Each Generation's Choice (Walk Thru the Bible Week 11)

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Welcome to Walk Through the Bible, Susan Michael's 12 month journey through the most exciting

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book on the planet.

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It will transform your life one page at a time.

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Be sure to subscribe for future episodes that will ignite your faith and bring your Bible

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to life.

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Now, let's join our host, Susan Michael.

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Well, hey there and welcome back.

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This is Walk Through the Bible Week 11.

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We are really making progress.

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I hope you're enjoying your reading half as much as I'm enjoying mine.

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I've been learning so many things and have had so much fun putting together these teachings

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for you and reviewing what we're reading.

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So this week we're going to be going through what in the Daily Bible is pages 329 to 353

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or it's the dates March 12th through the 18th.

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I want to remind you of the first quarter review that's coming up and we'll probably

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air that review about week 13.

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But in the meantime, I want to hear from you so that I can prepare and answer your questions

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during our first quarter review.

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So go to outofzyonshow.com.

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Down at the bottom you can leave your comments and questions or we'll link directly to that

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in today's show notes.

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I really want to hear from you.

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Your feedback will help me as we go into the second quarter of our year through the Bible

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and to make sure I'm providing what you're looking for and what you need.

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So let's review.

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So far last week we have entered the land.

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Wasn't that a big relief?

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We made it through the wilderness wanderings.

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We made it through the law.

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We made it through even the death of Moses.

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We've got a new leader and we are in the land.

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What a relief.

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So exciting.

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We celebrated the Passover.

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We had we celebrated a second major water crossing.

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We rededicated ourselves in circumcision and now we're ready to go.

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One big problem the first city we're to take is Jericho.

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Now last week we quickly talked about how the spies went into Jericho and they met the

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woman Rahab who lived her home was in the walls of the city and she said to them, you

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know, fear has just filled the land over you all.

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We know that God is with you.

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And so when you all come and you take the city will you spare me and my family.

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So they made a deal with Rahab and as a result she sheltered them and then they were able

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to escape the city and get back and gave their faith filled report to the people and to Joshua

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that the Lord has given us the land because it's been filled with fear of us.

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So Jericho is what some archaeologists call the oldest city on earth.

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The remains at Jericho go back thousands of years.

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This is because it's down in a very, very dry area in the Jordan Valley very close to

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the Dead Sea.

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And if you've been there, you know anything about that area of the country.

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It's arid, very, very dry.

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It is also very low.

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Not that that has anything to do with the preservation, but Jericho was built in an area that is a

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tropical climate, very arid, dry.

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And there's water source there, fresh water springs.

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So it was a great location for a city, a great location to live.

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And at a time when you don't have heat and you don't have air conditioning and so it

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had just been there since the beginning of time, really, the archaeologists will tell

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you it goes back to 9,000 years before Christ.

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Of course, if we go by the chronology of the Bible, we don't know how long the earth has

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been around, but I'm just telling you what the archaeologists say.

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Now Jericho also is in the area that's considered the lowest area in the world.

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You know, the Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth.

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So it's the lowest body of water on earth and Jericho would be like the lowest, it's

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in that lowest area of the earth.

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It's down in a rift valley between two of the major tectonic plates of two continents

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and it's kind of moved apart, formed this deep, deep valley.

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That's the Jordan River Valley and that's where Jericho is.

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Now Jericho, because it had been there for so long, generation after generation, had

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built up walls and fortification.

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And I mean the walls that they have found, the archaeologists have found this at Jericho.

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They're really, really large.

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I'm going to describe that in a minute.

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One other word about the location of Jericho now for the Israelites, it was right in the

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way for them to cross the Jordan and go up into the hill country.

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Jericho kind of guarded the gateway there to the hill country of the land of Canaan.

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And Jericho is about 15 miles from Jerusalem.

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Jerusalem is up in the mountains, low lying mountains, called mountains.

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And then Jericho is down here at the very, very lowest point on earth so it's quite

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a drop.

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And coming from Jerusalem, there is a big canyon in the mountains, in the cliffs, called

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a wadi.

