Year 6, Day 292: 1 Chronicles 20

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.

We get a conclusion of David’s wartime season in this chapter.  We hear about the conclusion of the war with the Ammonites.  We also hear about the war with David’s archenemies, the Philistines.

In fact, within the story of the Philistines, we hear about the giants.  The word giant is mentioned no less than 5 times in such a short passage.  What is the Chronicler up to at this point?  The Chronicler knows that his people are the underdogs as they return to the land.  They are the powerless ones who are not established in the land anymore.  They are the small runts of the area of Israel.  It should make sense that the Chronicler wants to lift up the stories where the smaller Hebrew people are able to rise up and succeed against the larger and more domineering Philistines.

Why can the Hebrew people prosper?  David and his men prosper because they are not resting upon their own strength.  They prosper because they are getting their power from God.  They are prospering because God’s will has gone before them and is making their success possible.

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Year 6, Day 285: 1 Chronicles 12

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.

1 Chronicles 12 gives us some verses about the transition from Saul to David.  I think that this is an incredibly interesting perspective.  Do you hear as you read through these verses just how many times people from the tribe of Benjamin are coming to David?

Remember, the tribe of Benjamin was Saul’s tribe.  These were his people coming over to David.  These were his kinsmen, supposedly loyal to Saul.  These were people who had much to gain from having one of their own tribe in a position of authority over the Hebrew people.  Yet they kept coming to David to lead them.

The question is why this would happen.  The big reason is because God has empowered David.  It is God’s plan.  He is in charge. His will is being done.

The lesser reason is because David is empowered.  As Saul goes more and more insane, his soldiers are losing faith.  The more fixated Saul becomes on destroying David, the more David’s sanity in leadership is elevated in the eyes of the people.  God has empowered David to leader.  The people are beginning to see it and follow.

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Year 6, Day 45: Isaiah 61

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.

Isaiah 61 opens with a statement of power.  “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.”  Isaiah feels empowered to declare the Lord’s favor.  Isaiah has gotten his authority from God and now has been given the green light to declare a time of God’s favor.

Once empowered, Isaiah talks about the Lord’s anointed.  Let’s look deeply at what the Lord’s anointed is empowered to do?  The Lord’s anointed is to bring good news to the poor.  He is to bandage up the broken-hearted.  He is to proclaim liberty to the captives.  He is to open the prison doors to those who are bound.

I find this list striking.  There isn’t anything about dominating over people.  There isn’t anything about being superior.  There isn’t anything about lording it over other people.  There isn’t anything about living a life of luxury while other people are overtaxed with work.  From a human perspective, we would expect the powerful to live an easy life.

But that is not so.  The Lord’s anointed is empowered to serve.  The Lord’s anointed is empowered to heal.  The Lord’s anointed is empowered to proclaim favor to others.  That’s true power.

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Year 5, Day 284: Psalm 147

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.

Once more we could talk about this psalm from the perspective of evangelism.  After all, isn’t this psalm about declaring the glory of the Lord?  That being said, I think the theme of the psalm is found in Psalm 147:4.  Great is the Lord, abundant in power.

It is His power that gathers the outcasts, binds up the broken, and heals the brokenhearted.  It is the Lords power that brought creation into existence and brings forth grass for the animals to eat.  It is through His power that we know His blessing.  It is through the power of the Lord that our human race can even know peace.  It is through His power that we even know season of the year.

God is indeed powerful.  He is more powerful than we could ever know.  But what I find amazing in this scenario is that as great as the power of the Lord is He still desires relationship with us.  I can bring nothing to Him that He cannot bring Himself.  Yet He still desires relationship.

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Year 5, Day 266: John 18

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.

I love looking at John 18 through the perspective of power because we need to remember that this is the chapter in which the arrest happens and the crucifixion story truly begins.  On the surface, this chapter reads like Jesus’ defeat.  Even if we remember that this is God’s will and God will triumph over death and raise Jesus from the dead, it still reads like a defeat.  But if we look deeply, we can see that this is indeed a passage about Jesus power.

First of all, look at Jesus’ arrest.  When they ask Him to identify Himself and He does, they draw back.  They cannot approach Jesus unless He lets them.  They cannot draw near to the presence of God without His assent.  Jesus is in control, even if He is arrested.

Second, look at what happens after Jesus is questioned by the high priest.  He speaks the truth and is struck.  However, Jesus doesn’t back down one bit.  He asks why He is struck for telling the truth.  Because they can’t deal with Him – because they don’t have the power to do so – Jesus is sent away.

Finally, let’s look at Jesus and Pilate.  Jesus is going before the Roman governor and he is the one who ultimately holds Jesus’ life in his hands.  But Jesus does not buckle.  He speaks honestly and straight with Pilate.  He dialogues with Pilate.  He doesn’t acquiesce to Pilate’s power; He asserts His own.  In fact, He even reminds Pilate that His kingdom is not of this world.  Jesus tells Pilate that His power lies elsewhere.

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Year 5, Day 236: Psalm 105

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Guidance, Power

• Guidance: God grants us His guidance.  Sometimes this guidance is God leading us away from temptation.  Sometimes this guidance is helping us to follow in a direction for which He has chosen.  Our default position should be to wait for God’s guidance and then follow when it comes.
• 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.

This is another really neat historical psalm.  I’m sure as you read through the psalm you felt like you were recapping the history of the Hebrew people from Abraham to at least Joshua.  This is a classic psalm of teaching and remembrance.

The really important question, though, is what is the psalm teaching?  The first thing that the psalm teaches us is God’s guidance.  In this particular psalm, we get a perspective of guidance through people.  God used Abraham.  God used Jacob.  God used Joseph.  God used Moses.  God used Aaron.  God often gives us guidance in our life through the very people around us.

However, this psalm is not just about how God works through the people around us.  This psalm speaks about God’s power, too.  We have a great recounting of the plagues, and there are few examples of God’s power in the Bible that are more dynamic than these.  We hear about how God brought His people out of Egypt burdened down with silver and gold.  We hear about How God brought famine upon the land but also brought sustenance through the storehouses of Joseph.  As much as God uses the people around us, He is also quite capable of acting through His own supernatural display.

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Year 5, Day 206: Psalm 62

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.

Psalm 62 gives us a very interesting perspective.  At first take, it seems like a typical psalm of calling out to God.  We hear the psalmist sound as though he is under persecution.  He calls out and wonders just how long he will be subject to the persecution of other men.  This psalm seems to be set up for a typical look at protection and God’s deliverance.

However, look at where the psalmist is led by God.  In verse 11 the psalmist concludes that power belongs to God.  No matter how much we are subject to the persecution of the world, ultimate power belongs to God.  People may do their worst to us here in this world.  But nobody can touch God’s promise of eternal life.  Power genuinely belongs to Him in spite of how this temporal world appears.

However, the psalm doesn’t end like we would think.  In our world, ultimate power means domination and control.  But look at what happens when ultimate power rests in the hand of God.  Verse 12 tells us that love ultimately belongs to God.  Humanity often uses power for our own gain and our own benefit.  But with God, power is an implement of love.  Power is something God uses for our benefit, not His.  He desperately loves us, and it is out of that love that His true power comes.

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Year 5, Day 156: Mark 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Authority, Power

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
• 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.

Once more we see that authority and power run together.  And this is such a good topic to cover on a chapter that immediately follows Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ and the Peter’s rebuke of Jesus’ teaching that He will die.

In this chapter we have two examples of misguided authority and a lack of power.  In the transfiguration, Peter gets all caught up in the moment and flustered.  He wants the moment to last forever.  So he suggests building three tents so that Jesus, Moses, and Elijah can just hang out here forever.  We can’t fault Peter for wanting the moment to last any more than we can fault him for wanting to protect Jesus and thus rebuking His teaching that He will die.  But in the end, it is misguided love.  Peter’s human love for Jesus interferes with God’s love for humanity.  The Father needs Jesus to move on after the transfiguration happened.  Peter’s authority in making his suggestion about the tents comes from himself, not the Father.  Thus he is powerless to do anything about it.

