Author: Ryan Hale

God rejected Saul because he would not lead the people with an obedient heart toward God. Saul seemed to want to have the advantages of God’s presence, God’s blessing, and God’s power, but he didn’t seem to want to know God himself. In other words, Saul looked like he was a Godly king, but in reality, he was far from it, not obeying God but only desiring the appearance of obedience, and so God rejected him.

David, though, was the youngest of eight sons of a man named Jesse. He was, in fact, just a shepherd. He was small compared to his brothers and compared to them, he certainly didn’t look like a king. But he loved God, and this is the type of king that God wanted for Israel and the type of king that Israel needed.

As Samuel went to anoint the new king, he saw the first of Jesse’s sons named Eliab and he thought that this son was certainly the one that God had chosen. He was tall. He was good looking. He looked as if he could be a king.

But God was clear with Samuel. Eliab was not the one that God had chosen. And there were six more that came afterward, but it was none of them. No, instead, it was a man that wasn’t even there. Samuel looked at all of the sons, but God didn’t choose any of them. So they waited for David to return from the fields, from shepherding the flocks, and when he returned, God clearly spoke to Samuel that he was the one. God chose him because he saw David’s heart:

When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD.”

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:6-7

It would be great if we ourselves could see people’s hearts. It would be wonderful if we had the ability to discern who they truly are and who they will be based on the purity of who they are within their heart.

This is a challenge that our team routinely, in fact, has to face. We look for people who want to make disciples for Christ. We look for those that truly want to follow Jesus and lead or help others to do the same. But this often proves to be a significant challenge. How can we possibly see a person’s heart to know whether they are really the right person in whom we should be investing ourselves in more and more with our time and limited resources?

We don’t have the ability to truly see a person’s heart as God does. We cannot look inside of a person to see who they truly are. Thankfully, though, each of Jesus’s teachings remain true today, and there are a couple that we try to apply to these questions in particular. Here is the first:

If you love me, keep my commands.

John 14:15

Jesus told his disciples that if they love him, they must keep his commands. How can we show Jesus that we love him? We obey him. We do what he says. This is how, according to Jesus, we can show him that we love him. We keep his commands.

So how can we know someone’s heart? How can we know whether or not they truly have a heart to follow Christ? How can we know that they truly love him? We look to see whether or not they are obeying Christ’s commands. Are they demonstrating love for him by obeying him? That is a good first step to know whether this person is truly one that desires to know Jesus more and more and whether or not they have a desire truly to love him. Not just that they enjoy the benefits of knowing him, but truly know him. Do they obey Christ’s commands? Then we can see that their heart is set upon loving Christ.

Jesus also taught his disciples, along with many others, these simple truths:

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!

Matthew 7:15-23

Do we want to know what type of heart the person has? We can see their heart by the fruit that they produce.

I have a friend that used to tell me this on a regular basis: “Roots produce fruit.” What did he mean? He was saying that those things that are deepest within us will produce the fruit that we see. An apple tree, if its roots are connected to good soil and is nourished well, will produce good apples.

In the same way, as we look to the people in whom we wish to invest, we need to look and see the fruit that is being produced already. It could be that the people in which we wish to invest may be producing fruit, but it may not be the fruit that God is looking for from us. God has called us to produce fruit of the Holy Spirit and to make disciples of Christ. Is that what is happening? Is that the fruit that is being produced by the people with whom I am connecting? Even if their vision could be enlarged…or even if their methods could be improved, do we see disciples being made? If so, then we can know their heart (the roots) by the fruit that they are producing.

So we should be sure to not look at the outward appearance. We should not be deceived because we see a person that the world would consider to be a success…or for that matter, even a person that the church would consider to be a success. No, instead, we need to look for those that are producing the fruit that God has called us to produce and in this way, we will be able to see their heart, looking at what is within from what is being produced outwardly.

It is one thing to believe it. Many people believe the truths about God. Many will say “Amen” when a great truth about God is preached to the church.

