Joshua 7: The Way out of Despair

The LORD said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face?
Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. 
That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction. - Joshua 7:10-12 NIV

How many times am I guilty of this same thing...falling down on my face in despair, crying out, 'Why has this happened to me?'  Sometimes, I need to be told "Stop!'  I need to be brought up short, short of where my frailties, insecurities and even sin will take me.  I need to look deep inside.  Just as Joshua had to peel away the layers of tribe, descendants and families to find the guilty party, I need to peel away the layers that keep me from facing the truth that I am usually solely responsible for the situation that I find myself in.  That's not to say that worldly events are happening all around me, but it is my reaction to them that causes the majority of my angst.  Whenever, I worry about my provision, when ever I take matters into my own hands, when I shy away from God's provision, I fall into a well of despair that is impossible to climb out all by myself. 

God is so gracious.  He no longer takes us outside the camp to be stoned to death.  Instead, he sent his son who took the punishment for all of our sins, and all of the sins that are committed against us.  We can still wallow in despair if we want, but if we want a way out, it has been provided.  Just as the death of Achan freed the Israelites to be victorious, Christ's death frees us to be the same.

Joshua 1: Getting Ready for Possession

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” -Joshua 1:9 NIV

It's so easy to think our time of worth has evaporated, that we no longer have anything to offer, that our days of service have passed us by while we were busy earning a living, raising children, or taking care of our responsibilities.  But that is not the case, just as it was not the case with Joshua.  Hoshea, as he was originally called, son of Nun, from the tribe of Ephraim, dutifully followed Moses.  For over forty years, he was by Moses' side.  He watched as Moses ascended the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments from God, he waited behind in the tabernacle after Moses communed with God to bask in the glory, he spied out the land and came back with a favorable report.  It was at that time, that Hoshea's name which meant 'Salvation', was changed to Joshua which means 'God is Salvation'.  Was that the purpose of all of Joshua's years of waiting in the wings, all the years of not being in the forefront?  Was it so that he would learn that salvation comes only through God?  Was it so that he would learn that anything that is undertaken has no power unless the power comes from God?  Was that so he would learn that strength and courage, true strength and true courage, is a result of total dependence on God.  Was the waiting a means to dispel terror rather than to promote it?  Were the long days of following, of being obedient and subservient, the path away from discouragement?  If so, perhaps some of us need to re-evaluate our lives and see that the years that have passed us by have not been in vain.  They have been building us into someone ready to possess the promised land.

Deuteronomy 32: Full of Power

“See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.
I lift my hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever,  when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me. -Deut. 32:39-41 NIV

How different our lives would be if we truly believed that this is the God we serve, the only god, the one who puts to death and the one who brings life.  If we truly believed this, we would pray for our enemies as Jesus said we were to do.  We would turn the other cheek, we would understand that vengeance is God's alone.  We would know that God needs no defending, he can defend himself.  We would be cursing the darkness, not the unfortunate souls who inhabit it.  We would be offering light and hope and salvation to a world that is desperately lost.  We would be confident in our God and his mighty power rather than trying to turn back the darkness on our own.  If we truly believed in the power of God, our lives would be full of his power.

Deuteronomy 30: A Broken Record

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. - Deut. 30:11-16 NIV

Why do we make it so difficult?  Why do we struggle like a broken record, going round and round and round thinking that there is going to be a different answer; thinking that there is some magical formula that will call down God's blessing in our lives?   We try to make it so complicated only because we don't want to recognize the truth:  Love The Lord your God, walk in his ways, keep his commands, decrees and laws.

Deuteronomy 26: A Promise Keeping God

The LORD your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared this day that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in his ways, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws, and that you will obey him.  And the LORD has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised. -Deut. 26:16-19 NIV

It's so easy to forget that we are in a covenant relationship with The Lord; to forget that there are vows taken by each side that must be forever remain in place.  That means that we are bound to God, we cannot come and go as we please.  We cannot choose to obey only part of his commands.  We are wholly his, just as a bride is wholly her husband's, we are God's treasured possession.  We have made a promise to be faithful and that covenant cannot be broken

On the other side,  God belongs to us.  We have his promise, his everlasting commitment to us.   Nothing can change that.  He is a never changing, ever faithful God.  It is no wonder that marriage is used to describe the believers relationship with God, and vice versa.  It's hard for us to understand that in these days when divorce comes so easily, when friendships are dependent upon what we get out of the relationship, and when even family ties no longer hold people together.  While commitment may not mean much to most of us, it is still important to God.  In fact, it is the  very core of his being.  While all around us, relationships crumble, he is faithful, he will always be.  He is a promise keeping God.

Deuteronomy 15: Obedience Brings Blessing

However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. For the LORD your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you. -Deut. 15:4-6 NIV

These words leap out at me as what might have been the promise at the founding of our country as well.  They could be the promise to us as individuals as well.  Obey The Lord and you will be blessed, nations, states, cities, individuals, all find blessings when they obey the Lord God, when hearts follow after him.  If you doubt that, look at the rise from the rubble of countries such as South Korea and the contrasting decline of North Korea; one where the majority of the population is now Christian and the other godless.

We can attribute the decline in our country and our own life to external factors, but the truth remains, God blesses those who follow his commands.  As Samuel said, "Obedience is better than sacrifice. (1 Sam. 15:22). I pray we will be able to apply it in our lives in order to live lives where we will be blessed and can bless others, rather living lives of poverty and subjection.