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In Arabic the word wadi means a dry river bed.

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So it's where water has cut through these mountains and you have this deep canyon that

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goes all the way down to Jericho.

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It's called the wadi kelp.

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The wadi kelp has about three different water sources and it springs.

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And so this water was worth a lot down at the dry area of Jericho.

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And so back even under the Hasmoneans, under the early Roman occupation, they built an

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aqueduct to take the water down to Jericho where Herod the Great built a huge palace

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for himself.

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And many years later, even the British built an aqueduct back in the early 1900s to take

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water then down to that dry Dead Sea area.

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And it's now a nature reserve and lots of people love to go down there and hike.

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And I actually did it once.

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We walked, we took a bus from Jerusalem down into the wadi there.

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So I don't know how, I don't think we were halfway down, maybe a third of the way down.

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And then we got off the bus, we go down into the wadi and we began to walk towards Jericho.

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And then eventually we ended up on the aqueduct, which is running at the edge of the cliff

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and walked along it until finally it all emptied down into the area of Jericho.

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So it was a full day's hike and I always remember it.

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And every time I think of Jericho, I think of that wadi kilt, it was quite an experience

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walking on that aqueduct because we started out down at the bottom, we ended up way up

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at the top of the cliff and what a view.

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And then we end up down there in Jericho.

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But that's just to give you a little picture of the setting there around Jericho.

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Now let's talk about the walls that were around Jericho at the time of our story.

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They archaeologists have found that around Jericho was a 15-foot wall and on top of that

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was another mud brick wall of eight feet.

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So like a 15-foot stone wall and then a mud brick wall of another eight feet.

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But then on the outside of that wall, they had dug a ditch down all the way down to the

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bedrock.

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So I don't know, you're probably talking about 30 feet of outside wall.

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Then inside that wall was a ramp, a 15-foot ramp up and then on top of that ramp was another

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mud brick wall.

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So let's say another 20 feet of height beyond the 30-feet height wall, the outer wall, 30

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feet, the inner wall, another 20 feet, something like that.

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It was amazing.

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And then what they found is that in between the two walls on that ramp, houses were built.

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These of course were houses of the poor.

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If you were wealthy, you lived where it was safer inside the second wall, maybe even inside

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a palace or a fortified structure, the very wealthy.

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So it's the poor that lived out.

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They were in a way the first defense.

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If anybody came through that first wall, they were there.

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But they did find houses.

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And this is what we read in the stories that Rahab lived on the wall.

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And they have found the remains of all of this.

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So now let's picture this.

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You've got these tall walls.

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And what do you have on top of walls?

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But you would have some kind of watchman, some type of guards, more than likely with

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bows and arrows so that if any enemy is approaching, they could attack them from the top of the

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wall.

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And so here the Israelites are, they take the Ark of the Covenant, they have the priest

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with the Ark of the Covenant to make sure that it's carried correctly and with the respect

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that it needs.

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But then they have armed guards before and after, and they go and they silently walk around

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the walls of this city.

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And I would love to hear what was being said inside the city and by these archers why they

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didn't attack, but I guess because they were just silent walking around it, they didn't

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get any kind of reaction out of them.

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So we know the story.

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They did this for six days.

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And then on the seventh day, they circled the city seven times.

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And then they blew the shofars, the horns, and then they shouted and that the walls fell.

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Well, in the archaeological evidence, the walls fell.

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And what's even really amazing is that they also found an area of the wall with homes there

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that did not fall.

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So could that have been the home of Rahab and that's how God saved her?

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Maybe.

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The problem is the archaeologists are going to tell you that these remains and this destruction

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does not agree with the timing of the Bible.

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Okay, one day they'll probably figure out that it does, but until then they're going

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to tell you that there's no archaeological evidence of the story at Jericho.

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But what they have found actually is exactly the story that we read in the Bible.

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And that's why this week I'm going to be doing an interview as part of our Going Deeper

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series with Tim Mahoney.

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And he's going to talk about the archaeological evidence they found at Jericho and of the conquest.

