Today's Worship: The message of God's presence in the ark.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 6:6,

 

"Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it."

 

As Joshua gave the orders to take Jericho, following the Lord's direction, he tells the priests to carry the ark of the covenant. They are to march around Jericho for seven days with seven priests carrying trumpets in front of the ark. Leading the way is the armed guard, followed by the priests with the trumpets and the ark and following them, the rear guard. It is as if the priest with the trumpets are heralding the advance of the ark.

 

The ark was a focus as Israel entered into the promised land. As Israel crossed the Jordan, it was the ark that led the way. The ark of the covenant held three things: Aaron's rod that budded, the jar of manna, and the Ten Commandments engraved in stone. The ark represented God's presence and spoke of God's prerogative in his sovereign choice (Aaron's rod that budded), the provision of God (the golden jar of manna), and the grounds on which man can have a relationship with God (the Ten Commandments). All of these aspects of God are on full display as the Lord delivers the promised land into the hands of the Israelites. God chose Israel as his people, he provided them the promised land, and his earthly presence will be among them in the tabernacle, and later in the temple to be built.

 

It is the Ten Commandments that captures my thoughts this morning. Contained within the ark, as the Israelites marched around Jericho, were the tablets of the covenant, the Ten Commands. Paul makes an interesting observation about the purpose of the law that God gave Israel. The law was given to show us our need of salvation. This is how Paul puts it, "The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law." Galatians 3:24-25. The Ten Commands show us we are helplessly in need of rescue from God's wrath because we are unable to live up to what it takes to exist in God's presence. Therefore, we need a Savior. It is as if this was the message the trumpeting priests were heralding as they marched around Jericho.

 

The picture I have of Israel marching into the promised land with the ark represents all that God purposed with the nation Israel. God chose the nation of Israel as his people because he wanted to accomplish his agenda through them. The agenda is all about our heavenly Father's Son that he is going to send into the world.

 

For me this morning, the ark represents three important things of God: his proclamation that we need his Son because of our sin (the Ten Commandments), that he is going to provide his Son (the golden jar of manna) and he has made his choice that those who will embrace him in faith will inherit eternal life (as represented in Aaron's rod that budded - it is God's to choose).

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Today's Worship: Living in a state of condemnation.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 9:24-25,

 

"Your servants were clearly told how the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you the whole land and to wipe out all its inhabitants from before you. So we feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this. We are now in your hands. Do to us whatever seems good and right to you."

 

These Gibeonites knew that the one true God had slated them for annihilation. Wisely, they considered their options and chose a ruse: they would trick the Israelites into a treaty and thereby escape certain destruction. Although it resulted in servitude to Israel, it certainly was better than being totally destroyed, being put to death.

 

As I read the account this morning, I am drawn to what the mindset of the Gibeonites must have been as they considered their options. They could see the destruction God had brought about through the Israelites to her neighbors and knew very well they were in the cross-hairs. There was simply no escape.

 

What does it feel like to know you face certain death? The deaths of your family members and friends, all you know? It brings to my mind the folks who showed up for work at the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001. They got up that morning, got ready for the day, made their commute into town and arrived at work. Suddenly, in moments, they were faced with a horrible choice. Knowing they were going to die, should they leap hundreds of feet to their deaths or burn alive in the building? What a horrible circumstance! The excruciating mindset of those condemned to die!

 

Yet, that is the very reality of all life. We are all condemned to die. It is God's judgment for our sins. We are brought into an existence that is governed by sin and rebellion against God, and we all face the certainty of God's judgment for the sin we are born into and participate in. Not only are we all slated to die physical deaths, there awaits us a fiery lake of burning sulfur for an eternity of torment. A horrible state of affairs!

 

But God, in his great love for us has provided escape! He has made a way for us. Although we are all destined to die, we have all been invited to his kingdom that we might escape that eternity of torment. Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for our sins and has become our way to eternal blessings at the hand of God! The way is through faith. He said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." In that passage Jesus spoke the words, "Believe me", "believe in the evidence", "anyone who has faith in me", John 14:6-12. And, as he said to Nicodemus, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Today's Worship: The Long Day of Joshua.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 10:12-14,

 

"On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: 'O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.' So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!"

