Podcasts about Shechem

The very men who formed an alliance and turned against Gideon's sons then turn on each other via a curse put upon them. Let's dive into this chapter! #torah #christian #christianity #bible #bible #Jesus #Yeshua #messianic #podcast #faith

Pieter kisses a framed picture of his elderly parents every night. It’s been many years since he was last with them. As a young adult, when he became a follower of Jesus, his family and community pressured him to give up his newfound belief. When he didn’t, his parents disowned him. “In the Bible, God promised He’d help His children in difficult times, and I believed Him,” Pieter said. “Choosing to follow Him brought suffering, but He has helped me endure.” Pieter has the assurance from God that He keeps His word, so Pieter is able to trustingly act on God’s promises. We read in Genesis that Joseph, at the end of his life, was also confident in the promises of God. He told his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Genesis 50:24). Joseph was sure that God would keep His promise to take His people to Canaan. So he instructed the Israelites, “You must carry my bones up from [Egypt]” (v. 25). Four hundred years later, during the exodus from Egypt, “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him” (Exodus 13:19). Eventually, “Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem [in Canaan]” (Joshua 24:32). Let’s follow Joseph’s example of faith (Hebrews 11:22), showing our faith in God’s promises by acting on them.

Telling the Story: Part 1 Acts 7:1-16 by William Klock Last Sunday, in Acts 6, we saw Stephen confronted as he preached in the synagogue.  We don't know exactly what he was preaching, but from the accusations that were made against him, he was—of course—preaching that Jesus is the Messiah, but must also have been talking about the way in which Jesus and the Spirit fulfil God's promises to Israel, the law and the prophets, the torah and the temple.  We can surmise that, because what they accuse him of is saying blasphemous things against God in general and specifically against Moses.  They accuse him of saying that Jesus will destroy the temple and change the customs that Moses had handed down to them.  We can surmise this, too, because this is what we've been hearing Peter preach in the earlier parts of Acts.  Never in the early church do we see the apostles or anyone else just launching into a sermon about Jesus.  They always and consistently preach Jesus as part of the story of the God of Israel and his people.  That's important.  In fact, it's critical; it's essential.  Leave out the story that leads to Jesus and you just may lose Jesus himself.  That's what happened with Marcion of Sinope back in the Second Century.  His was one of the very first heresies the church had to confront.  He threw away the Old Testament.  He believed the God of the Old Testament was an evil, sadistic god and not the same God we see in the New.  So he just unhitched the Old Testament and left it behind.  And that heresy has been cropping up throughout church history in one form or another ever since.  A few years ago, ex-evangelical pastor, Andy Stanley, caused a big stir when he preached that the church has to unhitch itself from the Old Testament.  Even if we don't cut out the Old Testament from our Bibles, even if we cherish the Old Testament, if we lose the story it contains, we're going to get ourselves into trouble.  Men like Tertullian and Justin Martyr addressed Marcion and he was eventually excommunicated.  The church would always hold tenaciously to the Old Testament.  But it wasn't even a hundred and fifty year later that we started to undermine its story-telling.  As the church became increasingly dominated by gentiles, we started to read the Old Testament (and the New), not as the story of the God of Isreal and his people, but as a book of moral allegories and of types that pointed to Jesus.  We flattened it out and made it abstract.  We “spiritualised” it.  We knew the story of the God of Isreal and his people was there, but we denigrated it.  That was the simplest, the least important, the least “spiritual” way to read the Bible.  And by the grace of God we didn't lose the gospel, but gradually we started putting the em-PHA-sis in the wrong places. What we see in the Bible, in the Gospels, in the teaching of Jesus, and in the teaching of the apostles in their epistles, and in the examples we see through Acts, is that the good news about Jesus is deeply rooted in the Old Testament and in Israel's story.  You cannot separate the old and the new.  The story tells us the problem of human sin and rebellion and of the corruption of Gods' good creation.  The story shows us how God has stepped into the world to set it to rights.  The story shows—long before we ever get to Jesus—the goodness and faithfulness of God.  The story shows why the Israelites could and should trust the God who spoke through Moses and the Prophets—and eventually through Jesus and the apostles.  The story prepared them—and it prepares us—for Jesus, for his death and his resurrection and his ascension and his kingdom and it prepares us to know the Spirit and to be the temple, purified by the blood of Jesus and made a dwelling place for God, to be a the truly heaven-on-earth people God had promised to make Israel; to be the beginnings, the firstfruits of his new creation, his new age, his kingdom. That's what Stephen was getting at when he reminded his fellow Jews about the day when Jesus had said that he would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days.  It wasn't about the end of Moses or torah or temple; it was about fulfilling them.  They were signposts point into God's future—a future in which God would live with his people, not in a building, but actually in them, and a future in which the law would no longer be carved on stone tablets, but written on human hearts.  But they refused to hear.  They drummed up false witnesses and they dragged Stephen before the Sanhedrin, the governing body of the Jews.  Look at Acts 7.  [Page 1086 in the pew Bibles.]  Having been dragged before the Sanhedrin, “The high priest addressed Stephen.  ‘Are these things true?' he said.  ‘Brothers and fathers, hear me,' replied Stephen.  ‘The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he moved to live in Haran.'” Let me pause there.  Notice how Stephen is going all the way back to the beginning.  He speaks first of the God of glory, which might not seem very important to us, but it's noteworthy that “God of glory” is not a common way to speak of God in the Old Testament.  In fact, Psalm 29:3 is the only place this title is used.  On the one hand, I suspect Stephen uses it to make the point that he has no interest in denigrating or blaspheming the God of Irael.  Stephen is invested in proclaiming the glory of God, and that's exactly what he's about to do by reminding them of their own story—and, most importantly, how it ends with Jesus and the Spirit.  But Stephen is also invoking Psalm 29 as it ascribes glory to the God of creation, the God who is enthroned, sovereign over the seas and over the forests, sovereign over the nations, the God who blesses his people as they cry out in his temple, “Glory!”.  This is the God of creation.  And then to mention Abraham in the next breath is to set the opening scene.  God created the heavens and earth.  God created human beings to serve as his stewards and his priests in this creation.  And we rebelled.  We broke it.  We corrupted it.  We introduced darkness where there was supposed to be light.  We drove a great wedge between heaven and earth, between God and man as we claimed his creation for ourselves, to do with as we pleased, to try to rule it as if we are gods ourselves.  To write our own stories instead of living in the one he's given us. And it was into that darkness, into that void in which men and women had lost all knowledge of their creator and had turned to idols, God spoke.  And he called to Abraham.  That call was the beginning of a new story—a story to set creation and to set humanity to rights.  A story that would, one day, culminate in God returning to dwell with his people.  It's the story that everyone in Israel new, inside-out, backwards and forwards, top to bottom.  And yet something had gone wrong in the telling.  Because when God returned, Israel had rejected him.  Because when Stephen proclaimed Jesus and the Spirit, the people accused him of blasphemy. Because as faithful as they were to the story, they hadn't got it quite right.  Remember last week I talked about how you might take a trip to the other side of the country.  You drive your car to Nanaimo, then you leave it there and take a ferry to Horseshoe Bay, then you get off the ferry and take a bus downtown, and then you get off the bus to get on Skytrain to the airport, and then fly in airplane to your final destination.  That journey might break down at any number of points.  We might really, really like to drive our car and we can't bear to think of leaving it parked at the ferry terminal and taking a ferry instead.  And so we refuse to stop driving.  When our friend tells us you can't drive on water, we get angry.  We accuse him of being a car-hater.  We accuse him of saying that cars are bad and evil and no good.  And we wait for the ferry to leave and then we drive full-speed down the ramp and crash into the water and drown.  Not because cars are bad, but because cars were simply never designed to drive across water.  That's what's going on with Stephen's accusers.  Stephen never said that torah or temple were bad things.  They were good things.  They were wonderful, spectacular, glorious gifts of God's great grace.  They were signposts leading Israel to Jesus.  It's just that in this new age, God's given something even better.  There's a new law and a new temple.  Those things were the promise, but now the fulfilment of the promise is here.  But they don't want to hear that. But let's image you managed to transition from car to ferry to bus to Skytrain and you get to the airport, but instead of looking at the departures board to find your gate, you just walked down the concourse.  And you looked for the gate you liked best.  You stopped at one and you looked out the window and on the horizon, across the Strait, you could see Vancouver Island.  And it was comforting and you decided this was the right gate.  You could sit and wait for your plane to Montreal and never lose sight of the Island.  And you waited and waited, but no plane came.  And eventually you asked a gate agent, and she said, “Oh, you're at the wrong gate.  Your flight's leaving from such-and-such gate.”  But you didn't listen.  You liked this gate with the view of home.  And a while later they announced your flight—and the gate—but you ignored it.  Eventually you even heard them page you: “Passenger So-and-so, this is your last call for boarding at gate such-and-such.”  But you just sat there.  This gate was nice.  Everyone else was wrong.  Eventually the plane will come.  And that's what most of Isreal did.  The Messiah came to fulfil the law and the prophets, but people already had their ideas of who and what the Messiah was be and to do.  Because they'd got the story wrong.  Not all wrong.  They'd got to the airport after all, but wrong enough that they were convinced it was this gate, not that one. So Stephen's going to do what Jesus had done and what he'd heard Peter do.  