. For six days the warriors of Israel circled the city following the priests and the Ark as the priests blew the horns, but the people were forbidden to make a sound until the seventh day. It is estimated that the walls of Jericho only contained about 9 acres, so it would only have taken about 30-40 minutes to do one circle around Jericho and then back to the camp. On the seventh day, they circled the city seven times, and then the priests blew the horns and the people shouted loudly. I’m guessing that for six days all the people wondered just what the Lord was going to do. Their part was to obey the strange instructions by faith believing that God would somehow give them the city. We can get the New Testament witness to this in Hebrews 11:30, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell after the people had marched around them for seven days”. When the trumpets blew and the people shouted with a great shout, the wall fell down. We have all been in football stadiums when the shouts of 80,000 people were deafening, so you can imagine the magnitude of the max shout of about 600,000 men.

Joshua 3-5:  Israel’s Watershed Event

In Joshua 3, the children of Israel were preparing for a watershed event, which was the crossing of the Jordan River into the “promised land”. A watershed is a piece of land that causes a river to change its course, and a watershed event is one that causes a turning point and change in the history of Israel. In this case the watershed was the power of God in holding back the river so that the nation of people could cross over and begin a new life. The transition was to be a new nation in a new land, and they were going from tents to permanent houses. Manna would cease, and the pillar of cloud would no longer guide them. They had a new leader in Joshua, but first they must conduct a holy war on the Canaanites. But the problem remained of how could 2-3 million people cross a major river while it was in flood stage? God gave them a promise that as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant touched the water, the waters of the Jordan River would be cut off and be dammed up so that the people could cross on dry ground.

Preparation for Crossing

In order to prepare for the crossing, the people were ordered to move up to the Jordan River from Shittim. In Joshua 3:1-4, they stayed on the east bank for three days while the leaders came through the camp giving instructions. The pillar of cloud with God’s glory, which they had followed for 40 years would no longer lead them, but now they would follow the Ark of the Covenant being carried by the priests. The people had to keep their distance by 2000 cubits (3000 feet) because of the holiness of God associated with the Ark.

In Joshua 3:5-13, the people would consecrate themselves, which was their spiritual cleansing and preparation for God’s great miracle of holding back the waters. The Lord spoke to Joshua and told him that the miracle would solidify Joshua as their new leader. Joshua would tell the priests to carry the Ark into the Jordan River and stand still. Then all the people would see the great miracle from the distance, and they would know that God was with them and doing this for them. The miracle would certify that God was in Israel’s midst and He would drive out the 7 tribes of Canaanites and give the land to Israel. The theological justification for the expulsion of the Canaanites was that God has dominion over the earth that He created, and His presence with Israel proved He was giving the Land to them.

The Crossing

Israel’s part in this great watershed event was to show up and exercise faith by stepping into the river. That sounds easy but we are told in v.14-15 that the timing was in April, the time of the harvest when the river was in its flood stage. Melting snow from Mt. Herman flowing down from the north, along with Spring rains would cause the river to be about a mile wide and flowing at a great rate. The defiant river was daring Israel to cross at its own peril. I’m sure the enemy forces watching from the west side of the river felt safe because of the natural barrier of the river protecting them. In Joshua 3:15-17, the priests carrying the Ark stepped into the river, and immediately the water from upstream stopped flowing near the town of Adam just south of the junction of the Jabbock River. This means that the stretch of dry ground would have been about 15 miles long. The Canaanites no doubt thought the flooded river would be an impenetrable barrier for 2-3 million people to cross, so you can imagine the fear of God that was put into them that day. The result was that God was glorified, Joshua was established, Israel was encouraged, and Jericho was terrified.