 

Here is a fascinating account! As Joshua and the Israelites fought against the five kings of the Amorites, Joshua asked the Lord to lengthen the day as they destroyed their enemies. As the account goes, more of the Amorites were killed by the Lord, who "hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky" than were killed by the Israelites. The Lord stopped the sun and the moon until Israel's enemies were vanquished. The account says the stoppage was about the length of a full day. As the account goes, "Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!"

 

What a day that was! How did God do it? Did the earth's rotation cease while somehow God kept everything from flying off it? I don't have a clue! I get carsick just thinking about it! Truly, this was an amazing thing! "Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!"

 

Something very striking is also stated in this passage: "There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man." Here is a comment that will confound a lot of theology! The Lord listened to a man! What interaction between God and man! The Israelites did what the Lord asked them and the Lord intervened on Israel's behalf! the Creator of the universe not only told Israel what to do, but also participated in helping Israel carry it out.

 

I don't think I would want to ever be in the cross-hairs of Israel as she carries out God's direction for her!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Today's Worship: God does not compromise.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 7:7-9,

 

"Ah, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?"

 

These are the words spoken by Joshua following Israel's rout at Ai. Today we have the full picture of what took place. Israel was to follow the Lord's commands when they took their first city, Jericho. One man, tempted by his own sinfulness, defied what the Lord told them and it caused Israel to suffer a humiliating defeat at the next city they attacked.

 

Joshua displays a profound remorse over the events of that day. He asks why the Lord brought them across the Jordan if they were going to suffer defeat. I can only imagine Joshua's discouragement following this turn of events on the heels of the celebration of their victory over the much more powerful Jericho. I sense a bit of accusation toward the Lord in Joshua's lament.

 

I can't be too hard on Joshua. Here I sit with a much bigger perspective given me in his account of what happened, which includes further information he will eventually become aware of. But at the time, Joshua couldn't have known that Achan had disobeyed the Lord and brought the Lord's wrath against Israel, preventing their victory at Ai.

 

Some thoughts that occur to me: There are times when things must be done God's way or there will be consequences to pay. We all may have our own free will, but the ability to make our own choices carries with it the consequences of those choices we make. God will call us to account. Another, very sobering thought is that the choice Achan made affected him to be sure, but look at how it affected the whole nation of Israel. It certainly affected the 36 or so Israeli soldiers who perished and their families! None of them were apparently aware of Achan's actions at Jericho.

 

I wonder how my actions affect the lives of others...

 

In any event, the Lord shows himself to be holy and just. There is no compromise with God, no wrinkles in his character and nature. He is entirely consistent and with whatever interaction I have with God, I best recognize that reality.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Today's Worship: God brings victory, but only his way!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 10:42,

 

"All these kings and their lands Joshua conquered in one campaign, because the Lord, the God of Israel, fought for Israel."

 

Here is a simple summary of the campaign Joshua and the Israelites carried out against the southern cities within the land the Lord gave Israel. They were efficiently victorious over their opponents "because the Lord, the God of Israel, fought for Israel."

 

Israel fought her opponents because the Lord asked them to. Forty years earlier they had been asked the same thing by him, and having balked they suffered at the Lord's hand for forty years wandering in the wilderness. Now, advancing against their foes in faith, they had the Lord on their side and victory was certain.

 

This brings to mind the certainty of God's promises. What God promises, he will do. He promised the Israelites victory in their taking of the land and that is exactly what happened. The Lord saw to it. Not only are God's promises assured, we can see in these accounts that God has no problem in bringing about what he has promised. As Paul observes Abraham's faith in his letter to the Romans, we see that God has the power to do what he promises! Romans 4:21. And, when God acts, his actions never fail to bring about what he says he will do.

 

Clearly documented in this account, however, is the reality that if success is to be enjoyed, whatever it is that God does will be done his way and not anyone else's way. The account of Achan in Joshua 7 is a sobering reminder that God's agenda must be carried out God's way.

 

All this reminds me of the certainty we have in the resurrection of life. All God's people will be raised in the resurrection to share in eternal life, a life David describes as "eternal pleasures" at the Lord's right hand, Psalm 16:11. It is a promise the Lord has made and he certainly has the power to bring it about. I do note, however, that it will only come about God's way, the way of faith. "I [Jesus Christ] am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: God and genocide.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 6:21,

 

"They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys."

