Saturday, March 20, 2010

Joshua 15-19

In these chapters we begin to see various tribes failing to fully displace those who had previously inhabited these cities and their surrounding regions God had now portioned to Israel. There are many lessons here for us.

One, is there any sin that lingers in our lives? Any aspect of our old lives, the life we lived before we made a vow of devotion to Jesus? Any desire, habit, pattern, attitude...that we have yet to drive out? In 2 Samuel 5:6-7, we see that decades later, the Jebusites are still a stronghold that the tribe of Judah, David's own tribe, had failed to conquer. Listen people, our unconquered sin becomes the curse of the next generation!

Too we find in these chapters a striking contrast to the story of Caleb, now 85, who conquered the region of Hebron where "the greatest man among the Anakim" lived, that would be giants if you didn't realize! So maybe you look around at others who appear to have conquered sin and problems in their lives with relative ease, and we become envious, bitter, coveting their success. If God has called us to conquer something, and He most certainly has called us to conquer sin in our lives, then it is within our grasp! He does not call us to failure but to victory! We may have fallen but we do not have to remain in defeat...drive it out, with His help, under His strength, the victory is promised!

The Israelites allowed the strength of the enemy and the surprising effort it was going to take to rout them to eclipse God's promise...don't do that, don't repeat their mistake! The promises of God should always eclipse whatever circumstances refute His promises. This what Paul was talking about when he wrote to the church of Corinth, letter 2, chapter 10...drive it out!!!!

4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Pastor Fred

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