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.'
|