Deuteronomy 10: Over and Over and Over Again

And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff–necked any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. Deut. 10:12-17 NIV

He chose us, the God of heaven and earth, the God of the Ages, the Beginning and the End, he chose us and requires so little of us, yet we wander off on our own over and over again.  We choose alien gods, gods of clay, wood, hay and stubble, thinking that they can provide for our needs, but they fail, over and over again.  We wonder why our world keeps falling apart, over and over again.  All the while, God, our God, the one who has called us by name, stands patiently by, waiting for us to come to our senses and acknowledge him.  Acknowledge that without him, we are nothing.  He waits for us.  Over and over again, he stretches out his arms to us and we ignore him.  We ignore the God who owns the highest heavens and this puny earth that we call home.  We cast our eyes on other sources while he waits, over and over and over again.

Deuteronomy 8: Pride Before the Fall

Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. -Deut. 8:11-14 NIV

It is so easy to let this happen, to let our prosperity lull us into thinking that it is something of our own doing.  In the valleys of despair, we are very aware of our inability to do anything for ourselves.  At those times we bare our souls and cry out for God's intervention.  We recognize our total dependence on him as our source and we are not disappointed.  He always carries us through.

However, once we are out of the valley, once we have conquered the mountain, we begin to think that we have done it all in our own power.  As Moses says, when God's blessings become manifest in our lives, our hearts have a tendency to become proud and we forget that it was the Lord our God who brought us out of our despair and planted our feet on the high place.  It is at those times when we think that we have triumphed that we face the most risk of falling. 

Deuteronomy 4: Idle Worship of Idols

After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and provoking him to anger, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you. There you will worship man–made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him.For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath. -Deut. 4:25-31 NIV

Most of us would be hard pressed today to name our idols.  We know better than to worship gods of wood and stone, but then the majority of people on the earth no longer worship gods of wood or stone, they have become obsolete, replaced by the trappings of modern society.  Now we worship technology and all it has produced.  We worship our iPads, smart phones, and all that is contained in them.  We worship our cars, bicycles, motorcycles, recreational vehicles and even our houses.  We worship our children and grandchildren.  We worship our leisure. 

Ultimately, it is our leisure that drives us away from worshipping God.  It is in our leisure, when we are bored or anxious, that we turn to the one thing that calms us most.  Some of us run, some of us read, some of us watch CNN, some of us, those who like to think of themselves as holy, watch CBN, and some of us, myself included, play computer games.  None of these pursuits are harmful in and of themselves, but when they become our consolation, they become our gods. 

Moses reminded the Israelites of the consequences of worshipping other gods.  We face the same consequences today, but we also possess the same antidote.  If we seek the Lord God with all of our heart and soul we will find him.  We will find a God that meets all of our needs, who fills up all of the empty places in our lives, a God who makes the idle worship of idols unnecessary.

Deuteronomy 1: God's Promises

Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”

In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go. - Deut. 1:29-33 NIV

This is often so true of us.  We have seen God go before us; have seen him fight for us, but, when he reveals what he has promised to us, we quake with fear.  It's too much.  No matter how much we want to believe the promise, we hesitate to reach out and grasp it.  It's too big we cry, we can't do that.  There are giant obstacles standing in our way.  Sure, the reward would be sweet, but we don't have what it takes.  We take the burden of the vision from God and place it on our own shoulders, and sure enough, it is too heavy us to carry.

God's promises, promises for our future, are not dependent upon our abilities, but on him.
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jer. 29:11 NIV
The promises, the visions, the desires of our hearts are placed in us by him, and he will carry through on what he has promised.

Numbers 35: Bloodshed Polutes the Land

“‘Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. - Numbers 35:33 NIV

Of all the things we Christians worry and fret about today, promiscuity, homosexuality, greed, licentiousness, etc., perhaps the most offensive to God is the shedding of innocent blood.  We still get up in arms about abortion, but there are not many speaking out about the murder running rampant in our country.  In fact, a lot of Christians are arming themselves  They see it as their right to protect themselves all the while shedding no tears over the young men, primarily minorities, who are dying daily.  We cannot protect our own lives without protecting the lives of others.  As scripture says, "Bloodshed pollutes the land" .   Our land is polluted by the bloodshed on television, in the movies and video games, and on the streets, not to mention the blood shed by abortion.  We have to address all of these issues if we want our land to be restored.

Numbers :24: No Fear!

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.
“No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The LORD their God is with them; the shout of the King is among them. - Num. 24:19-21 NIV

We have just returned from a trip to California to visit family and friends.  Whule we were there, we attended a worship service, held in the local Boys and Girls Club, where people from several churches got together to do nothing but praise and worship the Lord.  It was one of the most moving worship experiences we have had since we left our little church in Jockey Hollow, New Jersey.  If I were to use one sentence to describe that night, it would be, "The shout of the King was among us!"

We Christians, worry so about our place, our security in the world, just as the Israelites were prone to do.  And just like the Israelites, we are oblivious of the power we possess, a power that the world is aware of far more than we are.  Whether or not we acknowledge it, the world is afraid of the power of God and of those who possess his power.  We have the power of God in our midst, the God who only does wondrous things, and yet we concede that right to all of the principaliies and powers that are helpless in his presence.

I came away from that night convinced that we need to worship more and worry less.  The LORD our God is with us; the shout of the King is among us!  We have nothing to fear!