The Ark of the Covenant

There is a great emphasis in Joshua 3-4 on the people fixing their eyes on the Ark as a symbol of the presence of God. This is mentioned about 21 times in ch.3-5. Normally when people have to cross a raging river they focus on the river,

Joshua 2: Rahab The Harlot

In Deuteronomy 7:2, Moses commanded Joshua and Israel to completely wipe out the Canaanites, “you shall utterly destroy them”. Before the army of Israel crossed the Jordan River, Joshua sent two spies to scout out the first fortified city in Canaan–Jericho. The walled city of Jericho was the key fortress of the Jordan River Valley. It guarded the passes into the central highlands of Canaan, so it had to be taken first. These two spies were not exactly James Bond material. They were immediately spotted and identified as Jews. The spies come off as buffoons as do the soldiers of Jericho who were searching for them. Only Rahab who operated the local house of ill repute comes off as a hero. Amazingly she also just happens to be the only believer in the God of Israel that lives in Jericho. She appears to have everything against her, but somehow she believes in the one true God and by the providence of God she emerges as a sinful woman who was repentant and ready to be saved, and God in His grace would spare her and her family. Later in Joshua 6:25 we learn that Rahab the harlot became a Jewish proselyte and married a man named Salmon of the tribe of Judah, and one of her descendants would be King David. She is listed in the genealogy of Christ.

Since the Bible says that there is just one way to be saved, the question is often asked, “What about those who have never heard?” Rahab is a great example of someone who seemingly couldn’t be saved–she was a Gentile in an evil idolatrous city, she was an Amorite the worst of all the Canaanite tribes, and she was a prostitute. Yet she alone with her family was saved out of Jericho. She clearly was a believer in the God of Israel even though her faith was risky and costly. Imagine the peer pressure of your entire home town being against you. She had very little knowledge of God, but she did have a “childlike faith”, and God has promised that all who seek Him shall find Him (Jer.29:13, 2 Chron.15:4). She is one of many Bible stories that are examples of the sovereignty of God in evangelism. Out of all the people there, God sent the spies to her house. Both Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25 confirm her saving faith in God, and both passages refer to her as Rahab the harlot, meaning that she had been a despicable sinner but by the grace of God she was saved and forgiven. This sounds like someone I know–me. Why name Rahab and not the spies who are anonymous? Because the story is not really about them, it’s about her. What about those who have never heard? I think God sent those spies to her because He knew her heart. Based on God’s plan to completely destroy Jericho, the spy mission was unnecessary, so God sent the spies there to save Rahab, who had believed in the God of Israel. Even though Moses had directed Israel to wipe out the Canaanites, God intervened to save anyone who would believe in Him.

The Secret Recon Mission

In Joshua 2:1-3, we read that Joshua secretly sent two spies into Jericho to check it out. It looks like Joshua learned his lesson from Kadesh Barnea in Numbers 14 when the spies came back with an unfavorable report so the people of Israel balked and refused to go in. The two spies went directly to the local brothel in Jericho. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say they went there because it was a place where men gathered and you could get all the latest news, because they did find out that everyone in Jericho was very scared of Israel. Their disguises must have been really bad because they were immediately spotted, reported to the King, and he dispatched soldiers to Rahab’s place to arrest them. I imagine they wore those Groucho Marx glasses with fake mustaches. Rahab also knew who they were, and to everyone’s surprise she hid them, and lied to the soldiers saying “They went thatta way”.

Joshua 1: Be Strong and Courageous

After Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, he appointed Joshua as the military commander in Exodus 17:9 to fight the Amalekites. Joshua proved himself to be an able and faithful commander, and later in Ex.24:13 we read that Joshua is the trusted servant of Moses. After the giving of the Ten Commandments in Ex.20, Moses went up on the mountain for forty days to get further instructions, and Joshua accompanied him. Meanwhile the people of God had an orgy and worshipped an idol. In Exodus 32:17, when Moses and Joshua came down the mountain, it was Joshua who asked innocently, “What is the sound of war in the camp?” The raucous loud party they were having was the last thing faithful Joshua expected. In Exodus 33:11, Moses would go into the tent where the glory of God would speak to him, and Joshua would stand right out side guarding the entrance. After God had forgiven the people for their gross sin, Moses and Joshua led them to the southern border of the “promised land” that God had promised to give them. In Numbers 13, at Kadesh Barnea, God directed them to send 12 spies into the land of Canaan to map out the land. Joshua represented the tribe of Ephraim, and here in Nu.13:16 we see that Joshua’s name was Hoshea, but Moses renamed him Joshua. Hoshea meant “salvation”, but Moses added the abbreviation of God’s name to form Joshua, meaning “God is salvation”.