It is another thing to believe it to the extent that you act on it. It is another thing to change your life. It is another thing to “push all of your chips into the middle of the table” as a result of the truth that you have believed.

Those are two separate things altogether.

Jonathan was Saul’s son. Saul was the first king of Israel and Jonathan fought in Israel’s army. He believed the truth about God based on how God had led and saved the Israelites before.

But Jonathan didn’t just believe. He acted upon what he believed. He moved. He went to work. His life was lived based on his beliefs in his God.

So while his father, Saul, was camped under a pomegranate tree, sitting with the nephew of Ichabod, the man whose name means “the glory has departed”, Jonathan instead moved forward. He acted on his belief that God would be the one who would gain the victory, if the victory was to be won at all.

Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few. ”

1 Samuel 14:6-7

The two of them, Jonathan and his armor-bearer, climbed up to the outpost of the Philistines and were able to kill twenty of the Philistines. Two of them defeated twenty, and that seemingly small victory started an even larger fight that would send the Philistine army into a great confusion with itself, even causing them to fight against one another.

At that point, once they heard that the Philistines were in confusion and were on the run, the rest of the Israelites joined the fight. But in truth, the hard work had already been done. God had already won the battle. God had already used those Jonathan and his armor-bearer to set off the chain reaction that would bring the great victory that Saul, the king, would eventually claim for the Israelites.

All because one person believed and two people went to act on that belief.

Jonathan didn’t have any guarantees that God would move. He didn’t know for sure that God would act on their behalf. In fact, he told the armor-bearer that “perhaps” the Lord would act. But he didn’t know for sure. He took a risk based on the character of God. He took a risk knowing what God had already told them to do. He hoped that it would work out and that they would achieve a victory, but he didn’t know.

What about us? Do we risk to accomplish what God has already told us is his plan? Do we step out and do what God has told us to do? Or do we listen and say “Amen” then go home and sit ourselves underneath the pomegranate tree? Let us pray that God would raise up more people who will act upon what we say that we believe. And let us be a people that not only listen to the word of God, but act upon it.

The Israelites had truly strayed far from God. They were no longer following God as a people. They were no longer acknowledging him and doing what God had called them to do.

Even worse, at Shiloh, where the tabernacle had been set up and the ark of the covenant was found, Eli’s sons were abusing the sacrifices that were being offered and even sleeping with the women who were serving at the tabernacle.

So when the time came to go to war with the Philistines and the Israelites were losing, the elders of Israel thought that they could possibly get an advantage over the Philistines if they were to bring the ark of the covenant to them there where they were fighting. They might have remembered how the Lord had previously gone before Joshua and the Israelites to empower them, to drive out the Canaanites, to allow the Israelites to defeat their enemies, even though they were a weaker people than those that the Israelites had found in the promised land.

When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the LORD bring defeat on us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Shiloh, so that he may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.”

So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the LORD Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

1 Samuel 4:3-4

The elders called for the ark to be brought from Shiloh, and Hophni and Phinehas, Eli’s two sons, quickly obliged and brought the ark. And while the arrival of the ark gave the Israelites a morale boost, the power of God was not available to the Israelites because they had left God long ago.

I think that we can see in this story that we, at times, like to enjoy the benefits of God, even if we don’t enjoy God himself. The Israelites were far from God, and yet they wanted God to rescue them. They wanted the physical representation of God in having the ark by their side, maybe in the same way that we like to go to church or to other religious ceremonies, but we don’t necessarily want to spend time with him. We don’t necessarily want to do what he has said. We prefer the benefits of God without the true relationship of being the people that he has called us to be.

This is important warning for us as believers and followers of Jesus. It is critical that we stay in relationship with Christ, that we abide in him, that we obey what he has said that we must do. Otherwise, we will lose our connection to the source, just as the Israelites did. Otherwise, we will truly lose the power of God in our lives, just as the Israelites did. We will begin, instead, to substitute the benefits of God for relationship with God himself. We will begin, instead, to find boosts in morale when we think about what our relationship with God once was, or in symbols that represent a relationship with God, instead of walking with him in loving obedience on a daily basis. And we will be defeated before our enemy, just as the Israelites were before the Philistines.