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And we're going to discuss this issue about the timing.

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He did a documentary called Patterns of Evidence, the Exodus, and we've interviewed him twice

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before about the Israelites in Egypt and then about the crossing of the Red Sea.

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But in his documentary on the Exodus, he talks about Jericho and he takes you there and he

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shows you the archaeology and he shows you a map of the city and it's really very well

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done.

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So that's why I'm recommending that you get Patterns of Evidence, the Exodus, which we

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link to in today's show notes, as well as tune back in in a couple of days where we'll

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be releasing our Going Deeper interview on the evidence of the conquest.

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And that'll be with Tim Mahoney.

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So now let's pick up our story.

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So they have defeated Jericho and they, of course, destroyed the city.

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They burned it.

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And I know that we're very uncomfortable with that.

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We think, you know, that's troublesome.

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That's unnecessary.

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Why did they have to burn the city and destroy everybody?

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And the answer is that in that time, if your God was with you, he brought victory.

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And victory at that time was a complete victory.

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It was an elimination of the enemy.

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And that's what they expected.

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That's what was needed or else the enemy would then destroy you, would always be a thorn

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in your side.

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But I want to bring out another point here because, you know, look, if I was Joshua,

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I would have looked at Jericho and said, hey, let's go in and rebuild the walls and let's

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make it our fortified city because then we can operate from here and we can take over

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the rest of the land from here.

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We'll be so safe and secure, right?

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But he didn't do that.

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He said, no, destroy it.

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Why?

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Because he was relying on God and God alone, not on walls or stones.

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So they go from here and now it's time to renew the covenant again with these people,

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this generation of Israelites.

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And so they go to an area in the hill country, in the hill part of the country, where there

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are two mountains that you can still see today, Mount Ebal and Mount Gerazim.

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And down in the valley between those two mountains and through that mountain pass was the town

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of how we pronounce it, Shechem, in Hebrew it's Shechem.

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And Shechem is where Abraham was, his first stop into the land at Bethel, was right there

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near Shechem.

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And so it's a very significant area and city for the Abrahamic covenant and the gift of

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the land.

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And so the Israelites go, now there's so many of them.

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They can't just gather in one place.

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So half of them get on Mount Ebal, half of them get on Mount Gerazim, and Joshua stands

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in between and he reviews the law.

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Says that he reads the entire book of the law.

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Now if you can imagine, that was a lot.

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He didn't just read the Ten Commandments and all the women, the children, the men, everybody

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standing there in the hot sun listening to the entire book of the law, the terms of their

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covenant and in order to renew that covenant and prepare them then for taking the rest

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of the land.

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So in this area they bury the bones of Joseph because at Shechem Jacob had bought a piece

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of land.

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And so in that land is where they buried the bones of Joseph.

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That's why if there's any tomb back in Egypt for Joseph it's an empty one because the

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bones have been buried in the land of Israel.

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So Joshua then, after the conquest, Joshua brings everybody back to this very place at

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the end of his life and renews everything with them again.

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Remember things don't happen overnight and so every ten, twenty years you have a new generation

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of people.

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And so this repetition of the terms of the covenant and reminding new generations is

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what I love in this story because God brought one generation out of Egypt.

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Then there was another generation that was able to enter the land.

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They take the land and now this is another generation that he renews the terms of the

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covenant with and then this is at the end but I'm getting ahead of myself so let's

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back up.

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We have in this week's reading the story of the conquest and I know it's a little bloody,

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it's a little vengeful.

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As I've said over and over it is what it is.

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This is how they operated then.

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This is what they expected of complete victory and so they eliminated and they burned the

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cities behind them.

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Now the point I want to make here is that while we in the 21st century may not like

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all of the war and the battles here, it is a very accurate description of the times and

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that's why I believe we can stand on the truth of the Bible because it really is depicting

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very accurately how things were done in that time.

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It's not been whitewashed.

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It hasn't been changed so that it is agreeable to future generations.

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It's telling you how it was then and it is what it is.

