Fresh Manna 2021

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Strong Tower Radio

Through the Bible

Cody Francis

Joshua & Judges: Right in Our Own Eyes

♪♪ Fresh manna fell to the ground as a gift from God while the Israelites were in the wilderness.

It was fresh from the ovens of heaven, baked by the master baker himself.

How the Israelites must have anticipated the taste and the smell of each morning's delivery.

Today you'll be listening to Cody Francis, pastor of the Petoskey, Sheboygan, and Carp Lake Faith Memorial Seventh-day Adventist churches.

We're going to be looking as we continue, we're going to be looking, What we're going to get to is we're going to be looking at both the books of Joshua and Judges, and we're going to be looking at right in our own eyes.

But as I was there at class, 1 of the other pastors that was taking the class said, hey Cody, he showed me a picture.

What does this look like to you, or What color does this look like?

So here's a dress, and this actually went through the internet.

And they have done scientific studies on it now because of this phenomenon.

Apparently, several years ago, people were arguing all over on the internet about it.

And obviously some others see it as white and gold, but others see it as blue and black or blue and brown.

By the way, this dress, it was taken, there was a mother that was getting a dress for a wedding and she took a picture and said, how do you think this will go?

And sent it to the bride and it started a family fight because some people saw gold and white and others saw blue and black, of course, and so then it went throughout the internet.

We're seeing the same image, but our brain is interpreting it differently based on our perspective of the light that is shining on it.

And so if you see the blue and the black, or the blue and the brown, you're seeing it probably with inside lighting.

You're seeing it as warm light, but if you're seeing it as the gold and the white, you're probably seeing it, your brain is interpreting it as outside light or a very cool or bright light.

And so it's obvious that it is actually blue and black, but it is the lighting that is throwing us.

Your eyes are interpreting it, your brain actually is interpreting it.

There are optical illusions based on light.

Normally you cannot make your brain see it.

There might be 1 thing that you see originally, but if somebody tells you, then you can see it the other way.

If you look at it from this side, you see a rabbit.

Now you look at it kind of orientated this way, you see a duck.

So these types of things, your eyes play tricks on you.

So you have kind of a little bird there and then a bird that's flying.

You see kind of a cat and a rabbit, right?

And so the orientation of how you look at it.

The point is our eyes can play tricks on us, can't they?

And what's very interesting is with the dress, Apparently it started family fights and internet fights and all sorts of things because if you saw it, you couldn't change your mind to make it look differently.

And so 1 person saw this, another person saw this, both were adamant that they were right.

Judges 21, 25, the very last verse in the book of Judges says, In those days there was no king in Israel.

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

And when we look at the book of Judges, this verse is the tragic story of the book of Judges.

Let's go to Joshua and Judges and see what we can find here.

When we Look at Joshua, the book of Joshua is a book about God fulfilling his promises.

We see in the first half of the book of Joshua, God fulfills his promises and they enter the promised land.

And in the last half of the book of Joshua, God fulfills his promises and they inherit the promised land.

Joshua chapter 1, let's read verse 5 and verse 9.

What makes Joshua a book of victory and judges a book of disaster?

Joshua 1 verses 5 and verse 9, no man shall be able to stand before you "'all the days of your life.

"'As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

"'I will not leave you nor forsake you.'" Verse 9, "'Have I not commanded you, "'be strong and of good courage, "'do not be afraid nor be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Are not those precious promises for Joshua as he's preparing to enter the promised land?

He's leading a group of men and women and they're not hardened soldiers.

They have a nation, they have multiple city states to conquer And God promises them, I will be with you.

Because Joshua was following Jesus as his King.

And we see this as we continue through the story of the book of Joshua, which we're not going to look at in detail.

God directs the priests to march into the River Jordan.

Now The Bible is very clear in Joshua chapter 3, verse 15, that the feet of the priest who bore the ark dipped into the edge of the water.

