CHAPTER FOUR-DON'T ASK, DON'T SUCCEED

the dust from the dry bed of the Jordan River was still on their sandals.  Their ears were still ringing from the trumpet blast at Jericho and they still felt the agony of defeat from Ai. When down the road came the men of Gibeon. 

A tricky bunch these were.  Not much for fighting but plenty good at furtiveness.  Not skilled in soldiering but talented in shiftiness.  They were poor in combat but strong in craftiness.  “We can’t whip this bunch”, they said, “So we will have to outsmart them”. 

They put on old cloths, old shoes, took molded bread and worn out wine skins.  To the casual observer they looked as if they had traveled for many miles and for a very long time.  They came to Joshua and The Children of Israel and requested a treaty. 

You will recall that treaties were not a part of God’s plan for the Promised Land. God said wipe them all out. Take out the sinfulness of the land.  Don’t accept them into your society.  Don’t allow them to be a part of your lives.  So, this should have been an open and shut case….but it didn’t exactly turn out that way.

Joshua and his people actually thought something might be up.  They questioned these dusty, crusty, pilgrims.  They presented a lot of “what if’s”.  But left out one tiny little detail in their interrogation, they forgot to talk to God about it.

A simple prayer, going to the Father and asking directions would have been all it would have taken to get to the bottom of this dilemma.    You remember that God had a specific, detailed plan for this group of would-be warriors.  Without a doubt, it was God’s way or the highway.  One would think that going to Him would have been the first thing that would have crossed their minds.  But it wasn’t. 

So they made a treaty with the Gibeonites.  And later, when they did learn the truth, it was too late to change.

Wow, aren’t we cut from the same cloth?  It is just as easy for us to go to God with our problems and concerns and questions as it was for Joshua.  I heard a song not long ago by the Collingsworth Family, entitled “If it matters to you, it matters to the Master”.  It reminds us that the things that are important in our lives are of concern to God and He will help us figure it out.

He has a plan for us.  He has a marked out map. He has a planned proposal.   If we follow His plan, He will bless us and lead us.  But if we deviate from that design, He is gentleman enough; He loves us enough, to let us make our own choices. 

I am reminded of the wise council of a little old lady who ran a filling station near our home in North Chilton.  My Dad stopped in there one day to buy gas for his truck.  He apparently seemed down and the little lady picked up on his state of mind.  She asked what was making him so glum and he told her of the bad day that he was having. 

“Sometimes”, she said, “God just lets us go our own way and make our own choices so we can see what a mess our lives would be without Him.”

If Joshua would have talked to this little lady, he may have been a lot quicker about asking for instructions.  Because by allowing this group of people into their ranks they allowed ideas, and ways of life and strange gods that were foreign and adverse to the way God was trying to fashion them.  They polluted the waters of God’s holiness. 

I really don’t have to ask, but I will.  Do you have questions that arise in your life?  Of course you do.  Will you learn a lesson from Joshua about talking to God first?

 When I had an office and a desk, I had a little saying put on a sign that sat on my desk.  It simply said “HAVE YOU PRAYED ABOUT IT?”  I bet Joshua wished a thousand times that he had a sign like that to remind him. 

CHAPTER THREE-AI

I guess you could say that the Children of Israel were feeling pretty cocky.  The walls of the great city of Jericho fell as flat as one of my wife’s cakes.  Without firing a shot, Joshua and his men of war strolled right into the city of Jericho, over the rubble that use to be the walls and conquered the first obstacle in their way to the possession of the Promised Land.

There must have been a great party.  They were ready to “kick some tail and take some names”.  How could anyone stand against this mighty war machine? 

The next city that stood in their way was the tiny little city of Ai.  Compared to Jericho it wasn’t much of a city at all. “Piece of cake. No problem. Easy piessy”. 

But Joshua had learned from Moses his predecessor and sent spies to the city to reconnoiter.  Their report?  Don’t bother everyone with this little task.  We can take this city in our sleep.   This is a done deal.  And Joshua listened to them and acted accordingly.