He's going back to the very beginning of the story and he's going to tell it again.  He's going to tell it so they can understand that leaving the car and getting on the ferry doesn't mean you hate cars or think they're evil—and that the same goes for Moses and the Prophets and torah and temple.  And he's going to tell it so that when they do get to the airport, they be willing to trust the departure board and the gate agents and the pages about the right gate—so that they'll see how the story was, all along, leading them to Jesus.  The real key here is to pay attention to the bits of the story that Stephen—inspired by the Holy Spirit—decides to emphasise.  There are a thousand parts to this story, but—Stephen is saying—look at it this way and you can't help but recognise that in Jesus, the Messiah has come. So, again, picking up at verse 2: “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he moved to live in Haran.  ‘Leave your land and your family,' he said to him, ‘and go to the land which I will show you.'  So he left the land of the Chaldeans and went to live in Haran.  Then, from there, after his father's death, God moved him on to this land in which you now live.  God didn't give him an inheritance here, not even a place to stand up in.  Instead, he promised (when Abraham still had no child) that he would give it as a possession to his seed after him.  This is what God said to him: that his seed would be strangers in a foreign land, that they would serve there as slaves, and that they would be afflicted for four hundred years.  But God said that he would judge the nation that had enslaved them, and that they would then come out and worship him ‘on this mountain'.  And he gave them the covenant of circumcision.  So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and he circumcised him on the eighth day.  Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of the twelve patriarchs.” You can't understand Judaism or Christianity without understanding Abraham.  This is where the story of God's rescue begins.  With this call, God's plan to set the world to rights begins to unfold.  Israel wasn't just some random nation in history.  God's calling Abraham out of the darkness of ignorance and sin and idolatry is what sets the story on its trajectory to Jesus, it's what establishes that this is the story of how God will rescue human beings and fix his creation that we broke.  It's like Stephen is answering the charge of blasphemy by affirming that, no, he is actually affirming the story they knew; he's affirming God's call; he's affirming the special status of Israel.  Just because we also had to take a ferry, doesn't mean the car was a bad thing or that it didn't have a good and useful purpose. And Stephen makes a point of zeroing in on Genesis 15.  That's the part of Genesis where Abraham has been faithful to God and followed him to the holy land, and God responds by establishing his covenant with him.  We see this, too, over and over in the New Testament, especially with Paul in Galatians 3 and Romans 4.  This is a vitally important part of the story that leads us to Jesus.  And so Stephen stresses: God promised the land to Abraham's descendants.  The most Abraham would ever have it was a burial plot that he had purchase.  But after his descendants had been strangers in a foreign land for four hundred years—he's talking about Israel living as slaves in Egypt—he would judge that land and its people, and he would bring Abraham's children out of Egypt to worship him “on this mountain”.  Why was that important?  Because it shows how God works.  He makes promises and he keeps them, but he does so in his own good time.  If Abraham hadn't know better, he might have thought God had failed.  Moses might have said, “I don't think this is what was promised.”  But instead, Abraham trusted.  Instead, Moses believed and followed God as he did a new thing.  And I think that's why Stephen phrases this bit about “on this mountain”—that was originally God's promise to Moses that he would bring the Israelites back to the place where God had met him in the burning bush and they would worship there, but Stephen connects that with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  Already—long before Jesus—God was fulfilling his promises in ways that were unexpected.  Mount Sinai points to Mount Zion. For Jews in the First Century, the temple had become a symbol of the land of Israel and of God's promise to Abraham.  That's why they were so angry at Stephen when they thought he was blaspheming the temple and saying it was no good or that it would be destroyed.  You might as well say—in their thinking—that God was going to abandon his promise to Abraham.  So Stephen connects this all together.  He affirms the promise; he affirms the covenant; he affirms God's promise of the land; and most of all he affirms the temple.  Most importantly, what he's doing is affirming that God has called this people and given them a purpose.  Through them he's going to save the world.  They knew that, but they'd muddled the story just enough that they'd got the “how” part of it wrong. Stephen's on his way to Moses now.  We'll look at that part of what he says next week.  There's too much to his speech to cover it all in one sermon.  But on the way to Moses, Stephen pauses.  He needs to remind them of the part of the story about Joseph.  Look at verses 9-16: “Now the patriarchs became angry with Joseph, and were jealous of him.  They sold him into Egypt.  But God was with him, and rescued him from all his troubles an gave him grace and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, making him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.  But then there was a famine over the whole of Egypt and Canaan, which resulted in great hardship.  Our ancestors couldn't find food to eat.  Jacob, however, heard that there was grain in Egypt, and sent our ancestors there on an initial visit.  On their second trip, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and revealed to Pharaoh what family he was from.  So Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his family, seventy-five people in all.  Jacob came to Egypt and he and our ancestors died there.  They were brought back to Shechem and buried in the tomb which Abraham had bought with silver, at a named price, from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.” Before Stephen gets to Moses, there's Joseph and Joseph's story. Abraham (and Moses as we'll see next week) point to Jesus through their calling and the promises God made to them.  Joseph points to Jesus another way and he's particularly relevant to the current situation.  Joseph was rejected by his brothers, but it was precisely in that rejection that God was work.  It was through his rejection and through Joseph's unjust suffering that God raised him to govern the whole land of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.  When famine came to Canaan and Egypt, it was Joseph whom his brothers came to for food—the man they'd been jealous of, the man they'd abused, the man they nearly murdered, the man they sold into slavery.  And yet, what happened when they came to Joseph.  Instead of being angry, instead of retaliating, instead of getting revenge, Joseph was gracious.  He wept for joy to see his brothers again and invited them to come and live with him in a land of plenty. I hope that sounds familiar.  I hope you can hear echoes of Jesus there. I can't help but think of the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son and the rejoicing that Jesus says happens in heaven when sinners repent.  I hope you can see in Joseph's story, particularly as Stephen tells it, how God was preparing his people for his son.  This is how God works: through humility, through rejection, through letting sin and evil and human rebellion do their worst, and then rising triumphant.  This is how God works, Stephen declares: He is loving and gracious and merciful toward those he has created.  One day, when he finally finishes the work of setting creation to rights, it'll mean wiping from its face all those who persist in their rebellion, who persist in sin and evil.  God does not rejoice in the destruction of those he loves.  And so he rejoices—just as Joseph did—to welcome the repentant, to welcome those who want to be part of God's new world, to welcome those who come to be washed clean in the blood of Jesus and to be filled with his Spirit, to become new creations themselves, to become part of his new temple.  Stephen's pointing back to Joseph to tell the Sanhedrin: There is grace, there is forgiveness for you too—even for those who cried out “Crucify him!” I suspect there were some men there in that meeting of the Sanhedrin that day who saw where Stephen was going with this.  Like I said, this is as far as we'll go with Chapter 7 today.  It's too much for one sermon.  But the real takeaway from these first sixteen verses is, I think, simply to understand what Stephen, inspired by the Spirit and steeped in the scriptures, is doing here.  This is—or it should be, because it sadly usually isn't—this is the great art of Christian apologetic and Christian preaching and the proclamation of the good news about Jesus.  It's to tell the story of God and his people, to have the wisdom to know which of the thousand and one details is relevant to the immediately situation or immediate audience, and then to tell that story as the story that leads to Jesus as its fulfilment and its climax on the one hand, but that also proclaims God's glory by showing his goodness and faithfulness in the story that brings us to Jesus.  Brothers and Sisters, the Old Testament is not just a collection of useful stories for teaching morals nor is it a collection of allegories that foreshadow Jesus.  It is, first and foremost, the story of how God has been at work to save us and to save his creation from sin and death.  And we need to learn it.  We need to learn it well.  So that we can tell the story in a way that doesn't leave us behind as the ferry sails away or that leads people stranded at the wrong gate at the airport.  We need to tell the story in way that honours the old covenant, torah and temple, but we also need to tell it in a way that reveals Jesus as the fulfilment of them, a story that faithfully follows the signposts as they lead us to Jesus and to the Spirit, to the cross and to the empty tomb, to the ascension and to the creation of this new temple, not made of stones, but made of people washed clean by Jesus and filled with God's own Spirit.  We need to learn to tell the story so it gives glory to God for his goodness and faithfulness, for his grace and mercy, not just when we get to the part about Jesus, but at every step of the way: from Abraham to Joseph to Moses to David to Jesus—and then to you and to me, and to those who are lost and whom God so longs to rejoice over. Let's pray: Father, in the Collect we acknowledged your goodness and your promises that exceed all we can desire.  Remind us always that we know your goodness, because we know your story.  Capture our hearts and minds, we pray, by the glory of that story, that we might immerse ourselves in it, that we might meditate on it, that we might in habit it, and that we might tell it over and over and over until the whole world knows your glory.  Through Jesus our Lord, through the one who embodies your glory in all its fullness, we pray.  Amen.

