A Crash Course in How not to Respond to God

Poor Israelites. You can't help but feel bad for them. Not because they went into Babylonian captivity around the time of the events we will talk about today, but because that which they did to force God to send them there will always be a crash course in how not to live when met with God's grace.

Today, we examine a few things that happened after the Babylonians came into Jerusalem. The remnant are left of the Israelites staying in Israel. And then they stop ignoring the prophet Jeremiah for just a little bit. I guess they figured that his preaching of the impending captivity didn't seem so far-fetched anymore.

So they come to him, and ask him to beseech the Lord on their behalf. Finally, they are willing to serve the LORD! After all this time, they are prepared to make sacrifices. See what they ask Jeremiah in Jeremiah 42:1-6,

"Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near, And said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:) That the Lord thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do. Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you Then they said to Jeremiah, The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the Lord our God."

I bet you're not surprised to learn that they don't actually obey the voice of the Lord. They want to head to Egypt, but the Lord tells Jeremiah that they shouldn't go to Egypt because they will die there, but the Lord would protect them if they remained in Jerusalem.

So, naturally, the Israelites would say that Jeremiah who hadn't steered them wrong yet, was obviously making this up and didn't actually hear any of this from the Lord. Yeah, that seems really smart.

So because the direction seemed outrageous, the Israelites rationalized that it wasn't from God. Just ridiculous. Well, the laugh is on them. The Lord obviously was telling the truth and they die in Egypt.

Let's try not to be messed up with the ridiculousness of a command that we refuse to accept that it is a command from the Lord. There will always be commands that seem ridiculous, but Isaiah 55:8-9 proclaims,

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Why we should Put the Death Penalty to Death

In a time of ancient history, the Israelites were setting up what many call today the first representative government. This term paints a picture in our minds that is actually quite different from the reality in my mind.

Now don't get me wrong, there were definitely different tribes who did have certain representatives in place. However, the government was very much a monarchy, where the Monarch led through the representative of men like Moses, Joshua, and so on. 

The Lord leads the Israelites and establishes their system of government through the works of Moses. (Indeed if you ever truly want to know how a government should be structured, I think you should probably follow God's model here.) 

But the key point is that the Lord was leading the Israelites along the way. He established the death penalty clearly at this time, and He administered it with perfect grace. We see this most clearly with the death of Achan after he stole from the Lord Himself. 

So then how could I say that I was against the death penalty with this in mind? Clearly I don't think I'm better than God. 

Indeed I don't. No man is going to execute such perfect judgment. That is actually the exact reason that I am against the death penalty in our world today. 

As I made the distinction earlier, God was the leader of the ancient Israelite government, and when he decides who should live and die, he does do so perfectly. 

Today, we have no government that is directly led by God. Yes, I know that God is sovereign in all he does, but if we use that excuse here, we might as well stop worrying about anything we do because God is in control of everything. 

At the end of the day, I agree with the idea of a death penalty in principle (an eye for an eye), but I do not trust the human errors that come with a government administered by men. Death is a very permanent state that no man can undo. It seems too much for me to trust a justice system administered by men in such a crucial area. 

Indeed our current system admits the possibility of mistake. There are massive initiatives put in place to allow for an appeals process, once again administered by men, to sift through and ensure there are no innocent people who die.

This appeals process probably catches most mistakes, but it too will not be perfect. Yes, I doubt that the United States has put to death too many people who are innocent, but even one would be too many. 

Also, who are we men to decide that certain crimes are worthy of death anyway? We're not God. We don't make those types of decisions. Or we don't until we come together and form governments. 

In conclusion, I leave you with the words of Gandalf the White, 

"Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." 

Except of course the Lord. he does see all ends, and everything entirely, and that omniscience and sovereignty is exactly why we should leave the decision of who lives and who dies up to him.

Joshua and the Conquest of Canaan

Joshua, the son of Nun is on a mission from the Lord. He has just crossed over Jordan to take back the land that Lord has promised to Abraham and his descendants ages ago. But of course, there are a few bumps in the road.

Now it starts out very smoothly. After crossing Jordan, Joshua receives instructions to simply walk around the city of Jericho according to certain specifications. He and the Israelites obey these strange commands, and Jericho is conquered.

But as aforetime discussed on this blog, a man by the name of Achan has disobeyed the Lord. This disobedience has kindled His anger, and He has temporarily turned His back.

