Nuggets From the Book of Joshua – Part 1

Nuggets From the Book of Joshua
Part 1

   On the day Jesus arose from the dead He appeared to two walking on the road to the town of Emmaus north from Jerusalem.  The two did not recognize Him as the Risen Christ, only as a stranger.  They had been speaking with one another of the events of the past weekend – the whole issue of the crucifixion of the great Miracle worker, whom, they thought, “was going to redeem Israel” (Lk. 24:20).  The ‘Stranger’ keeps listening.  One of them tells the stranger of the women who had gone that very morning to the tomb and had found it empty, moreover had seen a vision of angels having told them that Jesus was alive.  Yet in hearing all this, of what the two had been discussing, Jesus finds that there is no living faith in them to believe the report, through even what the angels of God had told the women, of the very scriptures themselves (v25).

   For the next however many hours on the rest of their journey to Emmaus, the veiled-from-their-eyes Jesus begins to unveil HIMSELF from out of the writings – of Moses and of the Prophets – literally giving them warm baths, as it were, in the revelation of ‘the cross and the glory of the resurrection’.

   At the end of their journey in Emmaus, having thus invited this ‘Stranger’ in to eat with them, as He breaks bread before them, their eyes are suddenly opened to recognize this Man who had been setting their heart on fire … and He disappears.  They look at each other and say, “was not the heart of-us being-burned in us as He was-speaking to-us in the way, as He-was-opening to-us the scriptures?” (v32).

   Jesus had, some time before His sufferings, made a statement as to this fire.

Fire I-came to-cast upon the earth.
And what do-I-wish if already it-be-kindled.”
a;dlsfjasl;djfas;ldfja;sldasdfasdfasdfasdfa       Luke 12:49
                                     (Bold is emphasis from Grk. wrd. order.)

   The fire Jesus came to cast is the revelation of HIMSELF in the opening of the scriptures – of ALL the scriptures!

   Jesus set a precedent for church leaders in what (Who) it is that He wants taught to the people of the earth … not just scripture “stories”, not just historical events, not so much even Biblical “life lessons”, but rather the unveiling of HIMSELF!

   Look back at the conversation the two on the road to Emmaus had with Jesus.  It reveals that Jesus was not, in their minds and hearts, the center of their perspective, but maybe more so a Divine “pawn”, if you will, in bringing about a fulfillment of prophetic promises for Israel …  exactly as is the case today among so many believers.  There is so much “prophetic” political distraction in the body of Christ, at least in this land, because “Revelation” is being taught not as that which makes Jesus center, which makes Jesus the Revelation of “ALL that the prophets have spoken.”

 

   “And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in ALL that the prophets have spoken.” ”                                                                                                  Luke 24:25 (NASB)

 “ALL”  is unqualified by Jesus.  It thus means that whatever is written about whatever within the scriptures (contextually above, the Old Testament), including “end time” stuff, must centralize, in the opening of them/the teaching of them, the revelation in the unveiling of Jesus in His suffering and in His glory resurrection, that is, The Finished Work of The Cross!

   However, there is a fire being kindled in this hour globally.  It is the fire of the revelation of Jesus from the scriptures, an opening up of the scriptures to see HIMSELF – Christ Jesus our LORD – as we have never seen Him before, from the scriptures, from what we have called, “The Old Testament”.  The Fire that Jesus so desperately wanted kindled upon the earth began to be kindled by Him the day He rose from the dead.  Yet even now there is a kindling again of that fire, not a fire of visitation revival, but a flame that is setting hearts ablaze with new and first love for their LORD Jesus which will not fade, rather will augment, as the scriptures are being opened up to unveil, to reveal,  HIMSELF!  It is a revelation of unfading glory, of ongoing increasing glory – of effortless (void-of-works) transformation glory – in the revelation of what true resurrection glory means as that which abides everyday as an unveiled reality of grace access into the Holy of Holies without the Old Covenant’s remembrance of sins!

——————-

   Abba Father spoke to me in November (2013) by His Holy Spirit that the book of Joshua is the book of Jesus (same name from Hebrew to Greek), and has begun to open the book of Joshua to show me the work of  His Son and what this means for us today.  It is on my heart to share some of these things.  I believe we must see where we are headed as the body of Christ through the revelation of the finished work of Jesus’ cross in the opening up of these scriptures; for it is showing us His leading us into promises to which we’ve held fast for so many years.  Even so, these promises of inheritance do not make the unveiling of Jesus as a pawn, but as the center of our inheritance, i.e. of what our “righteousness” means, of what real “holiness” actually means through the revelation of the cross, of what obtaining answers to prayers and desires for whatever has captured our hearts to hold before Him for so long.  So much is jumping out of Joshua to me right now, alive as I have not seen it so.

   In chapter 3, as the people are about to cross the Jordan, Joshua has the leaders of the people to go through the camp to tell the people that they are to keep the ark of the Covenant before them, in front of them, in their moving forward from this time forward.

