Month: May 2021

178. Lord Kills and Makes Alive

1 Samuel 2:6 The Lord killeth and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up.

These words are from the Song of Hannah, who is giving thanks to the Lord for giving this barren woman a son, Samuel. It is similar in tone to the Magnificat of the Virgin Mary in Luke 1. Both Hannah and Mary sing the same theme: the Lord brings down the proud and mighty and raises up the humble and lowly. They were the lowly ones whom God has favored with grace and lifted up. This Great Reversal theme runs throughout Scripture. “God opposes the proud but give grace to the humble [1 Peter 5:5]”

The inherent promise is: The Lord makes alive, brings up, makes rich, and lifts up. This promise is given to those who know they are spiritually dead before God, and they admit their spiritual poverty and lowliness. Jesus has good news for the poor, the meek, the hungry, etc., for they will be “Blessed,” as Jesus promises in the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount.

The further promise, that doesn’t seem like a promise, is that the Lord also kills, brings down, makes poor, and brings low. This is a promise, for such a belief is necessary before a sinful human being will believe and receive the grace of God. The hammer of the Law convicts of sin and induces repentance and humility. Then the sweetness of the Gospel forgives sin and produces faith and life. Both words are absolutely necessary, so God does them both through His Word: He kills and He makes alive. Killing and bringing down is necessary in order to break pride and kill selfish sin. The Law does that. Then the heart is soft and broken, ready and able to receive forgiveness, grace, mercy, salvation and new life. The Gospel does that. Both Law and Gospel are vital: Revelation 3:17, 18: “For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked….Buy from me….” Therefore, God kills sin and death, and makes alive with righteousness and life.

177. Lord Shall Rule

Judges 8:23 And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you.

After Gideon (and God) delivered the people from the Midianites, they wanted him and his sons to rule over them, foreshadowing the Israelites later desire to have a king to rule over them. God consented to His people and gave them Saul as king. Samuel had warned them that the Lord is your king and ruler; you don’t need a human king. And the rest is history, as recorded in the Samuels, the Kings, and the Chronicles.

Gideon refused to be king and assume the rule for himself and his sons. The reason for his refusal is this: “The Lord shall rule over you.” This Gideon spoke in faith, and it turned out to be a true promise for all the people of God through all ages. He himself did not know the far-reaching extent of this simple word. The Lord did, and does, and will rule over God’s people spiritually through time and actually in eternity.

When Jesus entered earth He declared: “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” The kingdom has come in the person of the Christ, and the Kingdom is the spiritual rule of God over all the believers in Christ, who are under His sovereign Lordship in the invisible and eternal Kingdom of God. This prophesied sovereign kingdom rule is a return to Paradise before the Fall. Adam, and we are in Adam, did not want anyone to rule over him. So he fell. And the history of earth people ever since exhibits the folly of rejecting the Rule of God. Basically, he couldn’t believe that God was good. So humans and all Creation live under the rule of sin, Satan, and death. But the Lord promises to regain sovereignty and rule over His people for their good. This promise is fulfilled: The Lord shall rule over you. And that’s a good thing. Thank God for His Kingdom Rule.

176. You will not Die

Judges 6:23 And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.

Gideon had just seen the Angel of the Lord appear to him. Naturally, he was frightened at seeing the Angel of the Lord face to face. Everyone knew that no human being could come face to face with God in His Glory without being fearful of being consumed by such Holiness confronting the sinner. This appearance of God to a human happened several times in Scripture, and each time fear and dread takes hold of the person to whom God appears.

This will always be our immediate response. The next words of God are always the same in some form: “Fear not.” Here the Lord also says, “Peace be to you.” This is God’s gracious response to our natural fear: Grace and Peace. There is nothing to be afraid of. I love you. Then the human’s response is worship and thanksgiving.

God promise us settling peace, courage in the presence of troubles, and confidence in the face of death. “You will not die.” This means you will not die when you are confronted with the presence of God Almighty (which you should, because of sin). The power, glory, might and holiness of God is overwhelming. However, the glorious Good News is that the Love of God, His grace and mercy, His peace and assurance, is even more overwhelming. The overwhelming and awesome power of God’s Love is so much more wonderful than we can believe. And we certainly cannot feel it in its fullness. Thankfully, we get glimpses, as through a glass darkly.

