Good Morning Friends,
“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.” (Joshua 5:13-15)
When Joshua asked the angel, “Are you for us
or for our enemies?” he received an answer that we would not have expected. If
there ever was a people that God’s army should have been fighting for, it was
the nation of Israel. Weren’t they God’s people? Shouldn’t God’s angel have been
on their side? But the angel answered, “neither.” He wasn’t on Israel’s side
and he wasn’t on the side of the Canaanites. He was accomplishing God’s
purposes, not the purposes of man.
Was God on the side of the American Revolutionaries
or the army of England? Was God on the side of the Yankees or the Rebels? Was God
on the side of America or Iraq? We would always assume that God was on our
side! In many cases, both sides would have assumed that! I’ve read several
books about the Civil War. Both sides thought their cause was righteous. Both sides
prayed for God’s favor in battle. Both sides thought God was on their side.
Is God on the side of the Beavers or the
Ducks? Neither! (Of course, I think God
is a Sooner fan!)
God isn’t on either side in a conflict. He
does not align Himself with the purposes of man. God does not show partiality
toward men. God accomplishes His purposes, not man’s. In the conflict between
Israel and Canaan, God’s purposes usually were accomplished by the victory of
the Israelite army, but not always. There were times when Israel was defeated,
and that also accomplished God’s purposes.
The principle is that we should not assume,
just because we are Christians, that God is on our side in every conflict ---
marriage disagreement, job controversy, lawsuit, athletic contest, war, or anything
else that pits one side against another. God will accomplish His purposes, not
ours.
God may not always be on our side – but we
should always strive to be on His!
His, by Grace,
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment