Sunday, January 24, 2010

"Melting Hearts" and Faith

"When all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites." (Joshua 5:1)

Memorials of faith serve two purposes in glorifying God. First, they display to the next generation that God is dependable. He fulfills all His promises. A lifestyle of faith serves to display to children and grandchildren in a powerful way that God loves and cares for His own.
Memorials also serve to warn the enemy. Who wants to fight an army blessed in a supernatural way by an omnipotent God? Defending yourself against such power is futile. You become desperate (ask a Gibeonite, Joshua 9). When you survey those who stand with you, their power and yours is wholly inadequate for the needs of the hour. "When they heard... their hearts melted."
It is here that the starkest difference can be seen between the first generation of Hebrews under Moses and those under Joshua who are standing in the promised land. When the first generation heard the report of giants in the promised land, their hearts melted: "That night all of the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud." Then they grumbled. The cries of Moses, Caleb, and Joshua fell on deaf ears: "Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us."
The second generation believed those words and saw them come to pass. The Canaanites fully understood their peril because they saw the hand of God at work. They felt the sting of being alone against a powerful Enemy, the despair of finding yourself without protection. It is ironic that the Canaanites of Joshua's time saw their situation much more clearly than the Jews of Moses' time. An inability to take God into account in their military strategies cost them the promised land.

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