After every battle is won and every blessing received, why do so many drift into complacency instead of gratitude and faithful service? Pastor Joshua examines Joshua's farewell address to Israel at Shechem, where the aging leader reminds the nation of God's choice, power, and presence before confronting their creeping idolatry and lukewarm hearts. His conclusion is unmistakable: fear the Lord, put away every rival god, and serve Him in sincerity and truth, because indecision is itself a decision. Listeners are challenged to settle the matter personally and within their own households, declaring alongside Joshua, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."Eastland is a Place to BelongEastland Baptist Church is located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We are a welcoming and close-knit family community that loves to care for each other through the Church. We strongly believe in loving and supporting each other and our neighbors. Our members don't just attend our Church; they feel a strong sense of belonging.Join UsFind service times and our location at https://www.eastlandbaptist.org/join.Connect with UsWebsite: https://www.eastlandbaptist.orgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/eastlandbaptisttulsaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/eastlandbaptistTo support the ministry of Eastland Baptist Church, tap here: https://www.eastlandbaptist.org/give

In this preach, Dion van Breda reminds us that our lives leave a legacy for those who follow after us. Preaching from Joshua, we see that Joshua wanted the people to remember all that God had done for them, so that they would continue to follow Him faithfully even after Joshua was gone.Joshua 24: 1 - 18 (NIV)Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. 3 But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, 4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt.5 “‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. 6 When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. 7 But they cried to the Lord for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.8 “‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. 9 When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. 10 But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.11 “‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. 12 I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. 13 So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.'14 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! 17 It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”

Genesis 12:1-9 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Fake Repentance Hosea 6 6 “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. 2  After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 3  Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” 4  What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. 5  Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. 6  For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. 7  But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me. 8  Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood. 9  As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests band together; they murder on the way to Shechem; they commit villainy. 10  In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim's whoredom is there; Israel is defiled. 11  For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed. When I restore the fortunes of my people,

The Two Orders of the Shvatim Welcome to Daily Bitachon. We've been talking about the different months of the year, their symbolism, their connections, and their depth. Today, we're going to discuss the twelve tribes ( Shvatim ) that correspond to the twelve months of the year. The Sefarim tell us that there are two basic approaches to the order of the Shvatim . The first is their birth order : Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda, Dan, Naftali, Gad, Asher, Yissachar, Zevulun, Yosef, and Binyamin. The second is the order of their encampment . Yaakov Avinu set this order around his bed, which eventually became the layout for how the tribes camped around the Mishkan and the order of the Korbanot (offerings) of the Nessi'im (princes): East: Yehuda, Yissachar, and Zevulun camped together. South: Reuven, Shimon, and Gad. West: Ephraim, Menashe, and Binyamin. North: Dan, Asher, and Naftali. (Note: Levi is not among these twelve because Levi did not carry Yaakov Avinu's bier, nor did they camp with the twelve tribes; they had their own dedicated unit directly around the Mishkan). The Demotion and Latent Power of Tammuz and Av In the original birth order approach, Reuven and Shimon received Nissan and Iyar, which are choice months. However, because Reuven acted impetuously—though, on his high spiritual level, Chazal say "whoever says Reuven sinned is mistaken"—he was removed from that choice position. Shimon was similarly involved in the incident at Shechem and later the story of Zimri. Furthermore, descendants of Reuven were involved in the rebellion of Korach. Because of these lapses, they were, so to say, demoted. Based on the new list of the encampment, Yehuda became the first. Nachshon Ben Aminadav of Yehuda brought the first offering, making Yehuda number one. Reuven was moved to number five, and Shimon to number six. Consequently, Reuven was given the month of Tammuz , and Shimon was given the month of Av . Does that mean Tammuz and Av are bad months? Of course not. Reuven and Shimon were not bad tribes. They merely experienced a temporary lapse. These months are not inherently malicious timeframes; rather, they represent righteous entities that fell but possess the latent power to rise again. Consider their history: Reuven: The prince of Reuven, Elitzur Ben Shedeiur, was a neighbor of Korach and was drawn into the rebellion. Yet, his day of dedication for the Mishkan is still celebrated as a communal holiday. Shimon: Shimon's leader was Zimri, also known as Shelumiel Ben Zurishaddai, who famously sinned with the Midianite princess. According to the Arizal and the Rema Mipano, Zimri later reincarnated as Rabbi Akiva —the man who transformed the spiritual landscape of the Jewish people and famously laughed when seeing the ruins of the Beit HaMikdash because he understood the ultimate consolation. Here we have two tribes that took a momentary dip. Rabbi Akiva is the ultimate source of Torah Sheba'al Peh (the Oral Torah). While we won't go into all the deep connections between Rabbi Akiva and Zimri, one profound rectifying connection stands out: Zimri died while engaging in sensual pleasure involving his skin. Rabbi Akiva died a martyr's death with the Romans scraping his skin with steel combs. The rectification matched the crime. When watching Rabbi Akiva suffer, a bystander wouldn't know his cosmic history, his Gilgul (reincarnation). That is what Gilgulim are all about—we return to this world until we reach perfection. Therefore, Tammuz and Av will also reach perfection. These are inherently great times; there was simply a temporary lapse, and there will be a rebirth and rejuvenation. The Twelve Senses of the Soul The Sefer Bnei Yissachar , in his essays on Tammuz and Av, shares a fascinating concept from the Sefer Yetzirah (an ancient book of Kabbalah). Every month corresponds to one of twelve specific spiritual or physical senses. Here is how the calendar aligns with the tribes and their spiritual faculties: Month Tribe (Encampment Order) Sense / Faculty Spiritual Meaning & Connection Nissan Yehuda Speech We use our mouths to tell the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim (the Exodus). Iyar Yissachar Thought Deep contemplation and introspection during Sefirat HaOmer . Sivan Zevulun Motion / Walking Continual spiritual progress and alignment after Matan Torah . Tammuz Reuven Sight The spies saw the land through a warped lens. Reuven stems from Re'u beni ("See, my son"). Av Shimon Hearing The people accepted the Lashon Hara (evil tongue) of the spies. Shimon stems from Shema ("to listen/hear"). Elul Gad Action A time dedicated to action and doing Teshuvah (repentance). Tishrei Ephraim Intimacy Represents our deep, marital-like connection with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Heshvan Menashe Smell The most purely spiritual sense indicating the high level we reached after the Yamim Noraim and Succot Kislev Binyamin Sleep / Dreaming Navigating the darkness of the winter. Tevet Dan Anger / Temper Overcoming and rectifying the anger associated with the month of Esav. Shevat Asher Taste / Eating Cultivating holy eating, celebrated on Tu B'Shevat as we taste the fruits. Adar Naftali Laughter Transforming sorrow into ultimate joy on Purim. The Summertime Rectification Now for our clincher. Notice how perfectly this aligns: the months of Tammuz and Av represent seeing and hearing . We know that the 40 days of the spies began on the eve of Rosh Chodesh Tammuz—the month of sight . They looked at the Land of Israel through a warped lens. They returned in the month of Av—the month of hearing —and made the nation weep by causing them to listen to a false, negative report. This is why summertime presents us with a golden opportunity to fix these flaws. Summer is a natural time for testing our sight , due to the inappropriate things that may be out there, and a test for hearing/speech , because people gather together and the temptation for Lashon Hara increases. We are given this time of year specifically to repair these faculties. Wonder of wonders, look at how this is mirrored in the three prophetic readings ( Haftarot ) of rebuke that we read during the Three Weeks on Shabbat: Divrei Yirmiyahu ("The words of Yirmiyahu") — Rectifying Speech . Shimu Devar Hashem ("Hear the word of Hashem") — Rectifying Hearing . Chazon Yeshaya ("The vision of Yeshaya") — Rectifying Sight . Each Shabbat of these three weeks is perfectly designed to repair these exact faculties. It is truly a wonder to see how all these complex pieces of Torah fit together.

Send us Fan MailWhat if we've been looking at the Samaritan woman through the wrong lens all along?In this powerful teaching, Bible teacher Leanna Magelli invites us to take a fresh look at one of the most familiar stories in Scripture, John 4, the Samaritan woman at the well. As Leanna digs into the geography, history, and context surrounding this passage, she uncovers surprising connections between the woman at the well and Dinah's story in Genesis.She explores what happened in the land of Shechem, a place marked by abuse, violence, betrayal, and brokenness, and why Jesus intentionally chose to walk through Samaria and stop at that particular well.She paints a picture of a woman carrying deep pain and loss, a woman Jesus pursued, saw, and entrusted with His message.If you've ever struggled with shame, felt overlooked, carried wounds from your past, or wondered if God truly sees you, this episode is for you.This episode is provided by our Sponsor, Southwest Investment Advisors - "As financial advisors, they spend their careers helping people plan for the future. While supporting organizations like ours that assist families and provide compassionate care. This aligns with their commitment to helping individuals and communities thrive."You can connect with them at www.siatucson.com. Now let's get the hot take on the woman at the well... In This Episode We Discuss:• Why Jesus "had to" go through Samaria• The connection between John 4 and Genesis 33-34• What happened in Shechem and why it matters• A different perspective on the Samaritan woman's five husbands• How Jesus approaches our deepest wounds• Why God consistently values, protects, and elevates women throughout Scripture• The difference between seeing yourself through the world's lens versus God's lens• How Jesus redeems what has been done to us and what we have done• Why suffering and joy often walk hand in hand• What it means to allow God to reclaim your storyKey ScripturesJohn 4:1-42Genesis 33-34Acts 1:8A Final EncouragementThe Samaritan woman didn't have to explain her pain to Jesus. He already knew. He knew her story, her losses, her wounds, and He still chose her.The same is true for us.Jesus knows the things we've done, the things that have been done to us, and the places we still carry shame. Yet He continues to pursue us with love, offering healing, redemption, and living water.Whatever your "Shechem" may be, the place marked by pain, loss, disappointment, betrayal, or brokenness, Jesus is willing to meet you there.Because you are seen. You are known. You are loved.And your story is not over.Enjoy more of Leanna's Bible teachings as well as her Pastors at https://www.youtube.com/@FCC_TUCSONConnect with Reclaimed StoryWebsite: reclaimedstory.comDownload the Reclaimed Story App anywhere you grab your apps.Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube ~ @reclaimedstoryListen to more episodes of Living the Reclaimed Life Podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts. Because your story can become your strength.Here are two FREE Ebooks for you! 1. Shame Off You: 10 steps to shattering shame in your life, HERE. 2. ABC's: CLICK HERE for a FREE E-book to help you combat lies and replace them with God's truth.  For more encouragement, check out some of our offerings at www.reclaimedstory.comDid you know we have a jewelry line that speaks to your identity in Jesus? CLICK HERE to shop. Every purchase helps support our mission to provide healing and hope to women worldwide. Would you partner with us to spread the message of hope and healing? You can DONATE HERE.  Living the Reclaimed Life is a Reclaimed Story, Inc. podcast, An Arizona non-profit corporation. If you would like to connect with a safe group of women doing real-life together, join our private Facebook page, “Living the Reclaimed Life” or on  Facebook  or Instagram 

