Jos 5:13 And it happened, when Joshua was beside Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked. And, behold! A Man stood in front of him, and His drawn sword was in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, Are You for us, or for our foes?
Jos 5:14 And He said, No, for I now come as the Commander of the army of Jehovah. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped. And he said to Him, What does my Lord speak to His slave?
Jos 5:15 And the Commander of the army of Jehovah said to Joshua, Take your shoe off your foot, for the place on which you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so.
With sword in hand, Jesus was ready for battle. But, He said "No," to Joshua's question.
No, He doesn't take sides. He is the God of Republicans and of Democrats. He is the God of Northerners and of Southerners, of blacks and of whites, of rich and of poor.
Why don't people see this?
He doesn't take sides, He is ready to take over if only we would move over and let Him take over. We are not in control, no matter how much we'd like to be in control, we are not. It's that simple, but not simple to understand or accept. It rather boggles the mind.
Joshua fell to his face. He knew. Without God humans can do nothing. Joshua was facing a daunting task...take over of a country. The Canaanites had weak stomachs for they had heard about God parting the waters for the Israelites. Rahab told them this. But when God parted the Jordan for them to cross over, the people of Canaan lost all hope and their stomachs melted!
When God takes over, things just go right. Joshua and the Israelites stomped around Jericho for a few days and the walls came tumbling down. Cool. They ate well, and all was right with the world until Ai.
Look what happened there. It is much more than one tiny town defeating the huge army. That defeat put some of the heart back into the Canaanites. All for a purple robe and a gold bar. A family was lost into the depths of the earth.
When we take the sword back, we not only hurt ourselves but hurt those around us. Yes, it is best to let God take over. He's much better at it than we are and, besides, He can see the whole picture while we only see a few pixels.
Jos 5:14 And He said, No, for I now come as the Commander of the army of Jehovah. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped. And he said to Him, What does my Lord speak to His slave?
Jos 5:15 And the Commander of the army of Jehovah said to Joshua, Take your shoe off your foot, for the place on which you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so.
With sword in hand, Jesus was ready for battle. But, He said "No," to Joshua's question.
No, He doesn't take sides. He is the God of Republicans and of Democrats. He is the God of Northerners and of Southerners, of blacks and of whites, of rich and of poor.
Why don't people see this?
He doesn't take sides, He is ready to take over if only we would move over and let Him take over. We are not in control, no matter how much we'd like to be in control, we are not. It's that simple, but not simple to understand or accept. It rather boggles the mind.
Joshua fell to his face. He knew. Without God humans can do nothing. Joshua was facing a daunting task...take over of a country. The Canaanites had weak stomachs for they had heard about God parting the waters for the Israelites. Rahab told them this. But when God parted the Jordan for them to cross over, the people of Canaan lost all hope and their stomachs melted!
When God takes over, things just go right. Joshua and the Israelites stomped around Jericho for a few days and the walls came tumbling down. Cool. They ate well, and all was right with the world until Ai.
Look what happened there. It is much more than one tiny town defeating the huge army. That defeat put some of the heart back into the Canaanites. All for a purple robe and a gold bar. A family was lost into the depths of the earth.
When we take the sword back, we not only hurt ourselves but hurt those around us. Yes, it is best to let God take over. He's much better at it than we are and, besides, He can see the whole picture while we only see a few pixels.
3 comments:
An important message. There's a great book by Shane Claiborne, called "Jesus for President"...he does a great job in showing through scripture why God transcends politics and really, if we all lived out our faith fervently and walked as Jesus did, politics wouldn't even be necessary.
A beautiful , thought provoking post as always..thank you :)
Two thoughts.
First, you said, "He is ready to take over if only we would move over and let Him take over" and "We are not in control, no matter how much we'd like to be in control, we are not." Aren't these contradictory?
The other thought is I could only wish that He'd take over. I know, I know, "God doesn't want robots." I've heard it before. But if I could surrender complete control to Him -- be His little robot -- I'd be giddy with delight.
Thank you, Stan. As usual my brain was moving faster than my fingers and I didn't explain it well.
It boggles the mind of humans to think they are not in control, no matter how much they think they are, humans do not control the course of human events. Satan, to a degree, believes he is in control, and has tried to divert the outcome down through the centuries; but he only has as much leeway as God allows, which means he truly isn't in control.
If we Christians would release our lives and every compartment of our hearts and minds to our God then we would quit messing up the work God is doing.
There is no way in Heaven or on earth that God's ultimate plan will not come about. Satan tried to do that from his first conversation with Eve in the Garden, even to Athaliah becoming queen over Judah and killing all of the sons who would be king except for the little baby, Joash. God saved the throne and provided the king through which Jesus would descend.
Therefore, there is no way to change the course of human events without God's specific permission, and that is not control at all.
Christians wrestle with God over many things. It boils down to selfish desires warring over the desire to please God. That is a human condition because of our eternal soul existing in dual realms (spiritual and physical). The only person to win that war completely and totally is Jesus on the cross. Jesus stayed on the cross confirming and affirming to Satan that the divine will always win in that struggle.
We Christians should recognize that as well. But, sadly, we don't. We think we need control so that our world won't fall apart. When, in fact, we aren't truly in control of our world at all.
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