JAC Online

What Now?
by Colonel David Gruer

Bible Reading: Joshua 7: 1-13

 

INTRO:  It may not be the best way to begin a message, but this morning I want to begin with a rather surprising and sad spectacle; we might even go as far as to consider it a bit disappointing, It has to do with Joshua, the succesor of Moses in the leadership of the people of Israel, a first class military leader.

 

If we go back to Numbers Chap. 13 we read there about the first time the Israelites came to the border with the promised land under the leadership of Moses and how, at the Lord's command, Moses has chosen one man out of each of the twelve tribes to go and spy out the land. They were gone for 40 days and when they returned and gave their report, only 2 out of the 12 were convinced that they stood a chance of defeating the pagan nations in that land; and Joshua was one of the two.

 

For the next 40 years of wanderings in the desert whilst that generation of doubters died off, Joshua gained notoriety as a courageous military leader.

 

Moving on to that thrilling first Chapter of the Book of Joshua, we find God speaking to the new leader of his people, giving Joshua his marching orders with the most encouraging words. Listen: 'As I was with Moses, so I will be with you: I will never leave you or  forsake you.' v.5b ' ...Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.' v.6

 

And sure enough, the first battle in the invasion of the  promised land was a splendid victory, about which we read in Joshua Chapter 6. -  We know the story so well, as the people marched again and again around the walls of Jericho and then blew their trumpets as God had commanded...and the walls came tumbling down!

 

Now we move to Chapter 7. The next target in their campaign is the city of Ai. Joshua sends spies from Jericho to Ai. The spies suggest that it is not necessary to send the whole army to conquer Ai; two or three thousand men should be enough!

 

1 – WHAT NOW?

 

I say all this to get us to what I said a few moments ago to the effect that I am starting out with what is a rather sad spectacle, perhaps surprising and even a little disappointing. I wanted to provide a little background leading up to what takes place looking at Joshua, Chapter 7, commencing at v.6 – Here we find Joshua and all the leaders of the Israelites with their clothes torn, having sprinkled dust on their heads, all flat on the ground in front of the Ark of the Lord. They had been like that from the time they received the terrible news that the Israelite army had had to flee for their lives pursued by the Aitians (?) and 36 of Israel's men were dead. (This business of tearing your clothes, throwing dust on the head and lying face down on the ground was a customary way of expressing deep grief, of mourning) So that isn't too hard to understand.

 

What to me comes across as rather disappointing is that right away we find Joshua, that brave warrior, expressing doubt almost ready to throw in the towel, as we might say. One gets the impression that he thinks all is lost. Listen to him:

'Why did you bring us this far and then let the Amorites destroy us? We  would have been happy to stay on the other side of the Jordan. ..they will surround us and kill us all!  He is even concerned about God's reputation. 'Then what will you do for your own great name?.

 

I don't know how Joshua might have said it in Hebrew. But if he had been speaking in English I can imagine him asking 'What Now'?  Lord, 'What Now'?

 

There does not seem to have been any commiseration from God Almighty as He finally speaks to Joshua. v10 'Stand up! Why are you down on your face? The Israelites have sinned.' It comes across even more emphatically in The Message, which reads: 'Get up. Why are you groveling? Israel has sinned.'  In that circumstance, it was not a time to mourn, or despair, or give up. It was a time for action, a time to put things right.

 

Before we look a little further at this whole incident and its present day application, I would like us to think about us who have been linked to Etobicoke Temple for  a while. I suspect we will readily agree that, having finally moved out of the our old building, is, in itself, a tremendous victory. We are encouraged and join in praising God for the abundant evidence of His blessing on us as His people. In just a few days those walls will also come crashing down!

 

I can't help but ask myself: 'What now'? Are we going to be content to settle into some kind of holding pattern and continue dreaming, praying and planning for the great and wonderful things that we believe God is going to do in and through us when we finally move to our new facilities?

 

Or are we going to stand up and reach out and commit  ourselves wholeheartedly to following the Lord's leading, so that we might go out in His Name and fulfill our calling to be His true and faithful ambassadors?