 

Here is a startling statement. The Israelites killed everyone in Jericho when they attacked and took the city, "men and women, young and old". God rendered the city defenseless through the miracle of the city walls collapsing and gave it over to the Israelites to do his bidding. In verse 27, as a summary to this account we are told, "So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land."

 

There is the god of our imagination and the true God. The god of our imagination is how we define him to be according to our perception of what we think him to be. Had this been a good approach in our understanding of God there would have been no need for him to reveal himself to us through the Scriptures.

 

Knowing of our faults and weaknesses due to our estrangement from him because of sin and rebellion, he has revealed himself to us to know something of what he is like. According to the Scriptures God has two very striking qualities which he bears boldly. God is love and God is just. What we fail to see in our human weakness and frailty is the level of boldness that is expressed in his love and the level of boldness he manifests in his justice.

 

We struggle with the wonderful gift of love represented in the sacrifice of his own Son that we might have our sins forgiven. How could God forgive us so freely? We also struggle with the demand his justice requires for sin as represented in the cross. In the same way we are squeamish as we contemplate that God actually required and facilitated the genocide of peoples.

 

We fail to connect the dots as we consider this genocide with the known judgments of God. It was God who condemned all mankind to death in the garden of Eden for sin. It was he who brought the curse of sickness, pain and misery. What was the flood in Noah's day, but the annihilation of many peoples? It will be this same God who will judge all mankind, each individual for sin at his great white throne judgment and cast all who have not embrace him in faith into a fiery lake of burning sulfur for an eternity of torment.

 

Would our God do that? Would the One who gave his only begotten Son as a ransom for us, to pay for our sins, the one whose unspeakable mercy loved us so much, would he do such a thing? If we would only but read our Bibles we would find that our God is a god of love, as well as a god of frightful judgment. The horrific death of the Son of God at the hands of his Father's justice should make clear the extent of both of these striking qualities of God.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: Heeding God.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 6:16b-20,

 

"Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury."

 

Here are the last instructions Joshua gave the Israelites just prior to their taking the first city, Jericho, their first conquest west of the Jordan. Through the miraculous occurrence of the city walls falling, the fear the Lord had instilled in the inhabitants for the Israelites and the Israelite obedience to the Lord, Israel vanquished the city.

 

I see restrictions given the Israelites contained within these last instructions. Although they will be given the victory and are to annihilate the inhabitants of Jericho, they are to observe a few things. Rahab and her household are to be spared, all the "stuff" that is to be devoted, that is, to be destroyed as an offering to the Lord, is to be left alone, not taken by the Israelites. All the gold and silver, as well as bronze and iron articles captured are to be placed into the tabernacle treasury.

 

I am reminded that when we are engaged by the Lord to do his bidding, it is to be done according to his wishes. It is ours to celebrate the  many wonderful things the Lord does amongst us and these form the basis of our worship of him. However, where he has given us instructions, guidelines and restrictions, just as with Israel, we best observe them. Israel won the victory here, but we will see very shortly what happens when some of the Israelites are not careful in observing the commands of the Lord when engaged in his affairs. Being used of the Lord does not create a free-for-all where we do as we wish.

 

Unfortunately, however, at times we choose to ignore what the Lord tells us and do things our own way. Some passages of Scripture seem to be almost universally ignored, such as Colossians 3:12-14, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." I speak here to myself, as much as anyone.

 

I wonder what Israel might have missed out on in their conquest of Jericho had they not followed the Lord's directions as given through Joshua? I wonder what we might be missing out on today for that cause?

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: Trifling with God.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 1:1-2a,

 

"After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: "Moses my servant is dead.'"

 

God's servant, Moses, died! Moses was dead and so the Lord tapped Joshua to take his place to lead Israel into the land he promised. The Lord himself called Moses his servant.

 

Throughout the Scriptures Moses is acknowledged as a great man of God. It was through Moses that the Lord began the process of revealing himself to the world through the Scriptures. Moses was the great lawgiver of God. Through Moses the Lord actively unfolded his great work of redemption, as evidenced in the freeing of Israel from Egypt. Moses is acknowledged as a great man of faith in Hebrews 11. Moses met with God personally on Mt. Sinai and actually reflected the Lord's own glory as he approached the men of Israel, sending them fleeing from his presence, Exodus 34:29-35.

 

It was this great man that now lay dead, the servant of the Lord. He had given his life to carry out the Lord's agenda, expending himself until his death. He had completely given himself to God. So, why did he die?

