 It's August. Welcome to the teen's Cornerstone Connections lesson. In this series, we'll be drawing a line in the sand. Lesson number nine, oops! With soful music with Amy on her violin, Sevilla on the clarinet, Kiki on the trumpet. Our mission story comes all the way from the European division, Latvia, Lapin Lidzen. With Joyce interpreting for us to appeal to the deaf community, and lastly our wonderful panelists, a war, Salman, Misati, and our wonderful teen teachers. Enjoy! Welcome to this week's mission. This week's mission comes from Latvia. Fun fact about something interesting from Latvia. Spy cameras are actually first invented in Latvia. A sub miniature camera, the Minox, was created by the Latvian inventor, Waltersup in 1936. Our mission is entitled Salad and Sausages. Four-year-old Anna loved to play with her friend Alexa in kindergarten in a small village in central Latvia. Every evening, the two girls would meet up and would play their games in the backyard. They would play games where they pretended to be adults. So sometimes Anna would pretend to be a math teacher and Alexa the student. They were both very passionate about their roles and sometimes Anna would punish Alaska. Sometimes they didn't just play as math teachers and students. Sometimes Alaska played as a doctor and Anna a patient. This is because Alaska knew a lot about doctors because she had many health problems. She got sick a lot. She had colds, beavers, she coughed and had terrible breathing. Anna and Alaska also liked to pretend that they could cook. So what they'd do, they'd mix sand or mud with water and mix it with some few flowers and say they'd made a meal. So at first, the two kindergartners only used to play in their backyard and slowly their relationship progressed to the point where Alaska used to join Anna for dinner. Alaska was surprised when she first saw Anna's mother make a salad at Anna's house. And this was not common in her home so it was quite interesting and she did love it, how it was. There were juicy cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, dillweed and spinach leaves. Alaska was even more surprised when she saw vegan sausages. Like for many of us, we never knew that there were such things like vegan sausages, we only knew of meat sausages. And like Alaska who ate meat sausages at home, she tried them and surprisingly she enjoyed them. Eating them with fried potatoes and tomato sauce. Alaska's mother also liked the food at Anna's house so slowly she also started eating at Anna's house and Alaska's mother and Anna's mother became friends. Shortly after Alaska started eating at Anna's house her health condition started getting better progressively. This was because at Anna's she ate all the right foods, vegan sausages and a lot of vegetables. Alaska's mother realized that Alaska started becoming more and more healthy though less frequent visits to the hospital. And in general Alaska seemed a lot more happy and stronger. One Sabbath Anna invited Alaska to Sabbath school and her mother, her big brother Marcus, they all went to church together. Alaska and Marcus enjoyed Sabbath school and soon were eating in church and fellowshiping with the rest of the congregation. Then very soon Alaska's mother gave her heart to Jesus. So did her brother Marcus, her grandmother and uncle. Now Alaska's grandmother wants to give her life to Jesus. Today Anna and Alaska are still great friends pretending to be adults in Anna's backyard. Sometimes they do go for pathfinders and they want to give their house to Jesus too. Part of this quarters 13th Sabbath offering will help support pathfinders like Anna and Alaska in Latvia. The offering will help construct a building in Latvia's capital Riga where pathfinders and other children can learn more about healthy food and our loving God. Thank you for planning your generous offering. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night, good whatever time you're joining us from, wherever you're joining us from. My name is Ponyawita. I am excited to invite you today to our lesson discussion here at Nairobi Central Seventh Day Adventist Church hosted by the Teens class. I'd like each one of my panelists to introduce themselves starting with my extreme right after which the one at the extreme left will end with a prayer for us. So my name is Misati, Misati Nyambane. I am Salomon Sipakati. I am Ruth Awor and let's bow down for a word of prayer. So thank you God for the day you've given us and thank you for enabling us to make this video. Let it reach several people and touch their hearts. Now as we get into it, please let us understand your word and talk through us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. The title of our lesson today is Oops, I know no one has dropped anything. That's the actual title of our lesson. The lesson will be based on Joshua chapter 9 and 10 as we begin at like Misati to give us a summary of Joshua chapter 9. Alright, so Joshua chapter 9 takes a look at the Gibeonite's deception of the Israelites. So what happened is the Israelites had entered the land and west of the Jordan the kings had come to make war with them even as far as Lebanon. So the Gibeonites, rather than joining their allies, decided that they were afraid. Note that these were men who were taken to be mighty men. He was of wood in that the Israelites were grasshopers before them. However, fear was struck in their heart when they considered what the Lord had done. Thus they went to the Israelites but did not go to them as people who had much. Rather, they got their donkeys, they put worn out sacks and they took wine skins that were old, cracked and mended. That's when they went to the Israelites. The Israelites sampled this man's provisions. However, the Israelites never