Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Power
- Power: This is the natural outcome when we truly get our authority from the king. When our authority is from God, we are equipped with His power to accomplish His will. We act on His behalf in a world that He desperately loves.
One
of the things that I really like about the Old Testament is that we can truly
learn from the examples of other people.
The Old Testament is very honest about what the people did well and what
the people did poorly. It is also very
honest about why this happens, too. This
is one of the reasons why I think the Bible is true, actually. People aren’t usually this honest about their
successes and failures when writing a history book about their own nation.
For
example, take the people of Manasseh. They
are unable to drive out the Canaanites within their land. But then with the rest of the family of
Joseph they come and ask for more land!
Joshua gives them more land, but they complain about it. They say that they are not strong enough to
defeat the Canaanites who have iron chariots.
They’re
right, by the way. They are not powerful
enough. If their authority to accomplish
tasks is coming from themselves, they are not powerful enough. The Hebrew people were a Bronze Age
people. Bronze Age people struggled
against Iron Age people until they became Iron Age people themselves. If their authority was coming out of their
own ability, they weren’t powerful enough.
But
they were also God’s people! Had God not
just delivered Jericho into their midst?
Had God not just delivered Ai and all the following cities into their
midst? If their authority had actually
been coming from God, does it make sense that God wouldn’t make them powerful
enough to succeed? If God fights with
us, is it ever right to say “I’m not powerful enough?”
There’s
a great point to ponder today. Where
does my power come from? Does my power
come through the authority that God has given to me in His kingdom? What about you?
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