 

I look at our dear brother Paul Nickles. Bless you Paul. You and several others in our splendid Corps family have done such a great job and are working so hard. But I want to give you something else to think about. I would like to see this auditorium become too small for our growing congregation and having to relocate to the cafeteria which is more spacious. I believe, I believe the Lord has great things in store for us, NOW!

 

2 – THE SCARY WORD 'BUT' 

 

Now let us consider how what we learn from Joshua Chapter 7 applies to the day and age in which we live.

 

What word does Joshua chapter 7 begin with? BUT - As soon as we hear that word or come across it in our reading, our pulse rate increases, our curiosity is roused! We might say it's a bit of a scary word. What's coming next? Every 'but' is preceeded by something and something always follows.

 

So let's take a moment to look back at Chapter 6. The heading in my Bible says 'The Fall of Jericho' – the initial battle in the conquest of the Promised Land, when as we have already noted, the 'walls came tumbling down'! The Israelites had been given quite detailed instructions as to how they were to proceed, and these included what we read in verses 18 & 19:

'Don't take any of the things that are to be destroyed as an offering to the Lord. If you take them and bring them into our camp, you yourselves will be destroyed, and you will bring trouble to all Israel. All the silver and gold and things made from bronze and iron belong to the Lord and must be saved for him.'

 

We know the story. The Israelites totally wiped out the city of Jericho with the exception of Rahab and her family according to the promise made that her life would be spared, for protecting the Israelite spies. That day they won a great victory!

 

Then we move to chapter 7 and face that ominous 'BUT'! Reading on in that first verse of Chapter 7 we discover what that 'but' is all about: 'But the Israelites did not obey the Lord.'   In the process of finding out who the guilty party was, Achan is singled out. He confesses his sin as we read in vv. 20 & 21

'...It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. Among the things I saw was a beautiful coat from Babylonia and about five pounds of silver and more than one and one-fourth pounds of gold. I wanted these things very much for myself, so I took them. You will find them buried in the ground under my tent, with the silver underneath.'

 

Reading on we learn that Achan, his whole family, his cattle his tent, all was taken to the Valley of Achor (which means Valley of Trouble) where they were stoned to death, burned and covered with rocks! I don't suggest this as bedtime reading for your kids.

 

Actually you have to be rather thick skinned not to shudder as you visualize this scene!

 

You might think I could have chosen a different topic for this morning's message. But I do hope and pray that the Lord will see fit to use this text from the Holy Bible to speak to our hearts.

 

After all, in The Salvation Army we still believe as our first statement of faith declares, that:

'the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.'

 

Allow me to quote from the writings of John MacArthur which I found helpful:

'If we do not have a growing awe about the holiness of God and His righteous judgment of sin, our understanding of God's grace and mercy will fade away. Without an acknowlegment that God can and does punish, the possibility of mercy and forgiveness carries little weight. If we do not seek to see the entire scope of God's actions and character, we will tend to gravitate to what we like or don't like and miss the connections.' (The MacArthur Bible Handbook p.60)

 

There is a fundamental truth of human existence that too many people don't want to admit. It is the inescapable truth that SIN doesn't only affect the individual that sins. Sin always affects others. Sin has both personal and corporate consequences.

 

You can go back all the way to Genesis and read how our first parents disobeyed God's express command and sin entered the human race; and then read on until  the last book in the Bible and time after time and all the way on to the book of Revelation you will find evidence of this truth. (Actually in the Book of Revelation in my Bible I found nine instances of the little word 'but' followed by words of judgment!

 

Let me add right away, that you don't have to open the Bible to become aware of the disastrous and devastating effects of sin in the lives of individuals, communities and nations! Just read the newspapers, listen to the radio or turn on the TV. Think of the loss

of life these last few days in the GTA or the tragedy in a cinema in Aurora, a suburb of Denver in the  USA! - And people talk and talk and then talk some more. What can be done? Who is to blame?  Ban guns, longer prison sentences.  Deport criminals, More community programs, education, job opportunities for young people. Greater parental responsibility.  The trouble is that in all this conversation, and while the experts gather information and do their research and politicians discuss options, whether it has to do with  gun violence, sex, drugs, poverty, gambling, abuse and exploitation of all kinds, or the subject is little children starving to death or multitudes of refugees fleeing for their lives, or the topic is the dire predictions about global warming, the result of careless stewardship of the resources God has provided.  whether this is happening in our back yard, across the border or in far away countries – it seems to me that the sin problem is ignored, as is the fact that Almighty God in his Infinite Love and Grace provided the one infalible remedy, the only guaranteed solution. He sent Jesus Christ our Blessed Lord and Saviour to make Atonement for sin and open the way so that all who will may be saved from sin. And the answer to ALL, and I say it advisedly, ALL of life's problems and challenges is in this Book, God's Holy Word. Here we find Jesus who declares:

