There is one more warning for us to keep in mind from our text as we live between Sundays, that is as we embrace the sanctification of the ordinary. The Lord’s intention is to purify us, right where we are, living our lives simply and faithfully.
READ 17:14-18
Then the people of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, “Why have you given me but one lot and one portion as an inheritance, although I am a numerous people, since all along the Lord has blessed me?” 15 And Joshua said to them, “If you are a numerous people, go up by yourselves to the forest, and there clear ground for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.” 16 The people of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us. Yet all the Canaanites who dwell in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth-shean and its villages and those in the Valley of Jezreel.”17 Then Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, “You are a numerous people and have great power. You shall not have one allotment only, 18 but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders. For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.”
We looked at this briefly when speaking to the fear that we contrasted to Caleb’s faith. But what we then see is a slide: Discontentment turns to fear and fear turns to distrust and distrust turns to rebellion. This is another reason why we must venture all our efforts and prayer upon the first appearance of sin…even the seeming smallest transgression does not and will not stay small. Sin desires to grow and destroy, even if at first we do not see its danger.
Verse 16 shows that the people are afraid of those who are in the land and yet if they had remembered the word of God they would have remembered Him telling them:
“You shall say in your heart, these nations out number me how shall I be able to disposses them…do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is among you, a God who is great and terrible. Little by little the Lord your God will destroy these nations before you.”
What the Lord has given is plenty for us and any grumbling that we do about our lot, too much of this, not enough of that, is the planting of a seed that can grow up and devour us and the examples of this in the Bible and in our own lives should be clear enough.
If you voice and live is discontentment then soon you will live without faith, and if you live without faith, you will soon live without hope, if you live without hope the grace and mercy of the Lord will soon be so far from you that you will have no one or nothing to trust but yourself…and that is not where we want to find ourselves!!!
Here they are amidst the blessings of God, His giving them the land and they are complaining about what they DON’T have instead of rejoicing in what they DO have. This is reminiscent of the Garden. The Lord had given Adam and Eve, literally, everything but one tree. All the rivers, mountains, trees, forests…all the beauty and life in the perfection of God’s sinless creation. Everything was theirs…except one thing and lo and behold, if that wasn’t what their eyes and hearts were drawn to demand.
Here in Joshua we find him responding by stating back to them all that God has already said. He does not try to tell them that their view of the situation is incorrect but agrees with them and simply tells them to move forward and to trust the Lord. The Lord never asks us to deny reality or to try and tell ourselves a story that things are not as they actually are. It was the same thing with the 12 spies, 10 of which discouraged the people by telling them they couldn’t go into the land because the people were big, strong and numerous. Joshua and Caleb did not disagree with them, in fact, they told the people that the report was accurate. But, they were going to trust the Lord in the face of reality!
That is life between Sundays…look to the Lord, trust Him and move forward…remember, The Lord is going to change our lives, he is making us new, but in His changing us we will be dealing with pretty much the same people, the same routines, the same temptations, the same culture pressures, the same children, the same parents as we deal with every day.
Everything will be changing and yet nothing will have changed. That is life between Sundays.
Prayer: Father, forgive my unholy yawning…living as though Your grace, mercy and love mean so little. Open my eyes to see more clearly so that I might have a great desire for holiness and to set my life to its pursuit. Holy Spirit of God, give me sight to the unseen, to the promises that a living hope make to seem seeable and touchable. Help me, that I would not be ashamed at the coming of my King and Savior, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Hymn: Miserere Mei