 

It was God's will!

 

Death was God's choice for his servant who had served him so faithfully for so many years. God decided that Moses should die. God has decided that we all die. In Moses case, the events surrounding his hitting the rock of water with his staff determined he would die prior to Israel entering into the promised land. Numbers 20:1-13.

 

Sometimes we forget that God has determined we all die, that it is his will. It is not some evil source that makes us face death. We pray for deliverance from death for ourselves and our loved ones to the very One who has determined we die.

 

Why? Why is it we get sick? Why is it we die? Why is it we live in a world that is so hostile to us? Sin. God's judgment of us for sin is death, Genesis 2:16-17. Trifling with God brings its consequences. Even for a man as godly as Moses! It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!

 

How wonderfully gracious is his kindness and mercy toward us sinners that he has provided us a way to his table in the resurrection!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: All creation is at the disposal of God.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 2:9,

 

"I know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you."

 

Rahab was a woman of faith. She is the only woman recalled by the writer of Hebrews, by name, as one of the great people of faith in Hebrews 11 (unless I missed another one in the list.) Possibly this comment of hers in Joshua 2:9 is what stands out, identifying her as a person of great faith. She acknowledges that the Lord had given the land her people occupied to the Israelites.

 

Her comment to the spies reveals that she knows the land is God's to give, and that he gave it to her people's adversaries. All creation belongs to God and it is at his disposal to do with as he pleases. If he has decided to give some land to the Israelites, so be it. Creation exists at the pleasure of God, including not just the land we stand on, but our lives as well. We all belong to God, saved people and unsaved alike. Paul makes a point of this as he discusses God's choice to reserve for himself all who will embrace him in faith and cast the rest into an awful fiery lake of burning sulfur. 

 

Paul says, "One of you will say to me: 'Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?' But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? 'Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?"' Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?" Romans 9:19-21. As the Creator, God has the prerogative to do with it as he chooses and he has chosen those who will embrace him in faith.

 

At times I fail to recognized what this prostitute knew to be true. I forget all I have and all I am is his. There is simply nothing I have that is not temporarily on loan to me. It is all God's.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: Faith in God brings accurate perspective.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 2:24,

 

"The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us."

 

This is the report from the second espionage mission into the promised land. What a difference! The first report from the 10 spies was, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." What made the difference?

 

The first report was forty years earlier when the Lord asked Israel to go in and take the land. Twelve spies were sent and ten came back with the negative report. The inhabitants were big and well-fortified. At that time Caleb and Joshua had a different perspective, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."

 

Why did Caleb and Joshua have the different perspective of assured victory, as well as the spies from the second mission? Faith. The ten spies from the first group saw the challenge of the mission only from their perspective. A perspective that did not include the involvement of the One who sent them to take the land. Caleb, Joshua and the spies from the second mission saw it differently. As Caleb and Joshua said to the Israelites after the first mission, "Do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them." Numbers 14:9. As we see how the story unfolds in the book of Joshua, faith brought the accurate perspective.

 

"There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord. The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord." Proverbs 21:30-31.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: God is to be feared!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 4:24,

 

"He [the Lord] did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God."

 

At the ceremony of commemoration for the twelve-stone memorial the Lord had Joshua set up as a visible monument to the miraculous dry river-bed crossing of the Israelites into the promised land, Joshua told the people the reason for the monument. It was erected so that the children of Israel might remember this event: how powerful the Lord displayed himself to be to the peoples of the earth in his stopping the flow of the Jordan river at flood stage. The Israelites were to always fear the Lord in their acknowledgment of it.

 

To fear the Lord is the appropriate reverence he is due, given who he is, what he has done, and certainly, what he is capable of. All creation owes its existence to the utterance of God, Genesis 1:1-31. All creation owes its continued existence, from moment to moment to the utterance of the Son of God, Hebrews 1:3. The fate of all creation lies in the hands of the Lord, 2 Peter 3:10-13. Our God is strong and is not to be trifled with, "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews 10:31. Indeed, all who are of sound mind must agree with the writer of Hebrews, "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our 'God is a consuming fire.'" Hebrews 12:28-29.

