9/10/2009 9:27 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: A Discouraged Leader Parts 1-2
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Joshua 7:6-9
Message of the verses: “6 ¶ Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to
the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, both he and
the elders of Israel;
and they put dust on their heads. 7 Joshua said, "Alas, O Lord GOD, why
did You ever bring this people over the Jordan, only to deliver us into the
hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? If only we had been willing to dwell
beyond the Jordan!
8 “O Lord, what can I say since Israel
has turned their back before their enemies? 9 “For the Canaanites and all the
inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off
our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?’”
There are
two parts to this SD, the first is “remorse,” and the second is
“reproach.” This is the outline and the
way Warren Wiersbe has it written is “Be Strong” his commentary on Joshua.
As for the
first part, the remorse, Joshua did fall on his face before the Lord, after
tearing his clothes, which was something that the children of Israel did when
sin or something bad happened to them. I
believe that Job did the same thing so it may have been a middle Eastern
custom. At any rate Joshua was there
before the ark this entire day in remorse and praying to the Lord. It must be remembered that the ark was where
the presence of the Lord was at this time and if the presence of the Lord were
not in the ark then it would have only been a box of wood and gold.
Perhaps if
Joshua had come to the presence of the Lord before the battle he would not be
in this position after it.
As far as
the reproach section is concerned in the prayer that Joshua prays he seems to
be blaming the Lord for the defeat and says something like some of the children
of Israel
were saying when things happened to them on route to the Promised Land. Joshua did not want to return to Israel, just to the other side of the Jordan River and stay there, but this was not the plan
that the Lord had for them, and it was because of sin that they were where they
are now. Warren Wiersbe writes “God
sometimes permits us to experience humiliating defeats in order to test our
faith and reveal to us what’s really going on in our hearts. What life does to us depends on what life
finds in us, and we don’t always know the condition of our own hearts. (Jeremiah 17:9) ‘The heart is more deceitful
than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?’”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: There have been some seemingly bad things
happening to my family in the last few years, from the loosing of our life
savings to the horrible surgery that happened to Sandy, and there are times
when I am not sure as to why these things happened, whether it was sin on our
part like what happened to Israel, or if it was just the natural cause of
living in a cursed world. One thing that
I am certain of is that God is in complete control and will cause these things
to work out for good as Romans 8:28 promises, and while we are going through
these difficult times my prayer is that we will draw closer to the Lord and
praise Him even for the difficult time in or lives for they are the spiritual
fertilizer that makes us grow.
My Steps of Faith for
Today:
- Put on my spiritual armor for the battle today.
- Give myself to the Lord for worship and service.
- Continue to learn contentment.
- Seek the Lord to guide my path today.
- Remember that “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
9/10/2009 10:18 AM
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