consulted their Lord on whether these men were deceiving them. Rather, they said, we believe you and in that manner an oath was made and this oath was such that the Israelites made a pact with the Gibeonites that they would never attack them and now they were friends, now they were allies. And this pact came back to bite them. That's getting ahead of ourselves. However, when the Israelites learned that these Gibeonites were friends, that these were actually neighbors, they decided let's go and see for ourselves where these people live. Let's see what they have told us is the truth. However, when they went to see, they saw, wow, these men have beautiful cities, they have beautiful vineyards. And then the Israelites were like, let us attack them, let us take the land. But the leaders stood firm and said, we gave them our word. Even if our word was given by deception, we are still going to stay true to our word. Regardless of the Israelites grumbling, what happened is they followed suit with what they had promised. Amen. Thank you for that summary. And so we see that the Israelites got into a pact through deception and that's a keyword for a lesson today, deception. I want to throw it to Ruth and I'd like to ask you a very personal question as we start our discussion today. Have you ever deceived anyone? And if so, what were the results of that deception? Okay, so I wouldn't say that I have like a personal story but I would like to share a story about my classmates, my old classmates. So we were going through like our end-term cuts and these guys, they weren't studying. So it's like we are going through one of the papers and one person got stuck. And at this point, it was just like one or two questions, not a big deal, but he still decided to go to the extent of cheating. So he was caught and the person he was cheating with as well as him was suspended. Yeah. Wow. So we see that because of the deception that Ruth's friend, should I call him your friend or your classmate, because of the deception that they engaged in, they were actually caught and they were suspended. Now, we want to get back to the story and Salmon, I want to bring you in here. What were the results of the deception that the Gibeonites practiced on the Israelites? So the Gibeonites were forced to be slaves for the Israelites and in the Israelite tradition, there was a law that said that every seven years, the Jews were to be released, but this did not apply to them. Since they made a vow, even though the children of Israel wanted their leaders to rebuke the vow, they had to stick to the vow. So what we get from this is that before we make any vow, we should try, we should make sure we consult God to help us through. Absolutely. The result of the sin, as you rightly said, was that they adopted, and here I'm quoting parches and prophets, they adopted the gab of poverty for the purpose of deception and it was fastened upon them as a badge of perpetual servitude. As we'll see in chapter 10, the Gibeonites were a powerful, powerful nation. They were rich, they were prosperous, they were a powerful nation, but because of the deception that they practiced on the Israelites, they were bound to perpetual servitude. I want to zoom out from the Gibeonites and focus now on the Israelites, and I want to take this back to Misati who started with. Why were the Israelites deceived? Why were they deceived by the Gibeonites? I see the reason why they were deceived as simply like an overarching reason of why and how they ended up making such poor mistakes all those other times. This time with the Gibeonites, they never consulted God. They never asked the will of God. They just took things at face value and said, you know what, this is who you claim you are. The one-out sacks, the cracked wine skins, they are just saying, you know what, you're just really, really poor, so let's take your word for it. They sampled the provisions, you know these people seem that what they are claiming, their food, their wine tastes exactly like they are claimed, so they never listened to God. They never went to God and said, like mighty Father, tell us are these men speaking the truth, but rather they were rushed and they bound themselves. Absolutely, absolutely. And what you said is absolutely right. I'll just quote from Joshua chapter 6 verse 2, and it says, and the Lord said to Joshua, and this is when the Israelites are going to attack Jericho. See, I have given Jericho into your hands and its king and the mighty men of Valah, and he goes on to say, you know, you will defeat them, you will attack them. Joshua chapter 8, when the Israelites are going to attack AI, or AI depending on where you come from, says now the Lord said to Joshua, do not be afraid, do not be dismayed, because the people of war with you and the rise go up to AI. See, I have given into your hand the king and his people, his city and his land. And so we see that before, the Israelites would always consult God, they would always consult God before doing anything. But now, as Misathia said correctly, in Joshua chapter 9, they did not seek counsel of the Lord, and because of that they were exposed to the deception and they gave their word to a people who had deceived them and they were bound by that word, still dwelling on the results of deception. What was the result of deception, at least the immediate result within the Israelite camp? And Ruth, I want to bring you in here. What were the results of the deception that was practiced to the Israelites themselves, within and amongst themselves? Okay, so I feel like this is, they made an oath, so they couldn't back out of it even when they found out that they were lied to and were told this in part of the key text, Joshua 9 verses 15 and it says, then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath. So they had an oath with the Gibeonites. And let me just take you back to Deuteronomy chapter 23, verse 21 and it says, if you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the Lord your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin. So they made an oath and they couldn't back out of it because they had made an oath and you can't go against what you said. And in Joshua, the priests later on when the people are trying to say, no, let's just go against them, let's kill them because they lied to us. The priests are like, no, we made an oath. They remember that God said, if you make an oath, you can't go against it. Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely right. And probably something else that is important to point out is that there was disagreement within the Israelites, the deception that was practiced and the oath that the Israelites bound themselves to keep with the Gibeonites caused disagreements and a lot of friction within the Israelites camp. And I think we can all agree that deception is a sin and now we are seeing the results of that sin both in the short term and even in the long term, especially for the Gibeonites who are now bound to perpetual servitude to the Israelites for as long as they lived. I want to come to you Salmon and I want to read a quote drawn from Patrick's and Prophet's. It says, the Gibeonites had pledged themselves to renounce idolatry and serve Jehovah out of fear for their lives. And the question comes to you. Does God desire forceful worship? No, not at all. God is a God who works with freedom. You have freedom to choose right or wrong, but the Gibeonites just pledged because of fear. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely right. It is actually, if you read in the Bible, you see that it is the devil who forces people to worship him. If you read and you look at the dark ages and you see how the devil used even religious leaders to force people to worship what was not right, then you understand that it is not the law of God, but it is the law of the devil who uses forceful worship. But the Lord, as someone has put it, requires people to worship him out of love and not out of fear. Moving on swiftly, we are now in chapter 10. We are now in chapter 10, and we want to see how did the other nations react to the Gibeonites' move to go and make a pact with Israel. Remember, dear viewer, that now the Israelites are in Canaan and God has sent them to clear the Canaanites. But out of fear for their lives, the Gibeonites have now made a pact with Israel through deception, but they have made a pact. Now, how did the other nations react? And I come back to you, Misati. Please give us a summary of chapter 10. So I think the other nations reacted very predictably because the Gibeonites had been snakes with them, the Gibeonites had gone behind their backs and then they had betrayed their trust, so to speak. So the other nations decided, you know what? We need to wipe out these people because they have failed. That is, fear has been striking their hearts. And what happens is that the nations west of the Jordan, they go and camp at Gibeon. And once they have come to Gibeon, the Gibeonites cry, the Israelites were at Gilgal and say, please come save us for we shall be totally destroyed. And at this point, the Israelites, I believe, had learned their lesson. So then they go to God and say, you know what, God? We made a vow out of deception, but we will not go unless you give us permission. And God says, I have given these kings into your hands. However, even if they knew that God had given them the victory, it still did not annihilate the need for them to actually have military strategy. So what happens? Joshua goes with his men at night, then he marches from Gilgal up to Gibeon. And once he has marched up to Gibeon, they now attack. The kings, the Hittites, the Amorites who had come to the Gibeonites to annihilate them. And then God struck them with confusion. And once they were struck with confusion, the Israelites had easy pickings. They just slaughtered them at Gibeon. Then his men said, hey, we could buy. It's like it's going very badly at this point. So they fled. But now even if they had fled, what happened is that the Israelites still pursued them. They pursued them up to Azeka. They pursued them to Akeda. And they wiped them out entirely. And God decided he would offer air support, so to speak. Then hailstones rained on these people and bashing their heads, murdering them. To the point the Bible does record that the people who died from the hailstones were more than the people who died from being slaughtered with the Israelites' swords. And Joshua, as a sort of bonus, you just make the battle seem even more like regal or bloody. He just said, let the sun stand still. And the sun stood still. And that was the day that murder covered the land. Amen. So Ruth, I'd like to bring you in here. We see that in chapter 10, we see that the Gibeonites were a very powerful nation. They were a royal city. And yet the fear that the Israelites had put in the hearts of the Canaanites had driven them to make peace with Israel, albeit through deception. What does that tell us? What does that tell you about the power of God, the nature of God? I think this shows how Frightened the Gibeonites were. This is not because of the Israelites as a people, but because of God, how God was working through them and for them. So they were frightened of God. And this shows just how powerful God was that he made a whole nation of people deceive and go to great extents just to get protection from God. Yeah. And I'd like to jump in right there and like to mention that I believe their fear was well founded. Come to think of it, because Jericho happened. And