THE LORD SPOKE (March 30)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: Joshua 10-11

“There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to the voice of a man.” (Josh. 10:14)

Indeed! And aren’t you glad?! Aren’t you glad that God listens to the voice of a man? Where would we be if He did not hear our prayers?

Joshua was at the end of his rope. They’d marched all night (Josh. 10:9) and then fought all day (Josh. 10:13). That’s an important detail. He wasn’t back in camp in Gilgal holding a prayer meeting. Not that there’s anything wrong with a prayer meeting but there’s a time to pray and there’s a time to act and this was the time to act. (See Joshua 7:10-11 for a similar situation where the Lord had to tell Joshua to stop praying and get busy with his job.)

Joshua prayed as though he never worked and then he worked as though he never prayed. That’s a winning combination because God expects us to ask Him for everything, to commit all our anxieties to Him, to pray without ceasing. That must come first, lest we run the risk of trying to solve our own problems in the power of the flesh.

But then there is a divine/human cooperative that takes over. God gives us the physical strength, the mental capacity, and the resources and abilities to answer our own prayers. There’s still (always) the risk of trying to do it in our own strength but there is certainly the element of obedient action on our part.

Look at Joshua. He did everything he was supposed to do: he actively trained his men for war, he sent out spies and made sure he was familiar with the terrain, he got all the necessary supplies together, he set the alarm clock so he could move out at zero hour, he pushed his men to the top of the hill and fought bravely across the plateau, he pursued the enemy to drive him completely out. But he ran out of time. He was at the end of his rope. He cried out to the Lord for help.

And “the Lord listened to the voice of a man”. He’ll do the same for you. Call on Him!


New Testament: John 21

Have you ever noticed how a particular scent can bring back memories in an instant? Something you smell can transport you back miles and years to an event or memory from the past. Most likely, that happened to Peter in this chapter. When he got ashore and smelled the “fire of burning coals” (Jn. 21:9) he no doubt had a flashback to that night in the courtyard of Caiaphas when he’d denied the Lord three times. The word for “coal fire” is a peculiar Greek word only used twice in the whole New Testament - John 18:18 and John 21:9. The smell of those coals must have brought back a flood of memories.

Everything else did too. He’d seen those hands before giving out bread and fish on that same shoreline. He’d heard that voice before saying, “Follow me!” at that same corner of the lake. He’d felt that same rush of joy before when the Master said, “I have a job for you to do.”

In a moment of time, Peter learned that loving God properly will (1) free you from your past, (2) give you a mission and real purpose for your present, and (3) take away all your fears about the future. He’d been learning about it for three years but he finally understood what it meant to move from fisherman to shepherd. Later he would pen these words:

Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers - not because you must but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.... Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. I Pet. 5:2-4,6

It’s remarkable that John chose to end his Gospel in this way. In vs. 25 he tells us that there were many other things that Jesus did which were not recorded. In fact, if you put everything together from the four gospels combined, we have only about 52 days of Jesus’ life recorded for us. Out of 1000+ days of public ministry that’s not much! Yet John chose the restoration of Peter as his closing story.

That’s because every one of us has need of restoration. We’ve each one stumbled from time to time along the path. The Savior graciously reaches out to us and says, “Get up again - I’ll help you. I have a job for you to do.”