When the spies came back, ten of them had a very scary negative report that the cities were too fortified to conquer. The people were too big and well armed, and they outnumbered Israel. Only Joshua and Caleb said “We should by all means go up and take the land”, for God promised it and God would be with them. In Nu.14:6-9, Joshua pleaded with the people to obey God, but the stubborn people turned on them and threatened to stone Joshua and Caleb. God’s judgment against Israel was that the people of Israel would wander in the wilderness for forty years until every adult but Joshua and Caleb had died out. Thus only the children, the second generation would go into the “promised land” (see Numbers 32:11-16). Sure enough forty years later in Numbers 26:64-65, Moses took a census and not a single man or woman who had disobeyed at Kadesh Barnea was alive, only their children were left to go into Canaan. God had told Moses that he would die before they took the land of Canaan, so in Nu.27:16-19, Moses at God’s direction commissioned Joshua to be the new leader to take Israel into the land.

In Deuteronomy 31, Moses gave his farewell address to Joshua and the people and for emphasis Moses said three times “Be strong and courageous”. No wonder this was emphasized because the first generation had acted just the opposite when they were commanded to go in and take the land. Instead, they had been weak and fearful, not to mention disobedient. Joshua would complete the redemption of Israel begun in Exodus. Moses had redeemed Israel out of Egypt, but now Joshua would redeem Israel into the land of Canaan. The most important reason God gave for Joshua and Israel to “BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS” was that God would be with them. God’s presence and His promise guaranteed their success.

Joshua 1:1-9, Marching Orders

We know that Joshua wrote the book of Joshua for many reasons. Since “we” and “us” is used, it had to be an eyewitness participant. An early author is required because Rahab of Joshua 6:25 was still alive. In Joshua 15:63, the Jebusites were still in Jerusalem so it had to be well before David conquered it. The oldest manuscripts are titled Joshua and all Jewish tradition ascribes it to Joshua. Most importantly in Joshua 24:26 the text says “Joshua wrote these words”. Critics who believe it was written about a thousand years later say Joshua could not have written it because it describes his death in 24:29, but I’m sure that an editor could have added that.

In Deuteronomy 7:1-3 and 20:16-17,

Boasting for Jesus 2 Corinthians 10-12

This section has quite a different tone to it than chapters 1-9. Paul was primarily interested in his relational issues to the church in Corinth in ch.1-9, but now Paul becomes very confrontational against the false teachers in Corinth and the fools that follow them. False teachers were on the loose in the churches at Corinth, and they were criticizing Paul. These false teachers sought to discredit Paul while building themselves up, and their motivation was strictly personal gain. If they could discredit Paul and his ministry, they could set themselves up as the teachers and leaders in the churches there. Their criticism was about Paul’s unimpressive looks, lack of rhetorical skills, meekness, poverty, and sufferings. All these things were to Paul’s opponents evidence that his ministry was not blessed. Considering the humble life and sufferings of Jesus, their values were obviously inverted. The false teachers regarded humility and suffering as weakness and lack of skill. Corinth was Greek, and Greek culture, philosophy, and religion had no regard for humility—in fact there was no Greek word for humility because great men were proud–not humble. Therefore in 2 Cor.10:1, Paul identified himself with Christ and His example of meekness and suffering. As Paul makes the contrast between the attributes that are Christ-like vs. the proud boasting of the false teachers, he will get confrontational and sarcastic. This section then is devoted to blasting the false teachers, and aggressively proving they are “deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ”.

2 Corinthians 10:1-6,  The Battle for the Truth

In v. 1-6, Paul piles up the military terms to express the spiritual warfare for the minds of people in Corinth. Paul’s ministry of preaching the truth of the Gospel is like a mighty conquering army with divine power to demolish the strongholds of error that keep men captive. Paul has written previously several tough letters of admonishment to the church there, but fortunately they repented by the time he visited. Therefore the false teachers were accusing Paul of being tough in his letters but meek in person. Paul hoped that it would not be necessary to be bold and tough on his next trip, but he would definitely be bold towards the false teachers. The false teachers accused Paul of being selfish or in Paul’s terms “in the flesh”, but Paul makes it clear that this is spiritual warfare and his weapons are spiritual truth—the Word of God. The adversaries live metaphorically in strongholds of “every lofty thing raised up against the true knowledge of God”. This is a battle for the minds of people who may be held captive to the error of worldly religion, which is a system of works-righteousness. The fortresses of worldly selfish men take many forms such as—philosophy, works based religion, and cults. The objective of Paul’s warfare was to reveal the truth from God and redeem the minds of the people. He had one offensive weapon, which is the absolute truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:7-18, Relative Righteousness

