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Take a breath, find your place, and read deeply. Discover the joy of reading God’s word with the Immerse New Living Translation (NLT) Bible.
This daily Bible podcast will take you through the Bible in a year following the Immerse Bible Reading Experience. So grab your family and small group and go through the Bible in a year together with Immerse. Each of the 6 volumes is available online or at your favorite Christian bookstore.
Ethan: Welcome to Immerse: the
daily bible reading experience.
Day 100 and 63
Introduction to Kingdoms.
The Bible's opening books,
Genesis to Samuel King's together
constitute Israel's primary history.
This opening story covers the events
from God's creation of the world
and his intentions for humanity.
To the account of Israel's covenant
failure and forced exile from the
Promised Land, the first five books
beginnings, take us to the point when
God's people have been freed from slavery
in Egypt and are about to enter the
land promised to their ancestor Abraham.
The story continues in
the next four books.
Joshua Judges, Ruth and Samuel Kings,
as Israel enters the land and is
commissioned to be God's light to
the nations, it is God's plan for his
new people to inhabit a new place.
The template for showing all
people what it means to follow God
and help the world to flourish.
These books are written in narrative
form and have a prophetic viewpoint,
always calling Israel to be faithful
to the Lord their high king.
As these books begin, God's people are
living under God's three earlier covenants
made with Noah, Abraham, and Moses.
The story moves ahead with
a description of the events
surrounding the fourth covenant.
This covenant is with David Israel's
second king, and promises a lasting
dynasty of kings descended from him.
Originally, the Israelites
didn't have a human king because
God himself was their king.
Once Abraham's descendants grew
into a nation, God sent Moses to be
their liberator and leader, freeing
them from slavery in Egypt and
guiding them to the land of Canaan.
But Moses was a prophet, not a king.
A new leader named Joshua then
leads Israel into the Promised Land.
He defeats their enemies and divides
the land among the 12 tribes,
but Joshua wasn't a king either.
In the years that follow as described
in the Book of Judges, God raises
up a series of leaders called
judges to rescue the Israelites.
Whenever their disobedience results in
their falling under foreign control,
the Israelites see themselves as
a nation consisting of 12 tribes.
And the tradition of tribal leadership
is strong, but still this period shows
that while they have no king, all the
people did whatever seemed right in
their own eyes, leading to disastrous
consequences for the whole nation.
In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses
foresees that the people will want a king.
When they do, the king will be required
to make himself a copy of the law and
read it daily, as long as he lives.
Enabling him to lead the people into
covenant faithfulness as the period
of the judges comes to a close.
The times certainly seems right
for a king like this to exert a
central authority over Israel and
restrain the rampant lawlessness.
So when Samuel, the last of the
judges is growing old, the Israelites
ask him to appoint a king for them.
God sees this as a rejection of himself
as their king, but he relents and tells
Samuel to anoint a man named Saul.
Saul eventually proves stubborn
self-willed and disobedient.
So the Lord tells Samuel to anoint
David to replace Saul as king.
After much intrigue and danger,
David finally comes to the throne.
He makes grave mistakes himself, but
God still knows David as a man after
his own heart because he deeply loves
and respects God and his covenant.
David's faithfulness to the Lord
serves as the standard by which
all of his successors are measured
in the Long Book of Samuel Kings.
Which begins with the stories of Samuel,
Saul and David, and then traces the whole
future course of the Israelite kingdom.
However, because the kings turn away
from the Lord and worship, other gods
violence and oppression are introduced,
and the kingdom splits in two.
Both kingdoms are later conquered
by foreign empires, and the
Israelites are forced into exile.
At this point, God's plan
appears to be deeply threatened.
His chosen people have failed to fulfill
their commitments in the covenant
relationship and are therefore losing
their temple, their king, and their land.
Just as Adam and Eve were exiled from
the garden of God at the beginning
of the story, so now Israel is exiled
from God's new Eden, the Promised land.
The tension in the overall
story rises here to fever Pitch.
Abraham's descendants are supposed
to be the means by which God
will bless and restore the world.
But now all seems lost.
Only one thread is left.
God's new covenant with King
David promises that God will not
abandon David's family and kingdom.
Whatever work God will yet do through
Israel for the sake of the world,
he will do through this royal line.
Immersed in Joshua.
The story of how the tribes of
Israel became a kingdom begins with
the conquest of the land of Canaan.
God promised he would give this land
to Abraham's descendants, and Moses
brought them right to its border.
But Moses' successor Joshua,
actually leads Israel into the
land, defeating the city kingdoms.
That rule there, the book of
Joshua describes how he did this.
Throughout the land, there are walled
cities each ruled by its own king.
As long as these fortified royal cities
remain in hostile hands, the Israelites
will be under constant threat, the
biggest threat of all looms immediately
before them as they enter Canaan.
Jericho is an imposing fortress that
controls the Fords of the Jordan River.
If the Israelites managed to cross over
but then can't defeat Jericho, the river
will become a barrier trapping them
where their enemies can destroy them.
The task is daunting, but God promises.
Joshua, I will be with
you as I was with Moses.
I will not fail you or abandon you.
Be strong and courageous for you are the
one who will lead these people to possess
all the land I swore to their ancestors.
I would give them The book of
Joshua has three major sections.
Most of it is in the form of a narrative.
But at various places, there are
important lists, including records
of defeated cities and kings and of
land allotments for Israel's tribes.
The book opens with a description of
how God prepares Joshua and the people
for entry into the land and then
guides them across the Jordan River.
It begins with God commissioning
and encouraging Joshua in his task.
While also urging Joshua and the
people to continually meditate on the
instructions God has given to Moses.
Joshua sends spies into Canaan
and then leads the people into
the land crossing the Jordan River
on dry ground in their new land.
They celebrate their Freedom Festival,
Passover, and for the first time
eat food from the land of promise.
Next, Israel invades the central region
of Canaan and then spreads out to both
the northern and southern regions.
Key to this section is the
realization that God himself is
fighting for Israel, thus keeping
his promises to Israel's ancestors.
The warfare Joshua conducts is brutal,
but in the context of the story, The
nations are removed from Canaan because
they had become utterly corrupt.
Just as Israel itself will be brutally
removed in the future for its own
detestable practices, these events
must be read within the context of
God's ongoing story of redemption,
especially in light of God's supreme
revelation later in Israel's Messiah.
Once the land has been conquered.
The second section explains how
Joshua divides it among the tribes.
We may wonder why there is such
a detailed description of the
allocation of the land, but this
gets at the heart of the covenant.
God's intention has always been
for his people to thrive in the
physical place he set apart for them.
Israel's conquest of the Promised Land
reflects God's overall objective to
reclaim the entire creation as our
good home and his glorious temple.
The final section of the book focuses
on Joshua's leading the people
in a covenant renewal ceremony.
The leaders of the various tribes
and clans gather at Shechem and
are challenged to serve God alone.
Obey the law of Moses and fully claim
their inheritance from the Lord.
Choose today whom you will serve.
Joshua challenges them.
As for me and my family,
we will serve the Lord.
The people aware of their story
and recognizing that they are to
continue living it out, respond.
We would never abandon the
Lord and serve other gods.
We too will serve the Lord for He alone
is our God at the end of Joshua's life.
The people have received God's gift
of land as promised, and are poised to
fulfill their calling as agents in God's
mission to all nations, the Lord has
kept his promises to Abraham and Moses.
Now, Abraham's family must step
up to become God's covenant
people for the sake of the world.
This concludes today's
immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.