Treaty
“The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: ‘Do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us, because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us.’
So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. The LORD said to Joshua, ‘Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.’”
Today’s Text: Joshua 10:1-14 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
Immediately, Joshua and Israel are put to the test. Would they be faithful to the treaty that had been made with the deceptive Gibeonites? Yes, they would. And not just half-heartedly. Joshua sent the best soldiers to defend their ally.
In this episode, we find God’s faithfulness at work through the faithfulness of God’s people. Through God’s faithfulness and the faithfulness of Israel, five kingdoms of the Amorites were defeated at once.
If Joshua and the Israelites had responded to the Gibeonites on human terms, they would have destroyed the Gibeonites themselves. No human kingdom would have blamed them.
Instead, the Israelites responded according to the word of God. They entered into that treaty before God, and so they had to be faithful to it, despite Gibeon’s false pretenses. And in Israel’s wholehearted faithfulness, God demonstrated His faithfulness to His covenant promises. Not only that, God gave Joshua confirmation of His covenant promises with a word of assurance.
There is an important lesson here for Christians and churches in the developed nations. The sense of covenant loyalty to churches has all but evaporated. In the same way, covenant loyalty to members of churches has all but evaporated.
Covenant membership in a church community is not supposed to be a trivial, casual relationship. As a pastor, it is my covenant obligation to be available for any member at any time for any issue and to intercede continually for my BASICs*. And my covenant obligation is not simply my job, it is my joy. If it is not my joy, then I am nothing more than a hired hand (John 10:12).
Being joyful is not always easy. But here is what I believe, and the word of God testifies to what I believe. Our faithfulness to covenant loyalties is the key to experiencing the power and blessing of God’s covenant faithfulness. And the keyword here is “our.”
If our covenant loyalty is to Christ, then our covenant loyalty must also be to the body of Christ, the local church. And even common human sense tells us that dividing our loyalties to multiple churches is not healthy, nor is it wise.
God certainly gives us the freedom to “shop” for a church community. But if we trust in God’s sovereignty and if we trust that God knows what is best for us, then we should trust that the church community that we choose is the church that God has chosen for us.
On the other hand, even thinking about membership and loyalty issues is quite foreign to many people in developed nations, and for sure in the US. Is it in the South Bay?
Could that be why our nation (and the world) is such a mess and why so many churches are such a mess? I believe so. But may it not be so with our Canvas family. God has put us here to renew the hope of Christ and His church in the South Bay!
Father, You are OUR God, and WE are Your people. Forgive us for taking Your sovereign hand in our spiritual lives so casually. You have given us each and every church that we might know and display Your glory. Give us Your perspective so that we might know and display Your glory. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
*Brothers and Sister in Christ
