Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Mature in Your Faith | The Life of Joshua | Joshua 5:10-12

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're going through the Book of Joshua. Also, if you want to connect with us, follow us on Twitter at TMBT podcast. You can also check out our hashtag, hashtag, Ask TMBT, where you can ask us anything, and we'd love to connect with you. For whatever reason, my wife and I found transitioning our kids to solid food to be just a little bit challenging. challenging, especially our first. Calling her picky is really generous. For a while, her diet consisted

Starting point is 00:00:46 almost entirely of yogurt and peanut butter sandwiches. So going from a liquid diet to solid food, let's just say that took a little bit of time. Now, that leads me to one of the most bizarre trends I have ever heard of, still related to liquid diets. Apparently, there is a black market on Craigslist of women who are selling their milk to bodybuilders. I don't really know why. I guess some bodybuilders believe that the proteins and nutrition inside of human milk improves their performance. When I erred this, I had two different reactions. First, I was grossed out. But second, because I'm weird, I started thinking about the words in Hebrews 512. And I laughed when I did. This is what we read. By this time, you ought to be teacher.

Starting point is 00:01:34 You need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food. Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. You see, the author is saying that, as it turns out, we all develop spiritually through various stages of maturity. And the author of Hebrews is telling us that we're all a little bit like my daughter. We're picky eaters. and we've got a hard time going from a liquid diet to solid food.

Starting point is 00:02:08 And we're all also kind of like those bodybuilders. We're grown adults who are still sipping on the spiritual milk. What about you? Are you still stuck on elementary truths of the faith? Are you stuck in place in your faith and what you know about God? Is God's word as unknown to you today as it was a year ago? The truth is that as I look over the last year, especially with COVID, I know that a lot of Christians are struggling in their faith. And when I say a lot,

Starting point is 00:02:37 I really honestly also me myself, the changes in child care, lifestyle work, everything that's happened in the last year, it's broken down a lot of my best habits. I've found Bible reading and prayer harder than they were a year ago. And by virtue of having less in-person stuff at church, as a pastor, I've spent less time teaching Bible studies, which means that I've actually also studied the Bible less. And so all of a sudden, I find myself asking, maybe you're asking this question too, am I going back to a liquid diet? Am I at risk of becoming a spiritual infant again? I don't want to do that. You don't want to do that either. But how do we continue to develop our taste? Not just sit in the elementary truths of God, like the author of Hebrews said, but move forward to

Starting point is 00:03:26 the middle school truths of God, to the high school truths of God, to the college truths of God and beyond. How do we go from eating food like a kindergartner, just chicken nuggets and mac and cheese, to eating like an adult who considers nutrition and fat and the value of their food and can appreciate a nice kianti? Rabbi Jonathan Sachs, the chief rabbi of the UK, he describes Israel's journey through the wilderness as a period of spiritual infancy. This is most symbolized, according to him by their miraculous diet. Instead of having to be responsible for finding and killing or growing their own food, for 40 years, they simply walk outside of their tents and collect the manna that God left for

Starting point is 00:04:08 them every morning. We aren't really sure what manna was. It seems to be some sort of seed-like or grainy substance. But this is the most important part. Manna was a gift from God. God was like a mother feeding her baby on demand, and he fed Israel on demand, started from the very first Passover when the Israelites escaped from Egypt. But then we come to Joshua 5. And now, as you already know, we have a new generation of Israelites, and they are entering the

Starting point is 00:04:37 promised land for the first time. And in verses 10 to 12, they celebrate their first Passover in the promised land. And we read, get this, that the manna stopped. So we'll pick up in verse 10. On the evening of the 14th day of the month, while camped at Gilgall on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. The day after the Passover, that very day they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened bread and roasted grain. The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land. There was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.

Starting point is 00:05:18 The point is not that the Israelites no longer need God. The point is also not that God has nothing to do with their food. He still controls the ecosystem. He still feeds them. But it does seem apparent that God wants his people not to rely on his miracles, but instead to rely on the ordinary mechanisms of creation, this world that he's made. It makes me think of cheat codes on video games. Just go with me on this for a second.

Starting point is 00:05:46 When I was a kid, I had this thing called a Game Shark. and it lets you cheat on video games. You could have unlimited life or unlimited money, whatever you want. But I always knew that as long as I was cheating on the game, I wasn't really playing the game. In the same way, God made this world the right way. And he wants us to play within the bounds of the world that he's given us. He's willing to help us through in a special way for a time, but it's not supposed to be forever. You aren't really playing the game. I think about the spiritual high that a lot of new followers of Jesus experience. Maybe it lasts six months or even a year.

Starting point is 00:06:25 But then their life just goes back to normal and they wonder, where's the mountaintop experiences? Why don't I feel that euphoria anymore? And I always say, that was God's way of helping you as an infant. But now he wants you to grow up. He wants you to live in ordinary life with all the ordinary highs and lows, Learning to trust him doesn't happen only on the mountaintops. It also happens down in the valleys. The way that God did this with Israel, helping them grow up, was through literal mountains and valleys

Starting point is 00:06:57 while feeding them manna. And during this period, they turned to idols. They asked Moses to take them back to Egypt. They rebelled against God's command to take them into the promised land. It was ugly. It was like a baby screaming for no reason or a toddler hitting a sibling just because they like seeing the hurt reaction. God disciplined them. He fed them. He carried them. He was like a good parent training his child to get off a liquid diet and learn how to eat solid food, learn how to walk, learn how to do real life. And then in Joshua 5, the day finally came for real life to begin. That's my prayer for you, that you'd have a real life with God. That this podcast wouldn't be your only avenue for growth, that you'd also find yourself spending more time in God's Word, that you'd read good books that

Starting point is 00:07:50 challenge you to think deeply, that you'd allow Jesus to deconstruct every identity that you're clinging to right now, except for your identity in Him. My prayer is that you, that me, that we'd all say, Jesus, take me off the liquid diet. I want to go beyond the elementary truths of God. I want to go deeper with you. And as it turns out, life's a lot better when you learn how to enjoy real food, a good steak, a nice glass of wine, not just milk. Walking with Jesus in the ordinary is really extraordinary. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family

Starting point is 00:08:40 member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Mature in Your Faith | The Life of Joshua | Joshua 5:10-12

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