As the Israelites approach the city of Ai, Joshua sends out some spies and consults with them as to the abilities of the Israelites to battle this city. The spies tell him simply in Joshua 7:3,

"And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labour thither; for they are but few."

But in all this discussion, there is one person Joshua forgets to consult. It is the being he should have consulted first, but instead he is left out of the situation entirely. Joshua never asks the Lord for guidance.

This mistake costs the Israelites the battle and 36 men. Without the assistance of the Lord, the Israelites are powerless to confront the people of Ai.

Now that it has become clear that the Israelites don't have the power in and of themselves to fight their battles and that the Lord didn't fight this one, Joshua goes to the Lord in prayer. The Lord tells Joshua how to remove the accursed thing from Israel.

Joshua obeys his commands. Achan is burned to death. The Lord is set to fight for his people once again. As Joshua 8:1-2 state,

"And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land: And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it."

With the Lord's power by their side, the Israelites annihilate the children of Ai. And the power of the Lord their God is heard abroad all of Canaan.

The Gibeonites determined they didn't stand a chance against the people of Israel in battle. It was decided that their best chances of survival came from disguising themselves as travelers from a far country wishing to serve the people of the Living God. To their ears, servitude sounded better than certain death.

The plan was simple: wear old clothes, pack supplies of mouldy bread and old bottles of wine, and insist that when you left, all your provisions were new. It was a plan that could easily fool any man, but could never fool the Lord.

Yet when faced with this situation, Joshua and the other leaders of Israel again made the mistake of failing to consult the Lord. As Joshua 9:14-15 states,

"And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them."

Whoops! Here again another stumblingblock in the way of the Israelites!

Both of these situations could have well been avoided, but in both, Joshua and the leaders of Israel do not go to the Lord until AFTER they have made the mistake. This would be akin to buying a security system after a disaster strikes. Sure, it will help you with future disasters, but it fails to aid you in the disaster that passed.

Only difference is, we cannot predict natural disasters, but we are guaranteed that we will only make a problem worse if we try to handle a situation without consulting the Lord. But yet we still only seem to want to ask God to help us AFTER we have failed on our own.

How ridiculous and illogical! When faced with any situation, we must look to the Lord first. We must not wait and call out for him to handle not only the initial situation, but also the additional problem we created when we tried to handle it on our own. The lives of Joshua and the Israelites would have been much better if they had followed this simple lesson. Similarly, if we simply trusted the Lord from the get-go, asking him as soon as conflict strikes, we would avoid much difficulty.

We are Hungry!

As I read through Numbers in my daily devotions, I came across a sad trend. The Israelites  seem to be cursed with forgetfulness. Every time a new trial comes up, they completely forget what miracles God did in their past trials and go complain to Moses about bringing them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. (Never mind for a second that Moses didn't lead them out of Egypt at all. That credit goes to the Lord, yet somehow it's much easier to target God's servant than it is to target God, isn't it?)

Nowhere is this more obvious than in Chapters 20 and 21. In chapter 20, the Israelites are distraught over not having any water to drink. The Lord tells Moses to strike a rock with his rod, and water will come out. So he did, and so it came to pass, that the Israelites were given water to quench their thirst.

You would think then that they would be content for a while, but you know they weren't. In the very next chapter, they again are without food and water, and instead of just asking the Lord to provide as he had done before, they again complain to Moses that he brought them out to kill them off in the wilderness. This time the Lord responds with punishment of fiery serpents which brought with them a deadly disease. This causes the Israelites once again to remember that their Lord is the all-powerful God.

But for how long? We know that these same Israelites as they wander for forty years will once again complain to Moses about want of water. How is it that they keep forgetting God's past miracles?

Is it possible that we ourselves keep forgetting God's majesty in our own lives? I believe too often we have our own version of short-term memory loss that limits us to see the miracles God has provided both in the Bible and our everyday life. When one forgets such things, he will find himself much more easily caught in sin and distrust in the Lord, just as the Israelites did here. That is the main reason why I think it is so important that we start our day off reminding ourselves of the Lord's majesty and power. We can do this by reading our Bible and praying to our Lord as soon as we awake in the morning. That is how we can avoid the plague of forgetfulness that affected the Israelites in this situation.