Strength For The Journey

[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Numbers 11:1-15 James 5:9

Complaining Is Contagious

Numbers 11:1-15

The mixed multitude (Num. 11:4) was probably a group of Gentiles who left Egypt with the Israelites. Although the complaining was started by the mixed multitude, the Israelites were also guilty of complaining.

This indicates how infectious a complaining attitude can be. Because every person has a sin nature, it does not take long even for believers to become disheartened and to develop an attitude of complaining against the goodness of God.

After salvation, Christians too often remember what they enjoyed in the world and occasionally long for the pleasures of sin. When this happens, the believer is guilty of leaving his first love.

Christians who have not grown spiritually as they should, through the reading of God's Word and applying it to daily life, find it easy to murmur as the Israelites did.

Only a small minority may begin the complaining, but the Christian who is not mature is also susceptible. Just as the bark of one dog can start a whole group of dogs barking, one complaining believer can affect an entire group.

Many pastors have had their hearts broken, and church work has been greatly hampered by a few disgruntled people who influence the entire church.

Every church group seems to have a few people who find it easy to complain about anything. Unless the other believers are mature, they will soon follow the pattern of the murmuring, weak believer.

"Do not complain, brethren, against one another, that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door" (James 5:9, NASB).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Numbers 12:1-16

Jealousy Uses Spiritual Cloak

Numbers 12:1-16

Miriam and Aaron were Moses' older sister and brother. But even they took issue with Moses' leadership, although at first their complaints concerned his wife.

Numbers 12 does not specifically say what Miriam and Aaron found objectionable about Moses' wife, but jealousy must have been the main problem.

This jealousy took its usual hypocritical turn. Miriam and Aaron did not talk to Moses about his wife; instead, they complained about his authority.

How easy it is to disguise jealousy beneath a cloak of zeal for the law of God or to think of oneself as pure while rebuking somebody else's faults. Real jealousy originates from power hunger, and it usually breaks out in faultfinding, just as it did in this case.

We need to spend time in the Word and be alone with God until we are more concerned about His honor than our own. We do not have to worry about competition from other believers; our concern is only to glorify the Lord in all that we do.

When a Christian is more concerned about God's honor than about his own, God will take care of his worries about competition from fellow believers.

Granted, it is much easier to say this than to really live it, but we must come to grips with this problem if we are going to have victory in our Christian lives. We must be aware of the indwelling Christ and rely on Him to give us victory in these areas.

"For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing" (James 3:16, NASB).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Numbers 13:1-3 Numbers 13:25-33 Deuteronomy 1:19-23 2 Corinthians 5:7 Colossians 2:6

Walking by Sight, Not by Faith

Numbers 13:1-3, 25-33

In addition to being characterized by unbelief, the Israelites were also characterized by self-will.

Concerning the Israelites, the psalmist said, "They quickly forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but craved intensely in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. So He gave them their request, but sent a wasting disease among them" (Ps. 106:13-15, NASB).

The King James Version translates this last verse: "He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul" (v. 15). This reveals that God sometimes permits what is not in His direct will. It also reveals that the individual loses out spiritually.

What a paradox! The Israelites were to walk by faith, but they wanted to send spies into the land (see Deut. 1:19-23). What does faith want with spies? Apparently they were more concerned about walking by sight than by faith.

Many believers today find it extremely difficult to take God at His word. Instead of walking by faith, they want proofs about the future beyond what God has said and the power He has demonstrated.

They are just like the Israelites who wanted to send spies into the land so they would know what it was like and how strong it was. Then they would choose whether or not to go in.

Every believer should remember 2 Corinthians 5:7: "(For we walk by faith, not by sight.)"

"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him" (Col. 2:6).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Hebrews 10:31 Numbers 14:26-38

God's Judgment Falls

Numbers 14:26-38

Even Joshua and Caleb, who dared to believe God, had to return to the wilderness with the others. Joshua and Caleb had to suffer along with them for 38 more years. This is an example of the way decisions affect other people.

But the faith of Joshua and Caleb was characterized by great patience. Because they believed God, they were able to endure even the experiences of the desert without losing hope.

