October 2023 – The Promised Land

The Promised Land

Here’s a quick review to get started The Bible from A to Z poem:

A perfect creation till sin entered through man,
But One was coming, redemption His plan.

Big boat God provided when He judged mankind.
Babbling builders’ homelands reassigned.

Christ, Canaan, children: blessings on all nations.
God takes man’s punishment for Covenant violations.

Daddy’s boys with a favorite each round,
But only through one will a Savior be crowned.

Egyptian slaves they became to their dismay,
But salvation was planned all along the way.

Freedom cries heard by the great I AM
Salvation in the blood of the Passover Lamb

God set His people apart with His commands
To dwell with them Emmanuel is His plan

Hot and Dusty in the desert 40 years
Brought His ways into focus through trials and tears.

…….

They have finally arrived. The Hebrews are standing on the edge of the Promised Land. Can you imagine?

Rahab, one of the locals, even tells the spies, “I know the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.” What a confidence booster!

And that is exactly what happened. Archaeologist have even found an ancient city with it’s walls demolished – all except one small area- burned to the ground with the wheat still in the jars – possibly because it’s inhabitants were prepared for a siege.

Then we have a few hiccups when the Hebrews fail to fail take Ai and when they make a covenant with some locals posing as far away visitors. These hiccups seems to foreshadow what is to come as the Hebrews actually fail to completely remove the Canaanites from the land. Joshua divides up they land they do take, but the Canaanites continue to live among them.

What we see there is the exact opposite of God who rooted our every possible source of evil when he had the Hebrews stone ALL of Achan’s family and burn them and all of his possessions after the Ai debacle. Instead, they let the temptation stay, and it is their down fall.

God tells them in Judges chapter 2 he will not drive the inhabitants out before them because they did not obey him and did not remove their alters. Instead of followings God’s plan, they “did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt” – Judges 2:11-12.

The rest of Judges is like a broken record – foreigners oppress them, they call to God, he sends someone to save them, they turn back to God, life is good, they turn from God, he allows foreigners to oppress them them, they call out to God…..

The last verse of Judges sums it up well – “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” – 21:25.

How often do we do the same? We have an idea, and we devise a plan without every consulting God?

Be sure to read through Judges with your children, but I don’t think I’d call most of the characters in the book heroes. They are broken sinners just like us but used by God to accomplish his purpose.

The neat thing is the next book of Ruth sets us up for a man who is “a after God’s own heart”. No, he’s not perfect, but he does love God and seek his will. What an amazing example for us to see so plainly the different results of doing what seems right in our own eyes verses being a man or woman after God’s own heart.

This month is a short Bible study. It’s full of familiar story after familiar story that I am sure you kids know. What I hope we can see is how important it is to seek God like David did and not our own way like the people in Joshua and Judges.

Our connection to agriculture is that way agribusinesses may such a detailed plan (we’ll look at that next week). They plan their locations, their products, their websites, their costs to the penny, their prices, their income. They analyze the competition and their customers. And they don’t usually do it alone. They consult financial experts, lawyers, insurance companies, websites designers, shipping companies, and…..you get the idea.

They can’t leave a single stone unturned, as the saying goes, to ensure their business is a success.

So we can look at this from two angles –

• Do we pay as much attention to our plan to bring glory to God or do we just roll with life – putting all our planning efforts into our jobs/business, our vacations, our homes…..our dreams and give God what’s left?

• Do we consult God with our plan?

These are both some things I plan to meditate and pray on as we proceed with our plans and dreams at Grace Reigns Farms. Sometimes it gets discouraging, and I just don’t know what to do. What I do know is I want to do what God wants us to do with the farm. I want it to bring him glory. So I think we are on the right path. Just pray for us as we plan our next steps…..

AGRICULTURE

Equine

Coming next week.

Location

Sunbelt EXPO

Spence Field

Moultire, GA

Date(s) –   Oct. 17, 18, 19 – pick a day

More Information

 ~$10 admission

Check out their website @ https://sunbeltexpo.com/ for more information. 

 Suggested Projects/Activities:

Bible Study

•  

  Agriculture

   

  Bible Drill Verses

Children – 3^rd-5^th grades

Youth – 6^th – 8^th grades

High School – 9^th – 12^th grades

* Competition grades may vary.  See BibleDrillAndSpeakers.com for more information.

Don’t forget to check out TheBibleFromAtoZ.com for ideas about sharing the truths of the Bible you learn this month and the BibleMemory app to help memorize the monthly verses.

Complete these fun family challenges as a way to help illustrate the Biblical accounts we study each month.