Young People’s Blog

“Strong bulls of Bashan have beset Me round. They gaped upon Me…as a ravening and a roaring lion” (Psalm 22:12-13).

“For dogs have compassed Me…they pierced My hands and My feet” (Psalm 22:16).

The “strong bulls of Bashan” would represent the Jewish leaders. Bashan was a heathen kingdom on the east side of the Jordan river. It was evidently a land of giants, and they fought with Israel when they came to enter the land of Canaan (read Deuteronomy 3:1-13). They had been defeated, but now the Jewish leaders were acting like the heathens they had once defeated.

But the dogs speak of the Gentiles, who actually crucified the Lord Jesus. They were the ones who drove the nails into His hands and feet. The Roman soldiers had to obey orders, but they did not have to mock and insult the Lord Jesus, as the Bible tells us. All mankind is guilty of wanting to get rid of God’s beloved Son.

But you and I know Him as our Savior, and can remember all this that happened. The Lord Jesus felt it very much, although it was not His sufferings from the hand of man that put away our sins. That could happen only in the three hours of darkness.

“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock” (Matthew 7:24).

Back on August 29, 2005, hurricane Katrina made landfall in the state of Louisiana, U.S.A. It was a terrible storm that devastated the southeastern U.S.A., and was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history. More than 1800 lives were lost, and a total of more than 100 billion dollars of damage was done in five states. But among all the wreckage, there was one house that stood firm — the house of Scott and Caroline Sundberg in the state of Mississippi. Even though it was not far from the Gulf of Mexico, it sustained almost no damage. Why? It was because it had a solid foundation, and was built largely of concrete.

If you and I put our faith in the Lord Jesus, we are like a house built on a rock. Strong storms may beat against us in our lives, and Satan may attack us, but nothing can take away our security in Christ. Also, if we obey His Word, we will be protected in all the difficulties of our Christian life, for Jesus is the rock on which we are resting.

“See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:15).

When someone does something wrong to us, our first thought naturally is to try and think of some way to do something to them. The world has a saying, “Don’t get mad; get even!” We see this all the time in the world around us. If someone cuts someone else off while driving, he looks for a way to pay the other driver back. Sometimes it even involves shooting at the other car. Nations do this too. If one nation is attacked by a missile or a bomb, they do something back to whoever shot the missile.

Here in our verse we see the opposite of that. We are never to revenge ourselves, but to do what is good. That is sometimes hard to do, but it is what the Lord Jesus did. If we do something bad to someone else, we cannot turn around and tell them about the Lord Jesus. They will not want to listen to us. But if we treat them kindly, it will be much easier to tell them how to be saved.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4).

The children of Israel had an actual inheritance of land in Canaan, but because of their sinful ways God allowed them to lose it temporarily. But now we who know the Lord Jesus have an inheritance that we can never lose. The inheritance is not heaven, but is all created things, and we will share it with the Lord Jesus in a coming day. It is reserved in heaven, which means nothing in this world can change God’s mind about it.

In my lifetime I have known several families who fought over an inheritance, because some thought they did not get their fair share. Once my wife and I were promised part of an inheritance, yet found out that the money allotted to us had been spent by the person before she died. So, we did not get anything! But nothing can spoil or change our eternal inheritance, for it is based on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. When He receives that inheritance, we will share it all with Him! How much better that will be than any earthly inheritance, and no one will ever take it away from us!

“Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died…and they buried him in the border of his inheritance” (Joshua 24:29-30).

About sixty years ago, I remember going to a funeral home to view the body of an old brother in Christ who had died. He had been faithful to the Lord all his life, and was highly respected. During the conversation with his relatives, another brother picked up a Bible that was on the coffin and read today’s verses. He pointed out that this older brother who had died was going to be buried, so to speak, in his spiritual inheritance. What did he mean?

