Word of Encouragement (05/25/2023)

And they answered Joshua, "All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. ¹⁷ Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you, as he was with Moses! ¹⁸ Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous." (Josh. 1:16-18)

This morning, let us reflect on the words of the promise the two and a half tribes made to Joshua. This promise was for total obedience: “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you.”

Some may feel uncomfortable about this kind of total allegiance to a person. People are fallible; therefore, true is the saying, “Power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Even Joshua was a fallen man, and therefore it would be foolish to render to him absolute subjection. But the two and a half tribes pledged this allegiance not to the person Joshua but to God’s servant, Joshua. It was in their confidence in the LORD that they made this pledge. When I was in high school before I got my driver’s license, I was getting a ride from one of my friends, who was notorious for bad driving. As I got in his car, he had a sly smile and asked me, “Do you trust me enough to ride with me?” To that, I replied, “I certainly don’t trust you, but I trust God!”

They were justified in their confidence. Why did Moses die before they entered the promised land? Why was he not allowed to enter the land after all those years of faithful service? Because he dishonored the LORD once! How? Instead of speaking to the rock, he struck it out of his anger against the rebellious people. If God was that exacting with his faithful servant, Moses, could they not trust Him to keep Joshua in line if he tried to go rogue for some reason? Their pledge of absolute obedience to Joshua was out of their absolute confidence in the LORD. (Now that the church has received the whole Bible and the Holy Spirit, everyone is subject to church discipline, including the church officers.)

This prayer is a good reminder that God deserves our total, absolute obedience. We should do all that God has commanded, not just some, not even most. We should go wherever He sends us, whenever He calls us, and however He wants us to go. Remember the obedience jingle? “Right away, all the way, and the happy way!” But just because we can’t obey all of God’s laws perfectly doesn’t mean we can choose what laws to obey and not to obey. Of course, we cannot do all that God commands at the same time; we can obey God only one law at a time because we are finite, and we are confined to time and space. Even so, we often don’t do what we are supposed to do and how we are supposed to do it. We must submit ourselves to all God’s laws. We must not view any of God’s laws to be undoable or unnecessary when time and situation call for our obedience.

Instead of picking and choosing what laws to obey, we should submit ourselves to God’s absolute sovereignty and embrace all that God has commanded us as our Christian duty. If we did that, we would pray with a greater sense of urgency and dependency. May the Lord humble us to obey Him in all things and, in doing so, discover and experience the wisdom and goodness of His ways!

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