Joshua 4:19-5:12 - The Promise Comes “Full Circle”

[5:1] So.  The Canaanites, their melted hearts melt again.  They were already melted [Rahab told us as much].   Now hearts are doubly melted.  Why?  Cuz the God of Israel, the God of promise, the wondrous God of wonders, just brought His people across a flooded raging mile-wide [river].  Dried it up like that.  Not to mention - He has brought them across a barren wilderness.  AND out of bondage in Egypt.  The God of Abraham/Isaac/Jacob has finally brought His people full circle.  They’ve crossed over the Jordan, and are finally back in the land they left some 400 years earlier.  The land which He promised to give them.  The promise of God.

God promised this land to Abraham 700 years ago.  [Gen. 12:6-7 Abram passed through the land as far as the site of [Shechem] Now the Canaanite was then in the land. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD.].  He repeated the promise to Isaac, and to Jacob.  Yes, they were in Egypt for a while, but that had a purpose.  The small clan that went down there, the Lord was with them, and actually prospered them in Egypt.  And at the right time, He brought them out, a huge nation.  An army of 600k soldiers (that's the size of China's army).  He renews the promise to Moses [Ex. 6:8 “I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the LORD.”].  And WHY is the Lord doing all this?  Ex. 6:7 “Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” [4:24]  The Lord is gathering a people for Himself.  A family.  And now the promise comes full circle.  Back to the promised land.

Of course the Lord had them right on the edge of the land of promise 40yrs prior.  Multiple wonders backing it all up.  BUT, instead of focusing on Him, God's people looked away.  They fleshed it - looked down, looked around at their circumstances, at their own inadequacies, and they unbelieved.  By now, they could have been living in the land of promise for the past two generations.  But they were unwilling to trust in God’s Promise, in His provision.  And that’s what we all do.  We unbelieve.  The sons of Israel saw God’s land of Promise, but when they saw those giant [sons of Anak], they unbelieved.  The giants became the excuse for why they were NOT going to trust the Lord.  Those giants totally got them off track, going round and round in circles in the wilderness for 40 years.

Same thing happens to us.  Giants.  A giant mistake.  A giant hurt.  A giant question.  Giant pains in the donkey.  Giants rise up and they loom in front of us, like a big alien sucking on our face, trying to get our eyes off the Lord.  Trying to get us to unbelieve.  But there is no giant so big that God is not bigger.  NO raging river so wide or flooded that God cannot get us across.  We need to get our eyes off the giants, and get them focused on the God of wonders [focus of course being critical to seeing what we are supposed to see].  Fixing our eyes on Jesus.  HE is faithful. The promise of God.

And so, finally, God’s people really have come full circle, into God’s land of promise.  [4:18] This whole coming back into the Promised Land - after 40 years in the desert and 400 years of captivity in Egypt - is huge!  The mother of all “are-we-there-yets”.  And the timing of all this is amazing.  Just what you’d expect from the God of wonders.[19 The people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho.] God’s timing is always perfect.  What happens on the 10th day of the first month? Ex. 12:3 “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household.” It’s time to celebrate the Passover [Ex 12.25].  They’ve actually only celebrated it once since they left Egypt - at Mt Sinai [Num 9.5].  40 yrs ago - so most of them by this time had NEVER celebrated the Passover!  Certainly not in the Promised Land.  Talk about a celebration!  But that’s not the first thing they do. [20]  First they set up this circle of "Rocks of Remembrance" at this place called "Gilgal" - cuz of that promise of forgetfulness ["gilgal" sounds like “galgal”, which is Hebrew for “wheel” - another circle of sorts].  

And then there’s this: [Ex. 12:48 “But if a stranger sojourns with you, and celebrates the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near to celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it.].  Circumcise - to cut around (another “full circle”).  Also huge.  They need renew the covenant of circumcision.  Cuz circumcision has marked out the sons of Israel as God’s chosen people since Abraham.  No other nation did this, they're all referred to as “uncircumcised”.  But Israel didn’t observe circumcision for those 40 yrs in the widlerness.  Why?  [Num 14.33 - there was a temporary suspension of the covenant w the unbelieving generation].  But so this new generation had not been marked out as God’s people, not since they had left Egypt. [2-9] We actually get the Hill of the Foreskins [600k of them!].