with Jericho, I mean, it doesn't make sense. It's like the people are marching around and they just say, hooray! And then the walls come crumbling down. I think that would be something that would be just God working, working through like their actions. Like God made it supernatural. Fine. Some scientists can argue, oh, if you produce sound at the resonant frequency of an object, the object will crack. But you want to convince me that you can crack a wall that four chariots can drive over. You can crack a wall thick enough to be a super highway. I think not. That was God. Absolutely, absolutely. And taking it back to you, Ruth, and thank you for that addition, Misati. How does this apply in our lives? How does God's power apply in our lives? I think we need to think about it like this. God has control over everything here. We have shown this several times in chapter 10. And yeah, the fact that first of all, the Israelites went, they didn't consider God when they were making an oath with the Gibeonites. Then he still came to defend the Gibeonites in chapter 10. So this shows that even when we turn against God, God can still come and protect us. I want to bring a verse to us, Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20 and 21, and it says, Now to him who is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, amen. Amen, amen. That's a beautiful way to end it. And the object lesson here is as Ruth has clearly illustrated, is that just as the Lord worked through the Israelites, and this working was instilling so much fear in the hearts of the Canaanites, is the same way he can work through us as Ephesians 3.20 says, to do exceedingly abundantly above all that which we can ask for or imagine. I want to take you to, and this is something that Misati alluded to as he was giving a summary on to bring you in Salmon. Joshua chapter 10 verse 8, Joshua chapter 10 verse 8 says that, and the Lord said to Joshua, now when he says the Lord said to Joshua, this is a reply to something that Joshua had asked, do not fear them for have delivered them into your hands, not a man of them shall stand before you. Now you see the Israelites consulting them. What's the lesson? Sorry, we see the Israelites consulting God. Unlike in Joshua 9.14 where the Israelites did not consult God. What's the object lesson that you can draw from this? Salmon, go ahead. So what you get from this is despite their previous sin, this time they knew what they had to do. That's why they had to consult God before anything. And we get this from Proverbs 24.16 which says, for a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity. So they fell, but they still rose up and still went back to God. Absolutely, absolutely. We learn that we should learn from our mistakes. The wrong that we do, if we realize that we've done something wrong, we need to stop and learn from that mistake. I'd like us to think about the story of the woman who was, who was brought to Jesus, who was caught in adultery. And if you remember the story, those who are around them had already picked stones and they were about to stone her and they took her to Christ. And of course Christ challenged them saying that, whoever is without sin, let him be the one to pick her, to throw the first stone. And of course, he knelt down and he wrote and Eleonore tells her that he was writing the sins of those who were about to stone her. And when people saw that, they dropped the stones and walked away. And he told us this woman, you know, who, woman, where are those people who condemn you? And she looked up and she said, Lord, there is no one. And Christ says, neither do I condemn you, but he did not stop there. He tells her, go and sin no more. And that is what salvation is, that when you have been saved, those things you used to do, you don't do them any more. Learn from your mistakes as you've put it again, I'm sorry for belaboring the point, but as you've put it quite well in Joshua in the verse you read from Joshua, the difference between a righteous man and a wicked man is not that the righteous man does not sin, but when he sins, he gets up even if it is seven times. So thank you for that. That's a very beautiful lesson, Saobon, that you've given us. I want to come back to you, Miss Sati. And I want to read for you a quote and I want to elaborate on the quote is, the secret of success is the union of divine power with human effort. Apply that with regards to chapter 10 of Joshua. So the way I see this application with human effort and divine power, the human effort I see is that one, Joshua decided to use intelligent military strategy that is he approached his enemies at night. Because the enemy is asleep, the enemy wakes up, then there are people surrounding the enemy. The people are confused. These are natural confusion like, hey, what's happening? That is, then on top of that, he knew he needed to pursue the people, that is. So he was guarding the rear, God was guarding the front. So people are running, but when they're running towards hailstones. So they can't run back, they can't run forward. So here human effort, then divine power, completely annihilated these people. And where I feel that this also marges in is that story of Lazarus. Since Christ said, roll away the stone. Then he says, remove the burial clothes. Christ could have wielded that the stone was rolled away by an angel and the burial clothes removed as if by magic. But then if there's something we can do, I feel God will want us to do that thing. And then we leave him to do that which we cannot do. Amen, amen. You put that so beautifully. That which we can do, we should do. When Joshua was preparing for battle and when he was executing and he was fighting with the Israelites, they did it as if they did not expect God to