Friday June 21
The Voice of Truth vs. The Voice of Failure
Joshua 8:1-8
1 Now the LORD said to Joshua: "Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed; take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.
2 And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its cattle you shall take as booty for yourselves. Lay an ambush for the city behind it."
3 So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai; and Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of valor and sent them away by night.
4 And he commanded them, saying: "Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready.
5 Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city; and it will come about, when they come out against us as at the first, that we shall flee before them.
6 For they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city, for they will say, 'They are fleeing before us as at the first.' Therefore we will flee before them.
7 Then you shall rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand.
8 And it will be, when you have taken the city, that you shall set the city on fire. According to the commandment of the LORD you shall do. See, I have commanded you."
In Joshua 8 Israel has the opportunity for a new beginning after a humiliating defeat at Ai. But even after sin has been confessed and dealt with, we still might feel defeated in our spirit because of our failure. Joshua personally must have felt like, as a leader, the defeat was his fault, and the voice of failure was loud in his ears. He might have sensed the glares and stares of the people, and maybe heard them whispering about him and questioning his wisdom.
For us it might be when we lost our job, flunked the exam, or dropped out of school. It could be that your marriage went south, or your business went broke. We even begin to question ourselves and feel disqualified. Our self-worth drops to zero. But that is when we need to listen to the voice of truth from the Word of God. That is when Jehovah spoke to Joshua with a word of encouragement! (v. 1). “Don’t be afraid or dismayed. Don’t stay in the cesspool of self-pity but trust me.”
Over the past several years one of my favorite verses has become Psalm 9:10; “And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.” Joshua must have remembered his meeting with the Commander of the LORD’s army outside the wall of Jericho (Johsua 5:14). Maybe he also recalled the altar Moses built after they defeated Amalek in Exodus 17:15; “And Moses built an altar and called its name, Jehovah-Nissi. (The-LORD-Is-My-Banner).
We need to remember 1 John 1:9; “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And in the following chapter, 1 John 2:1-2; “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”
We might also recall 1 John 4:4; “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
Yes, my friend, the voice of Truth can become louder than the voice of failure if we will remember the great Name of our Jehovah and seek Him with our whole heart. There are so many verses that come to mind but let me share this passage from Romans 8:31-39; “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Today, what voice will you listen to?
God bless!
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