Being a christian often means being at odds with people. Sometimes it feels like the whole world is against what we believe. Some christian things are not acceptable, some biblical principles are laughed at, thought of as old fashioned etc.
In some countries, christianity is so at odds with society, you get killed for it. We see it happen in Africa,
Asia, parts of the middle east.
1. Standing up for God always has a reaction.Standing up for what you believe will do one of two things. 1. Get people angry2. Motivate People to want to know what you believe.
In this story from Joshua people aligned themselves with God’s people, admittedly by deceit, but they aligned themselves with the Israelites and that made them targets for war. 4 “Come up and help me attack
Gibeon,” he said, “because it has made peace with Joshua and the Israelites.”
I was once asked if I would die for my faith. My answer was I suppose so, if I had to. What ifs are hard to work out, and I hope that it doesn’t come to that here in
Australia. But it is a sobering thought, would I??
Does my christianity so stand out that it makes people think about what they believe? Does my christianity annoy people? I annoy people – but does what I believe in annoy people?
Think about that?
2. Notice here that Joshua and his people came to the aid of the people who had tricked them. They held their end of the bargain, even though they could have used this as an excuse to get out of the agreement. Just let the enemy wipe ‘em out then we don’t have to worry about them anymore. That was not Joshua’s angle. The are now his responsibility. JOS 10:7 So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men.
Joshua took his agreement seriously to a point he took the best. Give people we are responsible for the best we have. This was not something to just pass off as insignificant. He took the best. He treated the Gibeonites as part of the nation. As one of their own tribes. Again it shows the integrity of the agreement. It points out the integrity of the leader. That’s what we need to develop in our lives, in young peoples lives, in the leaders of the future. Christian integrity. In reality, we need to give our best even for people who makes us uncomfortable, trick us, treat us different. One of the saddest things I have ever heard was when I suggested a church person go to a fellow church member to have his car repaired and he said and I quote “I don’t get anything done by christian business people – they rip you off.” It is sad, and from what I see not true, in fact I see so many christian business people losing money to help people. But what is tragic is that this guy had been so hurt by fellow christians that he did not even trust them with his car. As christians we need to trust each other with our lives, with all our possessions, with our kids, with everything. The integrity MUST be there – otherwise it is not displaying a Christlikeness.
3. Notice here that God again is in control.. 8 The LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.”God has control even of war. MMMM, interesting concept isn’t it. Let’s put it differently, God is control of a football match. Does God interfere with the bounce of a football? Whose side is God on on Wednesday night.? Will the ball bounce good for Joey Johns but bad for Darren Lockyer? Can God do that? Emphatically yes, but is it the way HE works? Most probably not.
God is in control of lives and events. How did God make the Israelites win? It doesn’t say? Did swords not go into the bellys of the Israelites while they went straight to the heart of all the other ites.? Doesn’t say. The bible doesn’t say a lot. God created doesn’t say how, just that he did. God could have done it in six clicks the fingers, doesn’t say how just that he did. Doesn’t say how Jesus got resurrected does it? No just that He did. I have a question? Did Jesus get stiff and sore muscles after the crucifixion? I mean he got beaten up, hung on a cross, laid in a tomb for 3 days, did he get stiff. Doesn’t say if He had to stretch? Doesn’t say how he became alive again – but He did.
4. Here is an amazing thing, God is not only in control, He gives us the resources to do things for Him. Look at this.
JOS 10:12 On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of
Israel: “O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the
Valley of
Aijalon.”
JOS 10:13 So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,
as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for
Israel!
Again, it doesn’t say how, but God gave them time to do what needed to be done. God provides us with what we need to get His job done. Notice I said “Get His job done”. Not get what we want done. We learnt a couple of weeks ago that our primary job I life is to glorify God – we need to be about getting things done that God wants done. We have the resources – us.If need be – God can stop the sun, so what will he give us to achieve his purpose here in Yeoval? When I read this I had a funny thought. We have to be careful what we pray for. Why? Because if we pray that we need more time – we might lose our job and have a lot of time If we pray that we need more money – we might get a higher paid job so we can give more. If we pray we want a bigger Sunday school – there might be a lot of pregnant women in church. If we pray for our next door neighbor to come to church – we might get an opportunity to ask them.
Here is the thing – we are the resources, we are all here for a reason – to glorify God with whatever we have. The sun may not stand still – but us all being here together is.
5. The last point I want to look at tonight has to do with that – in a round about kind of way.The five king guys ran away and hid. Remember a few weeks ago we talked about tactical retreat or as Monty Python fans know it “Run Away” – well these five guys knew all about it – and they did. They took it one step further – they hid in a cave.But they got found. You cant hide from God. God was going to deal with these guys. In the end he did.Now some people have issues with the way that Joshua treated them. He killed them. That doesn’t sound very nice.26 Then Joshua struck and killed the kings and hung them on five trees, and they were left hanging on the trees until evening.
What’s more – God told his people to wipe out everyone in the area. That’s not very nice. I thought God was loving. You may not like this answer – for God to be loving He also has to be fair. These kings lived disgusting lives. They worshipped pagan Gods, sacrificed their children, participated in disgusting sexual activities. IF God wanted His people pure, they couldn’t live with them. I imagine that God gave them opportunities to get right with Him but they obviously didn’t.
God used sinful people to judge the Israelites later one, then when the Israelites turned back to God – He punished the sinful nations – why? Because he is loving and just.
We believe that to have a relationship with God, we have to know Jesus. We believe that if we don’t the consequence is hell or separation from God. That is because God has a standard. Believe in Jesus and know God, go to heaven and get blessed. If not, miss out – go to hell, and never get anything good again.
You cant hide from it. It may not seem fair sometimes but it is the way God has explained to us that it works. Now there are a lot of other issues here that we do not have time to look at – come see me if you want to follow it through.
The issue is – are we trying to hide? Or are we doing What God wants?
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