There once was a young man who thought it would be great to be a soldier. Everyone would respect him. He would be paid for traveling and seeing the world. What could be better? It wasn’t long, though, before he found he was in a battle for his life. He had enemies who were trying to destroy him. He had to learn how to fight for his life. Many people become Christians thinking this will be the end of all their problems, God will take care of everything and now life will be smooth and perfect. Then they, too, find out they are in a battle with an enemy committed to destroying them. As Christians we, too, must learn to fight for the victory that is ours. Its always been that way for God’s people.
Genesis begins with man in God’s presence in Eden, but sin soon changes that and the book ends with the Jews in slavery in Egypt (a picture of the world). In Exodus we see God’s redemption by the innocent blood of the lamb and His deliverance by power through the Red Sea. Leviticus contains God’s directions for His newly-redeemed people. In Numbers we see redeemed mans first attempts (and failures) to walk by faith. Deuteronomy is a reminder of how God has always been faithful to His people. Then in Joshua the battles begin! Where as God provided salvation and did their first fighting for them, now His people are required to learn to fight for themselves.
Crossing the Jordan and entering the land of Promise didn’t mark the end of the battle but the beginning! While we don’t fight Canaanites and Philistines, we do have enemies trying to destroy us: the world, Satan and his forces and our sin nature. He has freely provided salvation and fought our first battles for us. But now He expects us to fight to gain the victory He has provided. Of course He helps us, as any parent would help their children learn to grow and mature. But also like a good parent, He doesn’t do for us what He expects us to do for ourselves. So we shouldn’t be surprised at the battles we face, but we do need to learn to fight as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The book of Joshua is God’s warfare manual for His warriors today. You have enemies trying to destroy you., so don’t be surprised if life seems like one battle after another. This new series of blogs will look at lessons in the book of Joshua that will help us have victory. Start reading the book of Joshua and learn about how victory can be yours.
(If I can answer questions or offer personal counsel, or if you would like a free copy of my Spiritual Warfare Handbook, email me at Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org or download it from http://sw.christiantrainingonline.org/. My next book, Spiritual Warfare in the Bible, which is a more advanced treatment of spiritual warfare, is also available there for free.)