So at the given day, he sent about 3000 warriors to wipe out this little city and gain another notch on his gun.  But the report that came back from the battle field was “Houston, we have a problem”. 

The men of Ai ran the 3000 men away and protected their city.  They killed 36 of Joshua’s men and caused panic and fear in the hearts of the Children of Israel. 

Joshua freaked out.  The people freaked out.  Joshua turned back to the things he had heard the people say when they had first left Egypt.  “Why did you bring us here God?  Did we have to come this far just to die in the desert? 

But God quickly showed Joshua the problems that kept him from taking the little city.

1.  PROBLEM NUMBER ONE: Israel had sinned.  Well, the whole nation really didn’t have anything to do with it but one guy (named Achan) had taken some of the spoil of Jericho and hid it in his tent.  The problem was that all the spoil was supposed to belong to God. By taking it Achan had robbed God.  Achan had sinned and his sin had brought on problems for his nation and his people.  Achan had placed a curse on the entire camp and the entire nation of Israel.

If Israel ever expected to be a success, if they ever expected to have victory, if they ever expected to live like God intended, the sin would have to be removed and the act of sin pardoned. 

If we had a good old time gospel preacher, he would make the point here that God will not accept sin in the lives of His people.  How can the God who hates sin in sinners accept it and condone it in the lives of the people who call themselves His children?  He didn’t back in the days of Joshua and He doesn’t today.

Sin must be removed from our lives if we expect to live successfully and please God.  Period.  We cannot continue sinning and expect to be what God wants us to be. We cannot continue holding on to our sin with one hand and holding on to our salvation with the other. God did not allow sin in the camp of the Israelites, God will not allow sin in His heaven and God will not allow sin in the lives of Christians. 

Sin must be removed and forgiven.  In churchy terms that’s called repentance and forgiveness. 

2. PROBLEM NUMBER TWO:  The Children of Israel gave less than one hundred percent commitment. Don’t go to a lot of trouble Joshua.  Don’t sweat the small stuff.  Just commit a few men.  Just make a token effort.  God did not accept that kind of commitment then and He won’t accept it now.

If we had a good old time holiness preacher, he would point out that there comes a time in the lives of each Christian when he must commit his whole being, (mind, soul, body, spirit) to God.  Total surrender.  Total commitment.  Not holding anything back.  “It’s yours God.  It’s yours to make clean, it yours to make holy, it yours to use as you see fit”. Made clean and set aside and fit for the Master’s use.  Not made clean and set aside to be pretty and useless.  But set aside for “use”.  When God cleans you up, He cleans you up to be useful for His kingdom.

That old time holiness preacher would call that “Sanctification”. 

So, the Children of Israel got shed of the sin. Achan paid the ultimate price for his sin.  Even Achan’s family paid the ultimate price for his sin.  A good sidebar here would be to say that your sins don’t just affect you.  Your sins have an effect on those you love as well. 

Joshua made a total commitment of his resources.  God gave the plan.  God gave the victory.  The city of Ai fell.

It worked for Joshua.  It will work for you.

 

TIME IN THE GARDEN

No, this is not going to be another one of my stories about planting peas, or lining up rows or gathering tomatoes from my garden.  It seems, looking back at some of the stuff I have written, that I do a lot of writing and story telling about my garden.  But this is another "garden" story.  This is the story that many of you know very well.  It is the story of the Garden of Gethsemane. I guess with the Easter season quickly approaching, this story is appropriate.

Often, when we talk about the Garden of Gethsemane we focus on Jesus and His agony and struggles there.  There are many lessons we an learn by looking at the things said and done there. I think this is one of, if not "the" most decisive moments in the life of Jesus.

I know the cross was awful.  I know the tragedy of the shameful, painful, death that He took for us.  But I believe that Gethsemane prepared Jesus for Golgotha. There is a lesson there that I hadn't even thought about mentioning. 

