“Glory to the Precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ”

1 John 3: 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen

Hallelujah 

When we, the bride, the church make a covenant with God, we must not be partakers of the deeds of the devil but we must submit ourselves carefully.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the portion of the Bible that we meditated upon in the past days, we meditated that we, the bride, the church should possess blessing not curse in the presence of the Lord. That is, among the twelve tribes of Israel, the church in the portion that was written yesterday two mounts were written. One is Mount Ebal and the second one is Mount Gerizim.

Regarding these mountains Deuteronomy 27: 11 – 15 And Moses commanded the people on the same day, saying, 

“These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin; 

and these shall stand on Mount Ebal to curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

 “And the Levites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel: 

‘Cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ “And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen!’

The above-mentioned verses as a pattern for us God is showing two mountains. That is, a mountain to bless and a mountain to curse. But in them they shall say that cursed is the one who makes a carved or moulded image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret. And it is said that all the people shall answer and say, Amen!

When we meditate upon this, he says that he who makes carved or moulded images which are an abomination and keeps them in secret is cursed. The fact regarding this is that to curse God is telling Mount Ebal. But after capturing the city of Ai the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as booty for themselves, according to the word of the Lord which He had commanded and caught the King of Ai alive and after hanging him on the tree, they put that corpse at the entrance of the gate of the city and raised over it a great heap of stones that remains to this day.

Then an altar was built on Mount Ebal. And Joshua offered sacrifice there. From this what we come to know is that the city of Ai and its king is written as to be cursed. Therefore, God is removing things that should be cursed from us.

Next what we are meditating upon is Joshua 9: 1 – 11 And it came to pass when all the kings who were on this side of the Jordan, in the hills and in the lowland and in all the coasts of the Great Sea toward Lebanon—the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite—heard about it, 

that they gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord.

But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, 

they worked craftily and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended, 

old and patched sandals on their feet, and old garments on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. 

And they went to Joshua, to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us.”

Then the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you dwell among us; so how can we make a covenant with you?”

But they said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” And Joshua said to them, “Who are you, and where do you come from?”

So they said to him: “From a very far country your servants have come, because of the name of the Lord your God; for we have heard of His fame, and all that He did in Egypt, 

and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan—to Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth. 

Therefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, ‘Take provisions with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them, “We are your servants; now therefore, make a covenant with us.”’

When we meditate upon the above-mentioned verses, when all the kings of the seven lands who were on this side of the Jordan heard about what happened to Jericho and Ai that they gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord. But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard, what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they worked craftily, and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended, old and patched sandals on their feet, and old garments on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. 

And they went to Joshua, to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us.” Then the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you dwell among us; so how can we make a covenant with you?” In this manner, they planned cunningly to deceive the Israelites.

In this manner, among many people the deeds of Satan will deceive the soul. That is, their deeds will pretend by putting on an image of poverty and in them evil deeds, which are evil fruits will be there. But they will not leave the old traditional lives and when they are doing the gospel work, many people will not be able to realize that. In this manner, many people will think that this is also the deed of God and will be fooled and will submit them to the Gentiles and will be deceived. For this only God is showing the above-mentioned portion as a pattern.

Therefore, in the covenant that we are taking with God we must be partakers of the deeds of the devil and let us submit ourselves to God carefully.

Let us pray. May the Lord bless you all abundantly. 

- To be continued