CHAPTER TWO-JERICHO-FOLLOWING THE SCRIPT

To say the least, the plan God had for the Children of Israel, the way He wanted them to accomplish this task of occupying Canaan was vastly different than they could have ever imagined.  I heard a little joke a few years ago that went like this:

Little Johnny went to Sunday school for his first time.  His parents were concerned as to how he would like it and when he returned home they questioned him about his first experience with Bible stories.

“What did you learn today at Sunday school Johnny”?  His parents asked.

“Well”, Johnny said, “We learned about Moses and the Children of Israel”.

“Tell us the story Johnny.  We want to hear it”.  His parents were so proud of little Johnny.

“Ok”.  Johnny said. “You see there was this general named Moses and he had a big army and they needed to get across the Red Sea. There was a mean general named Pharaoh who was trying to stop them.  He chased them all the way to the edge of the Red Sea. General Moses built a pontoon bridge and his men crossed over the sea with their tanks and trucks and jeeps. When general Pharaoh tried to follow him with his tanks and trucks and jeeps, Moses called in an air strike and bombed the bridge and killed all of Pharaoh’s men and Moses and his army got away”. 

Surprised by Johnny’s slight exaggeration of the story, his mom asked, “Johnny, are you sure that’s the way your teacher told the story”? 

“Oh no, mom that’s not the way she told it but if I told it like she told it you would never believe it”. 

I think that’s about the way Joshua must have felt when God passed on the instructions for taking Jericho.  No doubt Joshua had heard stories of armies building ramps against a walled city.  Perhaps he had heard how armies had put cities under siege and starved them out.  Perhaps he expected to make a full frontal attack against the city with God’s help.  But instead of all these tactics God gave him this plan.

You and your army will march around the city. Do it once a day for six days.  But on the seventh day you will march around seven times and the priest will carry the ark and they will carry trumpets and when they blow the trumpet everyone will yell and the walls will fall.  Can't you just hear Joshua saying “Are you sure that’s the way this story goes”? 

Warriors don’t just wonder around a city.

Heroes don’t holler.

Trumpets aren’t used as trajectories of war.

I can imagine that Joshua caught a lot of flak from his generals. I imagine there were a lot of alternative ideas presented. “Wait God, don’t you think this is a better way”? 

I could have learned my battle techniques from these guys.  I bet you could have been on this team as well.  When God gives us instructions as to how to accomplish certain task our first act of obedience is usually to try and convince Him that our way is better.   

“God, surely you must be mistaken about this.  Surely, you must not mean to do things like this”. 

I’m good at questioning God.  Let me give you an example.

Just this morning I was walking just after sun up.  My wife and little dog were still sound asleep.  The sun was up but the land was quiet and still.  I enjoyed the early February morning and walked around the 30 acres that God has so graciously given us.  Our land is bordered by the interstate highway and as I passed it on that part of my stroll, I noticed a large F-250 truck driving down the interstate.  It was “tweaked out”.  It had all “the bells and whistles”.  It was pulling a large trailer with two campers on the back.  I imagined that this man had bought the campers and was going to sell them for a nice profit.   

The thought came to my mind.  “If God would just allow me to have a little extra money I could do stuff like that. I could buy a few old cars and fix them up and sell them.  I perhaps could buy an old house and fix it up and rent it for some extra retirement money.  I wouldn’t have to save up for everything I wanted. God, I wouldn’t have to beg You to give me the stuff I think I need”.   

Just about as quickly as these thoughts hit my mind, I realized that I was trying to be the God in my life.  I realized how wrong my thinking was and that there is only one God and it ain’t me.  I was committing the sin that Adam and Eve committed way back in the garden years ago.  They were trying to have a better idea than God Himself.  They were trying to write their own script. They were trying to be God in God’s place.  It didn’t take me long to realize how selfish and unthankful I was and ask God to forgive me of that.

I bet it didn’t take Joshua long to convince his warriors that there was only one position for God in his army and it wasn’t going to be filled by any of his men.  If they were going to fight in God’s army they were going to have to follow God’s script.  There was no place for freelancing in God’s army.   