After God pronounced that none would enter the land except Joshua and Caleb and the younger generation, the Bible records God's judgment on the ten spies. They were judged by physical death right there and then.

"The men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord" (Num. 14:36,37).

Surely this judgment caused the others to realize that the Lord was not to be trifled with. This surely underscored in their minds that God expects to be taken at His word and not mocked by unbelief.

"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference 1 Corinthians 10:4 Hebrews 9:24 Isaiah 53:4 Exodus 17 Numbers 20:22-29 Numbers 20:1-13

Christ Our Rock

Numbers 20:1-13, 22-29
The rock mentioned in Exodus 17 foreshadowed Christ on the cross because there He was smitten. However, the rock of Numbers 20 foreshadowed the ascended Christ, who now intercedes as a High Priest for believers.

The significant difference in the rocks of Exodus 17 and Numbers 20 is also indicated in that a different word for "rock" is used in these two passages.

Although both rocks speak of Christ, God was endeavoring to communicate two different things to us concerning the Person of Christ.

In Exodus 17 the rock was smitten, just as Christ was "smitten of God" (Isa. 53:4) and was "bruised for our iniquities" (v. 5).

The rock of Numbers 20 foreshadowed Christ in the heavens, as referred to in Hebrews 9:24: "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."

In the incident of Numbers 20 the rock foreshadowed the exalted Christ, and that is why it needed only to be spoken to.

It is so important that this distinction between the smitten Christ and the exalted Christ as He is foreshadowed in the two rocks be maintained.

Since the Lord Jesus Christ has been judged on the cross by having all of the sins of the world placed on Him, those of us who have received Him as Saviour need now to speak to Him for our needs.

"And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:4).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Psalm 116:15 Deuteronomy 34

The Death of a Saint

Deuteronomy 34

Alone Moses worked, suffered, met God and legislated for his people. But never was this aloneness as apparent as when he was unattended--even by Joshua, his ever-faithful servant--as he walked up Mount Nebo to die.

Alone he climbed the craggy steep. Alone he gazed on the landscape before him. And alone he lay down to die. At the moment of death he was absolutely alone--no one in Israel stood by him.

Yet God was with Moses. In a sense, God was Moses' undertaker, and the angels were his pallbearers. God was also the custodian of the grave, for no one knew where Moses was buried.

No tombstone was placed on Moses' grave--no monument to indicate the remains of this great man of God.

The epitaph of Moses was not on a tombstone but was recorded in God's eternal Word, written there by the Holy Spirit Himself. No finer epitaph for Moses could be recorded than what is stated in Deuteronomy 34:10-12.

Hebrews 11:27 could also be an epitaph of Moses' life: "He endured, as seeing him who is invisible." What a eulogy!
One reads of what many accomplished in the temporal and visible realm, but this man was ruled by the invisible. What a man of faith!

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" (Ps. 116:15).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 1:1-9 Psalm 90:2

Workmen Die, but God Lives

Joshua 1: 1-9

The first statement made in Joshua 1:2 is, "Moses my servant is dead." Moses was dead but not God.

The work of God is in no way hindered by the death of His servants, no matter how eminent they may be. The workman may be removed, but the work goes forward as ordained by God. This is God's doing.

I think of a remarkable organization that God has raised up in this century, starting it through one man. There came a day when God called that man home, and many people wondered if the organization would continue.

I can say to the glory of God that it is not only going on, but it is larger than it ever was.

When we recognize that the spiritual life is God's doing, we will begin to grow. Until we do, we will not grow.

God can change servants in order to show that He may use whatever instrument He pleases. He is not tied down by, or to, any certain individual.

God is sovereign and can terminate the ministry of any of His servants when He pleases. He may change His principle of working any time He desires. A Moses can die, but God is eternal. He never dies.

"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God" (Ps. 90:2).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Hebrews 12:1 Joshua 1:10-18

Questionable Separation

Joshua 1:10-18

A rather sad note enters in with regard to some of the tribes of Israel. They did not all have the same degree of separation from the evil around them or the same degree of surrender to God.

The background for this lies in the fact that while Moses was still leader, the Israelites conquered some of the kings on the east side of Jordan and took possession of their lands.

