As Joshua has dealt with the problem of the devoted things,
the Lord gives the city of Ai into his hands.
It was important that from the outset of the conquest the people know
that the possession of the Land would be conditional. Their obedience to the Lord's commands would
make a difference. They had been given
grace, promised His presence and knew that they would possess the Land but they
couldn't take all that for granted.
Grace is the principle by which they were and are His people, but once
we are His, we have a responsibility for obedience. We are always saved by grace but the covenant
relationship requires us to take on His ways for our lives or we will not
receive all He has promised. The Lord
gave Joshua a battle plan based on trickery to capture Ai and it worked to
perfection.
Judas greets Jesus as "Rabbi" while Jesus' first
word in response is "Friend."
Even at this moment when Jesus knows what is going to happen next He
calls His betrayer a friend. It had to
be incredibly painful to hear that word and yet there was no going back. The initial reaction of the disciples is bold
but surely everyone knew it was ultimately futile to fight against these
soldiers. Jesus stops the impending
melee with a word about the sovereignty of God and then, all the disciples
flee. As with Joshua, God has the
perfect plan in place and yet no one will believe He is in charge of these next
events, no one save Jesus.
Some things are matters of conscience rather than law. Freedom and individuality are important
concepts in God's plan. We have freedom
in all things unless God circumscribes that freedom for our own good or for the
sake of mission. There are some who
abstain from alcohol and some who abstain from meat, there is no general
principle involved in those things, they are matters between the believer and
the Lord. We must trust our brothers and
sisters with their freedom they have been given by the Lord unless we see an
abuse of that freedom. Freedom requires
close relationship in order that we know the limits of that freedom. God's mission requires many tactics and
requires us to be in many places, we have to be willing to go where He leads
and allow others freedom to do the same.
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