The false teacher’s criticism of Paul along with their own boasting of themselves just reveals where their selfish emphasis is and their efforts to raise themselves up by bringing him down. They emphasize the materialistic worldly things that are in opposition to God. They were like the “health and wealth” gospel proponents of today’s televangelists. These bad guys criticized Paul’s appearance and his speech or way of talking. Meanwhile, they probably had expensive clothes, perfectly coifed big hair, and radio voices. They were boasting of their speaking ability being better, but all that amounted to was a personal assessment of their errant version of Christianity. Paul made it clear that comparing themselves to other people had no place in the ministry, just as he said,

The Grace of God

“For you know the GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor.8:9). This is one of those awesome passages that really causes you to think. Initially I was quite amazed where this passage, about the grace of God, is found. In this image, Paul uses the incarnation to reveal the grace of God. In the key chapter in the New Testament about giving, God placed this wonderful passage about grace. Paul uses this classic passage as our motivation to give. We should give because He gave us infinitely more. He gave us more than we possibly could ever return.

I love the way Paul uses words, particularly here the words rich and poor, poverty and wealth. It is up to us to figure out what type of riches and poverty he means, but with a clear view of the incarnation it becomes obvious. Jesus was “rich” in His pre-existence as God in heaven with all the prerogatives of God. These riches that Christ gave up in the incarnation have nothing to do with physical property or material wealth that we chase after. God doesn’t need to purchase anything, He needs nothing outside of Himself. He alone is totally independent, and He depends on no one else and nothing else for His riches. I can think of at least three ways that God is uniquely rich. Jesus was rich in glory. I remember the way John described the glorified Christ in heaven, “His eyes were like a flame of fire…and His voice was like the sound of many waters…and His face was like the sun radiating in its strength…and when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man.” (Rev.1:14-17). Jesus also was rich in power. In Jn.1:3 we are told of His power as the Creator of all things, “All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being”; and the author of Hebrews explains it this way, “He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.” Jesus was also rich in worship. Hebrews 1:6 says, “Let all the angels of God worship Him.” In the scene of heaven in Revelation 5, we see all the heavenly host worshipping the Lamb of God (Jesus).

In what sense then could Jesus have possibly taken on poverty? The Greek word used here for “poor” was commonly used to describe an indigent beggar beside the road. What Paul means is that though Jesus was so rich in heaven, He voluntarily laid aside His heavenly riches of glory, power, and worship to take on the flesh of man and enter a world of trouble, humiliation, and pain. Ultimately, Jesus carried this poverty to the extreme of dying the worst kind of death on the cross. Why would Jesus do this? In 2 Cor.8:9, Paul explains it by saying, “that you through His poverty might become rich.” Jesus gave up His riches and became poor so that we who were spiritually bankrupt could become spiritually rich. The Apostle John said basically the same thing in the well known passage of Jn.3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

There’s Got to be a Better Way

Why did God express His love in this way? Surely there was a better (easier) way. Why did God choose this way to redeem all who would believe? Scripture gives us multiple reasons why it had to be done in this way:

* Promises—all the promises of God in the Old Testament came true in Jesus’ incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. For God not to have sent Jesus, would have made Him a God of no veracity. Beginning with Abraham, then to all the Patriarchs and prophets, God said that He would bring a man from Abraham’s descendants, from the tribe of Judah, a descendant of David, born in Bethlehem who would redeem men to God.