That is a lesson we must learn.  We must see our “ideas” as nothing more than rebellion, the sin of rebellion and relinquish them to God.  He knows the way. He knows how to fight our battles. He knows what lies in the road ahead of us.  We don’t.   

I don’t know what God is leading you to or through today.  But I know this.  If you are to be successful in your life, if you are to make it into your Canaan, you are going to have to follow His script to the “T”. 

 

 

CHAPTER ONE-STANDING STONES

I am not about to tell you the whole story.  I am guessing, I am hoping that you already know the story.  If you don’t then you need to be reading the book of Exodus from the Bible and not this stuff that I am writing.  But just to catch you up, just to give you the CliffsNotes, I’ll run over some of it.

The Children of Israel were slaves in Egypt.  They had been there for a goodly while and were suffering under the task master’s whips.  They cried out to God to deliver them and God sent a fellow named Moses. 

You see, while Moses was tending sheep on the “backside of the desert” God set a bush on fire to get his attention. God and Moses had a real good conversation there at that bush and Moses got marching orders to precede back to Egypt to Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, with God’s message, “Let my people go”!

Well it took some time and a dozen or so miracles from God but old Pharaoh finally got the message and turned the Children of Israel free.  They headed out on their march to Canaan, the Promised Land.  But that didn’t go so well.  Disobedience, rebellion and bull-headedness got those folks into a mess of trouble.  So much so, that they ended up wondering around in the desert for 40 years. 

Moses died without even entering into the “promised land”.  A fellow named Joshua took over the reins of this nation of pilgrims and by listening to God’s plan and obeying that plan made preparations to cross the Jordan River so that the Israelites could possess the land of Canaan.

Ok, that should catch you up to the beginning of this story.  Did I lose you?  Are you still with me?  Good.

After much preparation and going over all the rules, Joshua has the Priest who carried the Ark of the Covenant step out into the overflowing Jorden River.  Wouldn’t you know it, it dried up just like the Red Sea and that bunch of pilgrims walked across on dry land.  Cool story.

But as much good stuff as there is in this story and as much good stuff as we could talk about, I want to skip to a part that has interested me for some time now.  God told Joshua to have men, one man from each of the twelve tribes, to pick up a big rock out of the middle of the Jordan River (we know it was big because they carried it on their shoulders).  He had them carry those rocks out of the middle of the river and pile them up at the place where they stayed that first night on the Canaan side of Jordan. 

The purpose of the rocks, according to Joshua chapter four was to remind those who would see them later on what had happened in this place.  The stones were a reminder.  The stones were placed there sort of like monuments we have today. 

If we stand before the Washington monument or the Lincoln memorial or Stone Mountain in Georgia we are reminded of the men, or the events that happened there.  They represent something or someone that should be remembered by those who come behind.  

I can just imagine one of the people who crossed over on that day, maybe several years later.  Perhaps, they load up the family camel and take a vacation back to the edge of the Jordan River.  They plan on  spending some time swimming or fishing or just relaxing.  While roaming up and down the beach the children happen to come upon a pile of large rocks. 

“Hey Dad” one of them ask, “Why are all these big ole rocks standing up here”? 

“I’m so glad you asked”, the father replies.  He calls them together and sits them down and tells them the wonderful story of the crossing.

At other times and on other trips to the river, other children ask the same question and the story is told over and over again.  Each time God is glorified and people are reminded of how faithful and good God is to His people.

Now let’s get to the point of all this.  As I look at the congregations of most of our traditional churches today I see a lot of gray heads.  There may be a few children, grandchildren, one or two teens but as a general rule, the majority of our church family is composed of old folks.  Why do you suppose that is?

I believe it has a direct connection to the fact that we don’t set up “standing stones”.  We don’t establish events, times and places that are worth remembering.  Oh, the kids might remember when you went to Disney Land or Six Flags but I mean there are no spiritual standing stones that establish spiritual events. 

Has there been a time in your life when you met Jesus and accepted Him as your savior?  Has there been a time since then that He has touched your life and helped you out of a certain situation?  Of course there have.  If there has been then you should have set up a spiritual standing stone, something that will help you and those who follow you remember that event.