But by God’s miraculous working through the Holy Spirit coming on the Gospel we are able to believe it. When we believe it we are changed. We are given superhuman courage to face any danger or obstacle, like Gideon with only 300 men. No one would believe what Gideon ended up doing, unless he had a “God meeting.”

The “Angel of the Lord” is a technical term signifying most likely the preincarnate Son of God (the Second Person) taking on a visible form to grant courage and faith. “You will not die,” said Jesus, as a promise to us regarding those who believe in Him as the Resurrection and the Life. “Everyone who believes in me shall never die.” This Holy God, with overwhelming Love, appears to us every time we hear the Gospel, remember our Baptism, receive the Lord’s Supper, or repent and believe.

175. Never Break Covenant

Judges 2:1 And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out o Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which sware unto your fathers; and I said I will never break my covenant with you.

One thing is certain and sure for us, as certain as can be, that God will keep His part of the covenant promises. There is an Old Covenant, or Testament, and a New Covenant, or Testament. They are one and the same. Both are based on the shed blood and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. “Old” means the earth time before Jesus came to earth; “New” means the time after He did what He did.

A Covenant is a solemn agreement, verified by oath, that each party to the covenant promises to do certain stipulated things for the other. The covenant between Man and God is different because one side broke the covenant and the other side kept it. The history of the Bible is the story of covenants between God and us, and it is the story of breaking and keeping. And we know which side does which. God promises to save and protect us, which He does. We promise to keep the Commandments, which we don’t. One gives death; the other gives life.

There is a one-way covenant, in which God alone enters into covenant promise and says He will do what He promises, whether Man keeps his part or not. The is a two-way covenant, in which both sides make promises, and if one side breaks the covenant it is null and void and does not have to be honored.

The one-way covenant is all grace. The two-way covenant is all works. The Good News is that the Son of God became a human being to keep the covenant completely for all humans. Therefore, the covenant is intact and God is bound to keep His word. The other part of the Good News is that the one-way Covenant of Grace is all God’s doing. He keeps His promises no matter what.

Moses and Joshua are now dead and gone; what will the people do? They still have God and His covenant promise. And all they need to know is that the Lord will keep His covenant with them. God brought them from the house of bondage to the Promised Land of freedom. Jesus brings us from bondage to sin to the Kingdom of God, from a world of darkness and death into His glorious light and life. God will never break His covenant promise. We know, because of Jesus and the Gospel.

174. Jesus Never Fails

Joshua 23:14 And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you, all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.

Joshua is in his last days and is ready to die. He speaks these words of encouragement to the people of God. He says that they know in their hearts and souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things promised by the Lord. “Not one thing has failed.”  We say, “Jesus never fails.” God keeps His promises. He will do for you what He says He will do. “If I say you have forgiveness of sins and everlasting life, then you have forgiveness and life. Doubt it not. I will never fail to keep My word and promise.”

We get used to failure and broken promises both in others and in ourselves. But with God it is different. We need to get used to different: get used to the fact that God will not fail. If we can believe that promise then we can believe Jesus when He says, “Do not worry.” The Lord says to His children, “I love you and I will take care of you. Believe Me and you will not worry or be anxious about anything.” We have exhaustively looked at almost 1600 promises of God on this website. It is up to the Spirit of God to grant us faith to believe and receive them, and to believe this promise: “Not one good thing has failed, and I will never fail you. My Word is Truth; I will sanctify you in the Truth.” All the good things God has spoken will surely come to pass, and if it hasn’t happened yet, it most certainly will.

God has given so many good things and rich blessings that it exhausts us to try to count them, remember them, and thank God for them. But ask Him for more. Jesus says in Matthew 7.11: “How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” And of all the good things God has spoken not one has failed, and so we know in our hearts that in an uncertain future not one good thing that God has promised will ever fail.