You and I will face our Golgotha in our lives.  We will come to that awful, tragic, difficult, time, that to us will seem unsurpassable.  But if we will learn a lesson from Jesus, if we will learn to spend time in Gethsemane first, then we will have the strength and determination to face our Golgotha. Jesus led us to Gethsemane so we could see where our strength came from.  Time with the Father, time to get our priorities right, time to die out to self, is time we need before we face the fire. 

But that wasn't the point I wanted to make. 

I want us to look at the disciples and learn a lesson from them. Here in the garden we see the response of Jesus and learn about who He is but we also see the response of the disciples and who they are.

After the time in the upper room, Jesus took all of His disciples (except Judas) to the garden where He often went.  As they arrived at one point in the garden He left some of His disciples there.  Then He asked Peter, James and John to follow Him, to go with Him even further into the garden. He expressed to these three closest friends that He was troubled, He needed friends, He needed their help.  “Will you watch (will you help me) and pray with me?”  

Just this week I’ve spotted something about this request from Jesus.  Notice that Jesus didn’t ask them to do something supernatural.  He didn’t ask them to do something that would require a miracle.  Oh, He had asked those things before if you will remember.  He asked them to feed 5000 from a sack lunch.  He asked Peter to pay their taxes when he had no money by looking for money in a fish's mouth.  He asked Peter to step out of the boat and walk on the water.  Miraculous things, things that could only be done with God's help.  But this time Jesus didn't do that.  That is not what He needed from them. 

Because you understand, Jesus didn't need miracles that night.  There is an old song that says "He could have called 10,000 angles".  Miracles would not have been hard for Him.  But tonight He simply asked them to watch, to stay, to help and to pray with Him.

Folks, sometimes in your life God might actually ask you to perform a miracle. There may be a time when you are called on to do something that only a God anointed man/ woman can do.  But I believe that would be the exception instead of the common rule.   

That night Jesus needed His friends and His followers to do nothing more than faithfully stay and pray with Him and they failed Him, totally and completely.

How awful of them.  How could they do such a thing?  How could they put their comfort, their rest, their pleasure before the thing that Jesus needed? 

I don't have to say it do I?  Before you go and point a finger at these disciples consider how long you have prayed this week. Consider how long you have waited, how much time you have spent with Jesus. 

I can’t blame the disciples.  If I would have been there I probably would have gone to sleep long before they did.  I might have filled my belly and taken a nap right there at the table in the upper room.  I may have “begged out” of going to the garden completely.  “Jesus you know I have to go to work in the morning”. 

Folks, at that time in His life, Jesus needed “friends”.  He needs friends at this time in our lives as well.  How much time are you willing to give this week for Him?  How much sleep are you willing to lose this week in order to pray for your lost children?  Will you pray “one hour”. 

Another point I want to show you in this story is found in Matthew 26:41.  Look at what Jesus told the disciples.  “Watch and pray that YOU don’t enter into temptation”.

Who would be the beneficiary, who would benefit from the disciple’s prayer?  The disciples themselves. And who will benefit from the time you spend with Jesus this week?  You will.   

I hope you will consider these points.  I hope you will see that you and I need to spend more time in the garden. 

TEACHABLE MOMENTS

 Many of you reading this are parents.  Many of us have raised our children and have done our best to teach them the important “life lessons” that they needed to become good, Godly, honorable individuals.  However, do you realize that much of the teaching that we provided for our children was not done in a structured, deliberate setting.  Most of it was done in an “unplanned” spur of the moment fashion.  In other words, we simply went about our daily life and when a “teachable moment” occurred, we recognized it and utilized it to drive home a point.

Sometimes we may have initiated a “moment” in order to teach a lesson.  That’s possible.  But as a general rule our teachable moments came unannounced and unplanned. 