Let us, instead, remain connected to Christ. Through the word of God, in prayer, in avoiding sin, and most of all, in obedience to all that he has called us to do, in all that he has called us to be. This is the way that we will show love to him and this is the way that he will be glorified in our lives.

It looks like Ruth was trying to seduce Boaz as he was sleeping there on the threshing floor, but it is important to try to also understand the cultural context of what is happening so that we can best understand the story that is being told in the Bible.

First, Ruth, whose story is being told here in this book of the Bible, isn’t even a Jewish woman. She is a Moabite. She comes from one of the people groups that God had told the Israelites to wipe out as they entered the promised land so that they wouldn’t be distracted by, and turn to worship, their gods. Her husband was an Israelite who had come into the Moabite land because of a famine in the land of the Israelites at that time, and they hand intermingled and inter-married with two Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah.

Now, both of their Israelite husbands, along with their father-in-law Elimelek, had passed away. So Naomi, Ruth and Orpah’s mother-in-law, told these two wives that they should return home to their own people and to their own gods. So Orpah left, but Ruth would not leave Naomi. Instead, this Moabite woman decided that she would stay with Naomi. She would, in effect, become Jewish and follow Yahweh. She would not leave her family by marriage, not leave Naomi, come what may.

Back in the Israelite land, Ruth went out to work to support she and Naomi, but Naomi came up with a plan for Ruth to be married and their family name to be carried on. In the Jewish culture, there is a person for each family who, in the event of tragedy, would “redeem” the family. He was an extended family member who would make sure that the family name would continue on. He would avenge the death of a family member. He would make sure that land that they had lost in the midst of difficult times would eventually be bought and returned to them, and he would make sure that those who were left in the family would be cared for and that the family would continue on with children, carrying on the name of the original family.

This person was referred to as the “goel” and it was a right for the rest of the family, those that find themselves in the pain and difficulty of their loss, to go to the goel, the guardian-redeemer, to be rescued, to be made whole again as a family.

Naomi came up with a plan that would include their guardian-redeemer, their goel, to redeem their family. Ruth had seemingly stumbled into a relationship with Boaz, a man who would turn out to be their family’s guardian-redeemer, so after being allowed to glean grain in his fields, and even eventually harvest directly with the harvest workers, Naomi eventually tells Ruth to go to Boaz directly while he is sleeping on the threshing floor so as to humbly ask him to redeem her and her family. She will become his wife, yet he will also be carrying Elimelek’s family name.

Ruth asks Boaz to spread the corner of his garment over her, which in those cultures means that she is asking him to give her, and subsequently also along with her, Naomi, a covering:

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.”

Ruth 3:9

There are so many lessons that we can learn from this story of Ruth, but I want to focus on one in particular. Boaz does go on to redeem Elimelek’s family and Ruth, who, let’s remember, is a Moabitess. She is a foreigner. She is from one of the nations that were meant for destruction as the Israelites entered the promised land, and yet she will become an integral part of God’s story.

The primary purpose for God’s people, the people of Israel, is that they would glorify him before the nations, that the nations would know him, that the nations would receive the blessing that God had promised Abraham, the blessing of eventually also being God’s people.

In so many ways, including the same ways that we also fail at the purpose for which God has made us as his people, the people of Israel failed to fully follow God. They failed to glorify him, or even to recognize him as their God in many times, but despite their failings, God used them all the same for his plan, for his purposes.

It took one person, this guardian-redeemer Boaz, to decide that he would be faithful in the role that God had given to him. He didn’t even necessarily initiate and create the possibility that he would redeem Elimelek’s family. He was, instead, simply doing his normal work, farming and harvesting his grain, when this opportunity to be the person that God had made him to be, showed up in front him. By being faithful, by acting in the face of the possibility that he could be used to do that which would glorify God, he also made God known to the nations. In the first place, Boaz showed himself to be faithful to God to and through Ruth who was coming from the nation of Moab, but as it turns out, God used he and Ruth to make an even greater impact:

Boaz and Ruth’s child was Obed. Obed was Jesse’s father and Jesse was the father of king David. Their son would be David’s grandfather.

