The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/joshua/10.htm

After the Gibeonites deceived Joshua and made a covenant with them, and by the way, Joshua was loyal to Mosaic Law and once the covenant was made, Joshua honored it, the King of Jerusalem recruited other kings to join forces again Gibeon. And when they attacked, the King of Gibeon sent word to Joshua and the children of Israel to come and aid them, and they did.

And God told Joshua that he would be with them and help them defeat the enemy armies, which they did.

It was a long battle, and in the midst of it, Joshua prayed to God to stop the sun and the moon to give them more daylight for battle. One can assume he was concerned that the enemy would escape under darkness, and God answered his prayers. The sun stopped for almost an entire day while the Israelis and Gibeonites routed the enemy.

God can do anything, He can part the seas, He can bring forth water from a rock, and He can make the sun stand still.

What I’d like to address most about this chapter is it’s reference to “The Book of Jasper”. Little is known about Jasper, but it is believed that he was a warrior so was an aide to Moses and Joshua. And here’s the problem. There are a few books that were excluded from the Bible because they were not thought to be “inspired”, meaning they were written at the direction of God. The words in the book were not the words of God.

Who decided what was inspired and what wasn’t? Man. And how did man know this? Who knows?

I read the Bible because I believe it is a fairly accurate account of history, and what I’ve read makes perfect sense; most of it is common sense actually. That is of course if you are a kind and caring human being. What is in the Bible is mostly how we should treat people.

Still, the Bible was written by men, so we truly don’t know what is accurate and what isn’t, do we? It was written by man and translated by man.

Think about if there was a “Book of Eve” in the Bible. How do you think she would have described her encounter with the serpent? Would it have been accurate, or would she have written it to make herself look less bad, more of a victim than a sinner. And we say that she was the victim of the first lie told on earth, but remember, God gives free choice, Eve didn’t have to make the wrong one.

I have no doubt that if God himself penned the words of the Bible, it would show that he is more of a loving and merciful God than the Old Testament depicts.

So what about these books that were not included in the Bible? There is the Book of Enoch, and we know that Enoch was a godly man because God brought him to heaven. You would think that someone so loved by God that God took him to heaven surely would have earned a spot in the Bible, but the Book of Enoch was determined to not be inspired. And even Enoch was mentioned in the Book of Jude as being one who prophesied the return of Jesus Christ.

Here are some other books omitted from the Bible.

“The Books of the Maccabbees”. Once I asked a pastor why there was a 400 year period that was omitted from the Bible; the story of Esther was the last event (not the last book, but the last event) in the Old Testament, taking place about 400 BC. What’s next is the story of Jesus who was born around 4BC, and I asked why there was no account of those 400 years. He told me there was nothing notable, but if I wanted to know, I could read the “Books of the Maccabees”. Why weren’t they included?

“The Wisdom of Solomon.”
“The Book of Baruch” (Jeremiah’s scribe)
“The Gospel of Thomas”.
“The Book of Mary”.
“The Chronicles of King Ahasuerus”.
“The Acts of Solomon”.

I plan to read the books of Jasper and Enoch, and when I do, I will ask God to send His Spirit into me to teach me. Perhaps then I can make a determination of whether or not those books are valid. I trust God more than I trust man; man can be tempted by Satan to withhold the truth, God can’t.

So, the children of Israel were successful in another battle, we saw another miracle of God, and Joshua made reference to the Book of Jasher. And if we take man’s opinion that the Book of Joshua was inspired, then why would we think he would reference the Book of Jasher?

I pray to study the Bible. I pray you ask questions and ponder what you read. Most of all, I hope you pray to God for understanding. God will not lead you astry.

Amen.