173. God fights for you

Joshua 23:10 One man of you shall chase a thousand for the Lord your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you.

God promises to fight for you. The Lord has fought the Enemy for you and defeated your enemies at the cross and the tomb. The Lord will come at the End and fight against all evil in the last great battle and send all evil to the lake of fire never to be heard from again forever. We Win! The Lord is fighting for us right now while we live and believe in Him. Sin is forgiven and cast away; Death and the grave are being removed of their sting; Satan and his demons are being cast out and driven away.

Yes, the Church is the house of Israel. “Israel” means “God fights.” Our God and Lord Jesus Christ is not like a smiling grandpa in a wheelchair; He is a Strong Warrior God who holds all our spiritual enemies under foot. For if Sin is forgiven then Death has no claim upon us, and Satan has no right to our soul. They cannot destroy; they cannot win. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is fighting for the Church, His people.

With Christ, by Christ, and in Christ, the Lord promises us one man of us will chase a thousand. If God is for us who can be against us? “He’s by our side upon the plain, with His good gifts and merit.” God and I are a majority against any number of fierce foes. The promise is not just for Joshua’s people, but also for us. The “one man of you” is the Man Christ Jesus. He and I will chase a thousand demons. The Prince is the Old Evil Foe: “He can harm us none; he’s judged, the deed is done. One little word can fell him.”

We don’t try to fight our spiritual battles alone. We are weak; we will lose by ourselves. It is the Lord who fights for you. By faith in Christ, He leads me from victory unto victory. My flesh is too weak against sin and evil; my Jesus is too strong for sin and evil. Repent and trust the promise.

172. Conquer your Enemies

Joshua 10:25 And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom ye fight.

Joshua repeats to the people what has been told to him from the Lord: Do not be afraid or dismayed, but be strong and of good courage. You can be fearless and courageous because the Lord will so vanquish all your enemies against whom you fight. They had just defeated five Canaanite kings, killed them, and put their feet upon their necks as a graphic picture of the overcoming power of the Lord over all the enemies of God and His people.

These are written for our learning that we also may not fear but take courage and comfort from the picture of absolute authority and victory over our spiritual enemies. Our spiritual enemies are ever present to try to destroy the soul and keep us from entering the Kingdom of God. But by faith we are in the Kingdom (actually the Kingdom is in us) and we exercise Jesus’ authority over our enemies.

Pagan religion and false gods are present in the world around us, too, and these ways of thinking and believing are actual living beings and spiritual forces, who are constantly trying to prevent us from enjoying eternal life under the loving rule of God in His Kingdom. The battleground is the heart where the Kingdom lives and reigns. We enter the kingdom by being born from above and we hold on to it by the power of the Spirit who keeps us in the one true faith.

We have this promise of victory, and we have this image of placing our feet upon the necks of our vanquished spiritual enemies, so that we may enjoy life in the kingdom of God. When sin gets us down, when death looms nearby, and when Satan lies to us we remember that we are the ones, under Jesus, with the conquering feet trampling the devil and all evil underfoot. The Lord has done and will do this.to all our enemies. So we should have a daily victory celebration.

171. Lord will do Wonders

Joshua 3:5 And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

This promise, of course, is specific for a particular event for one time, one place and one people. The Lord caused the waters of the Jordan River to stop flowing so that all the people could cross over on dry land into the Promised Land. And so it happened as promised. The wonders of that miraculous event were memorialized and taught for centuries to come.

The truth of that particular promise may also be applied to us in regard to the “signs, miracles and wonders” that the Lord is going to do in our lives. The greatest wonder that the Lord ever did for us was the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our forgiveness, life and eternal salvation. And many wonders have followed from that Christ-event for the disciples of the New Testament age and for Christian believers throughout the world even until this day.

We do well to remember and believe these words (“tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you”), and apply the promise to our own present needs and answers to prayers according to the will of God. Our Lord is still doing wonders among us. Most of the “wonders” that God does in our lives very often don’t look like more than natural occurrences and coincidences. But sometimes they are truly wonders, because they cause us to wonder how they happened. Sometimes miracles occur that cannot be explained away. If we believe we will attribute the wonders to the Lord who can and will do great things when and where He pleases.