[9] The reproach of Egypt.  This is the taunts of the pagan Egyptians against the God of Israel and His people [Deut. 9:28 ‘Otherwise the land from which You brought us may say, “Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which He had promised them and because He hated them He has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.”].  The critics had rushed to judgment.  2 million slaves out in the desert with no food or water, on their way to an occupied fortified land, w no military training??  So when the spies/people unbelieved God’s promise and the nation was sentenced to wander for 40 years (homeless!), the naysayers had a field day.  The pagan nations were taunting Israel, and disrespecting their God.  They were a sorry people, and theirs was a sorry god, unable to bring His people into this land.  The reproach of Egypt.

So on this day, the day the people set foot on the west bank of the Jordan, finally back in the land of promise, God says He has rolled away this reproach of Egypt, this criticism from the Gentiles.  Rolling away is ALSO rooted in this idea of a circle, of something round.  [Rolled away = galal; place is called Gilgal].  HUGE!!  God shows off His great power and faithfulness by bringing the entire nation all the way back to the land He promised to give them - out of famine, and slavery, across barren wilderness and raging waters and past fierce enemies, and they are back.  Full circle.  God’s promises always come full circle.  Fully full circle, because now Israel are all marked out again as His people, by renewing the covenant of circumcision.  Well, almost fully full circle.  There are two more things that take place:

[10] So, while they are healing up, we come to the 14th day, and they observe the Passover.  IN the land of promise.  Huge! [To this day, Jews hopefully declare, "Next year in Jerusalem!" - hoping to celebrate the Passover in the Promised Land].

[11-12] Finally, the day after that, Israel eats some of the fruit of the Promised Land, and the very next day the manna ceases.  This daily bread had been served up by the Lord, without fail, faithfully, every day for 40yrs.  [Ex. 16:35 The sons of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.] Every day.  No matter where they were - Kadesh-Barnea, the wilderness, Abel-Shittim, and even now having crossed the Jordan for these few days, every single day God provided them with their daily bread (which they complained about - how ingrated of them!).  God’s provisions never cease until He is ready.  And now He has fully brought His people into the land of Promise [Deut 8.7-10]. Just as He promised, He is now feeding His people from the produce of the land.  Full circle.  God always fulfills His promises.  His timing is perfect.  Great is His faithfulness.  [Phil 1.6, 2Tim 4.18]

Extra verses:

Num. 13:32-33 So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

Ex. 12:25 “When you enter the land which the LORD will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe this rite.”

Num. 9:5 They observed the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the LORD had commanded Moses, so the sons of Israel did.

Num. 14:33 ‘Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness.’

Deut 8.3 “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.”

Deut 8.7-10 “For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.”

Phil. 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

2Tim. 4:18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Joshua 4.10-13 - On (not) Living Large in (the land of) the Promise

When we see the sons (and daughters) of Israel crossing the flooded river Jordan into the land of God’s promise, we see two things out front.  The first we looked at last time - the Ark.  God’s promise facilitated by a piece of wood.  But there is something else at the front of God’s people.  SomeONE else.  Someone’s, to be exact.  40,000 of them.  These are men armed for battle from the tribes of Reuben, and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh. Let’s rewind:

How many people are we talking about in total?  Ex 12:37  Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children.  Coming out of Egypt, Moses numbers the people in Numbers: 2:32   These are the numbered men of the sons of Israel by their fathers’ households; the total of the numbered men of the camps by their armies, 603,550.  If you add women and children and grandparents, we’re looking at way over 2 million people.

Coming out of the wilderness 40yrs later, God again tells Moses to number the people:

Num. 26:3-4,51 So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, “Take a census of the people from twenty years old and upward, as the LORD has commanded Moses.” These are those who were numbered of the sons of Israel, 601,730.

