Every Wednesday I have been trying to share some encouragement as I study through the book of Joshua, and honestly I came into this week fully expecting to talk about Jericho. But then I opened it up this week and started reading where I had left off last week - the people crossing the Jordan in chapters 3-4, and I read the first verse of chapter 5
Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.
Joshua and the people of Israel have literally just stepped foot onto that side of the Jordan, barely even touched the promised land, and yet God has already provided the victory. This isn't because Joshua is so brave or such a great warrior. It's not because the Israelite forces are so strong. This is because of God. All these kings and their people had surely heard about what happened to the Egyptians, and when God repeats part of that story by causing the Jordan to stop flowing and letting them cross it, just like he did the Red Sea, those kings know that God is with these people and it says their hearts melted in fear. The Message says that their hearts sank and the courage drained out of them.
Here's the encouraging message for us from that - when we walk with God the same thing happens to our enemy. When we find ourselves in Christ, and we are following His will, when we are being the people He created us to be - He goes before us, and our enemy sees that God is with us. There is a reason why Satan is called a deceiver and a liar - because he can't battle with God straight on. He has to try all these other things to get us off track, to drag us down, to get us to pull away from God - because he has no chance in a fight with God.
I went to Kirtland Central High School - home of the Broncos - and our biggest rival was always the Aztec Tigers. When I was in middle school and high school we had some knock down drag out football games with them. We knew each other well, there weren't a lot of surprises in those games - we just lined it up and had some hard nosed battles with them. And for all those years the home team always won. They were never able to beat us at home, and we never could get the better of them at their place. That is until my senior year. We were feeling pretty confident even though we were playing in Aztec, but there was still that little voice back there, especially for our coaches. We had been there before, feeling like we were the better team and it just hadn't gone our way. But my senior year instead of our usual smash-mouth familiar game, Aztec came out in this crazy formation that they called "Ninja". For those of you who understand football let me explain this thing to you. They split their tackles out wide, along with a wide receiver, and lined up a running back behind them. They did this on both sides so that they had these little stacks to either side, and then that left just the center and guards in the middle along with the QB and one running back. It was the craziest thing we'd ever seen, and to their credit we had no idea how to line up at first to defend it. But here's the thing - it was a desperation move. For all the confusion it briefly caused it, it also told us that they knew they couldn't just line up and play with us that night.
That's how Satan works too, that's how anyone has to work when they are going up against our God. When the Amorite and Canaanite kings saw that God was with the people - they knew they couldn't win. They knew they couldn't stand toe to toe with them - not because of the people, but because of the God that they were following, the God who was providing for them and taking care of them. You and I have that same God. As Chris Tomlin says in his song "Whom Shall I Fear" - I know who goes before me, I know who stands behind - the God of Angel Armies is always by my side"
As we continue to face uncertainty and some honestly just crazy things in this world - remember that the God of angel armies is always by your side - and not only can you know that - the enemy knows that as well - and it melts his heart, it takes away his courage, it saps him of his confidence. No one can stand against our God. Love you guys - see you soon.
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