In the following stray we have a man with a demon-possessed son.  The disciples are powerless against it.  Jesus comes in, takes over, and the boy is freed from the possession.  Jesus has power and authority in this situation as well!

The greater question – and the very question that stumps Jesus’ disciples – is why they were powerless.  Jesus’ reply is simple yet multi-layered.  This kind of demon only comes out through prayer.

So what could this mean?  Well, Jesus could be saying that their technique was wrong.  Rather than commanding the spirit out, they should have prayed it out.  More deeply, I believe what Jesus is saying is that their preparation was wrong.  They weren’t prepared to handle the spiritual battle and thus the demon won.  But that leads us to what I think is the deepest explanation.  After all, what is prayer besides communication with the Father?  I believe Jesus is telling the disciples that their authority is not yet coming from the Father and therefore their power was lacking.  As our relationship with the Father grows – as our communication with Him improves and we learn to listen better – our power and authority will grow.

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Year 5, Day 133: Job 39

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Authority, Power 

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
• 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.

I could easily do another blog post on God being the king.  After all, how many of these verses have to do with the awesomeness of God?  How many of these verses talk about how great God is and how much God does that we don’t even think about?

However, I’d like to go a step further than just focusing on God’s kingship.  Once we understand that God is indeed King, we can understand just how much of our life is actually under His control.  He controls the movement of the animals.  He controls the behavior of the livestock.  He controls the movement of the stars and the rain that falls.  He controls everything.

This means that if we want to have control over anything, we need to get it from God.  If God has all the control, then we only get control from Him.  If we want power, it needs to come from Him because He is king.  If we want authority, it must necessarily originate from Him.

I believe that this is one of God’s primary points in this chapter.  Yes, He is putting Job in His place.  But He is also reminding us that once we are in our place, we are ready to receive from Him whatever authority and power He decides to give to us.

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Year 5, Day 122: Job 28

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Guidance, 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.
• Guidance: God grants us His guidance.  Sometimes this guidance is God leading us away from temptation.  Sometimes this guidance is helping us to follow in a direction for which He has chosen.  Our default position should be to wait for God’s guidance and then follow when it comes.

Job gives us a really interesting perspective into humanity.  What can humanity not do?  We can shape the world around us.  We can pull precious minerals out of the earth and form them into new things.  We can change the flow of water, dam up rivers, create lakes and reservoirs.  We can dig into the earth and move mountains.  We as human beings are incredibly powerful.

However, what is the end of such power?  We are on the verge of our population becoming greater than our ability to produce food for it.  We are on the verge of having potable water shortages.  There are reports that say that within 50 years we may have burned through the earth’s resources of fossil fuels and even the uranium deposits that we use to generate electricity.  We have incredible human power, but do we have the wisdom to utilize it properly?

You see, human beings are incredibly powerful beings.  We are insightful and creative.  But when we utilize this power without wisdom, we ultimately endanger ourselves with respect to our long-term survival.  We need to use the power that God has naturally given to use over His creation in conjunction with the guidance that comes from His character.  Only when we use the power of God in conjunction with the wisdom of God are we truly living as He would have us live and in a matter that is for our own good.

Yes, we are powerful.  But as Job asks in this chapter, are we wise?

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Year 5, Day 3: 2 Kings 5

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.

While this chapter is about Naaman and most people who study this chapter talk about Naaman and Elisha, today I am going to focus on my favorite character of this story.  We have a humble slave girl.  Naaman is an officer of the army, so it is highly likely that this slave girl was captured during a battle.  She was likely torn from her home when a military struggle came to her area and she was on the losing side.

What this means for this girl is that she is in the lowest position of society.  She has no rights.  She has nobody who really cares about her needs because they are family.  Granted, she seems to have a good relationship with Naaman and his wife, but that’s from grace in Naaman’s family not because it is culturally due to her as a slave.