Speaker: Ben Peters

Welcome to The Daily, where we study the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, every day. Grab your Hosea Scripture Journal right now. Our text today is Hosea 6:7-9: But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me. Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood. As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests band together; they murder on the way to Shechem; they commit villainy. — Hosea 6:7-9 Hosea names real locations—Gilead and Shechem. These were not random cities. They were places of spiritual significance. Gilead was associated with covenant land, healing balm, and the inheritance of God's people. Shechem was one of the great covenant sites in Israel's story. Abraham built an altar there. Jacob returned there. Joshua renewed the covenant there. It was a place where people once remembered God's faithfulness. But now what are they? "Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood." "The priests… murder on the way to Shechem." The names remained, but the meaning had changed. These cities still existed geographically, but spiritually they had become something else. Thus the warning. A place can keep its "holy" name while losing its "holy" character. A city can preserve religious language while celebrating rebellion. A church can keep the sign on the building while abandoning the presence of God. A people can inherit a Christian past while living in practical unbelief. Think about it. How many cities carry church steeples but no fear of God? How many communities bear Christian history but reject Christian truth? How many people wear the label "Christian" while living untouched by Christ? Names do not save. History does not save. Heritage does not save. Only transformation does. The work done at the heart level. God was not impressed by the fact that Gilead used to matter or that Shechem once held covenant memories. He judged them at this moment by what they had become. And God does the same with us. So do not hide behind where you live, where you grew up, what church you attend, or what family you came from. Assess another question: Who am I now? Because the issue is not what your city, church, or life was once called. The issue is whether Christ truly rules there now. Let him reign in you now and forevermore. DO THIS: Pray for your city, church, and home today. Then ask God to begin renewal in you before asking Him to change everyone else. ASK THIS: Am I relying on a Christian label instead of real transformation? Does my life reflect Christ—or just a religious identity? How can I become part of renewal where I live? PRAY THIS: God, forgive us for keeping your name while ignoring your ways. Transform my life, my home, and my city so your name is honored again. Amen. PLAY THIS: "Forever Reign"

Speaker: Josh Hinken

Genesis 34 is one of the darker passages in Scripture. In this chapter, Dinah, Jacob's daughter, is defiled by Shechem. When Jacob's sons find out, they respond with deceit and violence, destroying Shechem and his people. So how does a passage like this apply to our lives today? Listen as Pastor Matt teaches how Jesus can redeem our monuments of shame and turn them into monuments of salvation.

In this Bible Story, we watch the fragile kingdom of Jeroboam descend into idolatry and pride. Jeroboam erects altars of golden calves and establishes pagan priests. The Lord sends a man from Judah to rebuke him, but his disobedience does not cease. This story is inspired by 1 Kings 12:25-13:8 & 13:33-34. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a Year.Today's Bible verse is 1 Kings 12:28 from the King James Version.Episode 118: Jeroboam, Israel's new king, built a new capital in Shechem to separate themselves from Judah. However, because the temple of God was in Judah, people would still travel from his kingdom to worship in Judah. Jeroboam feared this would lead to the loss of his kingdom and his life. So he, like Aaron so many years before, made two golden calves and introduced them as Israel's new gods. Slowly Jeroboam added more and more idols into Israel's public worship. God would not stand for the corruption of His people and sent a prophet to let him know what would become of his idolatrous altar.Hear the Bible come to life as Pastor Jack Graham leads you through the official BibleinaYear.com podcast. This Biblical Audio Experience will help you master wisdom from the world's greatest book. In each episode, you will learn to apply Biblical principles to everyday life. Now understanding the Bible is easier than ever before; enjoy a cinematic audio experience full of inspirational storytelling, orchestral music, and profound commentary from world-renowned Pastor Jack Graham.Also, you can download the Pray.com app for more Christian content, including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories.Visit JackGraham.org for more resources on how to tap into God's power for successful Christian living.Pray.com is the digital destination of faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store.Executive Producers: Steve Gatena & Max BardProducer: Ben GammonHosted by: Pastor Jack GrahamMusic by: Andrew Morgan SmithBible Story narration by: Todd Haberkorn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker: Tim Wilson

In this episode of Journey Through Nach, Rabbi Ya'akov Trump explores Shoftim chapter 9 and the rise of Avimelech, focusing on the danger of failed followership, selfish leadership, and communal collapse. Through the story of Shechem, Yotam's mashal of the trees, the betrayal of Avimelech, and the destruction that follows, this shiur examines how corrupt leadership often begins when responsible people step back and destructive voices fill the vacuum.

Second Sunday after Pentecost Old Testament: Genesis 12:1-9 1Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." 4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother's son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7Then the Lordappeared to Abram, and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. 9And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb. Psalm: Psalm 33:1-12 1 Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous; *        it is good for the just to sing praises. 2 Praise the Lord with the harp; *        play to him upon the psaltery and lyre. 3 Sing for him a new song; *        sound a fanfare with all your skill upon the trumpet. 4 For the word of the Lord is right, *        and all his works are sure. 5 He loves righteousness and justice; *        the loving-kindness of the Lord fills the whole earth. 6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, *        by the breath of his mouth all the heavenly hosts. 7 He gathers up the waters of the ocean as in a water-skin *        and stores up the depths of the sea. 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; *        let all who dwell in the world stand in awe of him. 9 For he spoke, and it came to pass; *        he commanded, and it stood fast. 10 The Lord brings the will of the nations to naught; *        he thwarts the designs of the peoples. 11 But the Lord's will stands fast for ever, *        and the designs of his heart from age to age. 12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord! *        happy the people he has chosen to be his own! Old Testament: Hosea 5:15-6:6 15I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face. In their distress they will beg my favor: 1"Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. 2After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 3Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth." 4What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.5Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. 6For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Psalm: Psalm 50:7-15 7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak:  "O Israel, I will bear witness against you; *        for I am God, your God. 8 I do not accuse you because of your sacrifices; *        your offerings are always before me. 9 I will take no bull-calf from your stalls, *        nor he-goats out of your pens; 10 For all the beasts of the forest are mine, *        the herds in their thousands upon the hills. 11 I know every bird in the sky, *        and the creatures of the fields are in my sight. 12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, *        for the whole world is mine and all that is in it. 13 Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls, *        or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving *        and make good your vows to the Most High. 15 Call upon me in the day of trouble; *        I will deliver you, and you shall honor me." Epistle: Romans 4:13-25 13For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. 16For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") —in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become "the father of many nations," according to what was said, "So numerous shall your descendants be." 19He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. 20No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22Therefore his faith "was reckoned to him as righteousness." 23Now the words, "it was reckoned to him," were written not for his sake alone, 24but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification. Gospel: Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 9As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him. 10And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" 12But when he heard this, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.13Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners." 18While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live." 19And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. 20Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21for she said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well." 22Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well. 23When Jesus came to the leader's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24he said, "Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. 25But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26And the report of this spread throughout that district.