'I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me.'  (John14:6)

 

Before we start praising the Lord and even feel inclined to shout 'Hallelujah' rejoicing in the fact that we believe in Jesus, know him as our personal Saviour and Lord of our lives, let me share with you something the Lord has laid on my heart, as I think of

us as part of the family of God known as Etobicoke Temple, at this particular juncture in our history.

 

3 – A DANGER TO AVOID

 

First and foremost we need to be certain that  we have placed our trust in the Lord, are following His leading and experiencing victory over 'the world, the flesh and the devil'. This requires not only a 'personal' commitment  to avail ourselves of every means of grace, setting aside time each day for prayerfully reading the Bible, and communing with our Lord in prayer. It also involves our responsability as a Corps family to meet together as a congregation regularly to Worship God. - Also, we must constantly encourage, support look out for and love each other in His Name!

 

At the same time there is a danger that we must avoid. It is the danger of becoming proud of our goodness, and begin self-righteously pointing our finger at those ignorant non-believers in a post-Christian, greedy, consumer-driven, egocentric pagan society. The 'we' generation!

 

4 - DANGER OF FORGETTING OUR DIVINE CALLING.

 

Expanding on this thought, could I suggest that we need to be aware of the danger of forgetting our divine calling? (And here I don't refer to the special 'call' such as the call to Christian Ministry which for us in The Army usually means becoming Officers. I am now thinking of what is known as the 'priesthood of all believers'.) You see, it is possible for us to become a deeply caring, compassionate, loving Corps family, and that is as it should be. After all reading in John 13: 34-35 we find an express command of Jesus to His disciples – sometimes referred to as the 11th. Commandment, which says:

 

'I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other as I have loved you. All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other.'

 

May I suggest that this is infinitely preferable than to be known as gossipers, whiners, grippers, malcontents?

 

At the same time, we must be careful not to become insular, forgetting that in the Sermon on the Mount, for example, Jesus said (Matthew 5:13) 'You are the salt of the earth' and in the next verse: 'You are the light of the world' and then He added 'let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.' 

 

This is what our Lord and Master calls us to. In all our relationships, out there in what we refer to as 'the world' we must have the purifying effect of salt, and we must be a true reflection of He who is 'the Light of the world,' our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is indeed a Divine calling.

 

Thinking of our divine calling, I am particularly drawn to a passage to which I keep coming back time and again. It is found in II Corinthians 5 commencing at verse 17. You might want to follow this reading in the NIV version while I read from the New Century Version.

'If anyone belongs to Christ, there is a new creation. The old things have gone; everything is made new! All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between us and himself, and God gave us the work of telling everyone about the peace we can have with him. God was in Christ, making peace between the world and himself. In Christ, God did not hold the world guilty of its sins. And he gave us this message of peace. So we have been sent to speak for Christ. It is as if God is calling to you through us. We speak for Christ when we beg you to be at peace with God. Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin so that in Christ we could become right with God.'

 

Notice God's marching orders to each and everyone one who has the witness in his heart that she/he is a NEW CREATURE, a NEW CREATION in Christ. v.20 'So we have been sent to speak for Christ.' I like the use of the word 'ambassador' in the NIV version of this  verse better;: 'We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as

though God were making his appeal through us...'

 

Finally, let us keep in mind that fundamental truth which makes the Christian Gospel distinct, as expressed in the words of Jesus quoted earlier: (John 14:6) 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

   

 

your shopping is guaranteed safe using SSL

eStore account - Sign Up Now! Contact Us - General. Technical Support. Sales Jesus is amazing!  If you see this image tag you should know that He is THE way... not a way!  Grace!
Home Terms of Use Privacy Policy Sitemap Contact Us
copyright ARMYBARMY
armybarmy