May the mumbling commence!
Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. No matter the mission the Lord gives you, be strong and courageous. The Lord will go with you. The first chapter of Joshua has this impassioned plea repeated four times. Be strong and courageous. Disregard the mighty people and the high-walled cities. Disregard the fear in your budding nation. God will neither leave you nor forsake you (if you are careful to follow and obey the Lord’s commands Josh 1:7b). Do you think it is important for us to be strong and courageous? I think the message is undeniably important – essential.
Joshua had the fickle people of Israel that he was leading and the towering walls of the cities Israel was supposed to lay siege to and the mighty people occupying the land. He had toured the land and seen the people forty years ago, and he was ready to trust God to win the day for them. But forty years had passed – forty years of wandering, forty years of extra mileage. Did Joshua still trust God to win the day for them? Be strong and courageous. Guess so!
The message “Be strong and courageous,” was repeated four times in a chapter that is only 18 verses long. How could Joshua miss this important message? How does the second chapter of Joshua start? “Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim.” Wasn’t the sending of spies the beginning of the ruin of the first time Israel was at the doorstep of the Promised Land? What happened to the idea of being strong and courageous?
And that’s not all! Where did these unnamed spies go in Jericho? They went to the house of a prostitute! Is that a great place to do some reconnaissance? Maybe. But will it help the effort to conquer the city of Jericho? Probably not. Why didn’t Joshua remember the steadfast protection of the Lord from Egypt to the wanderings in the desert? He had seen most of his generation die in the desert, yet God sustained Joshua because of his faith. Where had that faith gone?
Surprise, surprise! Remembering rightly did happen – but not through someone from Israel and not even from a man. Right remembering happens through Rahab, a prostitute who lived on the outskirts Jericho. She lived in the outside wall itself. Take a look at the speech she gave to the two spies that she protected from harm:
"I know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” (Josh 2:9b-11)
The people of Jericho had heard about the episode at the Red Sea, and they had heard about the battles that Israel handily won against the Amorites. They heard and trembled in their boots. Rahab wanted protection from this mighty Lord of heaven and earth. Imagine that! Rahab trusted in the protection of the Lord and Joshua did not. What irony! What shame!
The sign for her protection in the siege of the town was a scarlet cord that hung from her window. Remind you of anything? It reminds me of the lamb’s blood that Israel put on their doorframes during the Passover to protect them from the angel of death. Rahab was sacrificing the good graces of the king of Jericho to throw herself totally into the arms of the God of Israel – the Lord, who was proving that He was God of all.
God does shame us from time to time by showing great strength and courage in a person quite young in the faith – someone that we would overlook as unimportant. Let this be a lesson to us. No one is unimportant to God. All people are created in the image of God. All people have the potential to display great strength and courage for the Lord. May we find this strength and courage in ourselves and seek to uncover it in others.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
No comments:
Post a Comment