Skip to main content

What's Your Strategy?


 
            Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the  king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.”
                So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The LORD your God will give it into your hand.  When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the LORD has commanded. See to it; you have my orders.”  Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai—but Joshua spent that night with the people. (Joshua 8:1-9)
 
            The "Promised Land" for which we're fighting is in us. It is our thoughts, our feelings, and our wills. The enemy is sin in any of its myriad forms. The small force (three thousand men) sent on the first attack, in a face to face confrontation didn't work. It didn't work because the Israelites weren't working with God and that, of course, is the vital, critical, most important thing. I understand that, but what I want to point out is that God's strategy is not always a straight-forward, in-your-face confrontation. The Israelites probably surrounded Jericho and attacked from all sides. In today's passage, God directed them to lure the Aians out and attack from behind and in front.
            I find myself wondering about my strategy for dealing with my sin. First, I suspect that I don't send a big enough army. Secondly, I suspect that I tend to use the same strategy over and over, and I'd be willing to bet it's an "in-your-face" confrontational style. OK, I really suspect it's not so much a confrontation as it is my asking them nicely to go away one day, and inviting them to stay the next  but at my strongest, it's probably a straight-forward confrontation.
          What would it look like to circle a sin for seven days, effectively surrounding it and attacking it from all sides? What would it look like to set an ambush - to only appear to flee or submit until the ambush has done its work? How would one ambush a sin? One possibility would be to work with a fellow saint. I have a friend whose strategy to stop smoking involved keeping the cigarettes under (or perhaps in - I don't recall) her Bible. If she could not say "no" to them on her own, she had to move the Bible to get to them. That helped her.
        I'm not sure of the specifics of the alternate strategies. What works for one person with one sin on one occasion might not work for another person, or the same person with that same sin (or another) on another occasion. The key is to keep communicating with the Commander of the Lord's army and follow the strategy God gives, even if it seems bizarre.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
In the Sky:
Hunter's or Blood Moon (Super Moon because it's close)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more