The line to the Messiah would travel through a man who was faithful such as Boaz along with Ruth, a Moabitess.

The nations would know God through faithfulness to God for the nations. We should be amazed and give glory to God for his plan and his work within us and through us! This is the same plan that God has for us even today, that we would live to glorify him before the nations, making him known to all nations. The same plan that God had for the nation of Israel, for his people, is the same plan that God has for each of us even today.

Within this story, then, is found a natural question: Will we be faithful as Boaz was faithful? Will we be the people that God has made us to be? Will we fulfill that which God has made us to be? Will we do that which Jesus has told us to do?

It only took one generation after Joshua for Israel to turn to the gods of the other nations around them. Just one generation after Joshua said “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”, and all of the rest of Israel agreeing with him and swearing to serve God, and him alone, they walked away from the Lord.

God had brought the Israelites out of Egypt, eventually brought them across the Jordan river and into the promised land, and had driven out the Canaanite people before them. Yet as a result of not teaching their children about the Lord, as a result of focusing on themselves instead of what God had done for them, they forgot God completely.

The Israelites were already headed into their own direction. They were leaving the Lord behind and they were going their own way. They began to intermix with the other nations around them, serving the pagan gods and practicing every sort of evil possible, as commanded by the traditions of worshiping those gods.

There were moments in which it seemed that they would turn back. There were points at which they would return back to the Lord, but frequently those hopes were dashed as they continued to be lured away.

The path to return back to God was clear: Humility for men before God. There is one way in which God always required men to come before him: In repentance and in humility. God detests the pride of men. He hates man’s desire to lift himself up over God himself. God wants men to be in the right relationship with him, placing God before themselves, glorifying him, lifting the Lord up in first place over all.

This is the attitude with which God expected the Israelites to have before him. Even as the Midianites came to war against the Israelites with at least 135,000 men in their army, with the Israelites marshaling an army of less than a quarter of that number, God made sure that it was not only specifically NOT a fair fight, which was the case already, but that it was completely impossible. Gideon would be asked to go to war against those 135,000 with just 300 men.

Would they be particularly strong men? Would they be particularly well-trained men? No, none of these things. They were not like the Spartans. They were not the Marines, just a few good men. No, they were simply given trumpets and torches. God would do all of the rest. God would do all of the work.

God gave dreams to the Midianites that they would be routed by the Israelites. He put fear into their hearts that Gideon and his army would destroy them. When Gideon and his army shouted, blew their trumpets, and lit their torches, all of the Midianites were thrown into confusion, even going so far as to fight against and kill one another, ultimately fleeing from the Israelites despite there only being 300 men who stood before their camp in the dark with nothing more than trumpets and torches.

God would defeat the Midianites and their army because he did not want the Israelites to begin to think that their own strength would save them. He wanted the Israelites to remember, once again, that God was the one who saved them. God was the one that led them. It was God’s strength, not their own:

The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’

Judges 7:2

The word of God can often be like a mirror that is held up to us so that we can see ourselves clearly within it. How often do we think that we are leading, we are guiding, we are in control? How often do we think that it is our own strength and power that is leading us and giving us any of the victories that we might experience?

The world tells us to pull ourselves up. God tells us that it is by his strength and might that we are strong.

The world tells us that we are the masters of our fate. God tells us that he is the king in the kingdom of God and we should do all things to glorify him.

This may not seem that significant because maybe it doesn’t look like “sin”. Maybe it doesn’t look like stealing or killing or hurting others. But it is the start of these things, and so much more. Through our pride, we decide what is right for ourselves. Through our pride, we make the decisions of what is right and wrong.