In some of my other writings I have mentioned the time in my life when I walked away from God.  I told God to go away and leave me alone and let me do what I wanted to do.  I messed up my life royally.  And then one day on the side of the Coosa River at a little place called Higgins Ferry I broke down and told God how badly I had messed everything up. (He already knew that.) I admitted my sins to Him and told Him I simply could not fix the problems I had caused. 

On that day, in that place Jesus spoke to me and told me that even thought I could not fix my messes He could as a matter of fact He had already fixed them over 2000 years ago and if I would follow Him, He would make my life whole again. 

I might as well have piled up stones in that place.  Because I have told that story time and time again.  Over and over I have reminded myself and anyone who would listen of the grace that God showed to me there. It is a pile of my spiritual standing stones.

There have been other times as well, I could tell of the time when His Holy Spirit came to live inside of me, I could tell you the exact place when God spoke specific words to me about my life, but I think my point has been made.  The reason our children and grandchildren don’t care anything about our church, our religion or our God is because we haven’t told them the stories.  We haven’t shared the miracles that have happened in our lives with them. They haven’t seen the grace, lived out in our lives.  They have no stones on which to base their Christian heritage. 

I remember with great pleasure and wonder, as a child, sitting in camp meeting services and hearing the anointed singing of those people.  I remember hearing “amen” and “glory to God” shouted across the congregation.  I even remember saints of God actually running the isles of the church. (Yeah, I’m that old.)  I can take you back to the places and tell you the times.  Oh, there are no literal stones there, but the memories are still there after all these years. 

What memories do your children have of your experience with God?  “Oh, my religion is a private thing”.  Well just carry on with that thought and your children and grandchildren will live their lives without ever knowing what God has done for you.  

They will never see you express emotion in a service.  They will never see a tear fall from your eye as a song blesses your heart.  They will never hear your voice crack as you cry out to your Lord.  They will never see your knee bend as you kneel at an altar of prayer.  No hands raised in worship. No joy expressed in praise to Him. If there are no stones there is no memory.

 

So my challenge to you is this; live your Christian life so that others may see, not only your good works, but that others may see how the Lord has blessed you.  Tell someone what God has done for you.  Express your joy.  Express your amazement at the work that has happened in your life.  Memory after memory, pile up those spiritual rocks as high as you can stack them.  Then, perhaps even when you and I are gone, someone will say “Hey, what happened here, why are all these big ole rocks standing here”….and the story will begin again. 

 

 

INTO CANAAN-INTRODUCTION

 It seemed like the deal of the century.  The script could have been written by the Publisher Clearing House promoters.  “Just sign up, there are millions of prizes.  It’s so easy and simple.  You can be led out of poverty and placed in a land “flowing with milk and honey””.  Who wouldn’t want to be a part of this adventure?  Who wouldn’t want to get in on this offer? 

But there was a little more to it than just getting on the bus, as Joshua and the Children of Israel would find out. 

Moving into Canaan was going to take more effort than some were ready to exert.  It would take more resolve than resources.  It was going to take trust, time and tenacity. For those who would hang on untill the mission was accomplished the promises were real but the process was going to be a real learning experience.  Because God was more concerned with how they would progress then what they would possess.  So He provided lessons every step of the way.

I had an instructor who taught like that many years ago.  I don’t know what became of her.  She may be dead now.  But this lady had a passion for teaching.  She was a registered nurse and a paramedic (RN/EMT-P).  Educated, skilled and drenched with a desire to pass on what she knew about saving lives and relieving the suffering of her fellow man. 

Not only was she my EMT instructor but she was also the Chief Medical Officer on my first emergency medical unit.  This fact provided me with hours of hands-on instruction which I am convinced made me into a much better paramedic than I could have ever been otherwise.

Her instructions went something like this:  We would be studying the different sounds of the respiratory system, the signs of a patient with various breathing maladies.  She would go over the information from the text but the next emergency call we would make, she would take my stethoscope, grab my hand and place it on the patient’s chest.  “Listen to this” she would say.  “Remember this sound.  This is what rales sound like.  Every time you hear it remember what it means”.

Or perhaps we would be treating a patient who was in shock; she would say “Do you remember the signs and symptoms of shock”?  See the pale, clammy skin?  Notice the rapid and shallow breathing.  Did you pick up on the weak and rapid pulse? This is what shock looks like.”

She taught the facts as well as the “feelings” of emergency medicine.  This is what God did as He led the Children of Israel into Canaan.

“Yes, you crossed the Jordan, but I want you to learn this”.

“Yes, you took this city but this is what I want you to know”.

“Yes, there are victories and defeats but this is why”.

So in my next few writings, I want to share a few of those lessons with you.  I don’t think I will live long enough, on this side of “my Jordan” to relate them all, but let’s look at a few of them together.  Because I am convinced that God is more concerned with making you more righteous than rich and more Holy than happy.  I believe He wants you to have more of His heart than his handouts. 

So strap on your “Sinai sneakers” and let’s take a journey with these pilgrims of promise and along the way see if we can learn a few lessons from the Lord. 

I HOPE YOU HAVE TROUBLES

I have a question for you. At what times in your life have you learned life’s most valuable lessons?  Probably it has been in hard times, in difficult times, in times of grief and despair.  

As a firefighter/ paramedic I did not learn the most valuable lessons in the comfort and safety of the classroom.  I did not learn skills that would keep me and my patients alive in the controlled environment of the training field.

I learned the important stuff, the lifesaving stuff, the valuable stuff in the fire. It was in the mangled wreckage of a vehicle, with a patient’s life hanging in the balance that I learned the skills of extrication.  It was in the choking black smoke and the intense heat of a burning house that I learned the importance of positive pressure ventilation in fighting fires. It was alone in the engine room of a sinking tugboat with water rushing in from above that I learned NOT to go into a dangerous situation by yourself or without someone knowing where you are.

These and a hundred other “skills” were learned, not from a book nor from an instructors power-point lecture but they were learned by experiencing the problems, the dangers, the fear and uncertainty of actual emergencies. Looking back now, I get that. 

 Let's see if we can apply that to our Christian life.

I don’t know this for sure, but I guarantee it has happened in my life and am pretty sure it has happened in yours.  We learn life’s most important lessons not when we are sitting in the swing, enjoying a glass of iced tea and watching the children play in the yard but when that child is sick, in the middle of the night and you don’t have any way of getting his fever down and the only thing you can do is “call out to God” for help.

Lessons are not learned from the times when all is well in your marriage and there are no bills to pay or mortgages due or cars that are broken down with no money to fix them.  Lessons, important lesson of life are learned when you are facing financial short comings and bills you can’t pay and the coffers are empty and the wallet is empty and the bank account is empty and your only option is to “call out to the Father” for help.

I don’t know about you but I have knelt at the bedside of my parents.  I have held them and watched them take their last breath here on earth.  I have gone as far as I could humanly go with them and knelt there HELPLESS with my only option being to “cry to Jesus” for strength.

You and I spend much of our time worrying about the hard times we are facing or will face.  We spend much of the time on our knees praying that God will deliver us from these unpleasant times we are going through. We spend many hours of our day fretting about “What if this happens or that happens”.

We know how we learn.  We know how we grow.  We know how we mature as Children of God yet our prayer is “God deliver us from these times”?   It’s almost like we are saying “God if this is the only way I can learn and grow and mature, just forget it.  Let me be a dumb, small and under-developed Christian”. 

One writer said it this way “By coming again and again to the limits of our own resources; by failure, defeat, disappointment and despair.  We learn to rely on God by swallowing our pride and acknowledging our humanity, and our mortality. We learn when we understand our limits.”  Like Clint Eastwood said in one of his movies “A man has to know his limitations”.

I’ve told you before, that’s hard for me.  I wasn’t brought up to accept that.  I wasn’t trained to admit that.  It is natural for us to trust in ourselves.  James Denney said it this way:  

“It is so natural, and so confirmed by the habits of a lifetime, that no ordinary difficulties or perplexities can break us of relying on our own strength. It is out of our despair that superhuman HOPE is born. It is out of helplessness that our soul learns to look up with complete trust in God.”  THAT’S GOOD STUFF. 