“When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God with the Levitical priests carrying it,  then you shall set out from your place  and go after it.”                                                                                                                                                 Joshua 3:3 (NASB)

  They were about to be led ahead into places they had not previously gone … ever.  This was new ground never before traversed by them.

   But there was something concerning at what specifically they were actually beholding in contrast to exactly what it is upon which we today are looking, in keeping our eyes upon the ark of the Covenant.  While it is so that the people realized, by the object being held high up on poles on the shoulders of the Levitical priesthood, that the very article of the tabernacle hoisted was the ark of the Covenant from the Holy of Holies, the people never actually got to see with their eyes this gold box with its likeness of cherubim gazing down upon the Mercy seat cast as part of its lid.  Numbers 4:5-6 shows us that the ark of the Covenant, which was, in the set-up Mosaic tabernacle, behind a veil, was consequently covered by that veil, then by a covering of porpoise skin, and then by a covering of blue cloth, before it was to be lifted for transport.  The then-present active covenant of Law forever kept the ark, the box which had the Mercy Seat lid with blood sacrifice sitting on that Mercy Seat, covered from the eyes of God’s people, even from the entire Levitical priesthood.  Remember, only the High Priest, one single man, was ever allowed to lay eyes upon the ark of the Covenant, and only on one day per year (Lev. 16).

   It is not so anymore, Beloved, not since that one day two thousand years ago on Golgatha’s hill when the Son of Man breathed His last breath upon the cross (Mat. 27:50-51).  Father God ripped that veil separating the MOST Holy Place from sinful man … because the sacrificed blood of His only begotten, unblemished Son was eternally sufficient to cover, Beloved, to forgive, even to eternally satisfy Divine judicial requirement for the penalty of Adam’s sin, thus washing forever the sins of ALL the seed of Adam in the lifetime of this planet (Heb. 9:12; I John 2:2).  The invitation to see, to always see, the unveiled Ark of the Covenant, the real one, not the shadow of the substance (Hebrews 10:1), but to see unveiled, without condemnation, without the fear of judgment, is ever before us, Dear One, as a living, daily reality.  That which was veiled, the Most Holy Place, within the earthly copy, the Mosaic tabernacle, veiled from eyesight the temporal covering of blood sacrifice sufficient for one year only, and continued as such through forty years of desert wandering, through entrance in the land of Canaan, even for some 1500 years of the rule of the Mosaic law.  But what is unveiled today is the forever speaking blood of the Lamb of God, that what is Most Holy is our grace access by faith into this Most Holy, with the hope of glory  (Rom. 5:1-2; Heb. 4;16), with the hope of being transformed by such glory into the same image of glory (II Cor. 3:18) … and no longer the remembrance of missing the glory (Heb. 8:10a, 12).

   The priesthood leadership today is to hold up the unveiled Ark of the Covenant in the eyes of God’s people as the church moves forward into her inheritance, being led today by our Joshua, by our YHVH-is-Liberty/Salvation.  Beloved, what is to be held up continually in our eyes and ears is our eternal redemption, our forever forgiveness, our unveiled access to the blood upon the Mecy Seat, our non-condemnation place of allowed habitation to Almighty God, Abba Father.

   Keep the unveiled Ark of the New Covenant before your eyes, Dear One.  It always keeps you in remembrance of your forgiveness by Holy God.  It keeps you in remembrance of how great a love with which He loved us to provide so amazing and so great a sacrifice.  You will find your own heart, in this continual unveiling of the finished work of the cross, overflowing with overwhelming love from a God and Father who no longer brings your sin to remembrance (Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:13; Heb. 10:15 & 17).  You will find your LORD leading you effortlessly and victoriously into paths of righteousness, paths into which you never thought you would ever walk.  You will find that your present day Joshua is leading you into promised Destiny, into promised inheritance in this life.

   And you will find your heart being burned with a kindled fire as the scriptures become alive in the revelation of Jesus in His resurrection glory.  Your heart will burn with new songs of joy and love for Him.

You are so loved, Beloved.

Mark Dingemans

kairos – (Kahee-ros’) – Strong’s concordance defines this word: “an occasion, I.e. set or proper  time.”  The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible (NASB) defines this word; “season, time, but not merely as a succession of moments, which is chronos,” [from which we derive the English word ‘chronology’].  “Kairos, however, implies not the convenience of the season, but the necessity of the task at hand, whether the time provides a good, convenient opportunity or not.”  This must be understood.  Strategic times of the Lord do not necessarily imply good or convenient times.  We are in Kairos times.  Maybe not good or convenient times, but definitely strategic, opportune times because of the season we are in.  We must have “ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches,” (Rev. 2:29), so as to respond correctly to the Kairos time.
* Some Scripture for this letter is taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, by The  Lockman Foundation.  Used by permission.  Other references translated from Grk. Txt as presented in T. Newberry’s Englishman’s Greek New Testament, Zondervan Publishing – 1982- originally published in London, Eng. 1877

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