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So after the conquest then we have what's called a division of the land where the different

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tribes are given different areas of the land and in the book of Joshua it then ends with

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this beautiful flowery language of that God gave them all the land.

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The conquest was 100% successful and in a way it's not actually, there's more to the

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story.

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Let's put it that way.

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I'm not saying that the description is not true but just because God apportioned the land

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to the tribes doesn't mean that they had actually conquered all the peoples in those

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lands and taken possession of all those territories.

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And so we also have in the book of Joshua a list of all the failures of the different

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tribes where they failed to actually take all of the territory.

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And one of those stories is the story of Dan.

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The children of Dan were given an area down on the Mediterranean coast where the Canaanites

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were and they did not succeed.

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In fact, they failed miserably and later on the tribe of Dan actually moved up to the

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north of the country and settled a different area.

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And there's important lessons here about that the other tribes should have helped Dan.

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The other tribes should have made sure that the others possessed their land before they

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went and enjoyed their own land.

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Dan didn't.

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Dan goes up to the north and later Dan leads the country into serious false words.

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He worships through Jeroboam and shares a lot of responsibility for the fall of Israel

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to the Assyrians.

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But we'll get to that later date in our reading but I just want you to have the background

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here.

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Dan was unable to settle their portion of the land.

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So the book of Joshua ends where Joshua has gathered everybody again here to the area

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of Shechem and has reviewed the covenant with them.

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And he starts the story with Abraham when he was still from a pagan family in the north

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area of the Euphrates there.

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And he's reminding the people, that's where you came from but here you are children of

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the God of Israel and so you're not to give in to those other gods.

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And he reviews the whole story of the Exodus and the Red Sea miracle and how that God gave

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them the land and here they are in the land and the people respond and say, we will serve

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the Lord.

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And he says, no you won't.

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You know, you're not going to do it.

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And they say, no, no, no, we will.

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We will serve the Lord.

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And so he builds a monument there, another stone monument to remind them of their commitment.

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But we find out right after that that the people did not tear down all the pagan altars.

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They did not completely possess the land which is considered a breach of their contract

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with their God.

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And it came to pass what God had told them.

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He told them, their gods will become snares to you.

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And so apostasy begins.

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It says, Joshua has died and his generation has now died.

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Eleazar the priest has died.

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There's no one left that remembers the wanderings and the wilderness, all of these miracles

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that they saw.

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And this new generation who didn't see the miracles, all they know is they're in the

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land, they began to intermarry with the pagan peoples around them and they began to worship

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their gods.

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They're now part of an agrarian society and they began to worship Baal because he provides

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rain and he's kind of the weather god.

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They began to worship the ashtaro which is a fertility god and to bring fertility and

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they are now entering into apostasy and we enter the book of Judges and the period of

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the judges which is a very, very bleak period.

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There's ups and downs I will say.

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It's a lot like a roller coaster.

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You have one judge that comes along and leads the people righteously and they're going up

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and then you have one come and lead them into paganism and they go right back down.

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So it's a lot of ups and downs and that's why I'm going to leave those stories for next

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week where we start out talking about Deborah and we'll cover some of those stories.

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It's the period of the judges.

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The Israelites are in the land.

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They're like a tribal confederacy.

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Each tribe, each area has what's called a judge.

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It doesn't mean that they're a judge like that they judge the law in legal cases but

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they are a military leader and some of them are just really evil and they lead their people

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astray and it's a bleak period but it's the one that God saw was going to happen and in

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the song of Moses he sang about it that these people are going to be unfaithful but the

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very last line of the song he said, but I will atone for the land and the people.

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First we have to go through the apostasy.

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So we'll be back here next week.

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In the meantime I hope you can join me in a couple of days for our Going Deepers interview

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with Tim Mahoney on Evidences of the Conquest.

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And then next week see you back here on Walk Through the Bible when we cover next week's

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reading.

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In our show notes today we also link to the documentary by Tim Mahoney called Patterns

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of Evidence, the Exodus where he talks about Jericho and the Conquest.

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So I hope you enjoy today and this week and our resources.

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I'll see you back here soon and until then, God bless.