Printer Friendly VersionDuring the spring and summer of 1999, my understanding of who
God is got all turned around. You see, I’ve always believed (and with
very good reason) that God is not a Cubs fan.
But that year I became confused. By the time fall rolled around,
the Cubs were in second place in the National League Central. They were some
10 or 11 games above 500—that just doesn’t happen to the Cubs.
One of their team members, Sammy Sosa, was neck and neck with Mark McGuire
in the chase to break Roger Maris’ record, single-season, home run record.
What happened? Did God suddenly become a Cubs fan? I started thinking maybe
the world was going to end in the year 2000, and God wanted them to win the
big one before it was over!
Of course I’m being silly, but the whole question of whose
side God is on has always been interesting to me. You see it when athletes
are interviewed after a victory. Like Ivander Holyfield, for example, after
he has just beaten some poor soul’s head in and the TV reporter shoves
a microphone in his face and asks, “Ivander, that was a great victory.
How’d you do it?”
And the response is: “Well, God just gave me the strength;
I give all the praise to the Lord.” What? Does God really take sides
like that? Does God take sides in athletic contests? Does He takes sides in
legal disputes? Does He takes sides between nations in conflict? In Steven
Spielberg’s recent depiction of the events of D-Day, he has a character
who is a rifle marksman, a sniper. And the whole time he’s picking off
the enemy through his high-powered sight, he’s quoting Scripture.
“The Lord is my help and my strength.” Boom! “Be
not far from me, O Lord and deliver me from the hands of my enemy.”
Boom! Does God take sides like that?
Well you know it sure seems He does when we read the story of
Israel marching into the Promised Land and taking over. In fact, these next
chapters are some of the most troubling to modern minds. It’s hard for
people to understand how the loving and gracious God of the New Testament
could seem to sanction the genocide we see in the Old Testament. Why would
God command His people to destroy and kill?
That’s a big question that a lot of smart people have
spent a lot of time trying to answer. I won’t pretend I can answer it
in five minutes. Except that, if we just let the scriptures say what they
want to say, we might discover something helpful.
We need to understand that the inhabitants of Jericho and of
Canaan were not innocent bystanders as a whole, as a people. Back in Genesis
15 God indicated to Abram that He is being very patient with them, but their
sins will reach a limit and He will bring judgment on them.
In Genesis 15:16 God said, “In the fourth generation your
descendents will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached
its full measure.”
And there are many other places throughout the first five books
of the Bible indicating that God cast out the Canaanites because of their
sinfulness. Just one example is Deuteronomy 9:4-5: “After the Lord your
God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord
has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’
No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going
to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or integrity
that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of
their wickedness.”
You see, the conquest of Canaan is not a bunch of land-hungry
marauders wiping out hundreds of innocent, god-fearing folks, at the behest
of a vicious God. In the biblical view, the God of the Bible uses none-too-righteous
Israel as the instrument of His judgment on a people who had persistently
reveled in their sin.
That’s a perspective Joshua was about to get as they prepared to overtake
Jericho. Joshua was a good military leader. He’s knew what was at stake
and he had a sense of what it would take to accomplish the mission.
As he surveyed Jericho, he realized the price would be high.
Verse 1 of chapter 6 tells us “Jericho was tightly shut up” in
defense against the Israelites. No one came out or went in.
Joshua no doubt surveyed the situation and was making his plans,
but at the same time hoping against hope that the God who brought them this
far would be on their side in this battle and give them victory. That’s
when he met up with the mysterious figure of verse 13, chapter 5. Look at
it again: [read 5:13]
That was the question Joshua wanted answered. But in the answer
this warrior gave, Joshua began to learn something new about the God he served.
Look again at the answer:
“Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,”
he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”
And Joshua fell on his face realizing he was in the presence of the Lord.
He took off his sandals, in recognition that he was on holy ground.
And in the presence of Holy God, Joshua’s question changed.
No longer was it, “Whose side are you on?” Now the question was,
“What do you want to show me? What do you want to say to me?”