Peter learned this lesson the hard way.  It wasn’t reclining on the grassy hillside eating fish and bread, listening to Jesus teaching the multitudes.  It wasn’t walking beside Jesus, making footprints in the sand, along the Sea of Galilee.  It wasn’t sitting in the upper room with his fellow disciples, listening as the Lord taught about life and death, but it was in the storm that Peter learned the important life lessons he needed to live a life that glorified God.  The faith that kept Peter as he suffered and died hanging up-side-down on the cross was faith he learned in the storm.

Paul learned from frustration and failure not to rely on himself and his own strength.  Physical illness, unjust persecution, the threat of death, misunderstandings from his fellow Christians and failure of some of his work, all became part of the lesson Paul had to learn, “Rely on God and not my own strength”. 

Listen to Paul’s words from 2 Corinthians 4: 7-11:  “But we have this treasure in (earthen vessels) jars of clay, to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We have troubles on every side but are not in distress; perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made clear in our body.  For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 

 

Did Paul know hard times were coming?  Sure he did.  Did Peter know his death was eminent?  Of course?  But they realized and accepted that hard times were a part of life.  Death was a part of eternity.  Oh, that you and I could understand that.

Will we have problems?  Absolutely and I worry about that. Because I just don’t think I have had any problems yet. MY wife and I just celebrated 32 years of marriage.  As I look back I can’t think of very many “bad things” that have happened.  That makes me think, “Wow, they are all ahead of me.  Look out these next few years are going to be tough”. 

But what I should be thinking is “Wow, look at all the great stuff God has for me to learn in the next few years I have to live here.”  I don’t care how old you are or how close to death you may be, you have lessons to learn and most likely those lesson will be learned through troubles.  Your troubles will draw you closer to the TEACHER.

A pretty good writer once said, “Men are more receptive to the Savior in the storm.” 

I don’t want to discount your problems this morning.  I know you have them.  I know that to you, right now, those problems seems insurmountable.  I know that you may not see any way out.  But can I encourage you to look at them through a different lens?  Can I encourage you to understand that “Storms don’t stay”?

When I was in the Coast Guard I went through a lot of storms…literal storms.  Those storms were real and massive and terrifying but those storms have passed.  I have a hard time now even remembering them.  Your storms will pass too. 

Name your storm…go ahead, whatever it is.  Recognize it as a storm.  Accept that you can’t fix it.  Admit that it is beyond your control and then REST in the fact that your God is able to handle it AND, AND to teach you a life lesson in this storm that will make you a better follower of Christ. 

Why do we learn?  Why does God give us this understanding and knowledge?  He gives us this knowledge so we can pass it on down the line to others. It is wonderful if God teaches me all these great lessons but if I don’t pass them on I’m being pretty selfish.   

I’ve mentioned this poem before but it fits well here and I want to share it again.  It’s entitled “The Bridge Builder” and was written by Will Allen Dromgoole.
 

An old man, going a lone highway,

Came at the evening, cold and gray,

To a chasm, vast and deep and wide,

Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;

The sullen stream had no fears for him;

But he turned when safe on the other side

And built a bridge to span the tide.

 

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,

“You are wasting strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day;

You never again must pass this way;

You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide—

Why build you the bridge at the eventide?”

 

The builder lifted his old gray head:

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,

“There followeth after me today

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm that has been naught to me

To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.”

The troubles and trials that you are going through will not be easy.  They will come, Jesus said so.  He said, “In this world you will have tribulations but BE OF GOOD CHEER, I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD”.

Can I encourage you today, whatever it is that you are going through; know that it’s for a purpose. 

        ·        This trial will teach you something

·        This trial will strengthen you

·        This trial will give you a lesson to pass on

 I have developed a habit of writing blessing for my grandkids.  When a new baby is born I write a “blessing” saying what I wish for that child.  I bless some of them with certain talents.  I bless some of them with love and protection of their parents.   

I have a blessing for you this morning.  I want to bless you with trouble.  I HOPE YOU HAVE TROUBLES THIS WEEK and I hope you grow strong from it, learn from it, and pass it on to those who come behind you.