The Sword of the LORD

Jesus’ teaching was very hard for the people to accept.   Just the day before, He had multiplied a few loaves and fish in order to feed over five thousand people.   They had come out to see Him then because of the miracles that He was performing on the sick and afflicted.   They loved Him then, but their focus seemed to be more on those miracles than on trying to understand the words of life that Jesus was speaking to them.   They were ready to accept Him as a prophet, and they would have even tried to make Him a king; but they couldn’t see that Jesus was much more than that: He was the Son of God and their long awaited Messiah.   Jesus had sent His twelve disciples over the sea to Capernaum the night before.  It was then that He had appeared to them walking on the sea as they struggled against a great storm.  When the people realized that Jesus had gone, they found means to cross the sea also and found Jesus at Capernaum.  Jesus called them o...

After the death of Moses, Joshua became the spiritual leader and commander who God chose to bring the Israelites into the land of promise after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.   The first great obstacle that the Hebrews encountered after their miraculous crossing of the Jordan River was the city of Jericho.     Jericho was a formidable city with a stone wall that presented a difficult challenge to Joshua and his army.  This city was a key to the conquest of Canaan in that it defended the central hill country and the other cities of the region.  Joshua had sent spies into the city to survey its defenses and had learned among other things that the people were terrified of the Israelites and their God because of all they had heard that the Lord had done for them.   God spoke to Joshua and told him, "See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour." (Joshua 6:2).  Moreover, the Lord appeared to...

"Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."  (Isaiah 48:10).   "And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness."   (Malachi 3:3).   Once we, as Christians, have submitted our lives to our heavenly Father, He begins a process of purging and purifying, of training and chastening, which is meant to remove from us all self-will, and transform us into the image of Jesus our Savior.   There is one word which I think best describes this process and the effect that it has on the individual that is exercised by it: refined .   The Word of God is full of the history of men and women who, by faith, placed their lives in God's hands and, as a result, went through this process of becoming useful, spiritually mature, children of God.   They accomplished God...