That is the same decision that Adam and Eve made. They believed that they could “be like God”, as the serpent told them, and so their desire for this knowledge, their own knowledge, of what is right and wrong led them down a path that led them to destruction. Their pride made them believe that they would be powerful enough to lead themselves. And at that point they wouldn’t need God.

This is the same sin that came later with the Israelites and it is the same sin that we find ourselves in today. Either we live to glorify God or we live in the pride of glorifying ourselves.

But if we decide that we will live to glorify God, the first step is humility. This is why both John the Baptist and Jesus called the people to repentance. To come before God, the first step is to renounce that which we have done, the life that we have lived for ourselves, and instead come to him. If we do this, we will be God’s people in Christ. If we do this, he will save us. If we do this, he will fight for us. But we must do the first things first, setting our pride aside and instead looking to the Lord, lifting him up and glorifying him, recognizing him as first over all.

As famous people pass away, whether they would be political leaders, celebrities, sports figures, or whomever, it seems that the TV and online media frequently have memorials ready to be run. It seems that they are just waiting for the moment at which the person dies and then they will be able to play their memorial to commemorate the person’s life for their audience.

Typically, those memorials are focused on that which that person did, their accomplishments, possibly their character, famous sayings, etc. In other words, it is completely focused on that person’s legacy. The memorial speaks about that person.

I thought of this today as I read the talk that Joshua gave to the people of Israel right at the end of his life. I noticed that he spoke about his life and what had happened in his life, but the entire discussion of who he was and who the people of Israel were was found within the greater story of who God is, his character, and what he had done for the people of Israel.

There was a significant difference in the focus. Joshua was ultimately giving instructions to the people of Israel, that they would continue to serve the Lord, that they wouldn’t turn away from him to the gods of their ancestors, nor the gods of the Canaanites living around them.

But this was Joshua’s moment. This was the time for him to speak of his legacy, to help the people remember him for who he was. As the leader of the Israelite people, he had been chosen to bring the people out of the wilderness, across the Jordan river and into the land that God had promised to his people. He had led the efforts against the Canaanite people and now the Israelites had received their reward. They received the inheritance allotment of the promised land. Joshua had led all of these efforts.

And he said all of these things, but he said it in a very different way. The focus was not on Joshua. The focus, instead, was on God. He explained that it was God that brought them out of Egypt. It was God that had allowed them to come into the promised land. It was God that had given them the victory before their Canaanite enemies. Not the Israelites. Not Joshua, but it was God that did all of these things.

Joshua called the people to serve the Lord and him only. He said this was the way that he and his family would go:

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

Joshua 24:15

Joshua told every part of his story based on what God had done. Not what he had done and his legacy, but instead what God had done. God and God’s story were the center of Joshua’s life and so both he and his family, while they had time here left on the earth, they would serve the Lord.

As is often the case, the word of God holds a mirror up to me and asks me a question: Is God the center of your life? Do you live with God at the center of the story? Will you tell your story with yourself as the protangonist? Or will you tell your story with God as the main character and your story is found within his?

I think this was also the fundamental question that Joshua was asking the Israelites. Whom will you choose? To serve the Lord, or to go your own way? To obey him and do what he has told us to do, or to choose something else, another god, another vice that you prefer to serve?

This is the same decision that men and women have made ever since the beginning, since the Garden of Eden. Will we listen to God and obey him? Or will we listen to the serpent and prefer to become like God, “knowing” good and evil for ourselves?

These are important questions that determine the course and direction for our lives. Joshua had clearly chosen to serve the Lord and like the challenge that he gave to the Israelites, the decision is now up to us, both in this moment and in every moment through the rest of our lives.

The Israelites had come a long way… Through Moses, God had led the Israelites out of Egypt where they had served the Egyptians, building the future of Egypt under the oppression of slavery.

Then, as a result of their fear and disobedience, they wandered in the desert for more than 40 years. An entire generation died in the desert as a result, unable to enter into the promised land, the land of Canaan, because God would not allow them.

