Who is the Lord to intervene? - Ruminating in the Word of God

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

"After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, 'Who will
be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites?' The
Lord answered, 'Judah is to go; I have given the land into their
hands.'"

Following Joshua's death the Israelites approached the Lord to inquire
of him as to how they should proceed in their taking possession of the
land God had given them. I wonder how the Canaanites felt about it?
The land had been theirs. They had lived there for generations and now
God is sending Israel into Palestine to remove them. Not just to
remove them, but to annihilate them. I wonder how the Canaanites felt
about that? Yes, the Canaanites were a horribly wicked people, but,
just who is God to give what is theirs to the Israelites?

Maybe a silly question. But it does bring to bear some perspective we
need for our day. Somehow, most folks over the years have adopted an
attitude that they are masters of their own destiny, that no other has
a right to intrude upon them and take their property, their
possessions, their families, their nation, their lives from them. We
live in a land that was constituted upon the recognition that each has
rights given them, not from government but from their Creator. This
government finds its legitimacy established through acts of protecting
these rights of its citizens. Life, liberty and property are chief
among them.

It must be observed, however, that he who gives rights can rightfully
take them away. And, in the time of the Judges, the Canaanites were
set to lose a lot. The Lord holds every legitimate right to take the
land and the lives from any people.

Any right anyone might have ultimately must be given by God. He is the
one who created it all. He gives life to all men and enables them to
live and move within his creation to subdue it, to settle into nations
within it. Paul told his listeners at the Areopagus in Athens, "The
God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and
earth and does not live in temples built by hands." He goes on to say,
"From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit
the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the
exact places where they should live." Paul tells us God's purpose in
his affairs with mankind, determining when and where peoples are
established, "God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps
reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of
us." Acts 17:24-27.

The nations of the earth exist entirely to serve God's agenda, his
purposes. When nations no longer serve those purposes, they find
themselves in the position the Canaanites found themselves during the
times of the Judges. The psalmist says, "Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his
Anointed One. 'Let us break their chains,' they say, 'and throw off
their fetters.' The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at
them. Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his
wrath, saying, 'I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.'"
Psalm 2:1-6.

The best perspective our nation, any nation, can adopt is one in which
we recognize we exist solely to serve our Creator's purposes as a
nation. Any pursuit apart from that perspective will ultimately find
its inevitable end in the ash-heap of history. If Scripture teaches us
anything about the nations of the earth, it is that the life and
vitality of any nation is directly commensurate with how it fulfills
God's purposes for it.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to
hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com