Line Upon Line

This teaching walks through Exodus 15, from Israel's triumphant worship song after the Red Sea crossing to the bitter waters of Marah, showing that God leads His redeemed people into the wilderness to prove their faith and teach them that He alone is their provision, protection, and praise. The central image is casting the tree—the cross—into the bitter waters so that God can make them sweet.

Teaching through Exodus 14, Pastor Miles shows how God deliberately led Israel to be boxed in at the Red Sea—between Pi-hahiroth, Migdol, and the pursuing Egyptian army—to prove that He is not confined to a box. The trial becomes a picture of the wilderness every believer passes through after leaving the world, and the whole point is that God be glorified before a watching world.

In the closing chapter of Joshua, Joshua gathers Israel at the historic site of Shechem and leads them through four movements—a recall of God's mighty acts, a call and commission to serve the Lord, a caution about the cost of forsaking Him, and the opening of a covenant. The teaching emphasizes God's initiating grace, the danger of forgetting His works, and the summons to choose this day whom we will serve.

In Joshua's farewell address, Pastor Miles teaches that an aging Joshua gathers Israel after 25 years of rest to remind them of God's faithfulness and to urge them to cleave to the Lord, keep His word courageously, and avoid the gods of the surrounding nations lest they be chastened. The message calls believers to be courageous, cautious, consistent, and careful, holding fast to God who transforms the weak and foolish.

A study of Joshua 22, where the two-and-a-half tribes return home across the Jordan and build a controversial altar. Pastor Miles uses their story to warn against allowing possessions to possess us, settling for superficial faith, and living as "borderland believers" outside the rest God desires for us.

This teaching traces how the tribe of Levi—once cursed for their cruelty—became God's ordained priests who received no inheritance but were given 48 cities scattered throughout Israel. It shows that God faithfully provides for both His people's physical and spiritual needs, and that He supplies His ministers through the stirring of His Spirit rather than through human demand.

Pastor Miles teaches on the six cities of refuge established in Joshua 20, showing how this easily-overlooked provision for the accidental manslayer points forward to Christ as the true, seventh city of refuge. He argues that every person has unwittingly killed the Son of God by their sin, and that salvation comes only when we realize our guilt, confess it, and flee to Christ, staying in Him under our eternal High Priest.

As the remaining seven tribes of Israel gather at Shiloh without yet claiming their inheritance, Joshua confronts them with the question, "How long are you slack to possess the land?" Pastor Miles uses this to challenge believers against spiritual inertia, urging them instead to press in by faith and lay hold of the abundant, Spirit-filled life God has given them.

As the land of Canaan is divided among the tribes of Israel, Pastor Miles draws a portrait of Caleb seeking a man, Othniel fighting for a bride, and Aksa boldly asking her father for "the springs of water"—a picture of Christ winning His bride and the believer persistently asking the Father for the overflowing life of the Holy Spirit. He contrasts this persistent seeking with the tribes of Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh, who failed to drive out their enemies and refused to labor for the inheritance God had already given.

A study of Joshua 14:6-15 centered on Caleb, who at 85 asked for Hebron—the mountain other spies feared because of its giants—as his inheritance. Hebron pictures fellowship with God, and the teaching shows how Caleb obtained it by giving a faithful report, following the Lord fully, and fighting the good fight of faith in God's promise and presence.