 

* In Jesus, we have God revealed to us (John 1:18),

The Greatest Deal Ever Made 2 Corinthians 5:14-21

 

God’s love compelled Him to make the greatest deal ever made to all the people who would believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. God’s offer to us is that God the Son would enter the world by taking on flesh and blood (the incarnation), and then He would live a perfect sinless life and die as a sacrifice for our sins so we might be forgiven. We received the atonement for our sins as if they never happened, and Christ received persecution, suffering, and death. The penalty of our sins was borne by Christ so that we who believed would be saved. He traded His life for ours. What we could not do for ourselves (salvation), He did for us. Our part of the bargain is to believe in Christ and believe in what He did for us, so as to commit our lives to Him. Before I believed in Christ I was motivated purely by personal worldly concerns, but after I believed my motivation was driven by Christ’s love for me, the directing of the Holy Spirit, and the expectation of accountability and reward in heaven. It is mind blowing to me that God would love a dummy like me so much that He would leave His perfect glorious existence in heaven with all its reverence and worship for Him and prerogatives that God deserves, in order to come into this cess pool of a world to suffer and die on a cross for the likes of me. Since our need is so great, God has also indwelt all believers with His Spirit in order to teach, guide, and convict them. In 2 Cor. 5:10, we learned that at the Bema Seat Judgment Jesus will review all our lives since we accepted Christ as Savior in order to give account of our service or lack thereof, and then dole out rewards. We should all have a certain fear of loss and strive to hear the words “Good and Faithful Servant”.

Christ’s Love for Us Should Control Us

In 2 Cor.5:14, Paul said that he is moved by the love of Christ, meaning Christ’s love for us. Paul has concluded that Jesus died physically for all of us out of love, so that our reaction should be that we die to ourselves. He means that “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me, and the life I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up for me” (Gal.2:20). Since Christ died for all of us, we should no longer live for ourselves, but from this point on we should live for Christ. Since we are new spiritual people living for Christ, we don’t look at each other just by physical appearance, but what is important is what they are spiritually—we have a new system of evaluation. Any person who has a saving relationship with Jesus Christ is now a new spiritual person. The old worldly selfish person is in the past, and new spiritual things are ahead. We are considered by God to be “in Christ”, meaning we have entered into the most intimate union possible.

Reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Whether you believe Adam and Eve were historical or not, you can’t miss the meaning of their rebellion and fall representing the entire human race. As Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Because the perfectly holy righteous God cannot have fellowship with sinners, there is a chasm of sin that separates us from God, and we are alienated from God. Yet solely out of love God has done what is necessary to reconcile us to Himself by sending His Son to die as a perfect substitute for us. Since Christ has atoned for our sin, we can be reconciled by receiving our pardon by faith. The work done for our reconciliation is purely done by God. “All these things are from God”, means that God is the source of the messenger, the ministry, and the message of reconciliation. The ministry of reconciliation is not telling people to make peace with God, but telling people that God has made peace with the world. Since God has accomplished it,

Noble Ambition 2 Corinthians 5:9-13

Historically, ambition was usually characterized in a negative light. Julius Caesar had the great unbridled ambition to be the first Emperor of Rome, so his best friends murdered him. They feared his ambition would be the downfall of the Roman Empire. The Puritan Preacher of the House of Commons in England in 1648, Thomas Brooks famously said, “Ambition is a secret poison, a hidden plague, the engineer of deceit, the mother of hypocrisy, the parent of envy, the origin of vices, the moth of holiness, the blinder of hearts, turning medicines into maladies and remedies into diseases”. Scandals like Watergate prove that blind ambition causes people to do unthinkable acts and tell boldfaced lies. Good men will actually violate their own convictions and risk their reputations because of blind ambition. In fact, Watergate conspirator and Nixon lawyer John Dean wrote a book entitled BLIND AMBITION about the Watergate scandal detailing why good patriotic men who heretofore served their country well, became embroiled in such heinous scandal. Webster’s Dictionary defines ambition as “a strong desire to achieve or acquire fame, power, or money”. The prophet Jeremiah warned Israel in Jer. 45:5, “But you, are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek them!”