Some who unbelieve insist there is no way on earth that that many people survived for 40 years in the wilderness of [Sinai].  It’s “highly unlikely”. The numbers got garbled in translation somehow, maybe the word for thousand can mean something else.  Like “clan”.  600 clans.  And then maybe you could get the actual number down to something more manageable, like say 30,000.  Which might put the total population of the nation at around 100,000.  I do agree, it IS highly unlikely that ANY large group of people could survive in the wilderness for 40yrs, whether it’s 2+ million, or “just” 100k. 

Now there IS separate confirmation of this numbering in Exodus:

Exodus 30:11-13   The LORD also spoke to Moses, saying, “When you take a census of the sons of Israel to number them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the LORD…Everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary…as a contribution to the LORD.”  Exodus 38:25-26 The silver of those who were numbered was 100 talents and 1,775 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; a beka a head (that is, half a shekel), for each one who passed over to those who were numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for 603,550 men.

[1 talent = 3000 shekels —> 301775 shekels = 603550 half-shekels]

But Israel didn’t just survive in the wilderness.  This is simply an unbelievably large group of people, living in the land of nothing, for 40yrs, living large on the miraculous provision from the generous hand of almighty God.  Daily bread.  AND water.  AND protection.  Deut. 29:5 “I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot.”  Guess what - God traffics in the unlikely.  The God of the unbelievable.  The promise of God.

Now, when they got to those [plains of Moab], back on the other side of the Jordan, before the wondrous miraculous crossing of the flooded Jordan river, Moses had a mutiny.  Sort of.  NOT surprising, considering all the other issues he dealt with from these sons of Israel.  Read about it in Num 32.1-7, 16-19, 20-22.  The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh insist on staying in the plains of Moab, aka Gilead (technically refusing to enter into God's promise).  And coming out of that, Moses makes ReubenGadMan promise, IF ALL of your armed men cross over - AND stay until the entirety of the promised land is subdued - then this land of Gilead will be yours.  And promise they do [25-26].  It might be safe to ask whether or not this is a pinky promise?  :)

But so as we come to Joshua 4 and the crossing of the Jordan, we see the armed men of ReubenGadMan marching before everyone else.  Just as they promised!  They’ve received their inheritance.  Their families are enjoying at least a sembelance of the blessings of God, living large back on the other side of the Jordan, in Gilead, but here they are, helping others enter into the promises that God has for them.  Well, sort of.

But isn’t that how it’s supposed to play out?  God’s blessings, His promises are never meant to be hoarded. Blessed to be a blessing [Gen 12.2-3].  We pass them around.  We share.  Open hands.  Lives that are generous.  Overflowing.  Not because of how much extra we may (not) have - but because that’s what God is like.  We don’t need to fight over the last piece of pizza.  Living in the land of God’s promise means we will always have all that we need for this day.  AND the next.  We can relax/live large in that, no need to doubt, because God’s promises are always yes and amen.  He will always fully supply our every need.  AND our full supply becomes God’s provision for someone else’s need.  2Cor. 9:6-11 Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.  Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food WILL supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness;  you WILL be enriched in everything for all liberality…  Living large.  The generosity of God is intended to flow out of His people.  [Luke 6.38] [Lev 23.22].  We don’t reap to the edges of our fields - so that others can be blessed with the blessings that God blesses us.  Open handed.  With “our” stuff.  Here, have some.  With our time.  Here - let me help.  Have some more.  Ours is not meant to be a scarcity mentality - because that’s not Who our God is.  And He’s moving His people OUT of the wilderness.  Living in God’s land of all these promises.  We are blessed to be living large - and generous!

