- araratchurch
- Sep 22, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 23, 2022
“And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand; not a man of them shall stand before you.” Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon; And Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.” So the sun stood still, And the moon stopped, Till the people had revenge Upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.”
Joshua 10:8, 12-14 NKJV
I heard that in its war studies program, West Point does not study the Six Day War (June, 1967). The reason for not studying it is said to be that the war victory was so improbable, that studying it would render no understanding of the strategy leading to the victory.
Time and again the Lord has fought for His people. In fact, the Lord’s intervention in the battles fought by the Jews is ubiquitous throughout the Old Testament. But, God’s fighting for Israel did not stop in biblical times. Indeed, the above mentioned Six Day War was won against all odds when Israel faced a coalition of its Arab neighbors intent upon erasing the young country. Amazingly, not only did Israel win the Six Day War, but would come out of it with four times the land they had before they were attacked.
But this attack was nothing new. Even as the announcement of the formation of a state for Israel still hung in the airwaves (1948), they were attacked by their Arab neighbors, yet successfully fended them off.
One miraculous modern day intervention by the Lord on behalf of the state of Israel, happened during the Yom Kippur war of 1973.
Nine Jewish soldiers became surrounded by Arab forces. In their attempt to find a way to escape, they suddenly realized that they were in the middle of a minefield. The leader of the group decided that their only chance for survival was for them all to get down on hands and knees and use the end of their bayonets to try to push through the soil to find the mines. Then they would have to disarm the found bomb before going on to the next of the hundreds of mines. But, before they could accomplish this last ditch effort for survival, a strong windstorm came down upon them. Unbelievably, when it was over, massive amounts of topsoil had been removed by the wind, leaving every single mine exposed so that they could successfully navigate their way through.
In this case the Lord used the forces of nature to help His people win a battle. Now, this was not uncommon in Bible days—as we will further discuss in a moment—but it’s interesting to note that the Lord will still use, whatever He needs to use, to defend His people.
I remember that when I was a teenager there was a tornado headed straight for the wonderful little church my father had built on Defoor Avenue in Atlanta. The tornado was already leaving a path of destruction and our church was in its inevitable path. My father cried out to the Lord. Then, the tornado, as if following instructions, after having damaged a business just down the street from the church, took a large horseshoe path around our church before resuming its path of destruction in a straight line from where it had been. On that path it would even damage the Georgia governor’s mansion.
“But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?””
Matthew 8:26-27 NKJV
The disciples were astonished at the power of our Lord when they saw that the forces of nature obeyed His voice. However, we should not be surprised to know that the One Who created and controls all things can use, whatever He wants to use, including the forces of nature. And that brings us to today.
In our opening scripture we see the Lord performing a miracle of letting the Sun stand still at the word of Joshua. This miraculous phenomenon allowed Israel to completely rout the five kings of the Amorites who had come against them as they defended the Gibeonites (who we discussed yesterday).
Whatever you are facing, don’t worry about the “odds” that are against you. Put your trust in the One Who will—if need be—shake heaven and earth to help you!
For today write this in your “wilderness journal”:
Nature heeds the voice of our Creator.
- araratchurch
- Sep 22, 2022
- 3 min read
“But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they worked craftily, and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended, old and patched sandals on their feet, and old garments on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. And they went to Joshua, to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us.””
Joshua 9:3-6 NKJV
If you haven’t heard anything about viruses lately, I don’t know where you’re living. In fact, we have been living through a pandemic associated with a virus for over two years now. For our purposes today I want to share something about viruses you may not know.
Viruses can’t reproduce on their own. So, to reproduce, they take over other cells, tricking the cell into making more of the invader, becoming a virus factory!
The takeover of the cell by the virus is possible because the virus “deceives” the cell so that it can enter the cell or just inject its DNA and RNA into the cell. In this process the virus lands on a cell and attaches to a receptor. Now, receptors are proteins on the surface of cells that act like locks. Proteins on the virus’ surface are shaped just like the key to the lock, and fit into a receptor. Now the virus has access to the cell. Then, once a virus enters the cell, it can hijack the cell so that it makes more viruses. Now that’s some scary stuff! Oh that that kind of deception stopped with viruses!
We are often warned in the word of God to look out for spirits who use deception to invade us and workout their evil in us.
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.”
II Corinthians 11:13-15 NKJV
Along the same lines, Jesus warned His flock about fleece-wearing wolves.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.”
Matthew 7:15 NKJV
John warns us not to accept a spirit without testing it.
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
I John 4:1 NKJV
Indeed, you can’t always believe your eyes. And that brings us to today.
In our opening scripture for today we find that the Gibeonites, having heard of the conquests of the children of Israel, decided to deceive them into thinking that they had come from a far off place to seek their protection. Now, the Lord had warned the
children of Israel not to make treaties with the people of the lands they were to conquer. But on this day, the men of Israel chose to believe their eyes rather than asking the Lord what they should do, getting themselves into a pickle.
“Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the Lord. So Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them to let them live; and the rulers of the congregation swore to them.”
Joshua 9:14-15 NKJV
So, because Joshua and the men of Israel chose to believe their eyes rather than asking the Lord, they ended up making a treaty with people they would have to deal with for a long time.
There are many things that keep us from being able to see correctly. Therefore, on our own, we certainly can be tricked by appearances. This is why we must seek the Lord concerning EVERYTHING in our lives. He sees and knows what we do not see or know. His Spirit is never deceived. We must allow the Lord to direct us and guide us away from being tricked by our own “Gibeonites.”
You’ve heard that “all that glitters is not gold,” but I’ll add one to that for you: just because their key fits your lock, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should let them in!
For today write this in your “wilderness journal”:
Appearances can deceive.
- araratchurch
- Sep 21, 2022
- 2 min read
“And they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few.” So about three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai.”
Joshua 7:3-4 NKJV
The cost of hubris was learned the hard way by Oregon steeplechase runner Tanguy Pepiot. Running up to the finish line at the Pepsi Team Invitational (April 2015), Pepiot started celebrating his victory prematurely, waving for the crowd to cheer for him.
Washington runner Meron Simon, seeing Pepiot preening to the crowd, sped up and ran through the finish line, beating Pepiot by .10 seconds. Ouch!
Arrogance, showboating, and the like, have caused many games, races, competitions, etc., to be lost by the shoo-in. However, arrogance doesn’t just cost the victory in the area of sports or other competitions. Indeed, “victory disease” has led to the loss of many battles.
From what I understand, the term “victory disease” comes from the Japanese term, “senshoubyou.” Background: in 1941, Japan won a series of nearly uninterrupted victories after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Their victory “high” led to several mistakes, resulting in a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Midway.
Indeed, victory disease—arrogance—is as old as the story of man. In fact, the Bible is fraught with stories of great defeats precipitated by arrogance. We’ll look at one of those today.
Still high on the victory at Jericho, we find Joshua sending out spies to see what strategy they needed to use against Ai. At this point they did not know about the sin of Achan (we discussed last time). As we see in our opening scripture, spies returned with a report encouraging a smaller group to go up against Ai. They were certain of an easy victory. But they failed to ask the Lord about it; and, without the Lord on their side, the men of Ai sent them running and killed several of them.
Alternatively, after the sin of Achan was dealt with, the Lord gave them an easy victory over Ai.
“Now the Lord said to Joshua: “Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed; take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.”
Joshua 8:1 NKJV
Bottom line, is it is not a matter of the size of the opponent or even your own prowess; it is a matter of whether the Lord is with you or not. And make no mistake, arrogance will lead you straight into destruction.
For today write this in your “wilderness journal”:
Arrogance leads to defeat.