Deen Salami | Guest Pastor Standing Firm: A Look at Stephen Check out the weekly sermon here or on our SRBC podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. While you're at it, check us out on Facebook and Instagram too. Like what you hear? We'd love to know.At South Run, we read every message personally. Whether you have a question, want to share how God is moving in your life, or are thinking about visiting in person, this is the place to start. If you click the link below, Pastor Eric will personally reach out to you. Listening online? Let us know. Sermon Transcript Standing Firm: What Stephen's Martyrdom in Acts 6–7 Teaches Us About Faith Under Fire — Sermon TranscriptSouth Run Baptist Church | Springfield, VA Guest Preacher: Deen SalamiActs 6:8–7:60June 7, 2026This is a full sermon transcript from South Run Baptist Church in Springfield, Virginia. In this message, guest preacher Deen Salami preaches on the martyrdom of Stephen from Acts 6–7. This sermon addresses how Stephen — an ordinary believer full of faith and the Holy Spirit — stood firm against hate and persecution before the Sanhedrin, what his conduct, his defense, and his death reveal about the cost of following Jesus, and why the church's first martyr was not a tragic accident but a catalyst for the spread of the gospel. Opening: A Passage That Can Almost Preach ItselfI am a little excited today about the message. We've got a lot of ground to cover. There's a large section of scripture that I want us to go through. I'm going to act as your guide. It's not very often that there are passages of scripture that actually can preach themselves. This passage just might be one of them. So what I'd like to do is just to act as your guide. I'll read through big chunks of scripture and I'll just make a couple of observations for us to consider as we do. To do that, though, I'll only need about another hour. Are you guys good with that? I know better than to get in the way of lunch, so I'll make sure that I'll get through this thing in a reasonable amount of time, and I promise we'll survive the experience, all right? All right, why don't you join me in prayer? Gracious God and Father, behold this time. It is you who have called all these people here. None are here by accident. You have assigned me to this task for this day and this hour, and I just pray, Lord God, that you would act and move. Empower now your servant to be able to bring forth this majesty for your people's benefit and for the glory of your great name. May everything that be said and done would be pleasing to you. We pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Context: Who Was Stephen, and Why Does He Matter?Now, we've already had the first section of our passage read to us. We're going to look at the first martyr of the early church. If you guys know, that is a follower by the name of Stephen. Before he was crucified, Jesus warned the disciples that the world would hate them because of him, and as a result, they would suffer persecution. So how do we stand firm against the hate and persecution? Well, Stephen is going to help us answer that question because he experienced exactly what Jesus said he would. How he handles the hate is a great example for us to follow. Now, again, we've already read that first section in Acts 6:1–8, but as we go into the commentary of it, I want you to consider three simple things: the charges brought before Stephen, his conduct throughout this whole trial, and what it costs him at the end. Three things — charges, his conduct, and the cost. The gospel was being preached early on. It's the early part of the church's existence. The gospel was being preached, and after an early reception by the masses, opposition began to rise, specifically from the religious leaders. Stephen was a Hellenistic Jew, which means that his native tongue was not Aramaic, but it was Greek. He was also a Diaspora Jew, meaning that he was not born and raised inside Israel proper. He was born and raised outside of Israel. He came to Jerusalem, heard the gospel, and became a believer. He was not one of the original 12. He had no special place of prominence. In fact, when we first learn of Stephen a few verses earlier, he was in charge of food distribution for the church. In other words, Stephen was a simple, normal person, just like any one of us. His only desire was to serve and to be used by God. Now look at how he was described in this section. It says that he was full of God's grace and power, and he performed great signs and wonders. Up until this point, that description was only made of the apostles. But he ran into his fellow Diaspora Jews, and they could not withstand him in debate, because the Spirit of God had given him great wisdom. Since they were unable to defeat Stephen in debate, they slandered him, brought him up on trumped-up charges, and dragged him before the Sanhedrin. And this, by the way, is the third time that a follower of Jesus was dragged before the Sanhedrin. The first time it was Peter and John for healing a lame man. But because the crowds were praising God, they let them go. The second time was with all 12 apostles. They were beaten and sternly warned no longer to preach the gospel. This time, the Diaspora Jews were mobilized as a mob against Stephen, and if you were hearing properly and paying attention, you noticed that Stephen is alone. Incidentally, this is the same council that sentenced Jesus to death. The Charges Against Stephen: Disrespecting Moses and the TempleSo let's hear the charges brought against Stephen. It was the disrespect of the law — which is referred to as Moses — and the disrespect of God, the temple, because they believed that God's presence was in the temple. But Stephen is going to take these two charges and turn them on his accusers. But for now, I want to draw your attention to how Luke describes Stephen as he stands before the Sanhedrin. He says that he has the face of an angel. Now, I doubt very much that the Sanhedrin thought Stephen was hot, right? But what is it that made his appearance unmistakable? The question I want us to consider is, how is it possible that a normal person like Stephen — who was not part of the inner circle of Jesus — is able to do the things that Stephen had done and was described the way Luke describes him? Acts 6:5 — Full of Faith and the Holy Spirit: What That Actually MeansAnd I believe that the answer is found in verse 5 of chapter 6. This is the very first description we have of Stephen: he's a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. But the question is, what does that mean exactly? Let me start with full of faith. Because there are three aspects of faith that we see in Stephen. First, there's an intellectual determination. What do I mean by that? It simply means that he's asking himself, is the gospel true, and do I believe it? Am I a sinner, like the gospel says, and do I need a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ? Stephen's answer is yes. The second is, do I trust Jesus? Will I submit my life to him and proclaim him as my Lord? Again, Stephen answers, yes. But finally, will I commit everything to him, even if it means my death? And as we will see, Stephen will answer that question yes as well. But let me ask us all a question here. How are we doing in these three aspects? For most Christians, they're okay intellectually up here. Do I need a Savior? Yes. But it's the other two that they stumble at. Is he actually Lord? Am I running my own life? Do I just need Jesus as an advisor — I'll call on him when I need to? Or is he actually Lord? Do we actually commit our lives to him, willing to die? Because Stephen was all in with Jesus, it gave the Holy Spirit free reign to use Stephen any way he wanted. Not like a puppet, but as an active and willing partner in the work of advancing the kingdom. It's like the Fellowship of the Ring. Do you guys remember the Fellowship of the Ring? Remember when Frodo said he was going to go and take the ring to Mordor? Aragorn said to him, if by my life or death I can protect you, I will. Why? Because the fate of Middle Earth hung in the balance, right? But for us today, it's the souls — the eternal souls of people — that hang in the balance. And the only hope for them is Jesus Christ. Amen? If by our life or death, if we have the opportunity to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ, will we? Are we all in like Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit? What the Sanhedrin saw in Stephen was the very presence of the divine emanating from him. But let's move on and see what happens next. Acts 7:1–16: Stephen's Defense Begins — Summarizing Genesis 12 Through Exodus 1 from Memory I'm going to read from chapter 7, verse 1. "Then the high priest asked Stephen, are these charges true? To this he replied, brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran. Leave your country and your people, God said, and go to the land I will show you. So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no children. God spoke to him in this way, for 400 years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, God said, and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place. Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later, Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs. Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace. Then a famine struck all of Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food. When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit. On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was. And Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family. After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, 75 in all. Then Jacob went down to Egypt where he and our ancestors died. Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money. And as the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die." Now, for those of you who may have picked up on it, Stephen just summarized Genesis 12 all the way through Exodus 1. Genesis 12 is where we have God's promise to bless the world through Abram. Stephen starts there and ends in Exodus chapter 1. That is approximately 39 chapters that he summarized from memory under pressure. Now, if you were on the Sanhedrin, what would you be thinking right now about the charge of disrespecting the law? At least at this point, it looks like that charge is on kind of shaky ground. In fact, some of the Sanhedrin might be looking at Stephen and secretly giving him a thumbs up. Way to go, bro. Good job, all right? Why Stephen Uses Geography and the Stories of Joseph and Moses StrategicallyWhat I don't want you to miss, though, is how Stephen is telling this story. I want you to notice the way Stephen is making use of geography — Mesopotamia, Haran, Israel, Egypt. He is summarizing what God did in those places, but why is he doing this? Also, I want you to keep in mind what he says about Joseph and his brothers. I'm going to develop that here in a minute. Just be patient, okay? Now, before we move on, I want to highlight how Stephen addresses his adversaries. To the mob, he refers to them as brothers. To the Sanhedrin, he refers to them as fathers. This mob who dragged him forcefully before the Sanhedrin, and this council that not only sentenced Jesus to death but beat the 12 apostles — the question on the table is, why is Stephen so cordial? A few observations. First, he does not seem to be taking their behavior toward him personally. The moment is not lost on Stephen. He's acutely aware of the danger he is in, but he remembers his mission, which was the same as Jesus. He does not want to condemn them. He wants them to know the truth. So he speaks to them in a way fitting that purpose. He does not retaliate against them for mistreating him. Second, Stephen understands that their behavior is symptomatic of a bigger issue. He knows what the Apostle Paul will later go on to understand and share with Timothy. As we read in 2 Timothy 2:25–26, Paul says this: "Opponents must be gently instructed in the hope that God will grant them repentance, leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will." Stephen understands that these people have been taken captive by the devil so that they would do his will. But Stephen hopes that they will come to their senses. So he begins by instructing them gently. And in his approach, Stephen is reflecting the very heart of God. Back in Ezekiel 33:11, we hear God say this: "As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways. Why will you die, people of Israel?" Stephen does not clap back at them. Third, he is gentle because he is focused. He knows it's not about him. This encounter is much bigger than Stephen, and he is keenly aware of it, and we can tell by the way he conducts himself. It's a powerful lesson for us today, isn't it? If we're going to stand firm against hate and persecution, we will resist the urge to take people's behavior toward us personally. We remember that their behavior is symptomatic of a bigger issue. They are captives of the devil, and what we want to stay focused on is our mission to be active agents in freeing them through spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now one last point before we move on. We are 19 verses into Stephen's speech and in all his words, Stephen is not trying to defend himself. He has not yet answered the question that was put before him: are these charges true? He hasn't quite answered that question, at least not directly. Acts 7:20–43: Moses, the Burning Bush, and the Pattern of Rejected MessengersBut let's get back to the rest of Stephen's speech, because I think we'll find some more for us to consider. "Now at that time, Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months, he was cared for by his family. When he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. When Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. The next day, Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, men, you are brothers. Why do you want to hurt each other? But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday? When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons. After 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say, I am the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt. This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, who made you ruler and judge. He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for 40 years in the wilderness." Once again, Stephen has done an excellent job in summarizing that next section. He pretty accurately brings the story to the lawgiver himself, the man Moses. But let me begin to tie some pieces of this puzzle together for us. Stephen brings up Joseph and Moses very strategically. Joseph, with his dreams, and Moses, even at his birth, were both marked by God for God's use and for the good of his people. But in both cases, they were originally rejected. In other words, our ancestors, says Stephen, missed God's messengers the first time. Even though the signs were there, they rejected their God-appointed leaders the first time. And Stephen is about to be very clear about the implications of this for them. He mentions God being with Moses in Midian and in Egypt. All the geographical references that Stephen has made is the point he's taking aim at — the misunderstanding of the temple. They refer to the temple as this holy place. But yet Stephen reminds the Sanhedrin that when Moses was in Midian on Mount Sinai, Moses was commanded to remove his sandals because where he was standing was holy ground. So which is it? Is it the holy ground that Moses was standing on in Mount Sinai in Midian? Or is it this holy place, the temple in Jerusalem? Wherever the presence of God touches down becomes holy. What Stephen is saying is that God is not bound by any single location. This is what the Sanhedrin failed to see in their attempt to defend the temple. And it is a pattern that Stephen is pointing out for them. In addition, Jesus sternly rebuked the religious leaders when he turned over the tables of the money changers and called the temple a den of thieves, because they were keeping people from God. God had left the building, and they were completely oblivious. Let me highlight the wisdom Stephen is using here. First, he knows the word and how to apply it to the situation he is presently in. Second, he understands the charges brought against him and how to use those same charges to highlight the error of his accusers. And finally, he does not lose focus of his mission. And the question on the table for us is, if we were under this pressure, could we do the same? Acts 7:44–53: Stephen Flips the Script — You Are the Ones Who Violated the LawNow Stephen is about to end his time with the Sanhedrin, and it's going to be a colossal end. Let's finish reading. "This is the Moses who told the Israelites, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people. He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and he received living words to pass on to us. But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him, and their hearts turned back to Egypt. They told Aaron, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him. That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in it in what their own hands had made. But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon, and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets: did you bring me sacrifices and offerings 40 years in the wilderness, people of Israel? You have taken up the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your God Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore, I will send you into exile beyond Babylon. Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build me, says the Lord? Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things? You stiff-necked people, your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You were just like your ancestors. You always resist the Holy Spirit. Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him. You who have received the law that was given through angels, but have not yet obeyed it." Stephen ends his speech with a powerful rebuke of the Sanhedrin and this mob. The history of the Jewish people had been one of rebellion, culminating in the murder of Jesus, their long-awaited Messiah. Just as they did with Joseph and Moses, they missed Jesus the first time. I want you to underline verse 53. Stephen courageously tells the truth and provides a proper diagnosis of their problem. In so doing, he flips the script. So you accuse me of violating the law and desecrating the temple? I'm not guilty of either one of these, but you are. The evidence he provides is rightly in the law of Moses, and he records the embarrassing incident with the golden calf. This was abject idolatry, which got them exiled, and it's clear that their stubborn rebellion continued to blind them. Making the Means the End: The Sanhedrin's Fatal Error with the Law and the TempleThe inherent problem the Sanhedrin and the mob suffered from was that they made the means the end and did away with the end itself. What do I mean by that? Well, in Galatians 3:24–25, Paul says this: "So the law was our guardian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian." The law was the means by which we would be ready for Christ, who was literally the end of the law — he was what the law was preparing us for. But they made the means, the law, the end, and did away with the end itself, Jesus. Jesus says the same thing about the temple. In Mark 11:17, Jesus says this: "My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves." The temple was the means by which all the nations would come to know who God is and pray to him. They turned the temple into a money-making machine, and they did away with God altogether. It's the same pattern. Acts 7:54–60: The Stoning of Stephen — Dying Like His LordLike all who stubbornly live in rebellion and refuse to hear the truth, they go after Stephen. "When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Look, he said, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of the young man named Saul. And while they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he fell on his knees and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. When he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul approved of their killing." Stephen took a bold stand and it cost him his life. But here's the beauty of this passage. Stephen died in the same way his Lord did. He dies praying for the forgiveness of the people stoning him, just like Jesus. And because Stephen was so faithful to his call, the heavens opened so that Stephen sees the Lord Jesus rise from his throne to welcome his faithful servant home. How to Stand Firm Against Hate and Persecution: Look Up, Not AroundHow do we stand firm in the face of hate and persecution? First and foremost, we look up, not around. We look to Jesus. We need to be focused on Jesus because he is all he's asking us to be, and he has done all he's asking us to do. That includes suffering for his sake. Second, we need to remember one important thing. We're not simply spectators or victims. We are active agents of change. In other words, we do not lose sight of the mission, because this is why we are here. You know, I know some people — I've spoken to some people about this passage — and they seem to think that it's unfair for Stephen to have died. After all, why couldn't God have saved him? He saved the apostles. He saved John and Peter. Why couldn't he have saved Stephen? But if we read Acts 1:8, where Jesus told the disciples that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and in the uttermost parts of the world, we begin to realize one important thing. Up until this point, guess where the church was localized? Jerusalem. Guess where they had their small groups? Jerusalem. Guess where they had their worship time? Jerusalem. But where were they supposed to go? But after Stephen was killed, we read this: "On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria." Stephen's death was the catalyst for the advancement of the gospel outside of Jerusalem. Remember, our faith is not a faith that we simply talk about. Our faith is a full contact sport. If by my life or death I can advance the gospel, I will. Stephen did it by his death. Closing: Active Agents of God's Redemptive WorkLet me read you one quote as I close. It says, "Suffering becomes the ongoing evidence that creation awaits restoration. And believers, bearing God's image and indwelt by the Spirit, participate in that redemptive work. Rather than passive victims of evil, they become agents through whom God's original creative intention progressively reasserts itself against the disorder introduced by sin." Will you be a part of that? Because this is our purpose. And once we understand our purpose and totally embrace it, then we look at the world very differently. We can stop asking why the world is the way it is. Because that's really the wrong question. The right question is, what are we going to do about it? Because we are supposed to be the active and willing participants in God's redemptive work. Is this work dangerous? Yeah. Stephen found that out very clearly. Remember, Jesus died for us first. So it is not like God is asking us to throw away our lives cavalierly. Far from it. Stephen understood the stakes and was keenly aware of the moment. But he determined that his life was worthy of sacrificing for the gospel. He stood firm. Can we? Let me pray. Our gracious God and Father, we thank you for this time that we can be in your word. We are reminded, Lord, that it's you who preserved your word, lo, these 2,000 years for us, this generation of believers, to learn and glean from. I pray, Father, for whatever lessons that may have been brought out here, that those seeds would be scattered in the hearts of your people and that they would grow into folks that would stand firm for the advancement of the gospel. Our only desire, Lord God, is like Stephen. We ask humbly that you would use us as we serve, and that you would be glorified. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. South Run Baptist Church | 8712 Selger Drive, Springfield, VA 22153 | Sunday Worship at 11am Serving Springfield, Burke, West Springfield, Lorton, Alexandria, Fort Belvoir, and Franconia, Virginia. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans' arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.   For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher's garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.   Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