Joshua said, “Sanctify yourselves.” And so should we. What does that mean? We cannot truly “make ourselves holy” for we are spiritually blind and dead in sin, utterly powerless to do anything holy. We sanctify ourselves by daily repentance for sin and faith in Christ for forgiveness. Only God Himself can make us holy: He does so through the work of Christ and working out of His work by the Holy Spirit operating through the spoken or written Word of Gospel. When we hear the gospel and believe it we are “sanctified,” by God, not by ourselves. Jesus Christ is our sanctification. We believe in Him and in so doing we have “sanctified ourselves.”

Once we have repented and believed we get ready to see the Lord at work in life to do wonders among us. We keep our eyes of faith open for “God sightings,” for we would miss them if we were not open and looking and ready for our Lord to show up and do a wonderful thing. We don’t say, “the river just stopped flowing at the right time;” Instead, we thank God for doing a wonder.

170. With You Wherever

Joshua 1:9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

We have many repeated promises in Scripture that God will be with us always, wherever we are and wherever we go. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. He sends the Holy Spirit to be with us because He is in us. We pray “Hallowed by Thy name,” which means we are expecting the presence and person of the Holy God to be among us and in us. We pray “The kingdom come,” which means we expect God to rule and reign among us and in us to direct our lives for our good. 

The promise of “withness” is truly wonderful and powerful, even awesome when we pause to think about it. It is heaven on earth. It is life among the dead. It is eternal life now and even forever. One Day we will see, hear, feel, and bask in the glorious and brilliant presence of the Almighty and Loving God.

The particular, specific and immediate promise to Joshua is that the Lord God will be with him wherever he goes into battle fighting a Holy War to inhabit the Land (the Kingdom of God). This promise becomes a metaphor for the spiritual promise for all of God’s children as they go into spiritual warfare wherever they go throughout life. 

If God is with us, and we do not doubt that, then we may be emotionally and spiritually strong and take heart (be of a good courage) whatever calling lies before us. And we do not need to be afraid nor dismayed. We “Fear not!” because God is with us, although we should be afraid of the evil that evil can do to us. It can and does destroy the body, but not the soul. If fact, by ourselves without God on our side we will most assuredly lose the battle against Sin and Evil, Death and its effects, and Satan and the demons that try to steal, kill and destroy. But with God fighting for us and being with us we are strong to drive Evil away with a word from God. With God, we can be strong and courageous, confident and assured, peaceful and joyful all the time. Goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life, for “Thou art with me.”

169. Prosperity and Success

Joshua 1:5 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

This conditional promise sounds like a “prosperity gospel,” preaching earthly riches, but it is your way that will prosper. You will have good success in your calling. Joshua was called to be the commander of the Israelite army to conquer the enemies in the Land and inhabit the Promised Land. That was his “way.”

The same promise applies to us, each in our own unique way. Each Christian has a personal vocation, or calling, to follow in life. Actually, we all have several callings: husband, wife, father mother, son, daughter, employer, employee, career, or even a hobby. God promises prosperity and success in your calling in the first place.

In the second place, the promise applies to spiritual prosperity and success. The closer we come to meditating on the Law day and night and keeping it the more we have, use, keep, and enjoy the spiritual riches God intends for us. Spiritual prosperity and success includes such things as love, joy, peace, contentment, satisfaction, acceptance, salvation, eternal life, and a just plain happy life. Such things cannot be bought or earned. They can only be received as gifts. Faith receives. Jesus earns it all and freely gives it all. It is only our own sin and unbelief that prevents our full enjoyment of God’s prosperity and success.

The promise is based on the principle that being “in the Word” produces wonderful blessings. Psalm 1 reflects this promise: “Blessed…on his law he meditates day and night….in all that he does he prospers.” When we spend time in the Word of God it may not feel like anything better is happening, but we believe that in the spiritual life something rich and blessed is really going on. Meditate on the Word, believe it, and God will grant prosperity and success to your unique “way.”