Yet Joshua would remain faithful to the Lord and God chose him to lead the Israelites into the promised land where they would then conquer many of the lands of Canaan, driving out the Canaanites who had lived in the land.

Now had come the time for the Israelites to finally rest. God had led them into the land that he had promised them, as far back as the days of Abraham, and now they would rest from all of the struggle and fighting that they had endured for centuries. They would live as God’s people. They would be the nation that represented God on the earth. They would be the people through whom the Lord would do his work to make himself known and represent himself throughout the whole world.

So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD gave all their enemies into their hands. Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

Joshua 21:43-45

The writer of the book of Hebrews makes a note of this point in time. He says that there was more rest yet to come. He says that God spoke of another day, another day that would give true rest to his people, a Sabbath rest where God’s people would rest in him, they would rest in God.

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.

Hebrews 4:8-11

He is speaking here of the righteousness that we have received from God. We’ve received this righteousness not because we have become a good person. Not because we have done a lot of good religious activities. Not because we have obeyed all of the rules.

No, instead, the only reason that we have been considered righteous is because of Christ. Through Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection thus defeating death, and we each placing our faith in him, he allows us to enter into his rest. We no longer have to try to cleanse ourselves to be considered to be righteous. We no longer have to be good enough to know God.

No, instead, through our faith in Christ, we can be known by God and he can know us. And as we know him, we enter into his rest. We can rest because there is nothing else that matters more than my relationship with him. If I am found in God, I can be bold and courageous and do all that he has called me to do. I can be the person that he has called me to be. I can find myself within his will, remaining obedient, loving and glorifying Christ.

This is true rest because I have truly known the relationship that I have with God. This is the true representation of the promised land, the ability to enter into the right relationship with God through Christ. He gives me my place and he gives me my identity. It is all found in him because he is truly the one who provides. We, instead, must be found in him, within the promised land of our relationship with him, and in this way, and only in this way, we will find rest.

The whole assembly of the Israelites gathered at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there.

Joshua 18:1

As the Israelites conquered Canaan, the promised land, and subsequently divided up the land that they won from the people of the land, one area was set aside for placing the tent of meeting, the tabernacle, where the Israelites would go to worship God by offering sacrifices, as God has commanded his people to do.

The tabernacle remained there more than 300 years – rabbinic Jewish tradition stated in the Talmud holds that it was there for 369 years – and then was subsequently destroyed, likely by the Philistines. Shiloh became a warning against disobedience and the worship of other gods. Here is what the prophet Jeremiah said about Shiloh:

Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your ancestors. I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your fellow Israelites, the people of Ephraim.

Jeremiah 7:12-15

And also in the Psalms:

He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent he had set up among humans.
He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
He gave his people over to the sword;
he was furious with his inheritance.
Fire consumed their young men,
and their young women had no wedding songs;
their priests were put to the sword,
and their widows could not weep.

Psalm 78:60-64

The people of Israel had been unfaithful to God. They had strayed far from him, both in disobedience and sin as well as in the worship of the other gods from the people around them. God, therefore, allowed the people to be destroyed, allowed the place of his worship to be destroyed, and even allowed the ark that carried the memories of his covenant with his people to be destroyed. All of it was gone as a result of the Israelite people’s disobedience.

Yet there is another mention of the word shiloh in the Bible. It isn’t clear, and in fact, it is sometimes not even translated “shiloh” by some translations in the Bible. Here is the reference, from the book of Genesis:

The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
and the obedience of the nations shall be his.

Genesis 49:10

This is found in the midst of Jacob’s blessing for his sons just before he died. In this verse, the part translated as “he to whom it belongs” is, in the original Hebrew, the word “shiloh”. This could then be translated “until shiloh shall come”, making it, in that context, a Messianic term.

The word shiloh, in this case, is referring to the one who will have the scepter, a royal instrument with which he will rule.

The Messiah will come to rule and reign over both his people as well as the rest of the earth. It says that the obedience of the nations shall be his. This “shiloh” then will rule over the entire earth.