And do you know what the Lord wanted to say to Joshua? It’s in verse
2 of chapter 6: “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands.”
It was already done. It was a done deal because this was what the sovereign
Lord had decreed.
Joshua, you are going to have victory but it’s not because
God likes you best. It’s not because God is taking your side against
another. It’s because this is what God has planned to accomplish His
purpose and that’s how it will be.
I’ll admit this is a subtle point, but I think it’s
a critical one for us to get. This angel, this warrior, doesn’t fit
into Joshua’s military categories. He is not partisan. God is not partisan;
He is sovereign.
And we need to understand this just as Joshua needed to understand
it. Because in the daily course of our lives, in the challenges that come
our way year after year, we sometimes become far more interested in the help
than in the Helper.
We just want God to be responsive to our needs. That’s
so often our first question. God, whose side are you on here? Are you going
to come to our aid? Are you going to help us?
And so often our last question is, “God, what do you want
here? What is your plan and your desire? What are you seeing that I cannot
see?”
This story is not about God coming to the aid of Joshua and
the Israelites. It’s about the Israelites getting in line with what
God was doing in the world. That’s why the Lord gave Joshua such a ridiculous
military strategy. March around the city 13 times? Keep silent the first 12
and on the final go-around, shout? Then the walls will just fall down? You’ve
got to be kidding.
The citizens of Jericho were at first terrified of the Israelites,
but by the third day of watching them just walk around the city, they must
have been laughing their heads off. What a ridiculous strategy!
But God consistently uses seemingly ridiculous strategies to
accomplish His work: Noah and the ark, Gideon, the cross of Jesus. There’s
a reason God works that way—to make it abundantly clear that real victory
does not come by God blessing our cleverness or goodness.
Real victory is always His doing, and our job is to align our
lives with what God is doing. This is the difference between false worship
and true worship.
False worship is for me to step into the presence of God in
an endeavor to manipulate Him to do my will. True worship is for me to step
into the presence of God and allow Him to bring my will into conformity with
His will. True worship is to obey Him even when I don’t understand His
will.
During the dark days of the American Civil War, one of President
Lincoln’s officers said to him, “Mr. President, aren’t you
concerned that God is on our side?” Abraham Lincoln responded, “No
sir, I’m far more concerned that we are on God’s side.”
He got it. And I believe we need to get it. It’s a crucial
shift in understanding. Our life in Christ is not about trying to get God
on our side. It’s not about hoping He will see things our way and come
to our rescue.
Our task is to know Him. To the point that we would fall on
our knees before Him and take off our shoes on His holy ground. To the point
that our question would change from, “Are you on our side?” to,
“What do you want to say to me, Lord?”
Let me give you a very real example of what I’m talking
about. We are deeply concerned for Judie. We want God to heal her. We want
God to come to her aid and deliver her from this awful disease.
That’s not a bad thing to want, it’s a good thing to want. But
listen carefully: this is not about trying to do all the right things so God
will do something good for Judie.
It’s not about us figuring how to pray right, or fast
enough, or believe enough. We’re not trying to convince God to be on
our side. He already is. This is about aligning ourselves with what God is
doing. Our faith is that God is involved and that He is ultimately accomplishing
His purpose, even in the midst of evil circumstances.
And so the practice of our faith is finally being able to come
to the place where we say with our Lord, “Not my will, but Thine be
done.”
Coming to that kind of place of faith means we give up our strategy
for His strategy. It means we let Him take the lead instead of trying to set
the course of events ourselves.
We’ve said it before but it’s a basic principle
of the Christian life. As individuals, as a church, we will never be successful
as long as we are trying to get God to approve and sanction and bless our
plans.
We will only be successful when we learn to get our lives aligned
with His plan. And that alignment comes through the act of surrender. Just
like Joshua fell in surrender to the Lord, laying aside all his plans and
strategies, so we must surrender to the will and plan of God.
What is your Jericho this morning? What is your insurmountable circumstance? Could you let go of your desire to get God on your side and instead offer up the thing to Him in complete surrender? Get over on His side and you will have the ultimate victory.