However, look what this slave girl does.  She understands her place with God.  She understands her relationship with God.  And she understands that just because she is a slave does not mean that God cannot give her the power to speak truth into Naaman’s life.

That’s exactly what this unnamed young girl does.  She tells Naaman about the prophet Elisha.  She speaks up when culturally she should have stayed quiet.  This lowly slave girl that was captured on some military excursion begins the process of bringing healing in Naaman’s life simply by sharing truth with him.  That’s what it is like to get one’s power from God and not ourselves or the world around us.

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Year 4, Day 311: 1 Samuel 25

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.

In this chapter we see three people act upon their power.  The first two, David and Nabal, give us a negative perspective of power.  David makes a reasonable request of Nabal for food because his soldiers helped protect Nabal’s flocks and shepherds in the field.  The request is reasonable, but when Nabal refuses then David takes things into his own hands.  David grabs human power and orders his men to come up and attack Nabal.  David is acting out of his own power in this story rather than acting out of God’s power.

For the record, so is Nabal.  David’s human response to Nabal is a reaction to Nabal’s human greed.  Nabal doesn’t want to share.  He believes that all that he has is his.  Since it is his, there is no reason to give anything to David.  He says so himself.  “Who is David?”  Since there is nothing in it for Nabal to give to David and his men, he acts out of his own power and refuses David’s request.

Fortunately, there is a righteous person among the men: Abigail.  Abail is discerning.  She knows that Nabal is being rash in his own demonstration of power.  She also knows that David’s rashness could come back to hurt his reputation once he becomes king.  Abail argues of out a position of God’s power, allowing God to deal with Nabal.  In this circumstance, it is Abigail who understands God’s power and how to act righteously.  Righteousness always comes when we understand that true power comes from God.

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Year 4, Day 268: Judges 7

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.

Judges 7 grants us a natural lens through which we can view power.  Judges 7 is all about the rout of the Midianites at the hands of the Hebrew people.  It is also about Gideon learning to rely upon the power of God and not his own strength.  It is about learning to trust in God as king.

Look at what happens here.  God tells Gideon that he will deliver the Hebrew people.  32,000 soldiers march out, but 22,000 leave because they are afraid of what the battle might bring.  From the 10,000 that are not afraid, 300 are selected by God while the rest are sent home.  Gideon watches his military force be taken from 32,000 to 300 in a very short span of time.  I can only imagine how this fledgling leader felt.

But look at where God goes with this.  God is essentially asking Gideon to rely upon Him as king.  God tells Gideon to rely upon His power.  God even sends Gideon a dream to bolster his confidence! 

How does Gideon respond?  He worships God!  Gideon turns the corner in his spiritual relationship with God and truly believes.  He truly embraces the mantle of leadership.  He understands that the power that comes from having God as king is far more significant than the power that comes from ourselves.  He marches out in confidence with his greatly reduced force and finds absolute victory.  What an amazing story!

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Year 4, Day 251: Acts 18

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Authority, Power

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
• 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.

I always find Acts 18 to be a very humbling chapter for me to read.  Here we see what happens to a spiritual leader when they are at their wits end.  Paul gets to Corinth and once more finds opposition rising up against him.  Paul stops, turns to the people, and says, “I’m done.”  He walks away from them.  He vows to no longer go to the Jews and instead focuses upon the Gentiles.

I know what that feels like.  I know what it is like to always have to overcome the inertia of tradition in order to actually get to a place of the Spirit’s movement.  It’s tough work.  It’s easy to want to quit and find a place where the inertia is very much smaller and easy to affect.

But look at what God does in Paul’s moment of quitting.  Jesus comes to Paul and says, “Stop throwing a tantrum, Paul.  Keep going.  You don’t know how many supporters I have here.”  Essentially, God is reminding Paul that he’s lost sight of one very thing.  Paul’s lost sight of the fact that God is king.  For a moment, Paul thought of himself as king.  That’s what got him in trouble.