 

God is to be feared!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: It is all about the Lord.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 5:13-15,

 

"Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, 'Are you for us or for our enemies?' 'Neither,' he replied, 'but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.' Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, 'What message does my Lord have for his servant?' The commander of the Lord's army replied, 'Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.' And Joshua did so."

 

Having crossed the Jordan and drawing near to the city of the first battle for the Israelites at Jericho, Joshua encounters the "commander of the Lord's army" with drawn sword. Joshua asks is he for or against Israel's army?

 

This appears to me as a pre-incarnate appearance of the Son of God. After Israel preparing herself to take the land, the Lord appears to Joshua. When asked the question, the Lord responds that he has come on God's behalf. When it dawns on Joshua who's presence it is he has fallen into, he drops to the ground, appropriately. The Commander confirms Joshua's perception by commanding him to take off his sandals, as, "the place where you are standing is holy".

 

I find the Lord's response to Joshua interesting. What is about to take place as Israel takes possession of the promised land is not about Israel. The commander of the Lord's army has come to carry out the Lord's purposes. It is about the Lord and what the Lord is doing.

 

The whole exchange reminds me that I am here for God's agenda, not my own. Something I always seem to forget is that I am here for the Lord, not the other way around. Even if I were to somehow find myself squarely in the midst of what the Lord is doing, being utilized by him to accomplish great things as Joshua was, it would still never be about me.

 

Life and all of its attendant activities, including the truly great ones, is always about the Lord and his agenda.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: God shows us the way!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 3:3b-4a,

 

"When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before."

 

This is the direction the officers of Israel gave the people when they were to cross the Jordan into the land promised them. They werre to follow the ark of the Lord to know the way. This ark contained the law of God codified in the Ten Commandments and formed the basis for the covenant between the Lord and his people. The presence of the Lord among the Israelites was embodied in the ark and would provide the way for the people.

 

Rich in symbolism, this event speaks to the reality that the law God gave Israel was not just a dusty book upon which people were to order their lives. It was and still is today a road map that puposefully takes us somewhere. Of it Paul says, "The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith." Galatians 3:24. As the ark, containing the Ten Commandments, provided direction to the Israelites into the promised land, so the Ten commandments lead us to Jesus Christ into the resurrection of life.

 

We are all born with a sinful nature and are incapable of living lives acceptable to God. Worse yet, in our sinful condition, we cannot find our way, lost in the garden of Eden, back to our Creator with whom we must be in good standing in order to have a place in his family for eternity. What the law does is to demonstrate our sinful condition and personally show us our need to be saved. In this way it leads us to Christ. Jesus Christ paid for the penalty for our sins and provides us a right standing with God that we might have a place at his table. If we fail to recognize our need of him, we will miss the way and wander off in some lost direction.

 

Today I worship our God who has shown us the way, as he did the Israelites to enter into the promised land! Truly, Jesus Christ is the way, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: God prepares the way!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 2:8-11,

 

"Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, 'I know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.'"

 

In a fascinating acknowledgment of the hand of God in Israel's fortunes from Rahab, this prostitute expresses what had been revealed not just to her but to all the peoples the Israelites will face as they conduct their campaign to take the promised land. God has certainly prepared the way for Israel's offensive!

 

The writer of Hebrews acknowledges Rahab as one of the members of the great "hall of faith" he enumerates in Hebrews, chapter 11. "By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient." Hebrews 11:31.

 

Paul makes an interesting observation in his letter to the Romans about God. He says, "The Scripture says to Pharaoh: 'I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.'" Romans 9:17. This is a quote of Exodus 9:16 where the Lord tells Moses to confront Pharaoh with some bad news just prior to the plague of hail.

 

Some have viewed God as being needy if he seeks the adulation of people and requires his glory to be acknowedged. As if he has some kind of shortcoming in his personality, he must be missing something if he "needs" us to worship him. Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Here in Rahab's confession of the fear all of these well-fortified giants of the land felt as they observed Israel coming their way, God's purpose in his statement to Pharaoh becomes obvioius. God hardened Pharaoh's heart so that the situation surrounding Israel's exodus from Egypt would become so dramatic it would be something all the nations would hear of and live in fear of. God used it to set the stage for Israel's conquest of the region, to demoralize and strike fear into the hearts of the people in the land Israel was to take.