Nevertheless, the Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5:9 makes the statement that he is definitely ambitious, but his ambition is a noble ambition as opposed to a selfish ambition. Paul’s ambition has the goal we were created to fulfill, which was “to be pleasing to God”, to make God look good, and to do God’s will, and give God all the glory. The contrast then is between NOBLE AMBITION and selfish ambition. Noble ambition is a godly ambition to “walk in a way worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects (Col.1:10)”, and “whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus (Col.3:17)”, and “not one of us lives for himself, if we live we live for the Lord (Romans 14:7-8)”. The Greek word in our text of 2 Cor. 5:9 translated “ambition” actually is a compound word combining the word for love with the word for ambition, making it clear that Paul’s ambition was motivated by love for the Lord. Paul also used the phrase in 2 Cor.5:9, “whether at home in the body or absent” to say that his ambition was to please God here on earth or more perfectly in heaven. Since our sins are forgiven by the atoning work of Christ on the cross, many believers in Christ are surprised to hear that there will be a judgment upon Christians based upon the works they did after they became Christians. You could say that this judgment will be about whether we had selfish ambition or NOBLE AMBITION.

Paul’s Driving Motive—the Bema

In the ruins of ancient Corinth that we can visit today, you can actually see a raised platform in the center of what was the marketplace in 57 AD. When Paul was arrested in Corinth in Acts 18:12, he was taken to see the proconsul or governor of the territory of Achaia who sat on a judgment seat on that raised platform, and it was called the “Bema Seat”. The governor heard the charges against Paul, declared him innocent and drove his accusers away from the Bema Seat. This judgment seat in Corinth was also used to hand out rewards at the Corinthian games held there, as well as the Olympic games often held there. The Greek games originally began as religious festivals in which the entertainment was races, wrestling, and other tests of skill and strength. The awards handed out to the winners were laurel wreaths called crowns. Therefore from that judgment seat (the Bema), everything handed out was a positive reward for how they ran the race. The Judgment Seat of Christ mentioned in 2 Cor.5:10, is like the judgment of those athletes at the Greek games. In fact the New Testament authors, and in this case Paul, likened the Christian life to an athletic contest or to running a race,

Groaning with Anticipation  2 Cor. 5:1-8

The context of this forward look anticipating the resurrection is Paul’s situation discussed in the previous chapter. In chapter 4:8-9 he was afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down on a regular basis, but he persevered in spite of it. In 4:10-11, he was always “carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus” meaning he faced death every day just as Jesus did. Paul had a sense of imminent death, and yet every day he went out and preached the Gospel. How did he face the reality of it, and still have such boldness and confidence? His confidence came from what he said in 4:18, that his focus was on the heavenly things to come. His coming resurrection was such a reality to him that he was motivated to face death confidently.

In 2 Cor. 5:1, the author connects with ch.4 by starting with “For” or because WE KNOW something about the resurrection. How can he be so sure? Let’s look at the facts: Jesus promised it in John 6:40, “It is the will of God that everyone who believes in Jesus may have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day”. In Matt.22 Jesus was debating the Sadducees about the resurrection and He quoted God from Exodus 3:6, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (present tense)” He is not the God of the dead but of the living-Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive! Next, all the Apostles personally were eyewitnesses of the resurrected Christ and over 500 believers saw Him at one time who were still alive to tell. Could all these credible witnesses who were willing to die for Jesus been wrong? Peter, James, and John even witnessed the transfiguration of Christ’s resurrected glory. In 2 Peter 1:16, Peter wrote, “we were eyewitnesses of Christ’s majesty and we heard God’s utterance”. Of course Paul was the last Apostle to see the resurrected Christ in person on the road to Damascus in Acts 9. How could they doubt the resurrection when they had the assurances of the resurrected Christ? For Paul, heaven is not just a destination, it is a motivation to press on every day like running a race with your focus on the goal line.