What that also means is that Paul forgot that his authority and power come from God.  If our authority and power come from God, then we are to answer His calling by His means.  It’s not up to me to say, “I quit, God.”  Nor is it up to me to say, “I’m not strong enough.”  Because if I am truly living out of the authority and power of the king, then if I claim to not have the strength then either I’m claiming God isn’t able to make me strong enough or I’m focused in the wrong area.  Neither of those are good conclusions.

Paul has that moment.  Paul is frustrated and he throws up his hands.  But God refocuses Paul and gives him a second chance to continue his work.  Once Paul remembers where his authority and power come from, we can see that Paul stays for another 18 months in Corinth and has a wonderful ministry there.

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Year 4, Day 239: Acts 6

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.

As I started to type this post, the song “Burning in My Soul” by Matt Maher came over my computer.  I can’t help but marvel at the timing.  The first words of this song are these: “There is power - power here in this hour, this hour.  We’re all together - together waiting here as one.”  I have no doubt that as Matt Maher composed this song that he thought of these first few chapters of Acts.

What do we see as Stephen comes on the scene?  This man rises up out of nowhere and is filled with power for teaching and preaching.  People who have been trained in Judaism cannot stand against his wisdom.  The Holy Spirit works through him to empower his teaching.  God gives Stephen the words to say.

Let’s get something straight, though.  So often we think of this story of Stephen as a victory.  We hear that the people could not stand against his wisdom and think he won.  And from a spiritual perspective he absolutely did win.  But as we’ll see in the next chapter he is dragged before the Sanhedrin and killed.  We typically think of this story as a glorious story where Stephen got the last word and got it with profound emphasis.  But that’s just not true.  Stephen spoke in truth and the Sanhedrin eventually killed him.

When we talk about power, this is an important dynamic to remember.  Power does not always equate to victory.  Power does not always equate to people having no rebuttal.  Power does not always equate to getting the last word.  Power equates to being able to speak truth in the midst of persecution.  Power means being able to speak truth and sometimes die for it.  That’s the power that comes only from the King.

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Year 4, Day 237: Acts 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Authority, Power

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
• 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.

When we look at Acts 4, we really do see an empowered Peter and John in the scriptures.  Don’t forget, these are the same people who weeks before – perhaps months at the most – had sentenced Jesus to be crucified.  Peter and John had every reason to be afraid when they are brought before the Sanhedrin.  They had every reason to expect that their life might come to the same unfortunate ending as Jesus’ life.  Of course, they would have every reason to also believe God would resurrect them at Jesus’ return, too.

In spite of whatever fear they might have had, Peter and John speak without fear.  They speak with the authority of God.  They speak the boldness of truth.  There is power in their words!

How do we know that there is power in their words?  They are let off with a warning because the name of God is being praised.  God is glorified, and because God is glorified the Sanhedrin cannot touch Peter and John.  The power in their speech reaches into the people in a deep and meaningful way.

Furthermore, look at the way that the community responds.  The persecution of the Sanhedrin only serves to bind the Christian community closer together.  The believers continue to gather together.  They continue to draw upon God and each other for strength.  They continue to display God’s ways through themselves!  The authority and power through which Peter and John speak only serves to bring God’s people closer together.

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Year 4, Day 236: Acts 3

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.

What happens when we recognize that God is indeed the king of the universe?  When God is king of our life, we gain His authority.  When we gain His authority, we gain His power.  But this doesn’t mean that that we will have our way with the world.  We have the power to bring about the kingdom of God.  But we do not have the power to force people to recognize it.

Look here at Peter and John.  These were two of Jesus’ closest disciples.  They are filled with the power of God.  The lame walk.  A miracle is performed.  It seems like a glorious day.  For Peter, John, the lame man, and a few others I’m sure that it is!

However, we’ll also get to look at the reaction of the people – and we’ll get an especially close look tomorrow.  But today we hear how the people were filled.  But with what were they filled?  They were filled with awe and wonder and amazement.  But when we look at Peter’s reaction we can tell that they weren’t inherently filled with belief.