 

Interesting, isn't it, that forty years earlier, the Israelites responded in fear to the report of the ten spies. In reality, the "giants" of the land living in the fortified cities were quaking in their boots as they heard and saw the devastation to Egypt as Israel went, along with the more current events. So great was the fear, that Rahab's report comes forty years later as they are still in fear of the Israelites!

 

I also find it interesting that God didn't make it clear to the Israelites how the events of the ten plagues and the exodus affected the inhabitants of the promised land. Israel would have to accept the promised land on faith and faith alone that God would give it into their hands.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: God performs the miraculous!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 3:14-17,

 

"So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground."

 

As Israel followed the Lord's command to cross the Jordan and take possession of the land, an amazing miracle happens. The Jordan, at flood stage, stops flowing upstream so the nation can pass through it on dry ground! The river actually piles up in a heap as the Israelites pass through on the dry river bed!

 

Do I believe such an account? Am I certain such an event actually took place? Absolutely! There is no question of it. The Creator of the cosmos is certainly in full control of his creation and it is entirely subject to his command. It is also God's prerogative to violate the physical laws he designed and implemented which govern his creation as he wants, whenever and wherever. If God wants to violate his own law of gravity, as when Jesus Christ walked on water, he can and will certainly do so. God used this miracle, not just to facilitate a logistical barrier the Israelites faced, but to provide them with the confidence that their God was with them as they entered into the campaign.

 

Although I am certain there is much more going on behind the scenes, I see this as one of the interventions of God in the conquest of the promised land. Another being the interaction of the Israeli spies with Rahab the prostitute as they went to spy out Jericho and the surrounding country side.

Several things I note here. The first is, although Israel's patriarchs were promised the land of Palestine, they were going to have to do their part to get it. God often works this way. He involves us in the things he does that provides us meaningful purpose as he carries out his agenda. God often extends an offer that leaves us with a choice to follow him or not. Follow him and receive the blessing or turn from him and suffer his judgment. Israel was promised the land, but they would have to go get it.

 

The second is, God is always faithful on his promises. Israel could have taken the promised land forty years earlier, but in their failure to trust God, they found themselves wandering in the desert for forty years until that generation had passed. Now, with nothing more than they had before, they will follow the Lord and take possession of the land. They always had the Lord on their side, their failure to follow the Lord the forty years earlier was unfounded and their lack of trust in the Lord cost them dearly. God always has the power to do what he promises and nowhere is it more clearly on display than in this book of Joshua.

 

The third is Israel did not see this miracle from God until they acted first. The river didn't pile up upstream until the feet of the priests hit the water first. Not until Israel acted on their trust in God did God perform this miracle for them. Something for us all to learn here.

 

On another note, it seems to me that all of the really exciting things that have ever happened in this life came about because of God's presence in them...

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: God never forsakes his people!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 1:5b,

 

"I will never leave you nor forsake you."

 

As the Lord commands Joshua and the Israelites to do what they refused to forty years earlier, to conquer the land the Lord gave them, he reassures them with this promise: He will never abandon his people.

 

Paul considers this question in light of Israel's rejection of the Messiah fourteen hundred years later. He asks, "I ask then: Did God reject his people?" Romans 11:1. In answering the question he tells his readers, "God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew." Verse 2. Later, in verse 11 he asks and then answers the following question regarding Israel, "Again I ask: Did they [the Israelites] stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!" Romans 11:11-12.

 

All who belong to the Lord have this wonderful assurance from him. He will never forsake us. He is certain in fulfilling his promises and will see that we get safely home to him for all eternity. As Jude's wonderful doxology states, "To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."

 

No matter how badly we screw up and make a mess of things, no matter how poor our performance has been, no matter how much we have disappointed God, others and ourselves in this life, he will never leave us or forsake us. We are his and will remain so forever!

 

I love the way Jesus put it, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one.'" John 10:27-30.

 

The nation of Israel has been through a lot with the Lord over the ages, through their disobedience to him and his resulting judgment of them. Yet, here they are today, as current as today's newspaper, as we await the time Paul refers to, "their fullness". Just as God promised a nation he would never forsake them, so too, as individuals, we have the same promise from him: he will never leave us or forsake us!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: Obedience to the law.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 1:7b-8,

 

"Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."

 

The Lord tells Joshua here that his success as Israel's new leader will be contingent upon his adherence to the "Book of the Law". This is a reference to the Scriptures that the lawgiver, Moses, received from the Lord himself. Moses reduced what the Lord had to say to writing as the Lord commanded him and now a remarkable new thing has been introduced into the creation: written communication from the Creator of the cosmos!