Have you ever stood at the bank of a flooding river before?

How swift is the water of a flooding river going?

Where we used to live out in Washington State, at the back of where we lived was a river.

And this river was very wide at that point, but it wasn't normally wide, because it was normally just maybe 50 to 100 feet wide.

But in November, when there was snow up on the mountains, and they would get what they call the Pineapple Express, there would be warm rain.

And the rain would come not only down in the valley, but also up on the mountains.

And it would be melting the snow, and everything would be running off.

And I can remember going back and standing at the edge there and watching trees that are 100 or 150 feet tall shooting down the river.

And as you stood there, you could hear these boulders crashing against 1 another as the water carried these boulders along.

Would you feel like stepping into that river?

But God had given the directions contrary to what seemed logical or what made sense.

God had given the directions not just to step into this raging river, but to carry the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God's presence, into the river itself.

What happens as their feet touch the water?

But was that counterintuitive to put your feet carrying the Ark of the Covenant, the most sacred article of furniture in the entire sanctuary?

Was it counterintuitive to walk into a flooding river?

But they followed the directions of their king.

Joshua goes outside of the camp to pray and to meditate upon what he's to do.

And notice what we have here, Joshua chapter 5, verses 13 to 15.

Ruth: Next to Kin

Have you ever felt like the situation was hopeless?

Statement that is fairly familiar from Abraham Lincoln.

This was something he struggled with all of his life in 1841.

He said, I am now the most miserable man living.

I don't know how he knew that, but that's what he said.

If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be 1 cheerful face on the earth." Sounds like he was down, wasn't he?

Hopelessness is not something that is uncommon in this world.

Tragically, the feelings of hopelessness have increased over time.

In the last 20 years or so, suicide rates have gone up by over 30% and particularly in the younger generation, they've gone up by over 50%.

In fact, the Bible calls God a God of hope.

And I want to study a book today that takes this hopeless situation and turns it into promise.

We're going to look from the book of Ruth how God turns tragedy into triumph.

Beginning in Ruth chapter 1, when we look at the first 5 verses of the book of Ruth, things are going about as bad as they possibly can for Naomi.

It means that obviously everybody is suffering, but they seem to be suffering more.

And as they're suffering more, they end up selling their land.

Now, if you survive by farming and you sell your land, what does that mean?

You have no way to make additional income.

I remember reading about experiences of farmers in Ethiopia, what they went through in the 80s and the terrible famine there.

And they shared, and it was a very painful thing for them still, as they shared, they had to make a choice between planting their seed and eating their seed.

Now that's a hard choice because if you don't eat your seed and you're starving, you and your family could die.

But if you don't plant your seed, what are you going to have afterward?

And Naomi and her family were in this hopeless situation and they had sold their land and probably they had spent all the money that they had gained from the sell of their land and now they have no way to provide for themselves, and thus they go and leave their home and go to the land of Moab.

Now to get to the land of Moab from Bethlehem, you would have to go around the Dead Sea because the land of Moab is on the other side, the east side of the Dead Sea.

And so they traveled there hoping to find relief and her life seems to be a series of tragedies.

Because after selling their land, after having no food, and now leaving their family and their home, and going to a land of their enemies, her husband dies.

First 1 son dies, and then Her second son dies as well.

She's lost her inheritance, her family home, her husband, her sons.

Naomi has lost everything except her daughter-in-law.

And that is who the book of Ruth focuses on.

It doesn't focus on Naomi, which there's interesting interplay with Naomi through the book, but the focus is on Ruth.

Now, the book of Ruth is 1 of 2 books in the Bible that focuses almost exclusively upon a woman, upon a young lady.

And both of these young ladies are remarkable.

Naomi determines there's nothing else to do.

Sometimes when we know of nothing else we can do, then we decide to ask God to help.

That's not the right order, but unfortunately it's the order that happens many times.

