Lessons from Tough People…

For a hundred years, Noah built a boat.  Think about that.  Just him and his three sons.  “What are we going to do today Dad?”  “Build the boat.”  It would get tedious after the first twenty years.  People came to see this “do-it-yourself” project.  When they mocked him, he preached back at them.  You have to be pretty tough to work on a project for 100 years, endure abuse along the way, and see the project to the end. 

When word reached Abraham that his nephew had been taken as a prisoner of war, he instantly converted from a shepherd-businessman to a warrior.  He set out after the raiding party, boldly attacked them at night, and got back his nephew and most of the other ill-gotten gains.  You have to be pretty tough to take on the armies of four kings.

Moses went back to Egypt, back to the courts of Pharaoh where he was raised and laid down God’s demand: “Let my people go.”  It would have been so easy for him to be intimidated.  But he wasn’t.  He had a backbone stiffened by the promises of God.  Moses kept pushing against Pharaoh’s stubbornness, never backing down, never giving up.  You have to be pretty tough to stand and speak truth to power.

When Sisera, leader of the Israel’s enemy showed up at Jael’s tent, she lured him in with refreshments.  Then she waited until he was asleep, picked up a hammer and a tent peg, and drove it through his temple.  Jael was one tough woman.  She saw an opportunity and she took it.  You have to be pretty tough to hold a hammer and peg over a man who would think nothing of killing you, and then drive your point home.

The Israelite army was pinned by their enemies, the Philistines.  Jonathan, son of the King, was tired of inaction.  So, he went with his armor-bearer out to a Philistine outpost on a cliff.  He prayed if God wanted him to attack the outpost, then the Philistines would invite him up to battle.  Against all military logic, the Philistines invited him to climb the cliff.  He did, and he and his armor-bearer wiped out 20 Philistines in one battle.  You have to be pretty tough to fight in a battle where the odds are 10 to 1.

Nathan knew, like everyone else, that the math didn’t work for David’s new son.  His mom, the widow of Uriah, had married David after a period of mourning for her husband.  At the wedding, people weren’t sure if she had put on weight or if that bump meant something else.  Six months into the marriage, a big baby boy was born.  After the boy was about a year old, God spoke to Nathan and told him to confront David about his sin.  Nathan did, knowing the King could drive him from the city or have him killed.  You have to be pretty tough to tell the King he sinned, and God isn’t happy.

Daniel was always the guy who stood out.  He worked for the government, but the government was often hostile to his faith.  Jealousy caused other government officials to set him up.  He was thrown into the lions’ den to become a snack between meals.  Instead, it turned into a sleepover.  You have to be pretty tough to keep your faith when your life is in danger.  You have be even tougher to spend the night with the lions.

Jesus was tough.  His work demanded it.  First, he was a carpenter.  Jesus did hard physical labor.  Then he had to deal with crowds of people who wanted miracles or food, depending on the day.  Being “on” is exhausting.  But the toughest thing Jesus did was absorb the weight of sin on the cross.  This defies description.  The load of guilt both felt and not felt by every human being would drive most of us mad.  But Jesus was tough enough to take it, to add the weight of the world’s transgressions to his soul.  You have to be the toughest person who ever lived to let the sin of the world rest on you.

We live in tough days.  It is tempting to want to check-out, to blame other people, to respond to every critic.  We may want to say, “This battle is not worth fighting.”  When it is our turn to speak truth to power, or to confront someone with hard realities, it is tempting to just keep our mouth shut.  We might assess a situation and decide the price is too high to get involved.

This is a time for tough people.  Not heartless or callous people.  Tough people.  Tough people who do what needs to be done, who stand for something, who take action, who speak up about right and wrong.

All of these people in the Bible had something in common.  They believed they had a mission from God, and they believed God would give them all the toughness they needed for their mission. 

Being tough does not begin in the gym.  It begins in your soul.  It begins with asking God for strength, for courage.  It begins with you embracing whatever God-mission God gives you and doing it.  True toughness never forgets “Greater is he who is in you, than he who is in the world.”

An Abundance of Courage…

Talk about an impossible assignment: Joshua had been tapped to be Moses’ successor.   

Moses had an amazing backstory.  He was saved as an infant, due to the shrewd thinking of his mother and the compassion of an Egyptian Princess.  He grew up in a palace, with the most privileged members of Pharaoh’s house.  Forced to flee after he committed murder, he met a girl, got married, and wandered the back country for forty years. 

Then God spoke to him out of a bush that burned, except it didn’t burn up.  God told Moses to go back to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let my people go. Moses went, reluctantly.  Ten plagues and several encounters with Pharaoh later, the people were set free. 

You’d think his problems were over, but they were just beginning.  The people of Israel had been slaves and didn’t know how to self-govern.  They had to learn, and Moses was their teacher.  He met with God on Mount Sinai, and spoke to God face to face, like a friend.  He gave the Israelite’s their law, the foundation of their culture.  He stuck with them through their rebellion and lead them to brink of the land God promised to give them.  Then, he went up on a mountain and died, seeing the promised land, but never entering. 

 Conquering this land would be Joshua’s job.  Joshua was born a slave.  No Egyptian Princess rescued him from the Nile.  He knew what it was like to get up every day and be treated different than other men because of his racial background.  He’d worked a slave’s job with a slave’s hours.  When Joshua first appears in the Exodus story, he is down in the valley, fighting hand to hand, while Moses is on the Mountain, holding up his arms.  Moses was doing important work, no doubt, but Joshua’s job was to be in the thick of it. 

 Joshua was on the fringes, waiting on Mount Sinai while Moses talked to God.   He would stay outside and guard the tent where Moses went to talk to God.  When a battle needed to fought, or when there was a spy assignment, the job went to Joshua.  A good man.  Someone you want by your side.  But he was not Moses. 

