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