Day 55 – November 11, 2023: Joshua 16-18 and Acts 16-18

The continuing diving up of the land takes place and Israelites continue to take the land, but slowly. Joshua seems to be getting a little impatient because 7 of the tribes have not acted to take the land that the Lord has handed on to them. He even has scribes sent out to chart out the land and to arrange so that the remaining seven would get the land as the Lord had commanded. The settling of the land is taking place, but it is slow and that seems to be noticed by Joshua.

In Acts we have a number of visits by Paul and Silas to a number of different cities. There are too many to account here, but the visit to Athens bears repeating. My first Bible Study that I ever did was when I was a freshman in college and part of a Christian group that had small groups that would meet. They asked me one time to do a Bible study and I chose this Scripture of Paul visiting Athens as the Scripture that we would look at. The context in college was similar. Swarthmore was, and is, a place where faith is not encouraged and it is highly intellectual. To some degree it does seem that people spend time thinking and discussing those thoughts which are new.

I remember after the Bible Study thinking that it did not go well at all, fortunately those who attended were friends of mine and were generous and kind. Paul reminds the people of Athens that they themselves allowed room for an unknown and unnamed God, whom he identifies as Jesus. Some believed, which is stunning in and of itself.