I gotta have my orange juice.

Notice that Joshua exhorts us to be strong and courageous, first of all in obedience.

Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. (1:7)

Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, and lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you. You shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them; you shall not serve them nor bow down to them, but you shall hold fast to Yahweh your God, as you have done to this day. (23:6-8)

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. (Heb. 12)

Given how we use the word bitterness today, it’s easy to assume this refers to our attitude toward fellow believers. But the Biblical use of this word is broader and has to do with poisonous teaching and conduct. Thus:

“I make this covenant and this oath . . . so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from Yahweh our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood; and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart’—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.” (Deut. 29)

Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter. (Rev. 8)

[Moses] afterwards explained what he meant, that is, lest any one, felicitating himself in sin, and like the drunken who are wont to excite thirst, stimulating sinful desires, should bring on a contempt of God through the alluring of hope of impunity. The same is what the Apostle speaks of now; for he foretells what will take place, that is, if we suffer such a root to grow, it will corrupt and defile many. (Calvin)

[The apostle] enters a serious caveat against apostasy. Here you may observe . . . the consequences of apostasy: where persons fail of having the true grace of God, a root of bitterness will spring up, corruption will prevail and break forth. (Matthew Henry)

One such poisonous teaching is the teaching that it does not matter greatly whether or how we obey God’s law and serve him. It is true that we have no reason to boast in our belonging to God (Deut. 9), but it is false that obedience is a light matter (Deut. 28).

And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. (Heb. 5:9)

The death of a high priest is significant.

Sometimes it is significant because it is a sign of judgment: “Then she named the child Ichabod, saying, ‘The glory has departed from Israel!’” (1 Sam 4:21) But it is always significant in that it releases those who are in prison into a new situation, for better or worse: “After the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession.” (Num 35:28) This is true in the greatest sense in Jesus; his death inaugurates a new epoch where those who are slaves of sin are given freedom and a future. You can see a more ordinary example of this in the death of Aaron; in a sense his death sets Israel free from the wilderness and makes it possible for them to conquer the promised land (Num 33).

There is a way in which this is true of all men, whether they be fathers or teachers or pastors; and even if they have planned for their succession with the utmost wisdom and faithfulness. The death of such a man releases a community from an obligation into a kind of freedom, but it also creates a new obligation and responsibility for that community to wrestle with the new future that is facing them. When you suffer the death of such a man, consider what old obligation you are released from, and what new opportunity you must give thanks for; and set your energies toward it.

​“But you profane it,
In that you say,
‘​The table of Yahweh is defiled;
​​And its fruit, its food, is contemptible.’
​​You also say,
‘​Oh, what a weariness!’
And you sneer at it,”
Says the Yahweh of hosts.
“And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick;
Thus you bring an offering!
Should I accept this from your hand?”
Says Yahweh. (Malachi 1:12-13)

Peter Leithart writes of this passage:

Contempt for the Lord’s table is contempt for the Lord of the table, and this is as true for the church as it was for ancient Israel. Matthew Henry wisely applied these verses of Malachi to “those who live in a careless neglect of holy ordinances.” If this is the case, many churches today live in open contempt of their Lord. The Lord has provided a generous meal for His people; we have a sacrifice from which even those who served in the temple had no right to eat. Yet we complain that it makes the service too long and it is inconvenient and it is repetitive and it is boring and maybe the roast in the oven will burn. “My, how tiresome it is,” we sniff (Mal. 1:13), and thereby prove ourselves sons of Esau.

If you fear that serving the Lord’s Supper weekly might result in its becoming routine; or if you despair at the challenge of fitting it in regularly along with the rest of worship; then you should consider the possibility your love is growing cold.

Thus, weekly communion: do not grow weary in doing good.

Everyone is a preterist:

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Mt. 12:40)

In fact, everyone is a preterist when it comes to worldwide events:

Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. (Acts 11:28)

As I wrote previously,

The preterist recognizes that once–fulfilled scripture is not useless to us; rather, it gives us powerful assurance of God’s faithfulness to his promises, and insight into his ways with his people and in his world. It will be many times fulfilled. For example, Revelation shows us how “things fall apart” when the gospel shines into any new situation.

Part 1, part 2.

But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the churches. Was anyone called while circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Was anyone called while uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters. Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use it. For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. Brethren, let each one remain with God in that state in which he was called. (1 Cor. 7)

For those who are called, circumcision thus dies out in a generation.

(Building on my Hagar bricolage.)

The weaving together of Israel and the nations is one of the central themes of the New Testament.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. (Eph. 2:14-18)

Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:46-48)

This is in fact what it means for Israel to be redeemed. As we see time and time again, the older brother is saved by his incorporation into the younger:

“But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.” . . . Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:21, 25)

There is no such thing as a promise that does not actually accomplish adoption:

For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, . . . and the promises. . . . [T]hose who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God . . . (Romans 9)

The New Testament has a name for someone who wishes to preserve the old man: Judaizer. And as we see with Peter and the great sheet, to preserve the old man is to despise the new man.

Paul speaks of all prophesying in 1 Cor 14:

But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all. (1 Cor 14:24)

It seems common to take the idea of “all” prophesying as hyperbolic. But I recently suggested that one possible way to read this is “all worship” or especially “all worship in the vernacular.”

James Rogers suggests the same:

Paul, for example, observes that when “the whole church assembles together” and “all prophesy”—in this context “prophecy” almost certainly means “to speak God’s word” (1 Cor 14:26, cf. Heb 4:12) . . . . (Hell Shall Not Prevail, 5)