The surrounding cities of the area hear of what happened at
Ai and that the Israelites have now joined forces in an alliance with the
Gibeonites, whose men are warriors. The kings
of those other cities now see that they have to act quickly to cut off this new
threat and so form their own alliance to go up against Gibeon and in so doing
the Israelites are called to protect the Gibeonites under the terms of the
covenant they have just made. The Lord
uses both the army and supernatural intervention in the form of large hail to
put these to rout. Joshua pleads that
the Lord would allow more daylight, the sun to stand still, in order that this
work be completed in one day, and the Lord answered that prayer.
Judas has an attack of conscience. What brought it on? It was when he saw that the Jews had
condemned Jesus and bound Him over to Pilate.
He knew then that things had spun out of control, had gone in a
direction he never imagined it would go, and he knew what he had done,
"betrayed innocent blood." We don’t
know what Judas thought would happen, why he betrayed Jesus. Did he think that he would force the issue
and Jesus would then become the Messianic king in order to avert the crucifixion? Did he think Jesus would convince the leaders
if they had their private audience with Him that Judas set up? Did he simply want the persecution to end in
this way, by force of Jesus' arguments? If
so, he would have been sorely disappointed that Jesus made no defense before
the Sanhedrin. They know that the money
they gave to Judas was blood money and cannot take it back, it has been tainted
by the purpose. He dies in sin and
shame, no longer able to live with himself.
Paul is clear about his mission. He is "a minister of
Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God." This is a grace given to him by God and he
revels in going where no man has gone before in order that he might see the
fulfillment of the prophetic word, that " “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have
never heard will understand.” Paul is
the most well-trained of the disciples to be a rabbi but the Lord sent him
instead to those who did not know the Law with a message that the Law wasn't
the salvation of the people, it was in fact their condemnation. That ministry, however, required the rabbinic
training Paul had received as it required one familiar with the Law to
understand fully the Gospel and how the two fit together. The Law tells me of my sin and the sacrifice
of Jesus tells me of the grace of the Lord, that like Abraham saw with Isaac on
the mountain, the Lord provided the sacrifice for us. He will come to our defense if we confess and
call upon the Name of Jesus.
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