And the Israelites are living large- sort of.  To put things in perspective, the mighty fortress of [Jericho], the formidable first obstacle Israel faces in the land of Canaan, is estimated to have had roughly 1500-2000 people.  And Israel’s army is 600k. [Imagine a turn in the game of Risk where like 100 army pieces are facing just one army piece - that battle should be over as soon as it starts, right?] I like Israel's chances, even just from a human perspective.  But something’s off.  Observe: Reuben Gad Man(asseh) Total men

Num 2 46500 45650 32200 124350

Num 26 43730 40500 52700 136930 

Back in 4.13: how many armed men from ReubenGadMan crossed over?  40k.  40k out of 136k.  That’s less than a third.  How did Moses put it?  ALL your armed men.  What’s happening?  God has blessed them, and multiplied them - and, how would YOU describe them?  It looks like they've held back two-thirds of their fighting men!  Which brings us to...  [The classic Blessing Blunders] 

-We [Stinge] - we do share, but there’s a massive [restrictor plate]; we only share a trickle

-We [Hoard] - we stockpile, just take care of me-and-mine

-We [Flesh][looking at the tip iceberg thru wrong end telescope] - we budget/rely on our resources/strength (as opposed to focusing on God’s unlimited resources)

-We [Ingrate] - we take for granted/complain; ingratitude.  [1Cor 4.7]

We grow up and get so used to living in a land of brokenness.  Broken promises.  Weaknesses.  Shortages.  Surrounded by various scarcity.  Selfishness.  But God’s faithfulness is greater than all our brokenness and weakness.  His generosity overflows even in the most barren wilderness.  Living large is freely extending to others what God has given to us.  All these promises [like throughout Deut].  All these blessings.  From this God Who we cannot outgive.  [Mal 3.10] “Test Me…”, He says.  We are called and blessed to surrender, give (back) to God all that we are/possess - it’s all from Him - and we trust Him, that His bountiful blessing is more than enough.  And we open our hands…Deut. 15:8,11 But you will freely open your hand to him, and will generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You will freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’”  Deut. 28:12 “The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand…”  Let's trust God's promises, and live large!

Other verses associated with this idea of living large:

Gen. 12:2-3  And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.  And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure — pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

Lev. 23:22   ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I am the LORD your God.’”

1Cor. 4:7 What do you have that you did not receive?

Mal. 3:10 “…test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.

Joshua 4.15-18 - The Promise of a Piece of Wood?

Joshua 4:15-18   Now the LORD said to Joshua, “Command the priests who carry the ark of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan.”  So Joshua commanded the priests, saying, “Come up from the Jordan.”  It came about when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks as before.

As the nation Israel further up and further in to God’s land of promise, something is very front and center.  Have you noticed it?  17x in 3-4 (10x more in ch 6).  It’s [TAOTCOTLOATE][aka The Ark Of The Covenant Of The Lord Of All The Earth][aron ha-berit adonai ha-eretz].  The Ark.  Not [Noah’s].  This is the Ark 2.0, aka The [Ark of the Covenant], the Ark of the Testimony, the Ark... of Yahweh.  

The Ark starts out as the sacred locus of God’s presence among His people.  It’s the place where Moses and God meet and speak face to face.  The people go to the Ark when they need to ask the Lord for guidance.  Throughout this early history of Israel, the Ark of the Lord also goes before His people.  It guides them in unfamiliar places, goes before them into battle, into wonders and miracles.  And it’s reputation goes before IT.  The AotL is so front and center that the enemies of God’s people come to fear it, seek to capture it, thinking this “Piece of Wood” is somehow the source of their power (cuz they don’t know the all-powerful God Whose power is behind said Ark).  Enemies did believe that if they could possess this Ark that they themselves could access its power.  But watch, as this [piece of wood] conquers cities, and topples idols.  People who look inside it die.  People who touch it die.  It’s even inspired a [movie].  The Ark of the Lord:

Ex. 25:16,22   “They shall construct an ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high… “You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you.  “There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.”  Num. 7:89 Now when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim, so He spoke to him.  Num. 10:33,35  Thus they set out from the mount of the LORD three days’ journey, with the ark of the covenant of the LORD journeying in front of them for the three days, to seek out a resting place for them.  Then it came about when the ark set out that Moses said, “Rise up, O LORD!  And let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee before You.” When it came to rest, he said, “Return, O LORD, to the myriad thousands of Israel.” Heb. 9:4b …the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant.

But in other words, God’s people (learned to) never make a move without the Ark.  And so it comes as no surprise that this is what we observe from the outset in Joshua: Josh. 3:3 and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God with the Levitical priests carrying it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.”Josh. 3:11 “Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the Jordan.”