 

While today we are all-too-familiar with the reality of the Scriptures, our Bibles, this is something that is really astonishing! The Lord enters his creation and speaks to mankind! The first of the production of Scripture began with Moses. Subsequently, as we find in Israel's history, further communication is provided us through succeeding prophets the Lord will raise up.

 

Concerning the Scriptures, Peter says, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." 2 Peter 1:20-21. It is no wonder then that our lost and fallen world, living in sin and rebellion against God and under the influence of God's adversary, the devil, the Bible is constantly under attack, misused and misunderstood.

 

In a nutshell, what Israel was to learn by keeping the law, is that they would not succeed in it. Their sinful passions, just as with all mankind, would drive them to the realization they would need to be saved from God's own wrath for sin. As long as Israel participated in the plans and purposes of the Lord to bring them to a recognized need of a Savior, they would be blessed by him as a nation. Turn from the law and Israel, as a nation, would suffer.

 

Paul speaks of the Lord's purpose of the law in his letter to the churches of Galatia, "Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law."

 

Joshua and all Israel, as God's chosen people to carry out his agenda on planet earth, were to observe the law, fail in their sin, and look to God for salvation, a salvation that could not be earned by keeping the law, but through God's predetermined chosen venue: faith.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: Whatever we have, we have at the hand of God.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 1:1-3,

 

"After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: 'Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.'"

 

Abraham was a man of God. He exemplified the kind of faith that God decided beforehand he would reward with eternal life. "Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness." Genesis 15:6. Salvation by faith. The fundamental doctrine of God Almighty: the very essence of the gospel message the church is to proclaim to a lost and fallen world today. Unfortunately, it is the doctrine most under assault, both outside, and, astonishingly and horrifyingly enough, within the church itself.

 

In any event, because of his faith, Abraham's offspring, Israel, became God's chosen people. God decided to unfold his plan of redemption to a lost and fallen world through this nation. After bringing the Jews out of their Egyptian enslavement through his hand-picked man, Moses, and following the nation's wandering in the wilderness for forty years and the death of Moses, God chose Joshua to now lead them into the land.

 

It is what God tells Joshua here that captures my attention. God is going to give the land he promised to both Abraham and Moses to the Israelites. But... there are already people who live there, who "own" it. People who have built fortifications and can defend it. So powerful are these people that, forty years prior, Israel quaked in their boots and refused to believe that God could deliver it to them, hence their forty years of wandering in the wilderness.

 

However, the reality is that God has the power to give it. God created it all, it is his to give. God is all powerful and he is more than capable to deliver it. As I consider it, I acknowledge that God is the very one we all owe our very existence to. God gives life. It is he who has created all there is. Whatever it is we are, whatever we become, whatever we "possess", it is all at the hand of God. We have nothing that God did not make possible, we would not even exist were it not for God determining for us to.

 

It was this very frame of reference that brought righteousness to Abraham. As Paul considers him, he says, "Yet he [Abraham] did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why 'it was credited to him as righteousness.'" Romans 4:20-22.

 

Whatever we have, we have at the hand of God.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Worship for Today: God lavishes his grace upon us!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ephesians 2:8-9,

 

"It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast."

 

Grace is that wonderful disposition of God to look on us favorably when we don't deserve it. Throughout the Scriptures it is amply demonstrated we have all sinned, we all deserve God's punishment for sin, we all should find our ultimate destination in a fiery lake of burning sulfur. However, out of this wonderful disposition of his for us, his love of us, we have a bright future to look forward to in the resurrection if we but trust in Jesus Christ. "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith... it is the gift of God..."

 

How wonderful is this grace we enjoy, this grace God has so wonderfully lavished on mankind! Apart from this disposition of God we would have no hope in life. No future, save that of an eternally miserable existence that awaits all who reject Jesus Christ.

 

Because of Adam's sin, we all die, Romans 5:12, but we will all be resurrected, Revelation 20:5-6. The faithful are raised into a paradise with God, Revelation 21:6-7, but those who will not respond to the gospel are raised to be cast into the lake of fire, Revelation 21:8.

 

How wonderful the grace of God, expressed to us in this opportunity he has extended to us all through the gospel message!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com