Join us as we read about the covenant at Shechem and the death of Joshua.#bible #torah #podcast #joshua #biblestudy #messianic #messianicpodcast #podcast #podcasts #christianfaith #christianity #christian

Moses could get Israel to the Promised Land, but he couldn't get them in. To cross the Jordan, Israel needed a new leader with a familiar name: Joshua. Discover why the transition from the Law to Grace is the only way to claim your divine inheritance. Summary: In this episode, we study the Book of Joshua. We move beyond the battles and the trumpets to find the deep spiritual transformation required to stop wandering and start inheriting. Filling the Shoes of a Giant: We analyze the transition from Moses to Joshua—and from Peter to Jesus—exploring how God stays with the successor just as He was with the predecessor. Crossing the Jordan: We look at the "dry ground" miracle at the Jordan River and how the priests had to step into the water before it parted. Strange Strategies: We discuss the "foolish" tactics used at Jericho. Why does God ask us to do small and simple things—like family prayer or scripture study—that seem unrelated to the "walls" we are trying to bring down? The Valley of Achor: We look at the cautionary tale of Achan and how "one man's sin" can affect an entire community, and how God turns our "valleys of trouble" into "doors of hope." Choose You This Day: We conclude with Joshua's final plea at Shechem. We learn that our obedience lasts only as long as our memory, and why we must choose—every single day—whom we will serve. Call-to-Action: Joshua told the people that the stones of the altar had "heard" their promises. What "witnesses" have you set up in your life to remind you of your covenants? Share your thoughts in the comments! To keep your faith "Unshaken" as we enter the era of the Judges, please like, subscribe, and share this video. Chapter Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 5:31 Joshua, filling shoes 16:37 Preparing for the Promised Land 34:05 Rahab in Jericho 53:34 Crossing the Jordan River 1:08:02 Magnifying, Memorializing, and Renewing Covenants 1:30:19 The Battle of Jericho 1:46:45 Achan the Accursed 2:19:53 The Battle of Ai 2:25:42 The Gibeonites' Trick 2:37:11 God Fighting Battles & Lengthening Days 2:53:11 The Conquest Continues & Caleb Stakes a Claim 3:10:28 Inheritances in Israel 3:30:15 Mainstream & Margin, Exceptions & Rules 4:12:59 Conclusion

Gaal's defeat, expulsion, and the massacre of the rest of Shechem

Join Southwest Radio Ministries host Larry Spargimino and Carl Gallups on Watchman on the Wall for part 2 of this discussion. As they talk about Rabbi Zev Porat's newest book, “The Mysteries of Ancient Shechem”. The footprint of God is all over Israel, even in the lay of the land. The rendering is eerily similar to the Hebrew letter shin (looks like 'w') that Jerusalem displays from a satellite view. The book provides a rare journey of archeology, geography, and linguistics that will persuade any honest reader that the Bible is God's word. None of the features discussed in the book can be reasonably attributed to "Coincidence."

Join Southwest Radio Ministries host Larry Spargimino and Carl Gallups on Watchman on the Wall. As they talk about Rabbi Zev Porat's newest book, “The Mysteries of Ancient Shechem”. The footprint of God is all over Israel, even in the lay of the land. The rendering is eerily similar to the Hebrew letter shin (looks like 'w') that Jerusalem displays from a satellite view. The book provides a rare journey of archeology, geography, and linguistics that will persuade any honest reader that the Bible is God's word. None of the features discussed in the book can be reasonably attributed to "Coincidence."

A Man in the Field 12 His brothers had gone to pasture their father's flocks at Shechem. 13 Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers, you know, are pasturing the flocks at Shechem. Get ready. I'm sending you to them.” “I'm ready,” Joseph replied. 14 Then Israel said to him, “Go and see how your brothers…

The story of history from the Garden of Eden on is the great war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent: God vs. Evil. The story's climax is the death and resurrection of Jesus, but all of history is revealing this story arc. And this chapter is no different. Here we have the sordid history of Gideon's sons, and God's providential superintendence even in the midst evil plots and treachery – teaching us a politics of patience and fruitfulness.The Text: “And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem unot his mother's brethren, and communed with them…” (Judges 9:1-57).King's Cross Church is a member congregation of the CREC in Moscow, ID. Visit our website at https://kingscrossmoscow.com.Follow us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/kingscrossmoscow.

