Josh. 1-3
Once again, God gives a command (not a pep talk) to be strong and courageous and not to fear. So it seems God commands us not to fear. Fear is a lack of trust in God, so this, to me, is the same as commanding us to trust Him. This makes sense, since it is a lack of trust in God that directly leads us to sin (taking things into our own hands). Taking that one step further, lacking trust in God is the sin. The actions we take as a result are simply the manifestation of the sin.
Maybe we are like Eve, taking the fruit in the garden because we doubt God’s word to us and think He is holding out on us. Or perhaps we are like Abram and Sarai, trying to fulfill God’s promise to them by their own means – through Hagar. Or even like David, taking Bathsheba as his own because we do not trust that God provides all we need and thus should not “want” for anything else. It all boils down to a breakdown of trust in God. So let’s be strong and courageous and not be frightened or dismayed, for God is with us wherever we go (Josh 1:9).
I love Rahab’s response here – it is the salvation story! She heard about God and that He had given the land in which she lived to the Israelites. First, she chose to believe what she heard. Second, she chose to acknowledge the truth of it and not question whether it would come to pass. Then she acted on her belief – she let the truth change her behavior – and she was saved by her faith in action. And so it is with us and our salvation. We know what God has done, choose to believe it and acknowledge it as the Truth, and allow that Truth to change us.
Luke 9:1-17
We have started watching season 3 of “The Chosen” (a television style production of the life of Jesus – quite good!). The episode we watched a couple nights ago covered this section in the first few verses of Luke 9, where Jesus sent His apostles out by twos to minister. It was interesting how they portrayed it. This was a rag-tag group of fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, and others – not a group of trained scholars. They were afraid, lacked confidence, and were uncertain. They were all the things I imagine I would have been in their position. But they went.
I never really thought about it before – the magnitude of the task on which He sent them. They were given authority to heal and cast out demons, and the responsibility to proclaim the Kingdom of God as they had learned it from Him. Their mission required the faith of taking no provision for themselves but relying on God through others to provide and care for them, and to face the danger from those who might not be receptive of their message. They did not know what to expect, but they went and allowed God to work through them. And after their return, they questioned how they were going to feed that group of 5000…..do we never learn??