And this “shiloh” will come from the tribe of Judah, exactly as Jesus did through his mother and his father, Joseph and Mary. This “shiloh”, in fact, is a prophecy of the coming Christ, who will come and save his people, ruling over all people of the earth.

The Israelites had been told about the promised land that they would be given. In Exodus 23, God had told them this:

I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.

Exodus 23:31-33

The original boundaries of the land that God would give to the Israelites would even be much larger than the land that they would go on to inhabit, or even what we see in the nation of Israel today. The land described here would have actually extended well into modern-day Iraq so as to reach the Euphrates River.

In any case, the more important point was that the Israelites were not to make any agreements, no covenants with the people who lived within the land that God had promised them. And the reason for that was that they would be led astray by the gods of the people in the land in Canaan.

And as it turned out, that warning was pretty prescient because that is exactly what happened, causing the downfall of Israel.

As the Israelites entered the promised land, they first destroyed Jericho, then subsequently Ai, and then several of the other kingdoms came to war against them.

But one of their neighbors who were living within the land that they would conquer decided to trick the Israelites into making a treaty with them. The people from Gibeon came to the Israelites saying that they had heard what God had done to bring them out of Egypt and how the Israelites had subsequently destroyed the Amorites before crossing the Jordan so they wanted to come and make a treaty with the Israelites so that they wouldn’t come and destroy them.

So they only spoke about the battles that they would have heard about a long time before they arrived, despite the fact that they would have known also about Jericho and Ai.

They brought stale and moldy bread, cracked wineskins, and worn-out clothes.

They put on a good show. They really made it look like they had come from a long way away so that the Israelites wouldn’t attack them.

And the Israelites bought it. They believed the trick of the Gibeonites, and they primarily believed it because of one important point: They didn’t inquire of the Lord.

They didn’t ask God.

The Israelites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD. Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath.

Joshua 9:14-15

They made decisions and went forward based on their own understanding. They did what they did because they didn’t really understand what was happening. They were being tricked, and this would be the first time that they would disobey the commandment to not make any agreements with the people in the land. Early on in their commission to take over the land that they had been given, they end up making an agreement with one of the peoples that God had specifically told them to not

This was a huge mistake because the Gibeonites would remain in the land. The Gibeonites were Hivites who worshiped many other gods. And the Hivites were descendents of the Amorites, those that even worshiped Moloch, the god of the Amorites who demanded human sacrifice. It was the worship of other gods, and thus leading the Israelites away from the one, true God, that God had warned the Israelites to avoid.

Yes, the Gideonites were made to be servants of the Israelite people and thus shown mercy, but I believe this became a turning point for the nation of Israel. They would make this covenant, and allowing this people with its worship of other gods, would be a first step in the direction of the downfall of the nation of Israel. The Israelites were led and sustained by God’s power, but as they went, they continued to fade further and further away from God toward the other gods of the nations around them.

And where would they have learned about the gods of the other nations around them? From those with whom they continued to live and learn from.

The Israelites were to be different from these other nations, but instead, they continued to drift away from the one, true God toward the other nations. They worshiped these other gods, the false gods. They sacrificed to the other gods. And thus, they broke the covenant that God had made with them. God was no longer their God. Not because he no longer wanted to be God to them, but because he was no longer their God. As a people, the people of God wandered further and further from God, and thus they broke the covenant, ultimately rejecting God altogether, even officially telling Samuel that they no longer wanted God to be their king, but instead having a king like all of the other nations.

We can learn, therefore, a few important lessons:

First, it is easy for us to be deceived. There are people and forces around us all of the time that want us to leave the path that God has laid out for us. They have their own agenda, and it is not aligned with what God has called us to do, nor who he has called us to be. We must not be mistrustful, but we must be wise.

Second, the first step in seeking wisdom is to go to God, especially about significant decisions. Especially where we aren’t sure. Especially where we could make a decision to go straight, to turn, to move in a new direction, we must seek God, consult him, listen to him, and then move forward in faith.

