Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - DELIVERANCE

 DELIVERANCE

The Bible, overall, is a book of deliverance.  It tells the story of how God used Moses to help the Hebrew people leave Egypt and of the difficulties they encountered while doing so - many of which developed because of recurrent disobedience to God’s commands.  Even Moses, who led the people out, was not immune from punishment, as he too disobeyed God’s orders.  Instructed to speak to the rock to bring forth water, Moses struck it and as a result was not allowed to enter the promised land (see Numbers 20:8-11).  

Joshua succeeded Moses and he did succeed in bringing the Hebrew people into the land promised to them by God. But it was not without difficulty as there were foes to be overcome and battles to be fought before everything was accomplished. 

Joshua, however, was a strong leader and a faithful follower of God.  As He neared the end of his life, he related a short history of how God had, a number of times delivered His people from their enemies and had led them into the land of promise.  He also left them with a warning that: “If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good ”(Joshua 24:20).

After the death of Joshua, a number of people were lifted by God to lead the Israelites in their struggles against their surrounding enemies.  Some of these leaders were people who followed God and with His help delivered the Israelites time and again from danger.  Others, however, were not as heedful to Joshua’s warning and often led the people away from God’s direction.  As a result, the Israelites during such times often fell prey to the activities of their enemies.  And so it repeated, on many occasions, during the times of the Judges that when the Israelites were in tune with what God said they prospered and when they not in compliance with God they faltered.

Moses had also issued the same warning in Deuteronomy 30:

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgements, that you may live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.

But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land…”(Deuteronomy 30:15-18).

God is said to never change; therefore, what He did and warned in the days of Joshua and Moses still applies today.  When the Israelites followed God they persevered and overcame and when they wavered in their to God they were often overcome.  As we seem to diverge further and further from God’s initial ordinances and do our own thing, perhaps we should consider further what God has said. 

The Israelites, in the end, became reconciled to the fact they needed a king under God to save them.  It had come to this because “[i]n those days there was no king in Israel; [and] everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).  Look around, does it not seem as if history might be repeating itself?  In this present time referring back to the times of Joshua and Moses might be something we should think about.