Joshua 8 / Psalm 124 “Making Things Right with God”

READ: Joshua 8 / Psalm 124

Verse chosen for meditation: Joshua 8:1

¹ And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land.

REFLECT

In the previous chapter, we read of how one man’s (Achan) sin brought defeat to a nation. However, with humble repentance and dependence on God, that temporary defeat turned into victory against Ai, as shown in this chapter. Joshua wasted no time in coming to the Lord with his problem and found out the cause of the defeat. He then swiftly dealt confessionally with the sin by taking a cleansing action. Because of this atonement, God was no longer angry with Israel.

With Israel in the right relationship with God once again, He gave Joshua the words of encouragement we see in today’s verse. “Do not fear and do not be dismayed” is found many times in the OT, usually in battle contexts. These words of encouragement stand in stark contrast with the first time Israel attacked Ai, when no such assurances were given. God was not with them at that time because of their disobedience. Now, after making things right with God, their conquest of the promised land was back on track.

RELATE

Though most of us don’t fight physical battles, we have many other battles in our lives, in the form of battling sickness, solving a series of work problems, tackling an important presentation, or simply taking an issue up with someone. Having God with us in these battles make a whole world of difference. In some of them, God is indeed not with us, and we know this not because the result did not go our way. Rather, it is the lack of peace, confidence and assurance. Instead, we may feel anxiety, anger, bitterness, an urge to give up and unceasing worries.

By saying “God is not with us”, it does not mean God has forsaken us and does not care about us. He is close to the broken-hearted and those crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18). He loves us deeply, but he is not with us in the sense that he can’t support our ways and bless our battles if our approaches to them are sinful or not in accordance with His ways. Because Israel did not do things according to God’s instructions, they lost. They cannot continue winning unless they right this wrong. If they don’t confess this sin and go on as if nothing happened, this disobedience would continually impede them, whether God is with them or not.

I learnt this through a series of battles with an ex-colleague, who was power-hungry and highly ambitious and but lacked the necessary pedigree to back it up, so he had to resort to other means to climb. Being viewed as a threat to his personal success, I became a target of his schemes, which involved blatant lies, backstabbing and sowing discord. Inevitably, confrontations ensued. In all of this, I thought it was obvious who was in the right and thinking I’m on the side of light, wouldn’t God have been with me all the while? Why then, did I feel much anxiety, anger and bitterness through it all? What seemed like a battle of office politics was actually a spiritual battle, one where Satan could easily use my feelings to fuel certain approaches that would lead to nowhere good.

I may not have played his game by backstabbing him and all, but I did not heed many of God’s teachings as well, in loving your enemies, in depending on God and trying to discern His ways in these situations. I did not spend time asking what Jesus would have done or how I could have turned the other cheek, but decided to take these battles into my own hands, with my own sense of morality. Though I had the backing of my colleagues and bosses, that was not victory at all, because I was constantly dismayed. It touched a nerve each time I see him. It was clearly defeat. When I realised the cause of this defeat, I had to make things right with God, confessing the feelings of anger and the occasional wishing of doom to happen to this person, which allowed Satan to encroach. Confessing these sins was the first step. The next was repentance, with a conviction not to repeat them when I see this person again.

The next interaction I had with this person was a tantalising opportunity to put him in his place. He got into a pickle with his way of doing things and was in a room salvaging his situation. This room he was in, I had already booked it for an important meeting of my own. Not only did he not secure a venue which would have gotten him into trouble, he needed the space that very moment to save himself. My colleagues who hated him, were with me at that time and it seemed obvious what I would do. It’s only right that we chase him out. We won’t even need to justify that it’s not personal (Oh boy was it personal), but that we ourselves needed it for our important meeting. That was what I would have thought, if I did not make things right with God, and proceeded with my previous way of dealing with him. Instead, by the spirit’s guiding (God was finally with me again!), I recognised the trapping temptation that it was, but also it was God’s test, in whether I could love an enemy, or choose to kick him when he was down. I let him have the room, and offered to help his situation (which made me late for my own meeting). I was prepared to be scolded by my boss because I was late and had no venue. I did not want to explain fully to my boss or he would have chased the other guy out and gotten him demoted, which defeated the purpose of the grace act. I merely said it was my incompetence that a venue was not secured, apologising to the colleagues I have implicated as well. Thank God my boss let it go (he never does) and we had our meeting in the garden!

To this day, my ex-colleagues could hardly fathom my actions. To be honest, without knowing the nature of our God, I wouldn’t have understood it either. These days when we meet to catch up, they still talk about it. They reminded me that the other guy did not even say a word of thanks after that but noticed that I seemed incredibly more at peace despite that. That was the victory I needed. Now, I feel more comfortable sharing with them that my help was not conditional on his show of gratitude and remorse (he was not), but because my God would not want it any other way and doing it this way helps me internally too. I was glad I made things right with God before that faithful encounter.

Today, we still carry sins and burdens into our next battles, but don’t realise it, thinking wrongly that God is still with us in our ways. If things are not working out and it’s eating us inside out, let’s examine again our ways, and should we find unresolved issues, sort it out with God immediately and make things right before we proceed any further.

REST

Lord, I thank you for the lesson that day, which was pivotal in subsequent similar battles of my life. When I make things right with you, it allows my heart to be open to your guiding and discerning your ways better, leading to victory. May you continue to guide me so. Amen.

Chris Chong