He meant that the brother who had died could not take anything of this world with him, but he could take with him all he had learned of Christ over a lifetime of eighty years. He will be able to enjoy that for all eternity. In a coming day, when the Lord Jesus receives all created things as His inheritance, we will have that too. But our spiritual inheritance is something special that each of us will have. If we live our lives for Christ, we too can have a rich spiritual inheritance.

“And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him (Joshua)…I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me…even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in” (Joshua 14:6,10-11).

We saw earlier that Joshua and Caleb were faithful to the Lord, yet had to wander forty years in the wilderness with those who rebelled against the Lord. Yet the Lord honored them, and we find them both now in the land of Canaan. But who would think of a man eighty-five years old going out to war? Nowadays he would be taking it easy, or maybe in a retirement facility. But Caleb was strong enough to conquer the piece of land he wanted, even though the giants were there.

If we are faithful to the Lord, He will honor us too. We may not have strength at eighty-five years of age, as Caleb did, but He will provide whatever strength we need to do the work He gives us. He will also give us spiritual strength to overcome Satan, and to be able to enjoy the heavenly things He has for us.

“Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho” (Joshua 6:26).

“In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun” (1 Kings 16:34).

Jericho was a wicked city, and through Joshua the Lord pronounced a curse on whoever rebuilt it. For more than 500 years Israel respected this, but finally in the days of a wicked king named Ahab a man named Hiel rebuilt the city. Possibly they thought that God had forgotten what He had said back in Joshua’s time, but God does not forget. It is a serious thing to disobey the word of the Lord, and Hiel’s family suffered because of it. Although it is not totally clear from the wording in our KJV Bible, I believe it means that rebuilding Jericho cost Hiel the lives of two of his sons. What a big price to pay for disobedience! It is important to respect what the Lord tells us, and to obey Him.

“Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window…and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee…and she bound the scarlet line in the window” (Joshua 2:18,21).

Rahab was not a morally upright woman, but the Lord had worked in her heart, and she had faith in the true God — the God of Israel. Because she had protected the two men who had come from Joshua to spy out the land, they promised her that anyone in her home would be safe when the Israelites came back to conquer the city of Jericho. The sign would be the scarlet line that she was to bind in her window.

The scarlet line is a picture of the blood of Christ, and reminds us of the blood on the doors of the houses of the Israelites, when they were in Egypt. Anyone in a house in Egypt with blood on the door would be safe, and anyone in Rahab’s house was safe too. We too are safe, if we are under the blood of Christ.

“The Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun…saying…Be strong and of a good courage…for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1:1,9).

We saw yesterday that Moses gave Joshua a charge, telling Him to be strong and of a good courage. Now Moses has died, and Joshua has become the new leader of God’s people. If he had any doubts about how things would go, the Lord Himself encourages him, and three times over tells him the same thing that Moses had said — “Be strong and of a good courage!” How much this must have meant to Joshua, as he assumed a big responsibility and looked ahead to the conquest of Canaan!

The Lord wants to encourage us too, and not only does He tell us to be of good courage, but He reminds us, as He reminded Joshua, and He would be with him wherever he went. The one condition was obedience, and the Lord emphasized this to Joshua. So it is for us; obedience and happiness go together in our Christian life.

“And he (Moses) gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them: and I will be with thee” (Deuteronomy 31:23).

We have seen how Joshua began to serve the Lord as a young man, but then had to spend forty years in the wilderness because the people did not want to fight to conquer the land of Canaan. During that time, he had learned much from Moses, and much from the Lord Himself. Now the time had come for Joshua to take over as leader of Israel.

Moses tells him to be strong and of a good courage, for the Lord would be with him. The Lord would bring Israel into the land of Canaan, for He had sworn that He would do it.

Sometimes we find ourselves in a similar situation in our own lives. Perhaps we have relied on someone older, even perhaps a Christian friend who is only a little older than we are. But then they move away, go off to university, or get a job somewhere else, and we do not see them very often. We miss their company and encouragement, but this is a good chance to get closer to the Lord, and to remember that He is always with us. He will never leave us, nor forsake us!