There are two
interesting topics that I would like to bring out of this reading for
today. The first one involves the defeat
of the inhabitants of the land; and the second one involves the small story of
Moses at the end of this chapter.
The Inhabitants of the Land
Regarding the land, do
notice that it was the Lord who is given credit for the conquest. The Lord is the one who purposed it and the
Lord is the one who made it happen. The
Lord allowed the people to conquer this land east of the Jordan in order that
the people would see that He can also bring them to conquer the land west of
the Jordan. Moses specifically tells
Joshua in this passage that what the Lord has done here is evidence of what the
Lord can do in the future.
I find this teaching
right in line with what Jesus tells His disciples. Jesus says that when He ascends into heaven
that His followers will do even greater things than He did on this earth. Jesus’ ministry was of course about the death
and resurrection. But beyond that,
Jesus’ ministry was about giving us evidence of what God can do. We are to see what Jesus did and be filled
with confidence. After Jesus ascends,
the story of Christ spreads through Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. Within several decades many of the Roman
towns have small pockets of Christianity within them. With three centuries over half the Roman
population is Christian and Christianity becomes the official religion in Rome. Nobody is saying that anyone is greater than
Jesus, but the works of the many Christians who followed Jesus were great in
scope. We see the model in Jesus, and
the fruit of God in the work of those who followed Him.
That is largely what
the first portion of this chapter is all about.
Moses reminds the Hebrew people to live confidently with God. God can accomplish great things through
them. They don’t need blind faith; they
have evidence of this promise before them!
They don’t have to trust a God they do not know, they have to trust a
God they have known to work in their midst all along.
So we should also
learn this lesson. What has God done for
us in our life? Why do we continue to think
that we should walk with blind faith when we have a great and vast pool of experience
behind us from our own life out of which we should draw confidence? Let us belief with confidence, knowing that
we will continue to see God’s glory as we go forward in life!
Moses and God
The second thing I
want to talk about is this little story of Moses at the end. Notice that Moses places the blame on the
rebellious Hebrew people. Moses says
that the Lord would not listen to him because of them. No, I’m not going to attack Moses because
he’s passing the buck. If someone else wants
to do so, I’ll happily have that conversation.
But I am not going to take that approach.
Rather, I am going to
uphold Moses’ words. Yes, he is the one
that struck the rock rather than speaking to it. However, he was in that position because the
people he was leading were grumbling.
The people around him had a sour heart and it impacted Moses. Yes, Moses has his element of guilt. But for me today, I think the real lesson
here is that we as Christians need to be mindful about how the people around us
influence us.
I’m not advocating
that we build a wall around ourselves and don’t allow others in – especially
others who might impact us negatively.
On the contrary! We should
actually seek out those people and evangelize the Good News to them! God has called us to take His message of His
glory and His love to a world that desperately needs it.
But we should do this
mindfully. We should do it knowing that
we will not be free of the influence that those people will have on us just as
they will not be free of the influence we have on them. If a great leader like Moses – who talked
‘face to face’ with God – can occasionally be corrupted by the sour hearts of
the people around him, are we going to fare any better?
We have a blessed
calling in the faith. God has called us
to be His representative in the world.
But we must do so while being wise as serpents and innocent as
doves. Look for those whose influence
you can manage. Look for those whom you
can influence more than they influence you.
Look for those who are willing to listen, even while they make mistakes
and subconsciously and unknowingly try to pull you back into the world. You can’t do ministry without getting a
little messy. You can’t pull someone out
of the stickiness of sin without usually getting a little on yourself. But you can manage the situation. You can look for those people who are willing
to come out of their sin rather than look for those who are just looking to
invite people into their own sinfulness.
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