help. They put in their effort a hundred percent and what they could not do, they cried out to help from God. And then the divine power came and combined with human effort to fulfill the will of God. And all that you said is just correct. Thank you so much. I'm coming back to you Ruth. And I want to remind the viewer of how, as Misati said in the summary, how Joshua asked God to make the sun stand still and the sun stood still and how the Lord rained hailstones on the enemies of Israel. What do we learn about the nature of God? What do we learn about the nature of God with regards to his power over nature? At this point, I would say God has very much of control over nature because from Joshua chapter 10 verses 11 to 13, it shows him doing great acts with nature all in the sense that he needed the Israelites to win. So he did very many things with nature for the win. I'd also like to bring in 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 4 to 7 and it says, they will say, where is this coming? He promised, ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. But they did deliberately forget that long ago the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word, the present heavens and the earth are reserved for fire being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. So this shows that at the end, even at the end, God will still use nature to show us that we're coming to the end times. Amen. Beautifully put, nature is an arsenal in God's weaponry just as he used nature to fulfill his will in chapter 10 of Joshua. It's the very same way he will use nature as you have beautifully put it in 2 Peter chapter 3 to fulfill his will at the end of time. And I want to stay with you, Ruth, one of the 10 commandments. The commandment number 6 that says, do not kill. But we see a lot of killing in Joshua chapter 10. Is there a bit of contradiction? What would you say about that as we finish? I'd like to bring in the story of Noah. In his time, it was like the same case or similar. There were people who were going against his word and what did God do? He used floods to get rid of them. So I think that when it comes to ungodly people, people going against God's word, I'd like to say that he's not really opposed to killing them because they already chose to go against his word. Absolutely. I'd like to jump in with some slight rhetoric. So do we then justify killing those who are not of our faith since we believe we have the truth that those who are not of us have falsehood? Can it then be said that we should murder those who are ungodly? Well, to that question I would debate and probably say that number 1, God is a God of mercy and even his judgments are merciful. I'll give an illustration. Right now we're in a church and on Sabbath the church is always filled with people up to the balcony. So for example, let's say a gunman walks in with a machine gun and starts shooting at people. You are, let's say you, Misati probably looks like a policeman, is there with his weapon there. Would it not be merciful to kill this one gunman instead of letting him continue and wipe out the entire congregation? That's the logic. God's judgments are often in a way that to stop the sin where it is before it festers and grows and leads to the loss of many more who would be exposed to that sin. Yes, who would be exposed to that sin. So God acts in a way that stops the festering of sin before it pollutes the entire congregation. I think that's a good way to look at it. I think we've come to the end of our discussion. Before I close it, I'd like us to give our closing remarks. I'll start with you Salmon, Ruth, and then Misati will give the final words. All I have to say is that God needs worship of love and not of fear. Amen. Very well put. I'd like to say that this lesson teaches us just how powerful God is and there are several other stories in the Bible that show that. So we need to take God seriously in our life. Amen. And one thing I find that stands out greatly for me is the power of an oath, the power of a vow. Whatever you speak with your mouth, it is good always to follow through with what you vow and what you promise. And what you actually vow can become your undoing. For the Israelites, it became their undoing because they never wiped out entirely all the canonites. Thus they disregarded or disobeyed God's law. For the Gibeonites, it became their undoing because they now became burden bearers and water fetches. Amen. Can I just jump in there? Absolutely, absolutely. I have a verse, Matthew 5 verse 36 and 37, and it says, And do not swear by your head for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply yes or no. Anything beyond this comes from the evil one. So these words were spoken by Jesus and it shows that we shouldn't just, we shouldn't make oaths as simple yes or no. No swearing because it can put us into things that we can't back out of just like the Israelites were put into. Amen. Let your yes be yes and you know be no. Stand by your vow. God is a God of power and God is a God of love who deserves love. For me, I'll close it with Psalms chapter 24 verse 3 and 4 which says, Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart and who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false God? We'd like to end our session there. We want to appreciate those who have taken, who have been part of this production. Victor and his team and the visionary leadership of Shajawan and the teens class. May God bless you. See you next time. Let's bow heads for the prayers we finish. Our heavenly Father, may these lessons that we have learned actually have meaning in our lives and may all glory and honor go back to you as you transform us and transform our lives. This I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.