After 3 years of rule, Animosity develops between Avimelech and Shechem

The people of Shechem set up an ambush

MISSION WATCH: Unearthing the Mysteries of Ancient Shechem!Featuring: Pastor Carl GallupsDate: 04-30-2026We will Be talking about a book that Pastor Carl Gallups Foreword for Messianic Rabbi Zev Porat. If you don't know what Shechem is, It Is THE ANCIENT CITY of Shechem, located in the middle of the land of Israel, is mentioned more than seventy times from Genesis to Acts. Shechem is where God spoke to Abraham and told him that through his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed—a promise of the coming Messiah.There are many Secretes that are reveled from this book. It Revels thing that have been there from Genesis, Esther, and several other books.“Remember we do not 100% agree with everything our guests, say, do, or believe. It's up to you to pray and sort it out!”Another do not Miss a Messiah's Branch Radio program as “We are Warning the World as it HAPPENS!”Goodbye, Shalom, and Be blessed!LISTEN AND DOWN-LOAD HEREARCHIVES:https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/branchVisit:http://wichitahomeless.com/Donations and Contact:https://prophecyhour.com/https://www.messiahsbranch.com/Also Support are Guest's at:http://www.carlgallups.com/

MISSION WATCH: Unearthing the Mysteries of Ancient Shechem!Featuring: Pastor Carl GallupsDate: 04-30-2026We will Be talking about a book that Pastor Carl Gallups Foreword for Messianic Rabbi Zev Porat. If you don't know what Shechem is, It Is THE ANCIENT CITY of Shechem, located in the middle of the land of Israel, is mentioned more than seventy times from Genesis to Acts. Shechem is where God spoke to Abraham and told him that through his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed—a promise of the coming Messiah.There are many Secretes that are reveled from this book. It Revels thing that have been there from Genesis, Esther, and several other books.“Remember we do not 100% agree with everything our guests, say, do, or believe. It's up to you to pray and sort it out!”Another do not Miss a Messiah's Branch Radio program as “We are Warning the World as it HAPPENS!”Goodbye, Shalom, and Be blessed!LISTEN AND DOWN-LOAD HEREARCHIVES:https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/branchVisit:http://wichitahomeless.com/Donations and Contact:https://prophecyhour.com/https://www.messiahsbranch.com/Also Support are Guest's at:http://www.carlgallups.com/

“So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.” So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.” - ‭‭Joshua‬ ‭24‬:‭25‬-‭28‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The crowned Bride of Christ arises! A flow of input and information and scripture on a late night drive… Michael Basham.com O God, my heart is steadfast [with confident faith]; I will sing, I will sing praises, even with my soul. 2 Awake, harp and lyre; I will awaken the dawn! 3 I will praise and give thanks to You, O LORD, among the people; And I will sing praises to You among the nations. 4 For Your lovingkindness is great and higher than the heavens; Your truth reaches to the skies. 5 Be exalted [in majesty], O God, above the heavens, And Your glory above all the earth. 6 That Your beloved [ones] may be rescued, Save with Your right hand, and answer me! 7 ¶ God has spoken in His fnholiness: “I will rejoice, I will portion out Shechem [as I divide Canaan among My people], And measure out the Valley of Succoth. 8 “Gilead is Mine, Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet of My head [My stronghold, My defense]; Judah is My fnscepter. 9 “Moab is My washbowl; Over Edom I will throw My shoe [to show Edom is Mine]; Over Philistia I will shout [in triumph].” 10 ¶ Who will bring me into the fortified city [of Petra]? Who will lead me to Edom? 11 Have You not rejected us, O God? And will You not go out, O God, with our armies? 12 Give us help against the adversary, For deliverance by man is in vain [a worthless hope]. 13 fnWith God we will do valiantly, For it is He who will trample down our enemies.

And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for to Shechem were all Israel come to make him king.2 And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was in Egypt, whither he fled from the presence of Solomon the king, heard it, that Jeroboam returned out of Egypt.3 And they sent and called him. So Jeroboam and all Israel came and spake to Rehoboam, saying,4 Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee.5 And he said unto them, Come again unto me after three days. And the people departed.6 And king Rehoboam took counsel with the old men that had stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, saying, What counsel give ye me to return answer to this people?7 And they spake unto him, saying, If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants for ever.8 But he forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young men that were brought up with him, that stood before him.9 And he said unto them, What advice give ye that we may return answer to this people, which have spoken to me, saying, Ease somewhat the yoke that thy father did put upon us?10 And the young men that were brought up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou answer the people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it somewhat lighter for us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins.11 For whereas my father put a heavy yoke upon you, I will put more to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king bade, saying, Come again to me on the third day.13 And the king answered them roughly; and king Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the old men,14 And answered them after the advice of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.15 So the king hearkened not unto the people: for the cause was of God, that the Lord might perform his word, which he spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.16 And when all Israel saw that the king would not hearken unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? and we have none inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to your tents, O Israel: and now, David, see to thine own house. So all Israel went to their tents.17 But as for the children of Israel that dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.18 Then king Rehoboam sent Hadoram that was over the tribute; and the children of Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. But king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.19 And Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.

Part 8 of "From Abraham to Joseph."  Genesis 34:1-31. Shechem does something that gets him killed. Levi and Simeon do something that gets them cursed.

Dr. Crane shares the stroy from Genesis 12 where Abraham left Shechem and went to Egypt because of a famine. He experienced trouble there and God, despite how Abraham had abandoned him, through his grace protected him.

Yosam climbs Mt Gerizim to address Shechem

A choice is presented to the people of Shechem

The people of Shechem throw their support behind Avimelech

When Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers in Shechem, Joseph eventually found them in a different place. The brothers saw Joseph well before he arrived, and so they plotted to kill him. Reuben, seeking to get back into his father's good graces, convinced his other brothers only to throw Joseph into a pit. As traveling traders passed by, Judah suggested that they sell their own brother into slavery. They covered up their evil deed by covering Joseph's robe with goat's blood so that their father would think Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. While Joseph's brothers worked evil, however, the LORD was working for good as He sent Joseph to Potiphar's house in Egypt.  Rev. Shawn Linnell, pastor at King of Glory Lutheran Church in Williamsburg, VA, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Genesis 37:12-36.  To learn more about King of Glory, visit kogva.org. “In the Beginning” is a series on Sharper Iron that studies Genesis. The first book of Moses sets the stage for God's entire story of salvation. As we learn the beginning of the story, God prepares us to receive the fulfillment of the story: Jesus Christ, the Offspring of the woman who has crushed our enemy's head.  Sharper Iron, hosted by Rev. Timothy Appel, looks at the text of Holy Scripture both in its broad context and its narrow detail, all for the sake of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen for sinners. Two pastors engage with God's Word to sharpen not only their own faith and knowledge, but the faith and knowledge of all who listen. Submit comments or questions to: listener@kfuo.org

In this Bible Story, Israel desires for a king eventually choosing Abimelech, who ruled over Israel with a cruel fist. When he was seeking to burn down a tower in the middle of a city, a woman dropped a millstone on his head killing him. This story is inspired by Judges 9. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a Year.Today's Bible verse is Judges 9:15 from the King James Version.Episode 64: Gideon ruled as a judge over Israel for 40 peaceful years, and during that time he had 70 sons. However, one of his sons wanted to be king, and after the death of his father, Abimelek killed all of his brothers…except one. Jotham, the youngest son escaped and gave a scathing rebuke to the people of Shechem who supported the slaughter of his brothers. In that rebuke, he reminds both them and us that if we, in pride and selfish motives, commit such evil, we will receive the consequences of that evil back on our own lives.Hear the Bible come to life as Pastor Jack Graham leads you through the official BibleinaYear.com podcast. This Biblical Audio Experience will help you master wisdom from the world’s greatest book. In each episode, you will learn to apply Biblical principles to everyday life. Now understanding the Bible is easier than ever before; enjoy a cinematic audio experience full of inspirational storytelling, orchestral music, and profound commentary from world-renowned Pastor Jack Graham.Also, you can download the Pray.com app for more Christian content, including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories.Visit JackGraham.org for more resources on how to tap into God's power for successful Christian living.Pray.com is the digital destination of faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store.Executive Producers: Steve Gatena & Max BardProducer: Ben GammonHosted by: Pastor Jack GrahamMusic by: Andrew Morgan SmithBible Story narration by: Todd HaberkornSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Jacob's family begins to sojourn in Canaan again, sin rears its ugly head. A prince of the land named Shechem violates Jacob's daughter Dinah. Jacob's muted reaction contrasts with the desire for vengeance from Dinah's full brothers, Simeon and Levi. They deceitfully negotiate terms of marriage by using circumcision as a ruse. When Shechem and the residents of the city are recovering, Simeon and Levi slaughter the men and plunder the city. Even as sin piles up against and in the family of Jacob, the LORD's faithfulness continues.  Rev. Sean Kilgo, pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Lawrence, KS, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Genesis 34:1-31.  To learn more about Redeemer Lutheran, visit Redeemer-Lawrence.org. “In the Beginning” is a series on Sharper Iron that studies Genesis. The first book of Moses sets the stage for God's entire story of salvation. As we learn the beginning of the story, God prepares us to receive the fulfillment of the story: Jesus Christ, the Offspring of the woman who has crushed our enemy's head.  Sharper Iron, hosted by Rev. Timothy Appel, looks at the text of Holy Scripture both in its broad context and its narrow detail, all for the sake of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen for sinners. Two pastors engage with God's Word to sharpen not only their own faith and knowledge, but the faith and knowledge of all who listen. Submit comments or questions to: listener@kfuo.org