2 Cor.5:1-4, Do you want a Tent, or a Building from God?

Paul used the image of a tent for our current earthly body because he was a tentmaker when he lived in Corinth (Acts 18:3). Our earthly body is just like a tent in that it is temporary and transitory. Our “tents” are a temporary home for our eternal souls. The tent analogy reminds me that the Tabernacle during Israel’s Exodus was a temporary tent that was replaced by the far better building of the Temple of Solomon. After Israel entered the Promised Land they got the Temple. So also, these temporary bodies of ours will be replaced by the far better resurrection bodies when we enter the Promised Land. Until then, we groan from the longing for what’s better. Paul was weary, frustrated, and often weak, so he groaned as he longed for his “dwelling from heaven”. In v.3 Paul says there is some continuity in the sense that the soul needs a body, and so after our earthly body dies “we will not be found naked” since we will have a new heavenly body. The Corinthians were Greek so this concept would have been new to them, because Greek religion and philosophy taught that the body was evil and the soul was good, so they longed to become disembodied spirits; but the truth is that God has created our souls to have a body. Our resurrection body will fulfill God’s purpose for eternity.

In v.4, Paul says we groan because of the burden of this present body, but we do not want to be unclothed, we just want the perfect body that does not cause us so much trouble. In this body now we feel pain and anxiety, we age, and we die; and we also struggle as imperfect people because of all the lusts that cause us to fall into sin. We don’t want an imperfect body that falls apart and also sins, but we do want a perfect eternal heavenly body. In v.5,

The Paradox of Christianity  2 Corinthians 4:7-18

I grew up being taught by parents and teachers that if I obeyed God’s commandments then God would bless me in life. I think this is ingrained in the moral compass of the entire “western world” that is influenced by the Judeo Christian ethic. Yet, our experience may be different in that we go through various hardships even though we are walking down the straight and narrow path of God’s law. In particular, we notice that missionaries, who were called by God to go to darkest Africa, or the Amazon rain forest have been killed by natives in the past. How or why would God allow such horrible things to happen to His people who are serving Him and being obedient to His calling? Biblically, we read in the book of Acts that the Apostles that Jesus sent out into the world to preach the Gospel were often beaten, arrested, and even martyred. In 2 Corinthians 4:7-18, Paul explains how this apparent paradox works, and explains why God actually wills this to happen. The Apostle Paul actually found encouragement in his afflictions because he witnessed the power of God in using a beat-up weakling like him to do great things. While afflictions were his in abundance, hundreds of churches were being planted and thousands of people were being saved. How could poor little old Paul be changing the world? As Paul said in 2 Cor. 3:4-6, “Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but OUR ADEQUACY IS FROM GOD, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant”.

2 Cor. 4:7 – Awesome Treasure in a Cheap Clay Pot

We have all heard the cliché “You can’t judge a book by its cover” or the adage that you can’t judge the value of something by the package it comes in. This is certainly true of Christian missionaries who may not look like much, but their message of salvation is pure gold. In Matthew 13:44-46, Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like a valuable treasure buried in common dirt, or expensive pearls that come in oysters. The great contrast between the glory of the Gospel message and the beat-up pitiful container (Paul) it comes in is the heart of this passage. In 2 Cor. 4:7, Paul wrote that God has put this great treasure in common “earthen vessels”. It’s obvious the earthen vessels are the Apostles ordinary physical bodies. The image is of the inexpensive clay jars or pots that everyone used in the first century. These clay pots had no value, so their only worth was in what they contained. In the same way, Paul’s adversaries complained that he didn’t look like much, and Paul makes the point that his value to the churches is huge because of the treasure he brought them. Like all of us, Paul’s imperfections stood out in contrast to the glory of the treasure he brought them. What was the treasure? In the preceding six verses we read what he had brought: this ministry, the Word of God, the light of the Gospel, the preaching of Christ as Lord, and the light of the knowledge of God. Therefore the treasure is the whole Gospel message about Jesus, whom God sent as the perfect sacrifice to die on the cross to atone for our sins, and by believing we are forgiven and receive eternal life.

In What Way are God’s Messengers Invincible?

In 2 Corinthians 4:8-18, Paul lays out the paradox of Christianity through four parallel paradoxes that illustrate the truth of Paul’s statement in verse 7 that believers are earthen vessels with God’s treasure in them. In the image that Paul used, he is the earthen vessel that is empty, but God fills it with His power to persevere through trials. Therefore these four paradoxes in v.8-18 are autobiographical of Paul’s life. The paradoxes present ascending weaknesses, which were countered by God’s empowerment. Paul’s humility and weaknesses that he describes in v.8-18 did not destroy his ministry, but actually strengthened it.