What are some other things we observe about the Ark as the history of God’s people unfolds?  

-In 1Sam 4, the Philistines actually do manage to steal it.

-Once the land of promise is taken and God’s people settle down, the Ark is placed at [Bethel].  But it comes to be rarely mentioned.  Neglected [inconvenient]? Almost as if the Ark comes to be an afterthought.   But in truth, God becomes the afterthought…

-Eventually lost? Solomon places it in the temple he builds [c 950BC] [2Chr. 6:10-11 “Now the LORD has fulfilled His word which He spoke; for I have risen in the place of my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.  There I have set the ark in which is the covenant of the LORD, which He made with the sons of Israel.”].  Then there's no mention of it until Josiah [650BC? ~300 yrs later] [2Chr. 35:2-3 He set the priests in their offices and encouraged them in the service of the house of the LORD.  He also said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were holy to the LORD, “Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built; it will be a burden on your shoulders no longer…]  Apparently the Levites had removed the Ark sometime during the centuries of spiritual infidelity.  

There’s one OT final mention of the Ark, by Jeremiah the prophet, who lived around the same time as Josiah [Jer. 3:15-17  “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding.  “It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,” declares the LORD, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again.  “At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the LORD,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the LORD; nor will they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart.”]

There’s only one more mention of the Ark in the entire rest of the Bible, [Heb 9].  So much impact for just a piece of wood, and now it’s…lost?  Today we would classify it as a relic: an ancient object which is esteemed/venerated because of its association with a certain individual/event.  Sometimes, relics get neglected/lost [like w Indiana Jones - it winds up "lost" and filed away in a warehouse].  Sometimes relics turn into idols [famous relic].  Turns out, there are quite a few other pieces of wood which wind up as relics…

[Moses’ staff] - a piece of wood.  Was used by God as a part of significant wonders.  The plagues of Egypt, the Red Sea, water in the desert, the defeat of the Amalekites.  His staff was Moses’ undoing tho, wasn’t it? [Num 20.8-12] God still provided water, but Moses relied on this piece of wood instead of the Lord.  Ultimately it’s the sole reason why Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised land!

[Icons] (relics) - in Eastern Orthodoxy, you pray to pieces of wood to get grace and favor from God.  But the point of any piece of wood should be to point us to the Lord.  Don’t [trees] do that? [Is 44.23]

How ‘bout The Bible.  It’s a piece of wood, isn’t it?  Wood pulp.  Is it a relic?  Esteemed/venerated by quite a few, but for many more, it’s simply ancient, i.e. obsolete.  Often neglected.  Maybe we’re not sure where ours is.  For some, it occupies the spiritual space that is meant for the Lord Himself.  I read my verse, my passage for today - that checks off my "religious duty" box on my to-do list.  But have I connected, communed with the Lord Himself?  The Word of God is always intended to point us to the God OF the Word, the God Who IS the Word.

[The Ark of Noah] - it was a massive piece of wood.  A relic maybe?  But it certainly points us to Christ [1Pet. 3:18,20,21 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you — not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience — through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.]  Christ Our Savior.  The promise of a piece of wood.

Then there’s the [Cross] - the original, the ultimate piece of wood.  Is it a relic?  Who knows where the original may be?  Certainly it is one of, if not THE most powerful images of our faith.  As well as one of the most misunderstood, or misrepresented?  To some, it can be like a spiritual good luck charm.  For others, it symbolizes some of the worst ways that imperfect people implement their understanding of the Christian religion.  But that old rugged Cross, that piece of wood, is a promise.  A promise of life.  Eternal life for all who believe.

As we close, let’s remember: the promise, the POWER to save, to guide, to defeat the enemy and forces of darkness, never resides in any piece of wood, or in any created thing.  Only in the Creator Himself, the God Who saves.  Yeshua.  The True Promise of God.  Is. 44:23  Shout for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done it!  Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth; break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains, o forest, and every tree in it; for the LORD has redeemed Jacob and in Israel He shows forth His glory.