Example:  A school teacher was going about her normal daily lesson plan when one of her students asked the teacher “Mrs. Smith, why did we have Veteran’s Day off from school yesterday”.  The teacher used this “unplanned” opportunity, the unexpected question from her young student to discuss with the class about the sacrifices that our men made for our country in past wars that.  They spent an extra 20 minutes in class that morning, discussing people they knew in their community who had served in the military and what that meant to them as students and as citizens of this country.

It may have been in a time of tragedy.  It may have been in one of the hardest times in your life.  It may have been when you were under a lot of pressure or a time when you just didn’t know what to do.  But I bet you that God has used “teachable moments” in your life to instruct you in your own life lessons.

I want to give you an example and while I am sharing mine, try to remember a time in your life when God taught you something in a teachable moment.

My example:  I’ve shared with you a time that I can remember so well, when my Dad spoke harshly to one of our neighbors because he was drunk and ran over two of our dogs and killed them.  Afterwards, Dad felt badly about it and before he went to bed that night he put me in the car with him and drove over to the man’s house and apologized to him.  I really didn’t understand it then, as a young boy, but as I got older I realized that he was using this situation, as uncomfortable as it was for him, as a “teachable moment” for me.

 

Jesus did this so well. I believe because Jesus was the ultimate TEACHER that His lessons were planned but there may also have been some of those spur of the moment lessons that He used just because He was always noticing and aware of what people said and felt.

Consider the Passover meal, or what we call, "The Last Supper".  You, no doubt, have seen the image or a copy of the image painted by LEONARDO de VINCI entitled “The Last Supper”.  We all know what the setting is regarding this painting.  But do you realize what Jesus was doing here, I mean besides having a last meal with His disciples before His crucifixion? Let’s see if we can pull out of this lesson exactly wheat Jesus was trying to get across with this “teachable moment”.

The Passover recalls the night in Egypt that would result in God’s people being set free from slavery.  Moses had been called out of the desert to return to Egypt and lead God’s people out of bondage and into the land promised to them by God Himself.  He had, over and over again, called for Pharaoh to let the people go.  But even though God sent plague after plague on the Egyptians, Pharaoh refused to let them go. 

So at God’s command, the Hebrews gathered inside their homes and ate the last supper, the last meal they were to ever eat in Egypt, the land of slavery.  Their homes were marked by the blood of an innocent, sacrificial lamb.  It identified them as God’s people and the death angle “passed over” them.

All the first born of the Egyptians died but those covered by the blood were spared.  As a result, the Hebrews were set free from their bondage.  That is what the Passover meal represents to all Hebrews or Jews.  It declares God’s fulfillment of His promise to His people to free them from slavery and deliver them to the “promised land”. 

Many years later, using the celebration of this event as a teachable moment, Jesus helped His disciples, (and us) understand how His blood was about to free us from the penalty of sin.  Jesus would be the sacrificial lamb.  His blood would save and protect us and His life would be given for us all.  He would give Himself to set us free. 

Sometimes we don’t see that when we read the story or see the picture.  Jesus was eating and spending time with His disciples but He was always TEACHING.  He recognized those teachable moments.

 
I wish I knew more about the traditional meal that they ate.  Some of you may know what the meal consisted of.  I’ve heard that some people know the components of the meal and actually serve a meal like it at the time of communion as people sit around a table.  But we do know that the meal involved bread and wine. 

During this meal Jesus “renamed” the bread and wine and using this as a teachable moment He helped His disciples and us to remember that from then on the bread represented His body that was broken for us and the wine represented His blood that was spilled out for us.  They were common features of the Passover meal, but Jesus transformed them into signs, everlasting signs of something much more.  He transformed them into a new covenant of grace and salvation.

 
Let’s look at another aspect of this gathering.  While seated around the table with His disciples Jesus announced that one of these men would betray Him.  The man who was actually going to “cause” Jesus harm, suffering and death, had his hand on the table with Jesus. 
 

This teaches us how Jesus deals with those who disobey Him and try to hurt Him.  The “gift of grace” was not just for the good guys.  It was not just for those who willingly accepted it and followed Him.  The gift that Jesus offered was for “everyone”, even those who were against Him.   

