THE LORD SPOKE (March 31)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: Joshua 12-13

What happens when you get old and there’s still a lot to do? What if you run out of time before you accomplish everything you’d hoped to do? God says to Joshua, “You are very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over” (Josh. 13:1).

Here are a couple principles to start you thinking about that:

1. You have exactly the same amount of time that anyone and everyone else has. You are responsible before God for how you use every single minute of it. You will give an account.
2. The time you have is exactly sufficient to accomplish everything that God has planned for you to do.
3. If you find yourself unable to finish the task (à la Joshua), it’s due to one of two things: (a) you didn’t use the time given to you properly, or (b) you’re trying to do things that God doesn’t intend for you to do.
4. A job finished and well-done is an honor to God and to the doer. Accomplishment and satisfaction go hand-in-hand and there is an eternal reward at the end of that road.

The words Joshua heard in Joshua 13:1 must have served as a wake-up call. The rest of the chapter and what follows indicate that he was a busy, busy man for the remainder of his days. His epitaph is one of the best that any leader could ever hope for:

Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel. (Josh. 24:31)

That whole generation and well into the next was faithful to the Lord because of Joshua’s example. That’s quite an epitaph.

How about you? What are they going to write on your stone?


New Testament: Acts 1

He’d been telling them from the beginning but their pre-conceived notions wouldn’t let them understand. They were looking for a Messiah who would initiate the Kingdom. But He kept saying that He must die. They didn’t want to believe that.

But now it had happened. They were utterly crushed at first but after His glorious resurrection had finally begun to see the significance of those many Scriptures which indicated exactly that. He would die because He had to in order to make atonement for sins. All the previous animal sacrifices suddenly made sense. He was in fact “the Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the whole world” by dying.

Now He was alive again! Could it be that now He would set up the Kingdom (Acts 1:6)? His answer was blunt. “It’s not for you to know.”

They were given a mission and the promise of the Holy Spirit for the journey. Power would accompany that quest. And indeed it did. What follows in verse 8 is an outline of just what happened in the remainder of the book:

• witnesses in Jerusalem (chapters 1-7)
• witnesses in Judea and Samaria (chapters 8-9)
• witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth (chapters 10-28)

Jesus doesn’t ignore their initial question. The answer is tucked into verse 11 and it comes from the angels who were there on the Mount of Olives at the Ascension. As the disciples stared heavenwards, they were told, “This same Jesus...will come back!” His first advent fulfilled God’s purpose that He should suffer and die. In His second advent, He will fulfill the remaining prophecies about His earthly kingdom.

“Even so, come Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).