"And it came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age. And Joshua called for all Israel, and for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said unto them, I am old and stricken in age: And ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the Lord your God is he that hath fought for you. Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward. And the Lord your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the Lordyour God hath promised unto you. Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left; That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them: But cleave unto the Lord your God, as ye have done unto this day. For the Lord hath driven out from before you great nations and strong: but as for you, no man hath been able to stand before you unto this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the Lord your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you. Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God. Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you: Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you. And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, which the Lord your God promised you; so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you. When ye have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.24 And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out.And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red sea." Joshua 23-24:6

The Hazzan recites a special Kaddish after the Amida (or the repetition of the Amida) known as Kaddish Titkabal. Following the basic Kaddish text (which ends with "Da'amiran Be'alma"), the Hazzan adds a request that the congregation's prayers should be accepted along with those of the entire Jewish Nation: "Titkabal Selotana U'ba'utana Im Selot'hon U'ba'ut'hon De'chol Bet Yisrael…" The Hazzan mentions the prayers of the entire nation in fulfillment of the Gemara's teaching in Masechet Berachot (30a) that when a person prays, he should pray not as a lone individual, but rather as part of the entire nation. A person himself may not be worthy of having his prayers accepted, but when he joins with all Am Yisrael, he accesses the collective merit of the nation, including the merits of the great Sadikim, and this helps ensure the acceptance of his prayers. We therefore ask not only that G-d accept our prayers, but also that He accept the prayers of the entire Jewish Nation. We can perhaps gain further insight into the expression "Selotana U'ba'utana" – literally, "our prayers and our requests" – from the Targum Onkelos translation to a verse in Parashat Vayehi (Bereshit 48:22). Yaakob Abinu recalls how he seized the city of Shechem from his enemies "Be'harbi U'b'kashti" – "with my sword and with my bow." Targum Onkelos, interestingly enough, translates these words as "Bi'sloti U'b'ba'uti" – "with my prayer and with my request." It was clear to Yaakob that although he waged war, his success in vanquishing the enemy resulted not from his weapons, but rather from his prayers to G-d. It is also significant that Yaakob viewed Tefila as his "ammunition," as the weapons with which he defeated those who threatened him. Exploring Oneklos' translation more closely, the "sword" and the "bow" are used here as metaphors for two kinds of prayer – "Seloti" and "Ba'uti." The commentators explain that whereas a sword is used in close combat, when the enemy is right in front of the soldier, the bow is used to target enemies stationed at a distance. Correspondingly, then, "Selotana" and "Ba'utana refer to two different kinds of Tefila. Sometimes we pray like a sword – to address an immediate need, such in the case of an illness. Other times, however, we pray in the form of a bow – beseeching G-d to protect us from distant threat, from future dangers. When the Hazzan recites, "Titkabal Selotana U'ba'utana," he asks that all our prayers should be mercifully accepted – our prayers for our immediate needs, as well as our prayers for the future.

Dinah and Shechem. Did God love Jacob and hate Esau? Joseph and his brothers. The symbolism of Joseph. Judah and …

→ Watch on YouTube → Detailed Show Notes → Timestamps: (00:00) Joseph of Egypt: An example of living the covenant with steady discipleship.(06:51) Shechem defiles Dinah. Simeon and Levi seek revenge by wiping out the inhabitants of the city.(13:02) Rachel bears Benjamin and dies in childbirth. She is buried in Bethlehem.(17:57) Reuben sins with Bilhah.(21:29) Joseph is sold into Egypt by his brothers. Joseph is a visionary man.(25:01) Alternate readings of “the coat of many colors.”(28:45) In Jewish legend, Joseph of Egypt possessed a sacred stone that was passed down from Adam.(36:05) Judah sins with Tamar, his widowed daughter-in-law, and she bears twins.(43:11) Joseph rises to prominence wherever he goes. Joseph is a seer.(46:57) We can employ Joseph's strategies for overcoming temptation.(51:34) Joseph interprets dreams and eventually becomes a ruler of Egypt.(55:46) Finding temple symbolism in this story.(58:41) Joseph marries Asenath. Hugh Nibley's research teaches us more about her identity.(1:03:49) Joseph as a type of Christ.(1:06:48) As descendants of Joseph, we are called to gather God's children. → For more of Bryce Dunford’s podcast classes, click here. → Enroll in Institute → YouTube → Apple Podcasts → Spotify → Amazon Music → Facebook The post Ep 362 | Genesis 37-41, Come Follow Me 2026 (March 9-15) appeared first on LDS Scripture Teachings.

In this Bible Story, Jacob favors his youngest son Joseph, bringing contempt to his brothers. Joseph is given a coat of many colors by his father and the brothers sell Joseph into slavery, lying to their father about his death. This story is inspired by Genesis 37 & 39:20. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a Year.Today's Bible verse is Genesis 37:5 from the King James Version.Episode 25: Israel and his family moved to the land of Canaan, where they were prospering and enjoying life. While there, Jacob showered his youngest son Joseph with love, showing him to be his favorite by giving him an extraordinary coat with many colors. This caused his brothers to hate him, and when he started having dreams of his brothers and parents bowing down to him, his brothers became even angrier. In their rage, they threw him in a pit and sold him into slavery, concocting a lie to tell their father about Joseph’s death.Hear the Bible come to life as Pastor Jack Graham leads you through the official BibleinaYear.com podcast. This Biblical Audio Experience will help you master wisdom from the world’s greatest book. In each episode, you will learn to apply Biblical principles to everyday life. Now understanding the Bible is easier than ever before; enjoy a cinematic audio experience full of inspirational storytelling, orchestral music, and profound commentary from world-renowned Pastor Jack Graham.Also, you can download the Pray.com app for more Christian content, including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories.Visit JackGraham.org for more resources on how to tap into God's power for successful Christian living.Pray.com is the digital destination of faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store.Executive Producers: Steve Gatena & Max BardProducer: Ben GammonHosted by: Pastor Jack GrahamMusic by: Andrew Morgan SmithBible Story narration by: Todd HaberkornSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Get your Temple Mount Patches https://israelguys.link/temple-patch-86ew4ch9p Check out our upcoming Harvest Trips https://israelguys.link/israel-trip-86ewc1v67 Don't forget to join Jeremy and Ari at The Land of Israel Fellowship: https://thelandofisrael.com/membership-tiers/ For the first time in 25 years, hundreds of Jews prayed at Joseph's Tomb in Shechem, marking a historic shift in Judea and Samaria. Long restricted to nighttime visits under heavy IDF escort, worshippers were allowed to visit the heritage site during the daytime, a move Israeli leaders and rabbis called a long-overdue rectification and a step toward restoring a full Jewish presence at the site. This development comes just weeks after prayer restrictions were also eased on the Temple Mount. As these changes unfold on the ground, regional tensions are rising. President Trump announced a "massive armada" led by the USS Abraham Lincoln is moving toward Iran, while antisemitic violence again surfaced in New York and a disconnect from the Bible was evidenced by Tucker Carlson's remarks in Saudi Arabia.   

Welcome to Day 2785 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom. Day 2785 – Wisdom Nuggets – Psalm 108:6-9 – Daily Wisdom Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2785 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day two thousand seven hundred eighty-five of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. The Title for Today's Wisdom-Trek is: The Divine Cartography – God Claims His Geography. Today, we are back on the trail, continuing our exploration of the "Warrior Poet's Remix," Psalm One Hundred Eight. We are trekking through the middle section, verses six through nine, in the New Living Translation. In our previous trek through the first five verses of this psalm, we heard the sound of a "fixed heart." We watched King David wake the dawn with his lyre and declare that God's love is higher than the heavens. We saw him take an old song of lament (from Psalm Fifty-seven) and remix it into a new anthem of confidence. He ended that section with a cosmic prayer: "Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens. May your glory shine over all the earth." Today, the scene shifts from the cosmic to the concrete. David moves from singing about the stars to looking at a map. He moves from the "heavens" to the dirt and rock of the Middle East. In verses six through nine, we hear God Himself speak. It is a divine oracle spoken from the Holy Sanctuary. In this oracle, Yahweh acts like a victorious General standing over a map of the ancient Near East. He points to specific territories—Shechem, Succoth, Gilead, Moab, Edom, Philistia—and claims them as His own. He essentially says, "This belongs to Me. And this belongs to Me. And that over there? That is just My washbasin." This is a powerful assertion of Divine Ownership. In the Ancient Israelite worldview, where nations were believed to be owned by their respective gods (Chemosh for Moab, Milcom for Ammon), Yahweh is declaring that He is the Landlord of everything. He is redrawing the borders and reclaiming the inheritance for His people. So, let us stand in the war room and listen to the strategy of the King. The first segment is: The Prayer for Rescue: The Right Hand of Power. Psalm One Hundred Eight: verse six. Now rescue your beloved people. Answer and save us by your power. Before the oracle begins, David offers a short, sharp prayer. This acts as the bridge between the praise of the first five verses and the prophecy that follows. "Now rescue your beloved people. Answer and save us by your power." The literal Hebrew here is quite evocative: "That Your beloved ones may be delivered; Save with Your right hand, and answer me!" First, notice the identity of the people. David calls them "Your beloved people" (yedid-echa). This comes from the same root as the name Jedidiah (which was Solomon's name given by God, meaning "Beloved of Yahweh"). This is crucial for our confidence in prayer. David doesn't appeal to God based on Israel's military strength or their moral perfection. He appeals to God's affection. "Lord, these are the ones You love. Therefore, rescue them." Second, notice the method...