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Stop,Look and Listen

Ashford Baptist church.
Joshua is standing on the banks of Jordon about to step into the promised land and the words he gets from the Lord is in Chapter 1 vs 9.
'Have I not commanded you,be strong and courageous.DO not be discouraged,do not be afraid for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.'
There were three issues discussed in the setting.
1.How to deal with sometimes strange and enigmatic plan of the Lord.
After forty years in the desert,they come across the first city,Jericho-a city strong and powerful with solid walls and soldiers within it,all of us would imagine they would be raring to go but when the order comes in from the Lord,it is not what they expected.
For six days they are just supposed to walk around the Jericho wall and on the seventh day they are asked to go around it seven times and shout.
Interesting thing is they do do what the Lord says and the battle is won.Counter intuitive and strange it may seem but the peace of God will go with us.We have so many examples in the bible.Abraham,PAul,Gideon...
2.How to deal with setbacks.
By CHapter 7 everything seems to be going wrong when they deal with the Amorites.Joshua's confidence is gone for a sixer but in vs 10 God rebukes Joshua.'Stand up!'He says and He reveals the cause of the setback.
Joshua deals with the sin in the camp and then he hears from God again,'Do not be afraid..do not be discouraged...'
God's purposes may get delayed but they will not get derailed.It will move forward.
It will test our resilience ,just how serious are we?How able to persevere?
3.Setbacks caused by our own failings.
Joshua fails to enquire of God when he deals with the people of Gibeonites.He signs a treaty with them whcih leads to a lot of mess.He repents and is on track when he hears from God again.
4.Oppositions from the outside.
After the southern kings are defeated the northern kings are worried.The bible says they were as numerous as the sand in the sea and yet the Lord reiterates His promise to Joshua.
The chapter 12 is a long list of kings Joshua and the army of God defeated even as they entered the promised land.Then they divide the land and finally they renew their covenant to the Lord.

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