The problem with great leaders is they all die.  When they do, someone else has to lead.  For thirty days the people of Israel mourned Moses’ death.  Then they turn to Joshua.  He’s the new leader.  This is his time. 

There is a moment when God speaks to Joshua.  We don’t know if it was in Moses’ old “God Tent” or while he was walking around the camp one day.  We do know what God said.  He started with the facts: Moses is dead.  Seems like an obvious conclusion, but maybe it was God’s way of telling Joshua nothing would bring Moses back, and there was a new mission, a mission for which he had been chosen. 

His mission?  Cross the Jordan River into enemy territory.  Take possession of the land God promised.  Fight battles.  You will win them, but you still have to fight them, God said. Then God gives him a promise: “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.”  God is making a simple point: When an elephant and an ant cross a bridge and it vibrates, it’s not the ant that does it.   

Then God gives Joshua some orders.   They are not “Round up the army.”  They are not “Get ready for battle.”  They are simple: “Be strong and courageous.”  God tells Joshua this three times.  Must be important. 

To “be strong” means to have strength to hold your position.  To “be courageous” means to have the will to go forward.  Three times God told Joshua the key to winning any battle:  Be strong.  Be courageous. 

We are in a battle, battling against a mutation of nature.  I hear over and over this phrase: “Out of an abundance of caution…”  I get the need for caution.  But I’m not so sure this should be our mantra.   

I believe this is a time to be strong.  Stand strong against anxiety.  Be strong enough to resist hoarding supplies.  Be strong and pray for our country, for the sick, for front-line providers.  Be strong and do not think yourself sick.  Teach your children how to be strong. 

Be courageous.  Be courageous and  help your neighbor.  Be courageous and encourage each other.  Be courageous and accept medical instruction.  Be courageous and endure, for “sorrow last through the night, but joy comes in the morning.”   This will pass.  COVID19 is not forever.  Be courageous and know that the God of Moses and Joshua is with you.   

This is a time for an abundance of courage.  This is a time to be strong and courageous. 

The Temptation of Moses

Imagine for a moment you are Moses.

You made a big mistake when you were young (who hasn’t) and skipped town.  You fall in love and end up working for your father-in-law because you have no other options.  For forty years you wonder the back side of nowhere, chasing sheep.  It’s a big step down for a palace prince.

One day, tending the sheep, minding your own business, going nowhere, you see a bush burning, but it doesn’t burn up.  You stop, look, and start listening to a voice that speaks to you.  God speaks to you.  Out loud.  He tells you he has a purpose for your life that is more than sheep.  Go back to Egypt, the voice commands, tell Pharaoh to let my people go.  You and God have a pretty major theological discussion.  Toward the end of the discussion you hear God’s anger rising and decide no one ever out argues God.  You decide it might be nice to see Egypt this time of year.

You go and see Pharaoh, who in an odd way is sort of a relative (all Southerners understand this). You tell him God’s plans and he is not impressed.  After nine plagues and a lot of hard-headedness on his part, you warn him something worse is coming.  Pharaoh still isn’t listening, and something worse does come and a lot of innocent people die because of him.  He decides to let God’s people go before his whole kingdom is gone.  Your people get paid to get out of town.  Before you go very far, Pharaoh changes his mind (again!), and comes after you.  God sends a hurricane wind, parts the Red Sea, and tells you to get moving.  Pharaoh follows, the wind stops, and a lot of soldiers die, because it’s hard to swim in armor.

That threat eliminated, you start toward Mt. Sinai, only to discover the people you lead are a big bunch of whiners (they were early Baptists).  They complain, God provides, but they aren’t picking up that they really can trust God.

When you finally get to Mt. Sinai, you and all the people hear the actual voice of God.  It freaks the people out, so they push you forward and say, “You talk to him and tell us what he said.”  When you go up to hear what God says, it takes a while.  After all, God is building a nation from scratch.  There are the basic laws, some discussions about holidays, talk about how to build a place of worship, and so on.  While you’re getting all this down, the people get restless, and hoodwink Aaron, your older brother, to make some idols.  This causes all kinds of trouble and the partying gets out of hand.

God tells you to step aside, he is going to make short work of these people and start over with you. 

Hit pause.  Would you be tempted by that offer?  I would.  No more children of Israel.  Now we start the children of Moses.  Has a nice ring to it.  No more dealing with these hard-headed people.  No more decision making. No more having my older brother and sister giving me that disapproving frown that says, “We could do better.”  It would be back to simple life.  Just you and the Missus, kicking back at the tent flap every evening, watching the grand-kids. 

Hit play.  In a moment of great humility, Moses prays for these aggravating people, that God will spare them and have mercy.  God does.  There are some clean up details, but before long, you and the people hit the trail, headed for Canaan, the promised land.

When you are at the doorstep of the land God promised, you send in spies.  They come back and tell you the land is better than you dreamed, but there is no way our army can beat their army.  The people believe these guys and start whining – again.  The ones at the front of the crowd pick up rocks to stone you and Aaron.  So much for loyalty.  God intervenes to save your neck and once again, declares his intention to wipe out this people and start over with you.

Hit pause.  Would you be tempted by this second offer?  I would.  Past performance is the best predictor of future behavior.  The road ahead looks like forty more years of aggravation, suffering for other people’s stupid choices. 

Hit play.  For a second time you ask God to spare his people.  Again, you plead for God to be merciful.  Again, God listens.  Again, God relents.  You realize God must trust you a lot.

Now, stop imagining yourself as Moses.  You are just you.  How many of your prayers are not for yourself, but for someone else?  Are you willing to load more aggravation onto your life so other people get a chance to follow God?  What kind of character does it take to ask God to change his plans?

Maybe the best question is not how much you trust God, but how much God trusts you?