EMMAUS SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL STUDIES

As we study Philippians as a school, it has been brilliant to see how stimulating and challenging our conversation has been this week.  It seems like God is continually challenging us with how we view our own lives, suffering in life, being in times of need and being in times of not having need.  

In everything, Paul challenges the Philippian believers to place their faith continually in the gospel of Christ, to unify around that, seeking to be built up in that, and to live it out.  It is the only thing worth living for, the only thing worth emphasizing is Christ.  We can pursue a lot of things in life, but the only thing of eternal value is knowing Christ.  

I am excited at the fact that our new group of students are on an adventure to encounter Christ in his word. They are placing their value on knowing him this year.  This blesses the Father’s heart, and would Paul be here, he would be spurring them on too, encouraging them along the way.

Joshua is the story about the conquest of God for the Israelites, fulfilling the promise that he made to them hundreds of years previous to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – the promise of a nation and land. Finally, God was making good on his promise. God is the hero of the conquest; just look at the Jericho battle. That was a ridiculous battle plan, but God was showing the people that trusting him would pay off, and for this generation, there are very few slip ups. They seemed to trust God and take the land as God fought for them. As they battle for 20 years, God opens up opportunity for them to receive an inheritance from him. We all have conquests of our own where the enemy or the circumstance seems to large to overcome, but I think God would have us learn from this that if we trust the Lord, he is powerful and faithful to fight our battles for us, to take the burden on himself. This book is a challenge to trust in our powerful God.

Entering into the promised land is used symbolically in Hebrews of the people of God entering into an eternal rest, promised to them. God has chosen some to be freed from slavery (as Israel was physically freed from Slavery in Egypt, so we are freed from the slavery of sin) and to enter into rest (as Israel entered into the promised land rest, so we will enter into eternal rest with the Lord in heaven). God chose to use these events in Israel’s history to describe the spiritual state of his people. Whereas the OT shows a physical people, and God’s interaction with them on a physical level (and spiritual), he interacts with his spiritual people in the new covenant in a spiritual way. We can know God’s faithfulness to bring about his eternal promise since he was faithful to bring the Israelites through a conquest that brought them their promised land.