I think I mentioned this in another lesson.  But when God called Abraham to leave his country and go to another country that God would give him.  Abraham was not even a believer.  He served pagan gods.  He had never prayed to God or accepted Him as his god.  But God showed grace on Abraham.  Jesus offered that same grace to Judas that night around the table.  AND HE OFFERS THAT SAME GRACE TO ALL OF US.  I am so glad and grateful for the wonderful GRACE of God.  Wow, if that don’t touch you and teach you, I don’t know what will.

 I have also mentioned that we learn from our troubles.  I think it helps me understand hard times a little better to realize that through these problems and hard times and temptations we face, God is trying to teach me something.  He is pulling out a teachable moment from all of this.  He is using our daily life to instruct us in the real “life lessons” He has for us.  Does that make sense to you?  Does that help you feel a little differently about what you are facing now?

Let me illustrate it this way.  Suppose you have gone to the clothing store and bought you a nice jacket or coat.  It is a very nice article of clothing.  It is made well and will serve you for a very long time.  When you get home and walk inside where it is nice and warm, you take off that coat and what do you do with it?  You simply throw it on the floor, right? 

No, you find a nice hanger, hook, peg or whatever to hang that coat on so it will be safe and taken care of.  Do you see how God uses these “teachable moments” to teach us a lesson?  He takes things that we can remember, sickness, physical ailments, problems, conflicts and uses them as a peg or hook, and on that hook He hangs the lesson He wants you to remember.

If Jesus could use His own death to teach His disciples, how much more can He use the things that happen in our lives?  Imagine how He must have felt that night, imagine what kind of stuff was running through His mind.  Sure He was God but He was also man and had all the thoughts and concerns that men have.  He was concerned about the pain of crucifixion.  He was worried that His loved ones, would His disciples be harmed?  Surely it went through His mind all sorts of “what ifs”.  But in the middle of all those thoughts and concerns that He was facing, He wanted to teach them a lesson.  Can’t He use the little things that we face to teach us how to become more like Him?

 
I don’t know how you learn.  Sometimes I don’t learn like I am supposed to.  I have sat in well planned classes, in well prepared settings and listened to very knowledgeable speakers present truths to me.  But I left there and just didn’t’ get it. 

Sometimes I will teach a class and think, “Wow, the class will really get this point I’m trying to make. This will just blow them away.  They will leave the class shouting and singing”.  But you know what happens don’t you?  You will walk away and in your mind you are saying, “ I’m sure glad that’s over with”. 
 

I probably do the same thing to God.  He will put something out there and insert it into my life and KNOW that it is a lesson I need to learn.  But what do I do?  I walk away thinking, “Why did this happen to me?  Why do I have to face this?  Why do I have to go through that”?  And I don’t learn the lesson.

 No doubt, the disciples didn’t get it that Passover night.  I imagine they left there with their bellies full but their minds empty.  Their thoughts were 100 miles away from what Jesus was teaching.  I can’t imagine how that hurt Him.  I can’t imagine how badly I hurt Him when I don’t learn as I should, when I don’t pay attention like I should, and I don’t get it. 

But God if anything is gracious.  The Word calls Him “long-suffering”.  To me this means that He will be gracious to us for a long time.  He will do His best to teach us the lessons He wants us to learn.  I like that in a teacher.  I am glad we don’t have a teacher who will just throw the lesson out there and expect us to learn it or not.  I have heard instructors say “It is my job to present the information; it is their job to learn it.  I make the same amount of money if they pass or fail”. 

To me, that’s not a good instructor or teacher.  Their goals are selfish.  They are there for their own benefits not to teach the students.  Our God is not that way.  He wants us to learn.  Our God will use each of those daily “teachable moments” to touch our hearts and make us better people. 

Look for those moments this week.  When something has you puzzled or confused or beat down, stop and see what God is trying to teach you.  You might just find yourself right in the middle of an eternal “teachable moment”.