Jos.2,1-24
1 – Jesus said : I am the TRUTH , the way and life. Jn.14,6.
- In the prayer Our Father we say : DELIVER US FROM EVIL
- Free us from the father of lies. From a murderer, from the deceiver, who opposes God, throwing himself across’ God’s plan of salvation.
- Free us, from the one that we call Satan… The Evil One.
- Devil is not an abstraction but a real living and evil person which through civil laws, persons, scandals, events, religious feasts superstitions, is always obstructing us to follow Jesus. Ccc.2851-52.
* God and Satan are always present in our life and they are fighting for the possession of our physical and spiritual life.
* The positive or negative conclusion it depends on our free decision.
2 – The Lord, your God, has chosen you, from all the nations, to be missionary and to help all the people to know Yahweh.
- It was because the Lord loved you and because of his fidelity, to the oath, he had sworn to your fathers that, he brought you out from the place of slavery of Egypt. God is the FAITHFUL God. Dt.7,6.
3 - But God, and Joshua, have to deal with unteachable people. So…
the leaders, must decide, about the future, using human wisdom and tricks.
- Joshua sent two spies to Jericho saying : Go and look over the land and the city… They went to the house of the prostitute Rahab. Jos.2,1.
4 - What we are writing, is not a normal history but the
HISTORY OF SALVATION
- It means that, each name, event, has a special meaning which we have to discover, with God’s help, without moral errors.
- The prostitute Rahab seems to know and love God more than the two Israelite men. She said : Yahweh is God in heaven.
- I know that Yahweh dried the Red Sea and has given this land to you.
- Now swear to me that you will be faithful towards my family. Jos.2,8-13.
5 - The name of this lady, with Tamar, Bathsheba and Ruth we will find in the genealogy of Jesus. Mt.1,1-6 ; 1Sm.16,7 Yahweh sees the heart.
- The spies said to Joshua : Yahweh has given all this land into our hands 2,24
- God, must respect the freedom of human being even if they do something against God’s will and for their own benefit. ( Prostitution ).
6 –Until now, God has helped Israelites, guiding them, through a single and charismatic person like Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua.
- From now on, God will go on, calling single leaders, like the Judges, Kings, and Prophets… but they will be sent for the preaching to a particular city
like Nineveh, or for the conversion of a nation like the Romans.
Or for the salvation of all humanity… with Jesus.
7 – This story of the two spies and the prostitute, seems a simple story of clever human diplomacy but, there are many teachings useful for our civil and spiritual daily life.
- We know that, all countries, have their secret agencies and they have to spend a lot of money to prepare their spies and, inventing new sophisticated equipment, or using satellites just to control, other countries and, to violate the privacy of the person and consciences.
8 – Behind the apparent innocent word Overton window there is a precise program to wash the brain of the people that, little by little, must accept divorce, abortion, surrogate mothers, euthanasia, gay marriage, as a sign of freedom, and respect for gender and human dignity.
- Masonic sect teaches, in the very gentle way, freedom, dialog, respect, convincing the people that all are asking for the updated legislation and freedom from the inhuman oppressing morality of the Catholic Church
9 - Deliver us from this sophisticated evil and, prostitution of the hearts.
- There are thousands of spies who are destroying families and society. But…
- One day, the truth will be proclaimed from the roof. Mt.10,27
-The last judgment will be about corporal and spiritual works of mercy
I was hungry… thirsty… sick… in prison… and you visited me.
- What you did to my brothers you did to me. Mt.25,31-46
10 – The Church, in order to defend us, from these many diabolic temptations every year, invites us, to start Lent in order to purify our mind and body and to follow the real God’s teachings.
- For the conversion, we need external visible actions which we can summarize with the words corporal and spiritual works of mercy which all the different religions have like Kaopansa for Buddhist, Ramadan for Muslim and, Lent for Catholic.
- Lent, is a time of 40 days, starting with the imposition of Ashes over the head signifying the we are sinners and, we want start a new life through prayer, penance, fasting… It means, works mindful for our conversion.
11 – St. Irenaeus, beatifully summsrized, the many aspects of God’s love and the duty of the Israelites saying :
- From the beginning God created man out of his own generosity.
- He chose the patriarchs to give them salvation.
- He took his people, in hand, teaching them, to follow him.
- He gave them prophets, accustoming man to bear his Spirit and to have communion with God on earth. ( God’s people )
- He gave food… and a Law perfectly suited for the people.
- In so many ways he was training the human race to take part in the harmonious song of salvation.
- He provided help in generous measure for those who obeyed his Law.
- The Law was our guardian until Christ came and made it possible for us to be reconciled to God.
- He chose the Levites, the sacrifices, the offerings , the rites of purification.
- He himself needs none of these things… Yet he sought to teach his people, always ready to return to the idols.
- Through many acts of indulgence he tried to help them to serve him.
- He kept calling them to what was primary by means of what was secondary… through things of the flesh to the things of the spirit.
- For forty days Moses was engaged in remembering the words of God, the spiritual images. ( The leaders must understand deeply the real God’s teaching before transmitting it to the others )
- All these things happened as SYMBOLS . They were written to instruct us
- The Law… the Covenant… were therefore a school of instruction for
the Israelites and a prophesy of what was to come for all humanity.
( Wed. Second week of Lent ).
12 – It is necessary to redirect our passion to aim our love toward God and our hatred toward sin. St. G. B. March 5
- Discretion, is the queen of all virtues. St. G. B. March 9.
- Times never come back, so we have to correct our defects and to use the time with great diligence. St.G.B. March 11 ; 12
- Do not conform to this world but be reformed in the spirit of your mind.
13 – Joshua and Israelites, will start the conquest of the Promised Land and they will experience how important God’s help will be , the true faith and how fragile are the human tricks and espionage.
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