Now for Naomi, As she enters back into Bethlehem, there's great excitement as they've been gone for it seems like 10 years or something of that nature And there's great excitement as Naomi has returned.

But as she enters Bethlehem, she says, do not call me Naomi.

And Naomi was feeling anything but pleasant.

She had gone out with a husband and 2 sons and hope for a better life and had come back with an empty pocket, with an empty family and with an empty heart.

But tragically, the trials, instead of turning Naomi closer to God, had God had made her bitter.

And the trials had led Naomi to bitterness.

And she expressed it to her friends and her whatever family was there in Bethlehem.

And while Naomi's trials had turned her to bitterness, She did not reject her faith in God.

And Ruth endured the same trials as Naomi, trials as Naomi, but Ruth's experience was totally different.

Naomi had the benefits of the heritage of faith.

And notice what Ruth's response was in these grand words of scripture in Ruth chapter 1 verse 16.

Naomi has asked Ruth to leave and to go back 4 times.

Naomi does not believe that there is anything good in her life anymore, and she would rather that Ruth try to make a life on her own.

But the fourth time, Ruth responds with such conviction that Naomi gives up trying to send her back to her own land and her own drods.

Ruth says in verse 16, and Ruth said, entreat me not to leave you or to turn back from following after you.

Your people shall be my people and your God my God." Now this is a fascinating statement.

It is 1 thing for someone to accept the God of heaven under blessings.

It is a completely different thing for someone to accept the God of heaven under tragedy and trial.

Ruth could have said, and imagine, Ruth comes from the idol-worshipping Moabites, and she marries This Israelite young man.

And her father-in-law dies, and her brother-in-law dies, and her husband dies, and things are not getting better but worse.

It would have been very easy for her to say, why should I follow your God?

And Ruth, as Naomi asks her to leave again and again.

1 & 2 Samuel: After God’s Own Heart

We're going to continue in our journey through the Bible, and we're looking at 1 and 2 Samuel, so we have a lot to cover, but I really want to distill it down to 1 question that we're going to look at.

But before we look at that question, I'm curious, has anyone ever heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect?

So the Dunning-Kruger effect was proposed by 2 psychologists after a study that they had done.

And basically, the Dunning-Kruger effect is that the less competent you are, the more competent that you think you are, which is not the greatest scenario there, but they proposed a curve similar to this, where the less experience you have, the more confidence there is, and then as you get more, it goes down until you really are an expert and then you realize that you are confident in that as well.

Basically it is looking at yourself as better than you really are and they did various studies, they proposed what you would score, they would ask what they thought people would score on the test, and then they would have them test and various things.

And it was a very interesting phenomenon.

And I suppose there are probably times that we can think of that we have fallen into that as well.

Self-deception is very dangerous, thinking that everything is alright when it is not.

Sometimes we can deny, sometimes we can repress, but the self-deception that I want to talk about today is a tragic example of spiritual self-deception.

When we look at the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel, We see that God has led his people through the time of the patriarchs, through the wilderness, into the promised land.

He's brought them and given them this land that he promised he would give them through the time of the judges.

And in 1 and 2 Samuel, we have a transition from the time period of the judges to the time period of the kings.

And there's 3 prominent people in the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel.

The first 1 that 1st Samuel begins talking about, who's the first prominent individual that 1st Samuel talks about?

Okay, Saul is 1 of the key individuals, but it's actually before Saul.

So the name actually comes from it, right?

So we have Samuel and then we have Saul and David, the 3 prominent players.

Now of those 2, the most prominent, Samuel is the transition.

He is the judge that goes from judging Israel to transitioning to the monarchy.

And the key verse, I believe in both of these verses, really is what we read in our scripture reading in 1 Samuel chapter 13, verse 14.

1 Samuel chapter 13 and verse 14, Samuel says to Saul, but now your kingdom shall not continue.

The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart.

And the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you And so here we see Samuel says to Saul, your kingdom will not continue.

God is seeking for a man after his own heart, which was who?