Third, we shouldn’t think that God is going to change his mind about what he has told us. In the case of the Israelites, God was clear in his instructions related to the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hivites. The Israelites were not to allow them to stay in the land so that they wouldn’t be pulled away from their relationship with Yahweh, the one true God.

And finally, and most importantly, we must stay in relationship with him. We must maintain our relationship with him. He is our creator. He is our savior. He is our king who wants only ultimate good for us. We must remain faithful to God, placing him in his proper position, and we in our proper position in our relationship and connection with him. This is our God and we must live for him, placing him at the highest place, with the highest value, over all things.

After Joshua and the Israelites had destroyed Jericho, it was clear to them that God had been with them and that they were now invincible. As the land of Canaan stood before them, they couldn’t imagine a scenario where they could be beaten. Jericho was one of the strongest cities that they had ever seen, and would ever see, and that city fell before them to nothing more than a pile of rubble. What else did they need to know other than with God on their side, they could do anything and everything?!?

There was nothing that could stop them.

And they were correct, except that there was one among them who had been disobedient from what God had commanded them to do. Achan had seen the silver, the gold, and beautiful items from Babylon as they had gone in to destroy Jericho, and so he took those items and hid them in his tent for himself.

As Israel went out to fight against the next small city, the city of Ai, they were defeated. In fact, they were routed and lost several men. And what was the culprit? What was the reason that they were so soundly beaten? Was it bad military strategy? Too small of a force that was sent?

No, it was none of these. It was that Israel had not remained faithful to the Lord and his covenant with his people:

The LORD said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? 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. 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.

Joshua 7:10-12

God’s covenant with his people requires that they also be faithful to the covenant. God will remain faithful. He will continue to be the God of his people and his people will continue to be his. However, as God made his covenant with Israel he said that they must obey him. They must do as he says. They must follow his law, his ways. Not their own, but his.

This is the reason that the Israelites were defeated. They didn’t remain faithful to God’s word, to his covenant.

We cannot dictate to God the way in which he will be our God and we will be his people. We cannot come to him on our terms. No, he is the king. He is the creator. He is the one who rules and reigns over all of the universe. The Israelites learned this lesson that day, and even the sin of one man caused him to lose his own life and cost the nation of Israel the lives of several others as well as they went to war with Ai in the midst of even one of them being disobedient to the Lord who was leading them.

It is important to remember that we also live under a covenant. Jesus made a new covenant with his people, that through his blood we can be forgiven of our sins. Those that place their faith in Christ can be brought into a right relationship with God. They can stand before God, having been reconciled back to him through the blood of Jesus.

In this way, and only in this way, can we enter into this new covenant. We come to God through the blood of Christ. Jesus is the one way, and the only way, that we can come to God.

But let’s be clear… Jesus didn’t just call us to put our faith in his blood. Yes, he has saved us from the wrath of God, but he also has called us, and continues to call us each day, to place him at the very highest priority of our lives. Just like the treasure in the field that was worth selling everything else to be able to buy the field. Just like the pearl of great price that was worth selling it all to buy the pearl. Just like the rich, young ruler who Jesus told to sell all of his possessions and give them to the poor. Christ’s calls us to run to him, to leave everything else behind. Nothing else is more important than our relationship with Christ. Nothing.

Jesus said that if we love him, we will obey his commandments.

And then he told his disciples to go and teach others to obey everything that he commanded them.

He wants his disciples to love him, to glorify him, and to teach others to do the same.

This is the life of a disciple of Christ. Not simply saying that you are a Christian. Not just going to church. No, it is a life that is given fully to Christ, that places him at the highest place, that gives him the love, honor, and glory that he deserves. This is the Lord that we serve and this is the life that he calls us to live for him. All of us…given completely to him…at all times.

In reality, nothing has changed. God expected his people, the Israelites, to give themselves fully to him, and in the same way, he expects us, his people today in and through Christ, to give ourselves fully to him. He expects us to live out his covenant and in this way he will be our God and we will be his people.