When they gather around Peter, he begins to talk to them about their need for repentance.  He tells them about their need to put their trust in God and believe in Jesus the Messiah.  Peter chastises them, proclaiming faith boldly.  We would imagine that the power of God would lead to greatness and faith.  But that is not always so – especially in the masses.  As we shall see all throughout Acts, the power of God actually leads to proclamation of the need for repentance and the rejection of the world.

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Year 4, Day 229: Luke 20

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Authority, Power

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
• 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.

What a great chapter about what is at the root of the human experience.  Control.  What a dirty little word that operates behind the scenes of almost everything we do.  Control is highly tied to the concept of authority.  So let’s look how we see what we can learn about the idea of authority in this chapter:

• When Jesus teaches about the baptism of John, Jesus uses the Pharisees desire for control to illustrate their hearts.  Because they wish to remain in control, Jesus can force the Pharisees to not take a stand.  They want to be in control, so they do not take a position.  Jesus has authority over them.
• In the parable of the vineyard, we hear a similar theme.  The tenants dispossess everything that the master of the land sends their way.  They want control of the land.  However, Jesus shows authority over them by teaching them that the desire for control puts them at odds with the master.  When we try to be in control of our life, we are trying to wrestle away God’s authority instead of accepting and submitting to His authority.
• With regard to taxes, Jesus speaks authoritatively into the crowd and religious leaders.  Who likes paying taxes, right?  But when we realize that everything is God’s and nothing is ours, taxes aren’t actually all that worth getting upset over.  If I get 100% of something I don’t deserve, why am I upset about having to give away a smaller portion of it?  Jesus demonstrates authority by removing our desire for control completely.
• With respect to the afterlife, we hear the Sadducees want to focus Jesus on the experience they desire.  The Sadducees want control over the concept of eternal life.  Jesus speaks authoritatively into their question by reminding them that eternal life is something over which God has authority, not us.

Again and again in this chapter we see Jesus confront the concept of control through the lens of authority.  We like to have control over everything; Jesus reminds us that we are better of seeking the authority that comes from the King.

What’s neat in this chapter is how we see the connection between authority and power.  Because Jesus lives out of the authority granted to Him by the King instead of desiring His own control, He also is able to have power over those who would desire to entrap Him.  But His power doesn’t come from His great humanity.  His power comes from the authority granted to Him by the King.

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Year 4, Day 202: Joshua 17

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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Year 4, Day 192: Joshua 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Authority, Power

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
• 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.

Although this chapter is predominantly known for Achan and his sinfulness, I’m going to instead focus on Joshua in this post.  If you want to read more in depth on Achan, see the theological commentary linked to above.

Let’s compare the battle plan from Joshua 6 and Joshua 7.  In Joshua 6, the plan comes from the Lord.  We saw how the people paused and abided in the Lord before attacking.  They took the time necessary to make sure that they were doing the will of the King.  They took time to make sure they had the power and authority from God to conquer Jericho.

However, in the opening verses of Joshua 7 we don’t even hear about God and His involvement.  In fact, the first mention we have of God’s involvement is after things go tragically wrong, people are dead, and Joshua tears his clothing.  Because of the success at Jericho, Joshua becomes overconfident and the plan becomes His own plan.  He doesn’t pause and make sure that he is living out of the authority of God.  He doesn’t stop and make sure that his warriors are taking the battlefield under the power of God.

The soldiers are routed.  They are sent packing.  Only then does Joshua remember what he’s forgotten.  He forgot to check with the Lord and ensure that he is living out of His power and authority!

This is a really neat lesson.  We know that God’s overarching plan is that the Hebrew people should conquer Canaan and take it for their own.  But that doesn’t mean Joshua has carte blanche to do it as he sees fit.  God is willing to step back from endorsing the smaller steps of His plan while still seeing the big picture.  If we walk away from God and start living out of our own power and authority we should expect God to step back and give us the space to fail until we come back to Him.  After all, God has all the time in the world; He’s not on any particular agenda!  It is up to us to remember to walk in God’s power and authority.

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