And by implication then, Saul was not a man after God's own heart, right?

1 is Saul, who is not after God's own heart, and then David, who the Bible records is a man after God's own heart.

And I want to look at what it means to be a man or a woman after God's own heart.

Because I believe that it was not just David that was a man after God's own heart.

God is calling each of us to be men and women after God's own heart.

But the question that we have to ask as we look at this book, and as we look at this idea is, who is your king?

When we look at Saul, we see that were there a lot of good things that Saul did.

In fact, the first time that we have record of Saul not doing something that was pleasing to God actually takes place right here in 1 Samuel 13 where Samuel says to Saul, I'm going to remove your kingdom and God is going to place a commander of his people after his own heart.

Saul before that was not a bleak picture painted of him.

As we review it, we see that, notice back just a couple chapters there chapter 9 of 1st Samuel chapter 9 we see Saul's call and notice some of the experience that Saul has here chapter 9 verse 21 and Saul answered and said am I not a benjaminite of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin?

How would you characterize this statement that Saul is making?

It seems he's not exalting himself, he's not saying well you you know you pick the best guy to be king.

I'm from Benjamin, 1 of the smallest tribes, and my clan is 1 of the smallest clans.

In fact, when we read the story, when Samuel is ready to present Saul to the children of Israel, they look everywhere and they say, where is he?

Because he wasn't sure he wanted to be king.

And the Bible record states that Saul was head and shoulders above everyone else.

Do you know there's still some research, I can't remember it, a number of several years ago I heard it, that frequently the tallest person running for president becomes president.

I don't know if there's anything to that, but it's just an interesting little thing that somehow people look up to.

I guess that means basketball players should run for president, huh?

I don't know if it works that way totally, but you know people look up, don't they?

And so they see Saul comes out, he's taller, he's handsome, whatever, and the people of Israel say, this is the right man, this is indeed who we want to be our king.

And as Saul continues, it says in chapter 10 verse 9 of 1 Samuel, So it was when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, that God gave him, what does it say?

God gave him another heart and all those signs came to pass that day.

Saul is going back, he's been presented to Israel, and as he's going back, the Bible records, actually, he hadn't even been presented yet.

And the Bible records here that God gave him another heart.

To me that sounds like he had a conversion experience there.

He had a heart At this point, he should have had a heart that was after God's own heart, right?

Because the only way we can get a heart that's after God's own heart is for God to give it.

We see that when Saul is presented there are people that reject him because he comes from the smallest tribe and the Bible says Saul holds his peace.

He's been proclaimed king, he could take vengeance on them but he suffers insults.

There's a message that comes, and as this message comes that 1 of the towns that is allied with them is in danger, and what does Saul do?

Saul acts immediately, and he goes, and he rescues the people, and then with this great victory, there are people that say, who didn't want Saul to reign over us let's put them to death and Saul says no God has wrought victory here.

By the way, as we read the account later on, there were many of Israel's enemies that Saul vanquished.

God desired to bring Saul into that conversion experience of having a new heart.

And Samuel says that he's going to be coming down.

And the Bible says that his army starts to dissolve.

They start to go hide themselves in the caves, in the dens, in the rocks.

And Saul sees his outnumbered army getting smaller and smaller still.

1 & 2 Kings: A Divided Heart

In our journey Through the Bible, we've come to 1 and 2 Kings.

And in 1 and 2 Kings, we find a record of the kings, the rise and fall of the kings of Israel and of Judah.

But as we look at these books more closely we see that it is not just a historical record.

There's a message behind why the kings are mentioned and how they're mentioned.

And I want to study what I'm going to call today a divided heart, because I believe this divided heart really sets the stage and also explains why things are said in the books of Kings as they are.

But I want to begin with a story, a sad story of a young man in his early twenties, maybe even before that a little bit, but right around there, early 20s, as a Marine, 1 of his spots that he was stationed to was Moscow.

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