It was good land with strong, walled cities and a countryside ideal for the raising of cattle. Two and a half of the tribes, Reuben, Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh, asked to stay on that side of the Jordan.

It must be said on behalf of these two and a half tribes that their warriors were willing to help the other tribes take the land across the river and possess it.

But the Reubenites and Gadites wanted to return to the other side of Jordan where things were more appealing to the eye and where there was ease, comfort, plenty and riches as the world would look at it.

They tasted of the blessings of the Promised Land and helped the others to secure it, but they themselves longed for the world--its pleasures and indulgences--and were eventually trapped and ensnared by it.

This is always the danger of those who would live on the border and not get into the land.

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Heb. 12:1).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 2:1-14 Proverbs 16:7 Proverbs 21:1

A Pagan Testifies

Joshua 2:1-14

When the King of Jericho commanded Rahab to give up the two men she hid in her house, she lied to him. She said they went out at dark and she did not know which direction they took.

Rahab's lie cannot be condoned. Such deceit cannot be justified as far as Christians are concerned. We must remember, however, that she was a pagan woman whose heart and mind were just being opened to spiritual things.

In spite of the fact that she lied, God used her to help preserve His servants. God used an enemy of His people to shelter two of them. This is in line with Proverbs 16:7, which says, "When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him."

Something of what was going on in Rahab's mind is disclosed in her conversation with the two men after she brought them out from their hiding place. What a testimony this was, coming from the person who was not saved in the way we use that terminology!

For 40 years the Canaanites had been in fear of the Israelites. This must have been a revelation to these men of the terror that had laid hold of the whole population of Canaan, leaders and people alike. They knew that they could not stand against Israel's God.

"The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will" (Prov. 21:1).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 2:15-24 1 John 1:7 Hebrews 9:22 Hebrews 11:1

Faith in Action

Joshua 2:15-24

It is significant that it was a scarlet cord, or rope, that Rahab was to display in her window. This was symbolic of the blood of Christ, which, according to 1 John 1:7, cleanses us from all sin.

In Hebrews 9:22 we are told that "almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission."

The protection that came to Rahab's household reminds us also of the incident of the Passover in Egypt. God instructed His people to sprinkle blood on the doorposts of their houses.

He assured them that when the death angel came to slay the firstborn in Egypt, the houses protected by the blood would not be entered. They would be spared.

The scarlet cord in Rahab's window protected her household just as the blood on the doorposts protected the Israelites in Egypt.

The New Testament makes special mention of Rahab with regard to this. James wrote: "Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?" (2:25).

Rahab had a faith that worked. She aided the spies in their escape from Jericho and hung a scarlet cord from her window. This was faith in action.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 3:1-8 Matthew 28:19-20

Preparing to Move Out

Joshua 3:1-8

There is a time for action, and there is also a time for waiting. There are times when we get in too big a hurry and are too impatient to wait on the Lord's time. On the other hand, there are some who lag behind and are not ready to move forward when they should.

We need to remember that God is never too late. If we really want to do His will, He will always do His part on time.

So there was a three-day delay when the people reached the Jordan River. This gave them the opportunity to become quiet before God and made it possible for Him to give them final instructions. It was when they were ready to hear that the orders were given.

The same is true in our spiritual experiences. We must make a decision and then act upon that decision. After we have acted on our decision, it may be that God will have us wait for a while.

This may sound like a paradox, but it is not. We need to learn to be calm before the Lord and await His time and timing for the events in our lives.

The reason for Israel's delay at the Jordan, and often the reason for a delay after God has made plain to us that we are to move ahead, is in order to see if we are in earnest. When this is evident, then further instructions are given us.

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28:19,20).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 3:9-17 1 Corinthians 2:5

A Step of Faith

Joshua 3:9-17

It is a never-to-be-forgotten experience when we hear a promise of God and step out on it in faith and then see God doing things on our behalf. The priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant into the Jordan River saw God work.

It would not have been enough for them to have stood close to the edge of the water and to have believed in the great ability of God to stop the flow several miles upstream and pile up the waters as though there was a great dam there.

If we were asked, "Is God able to do such a thing?" we undoubtedly would answer yes. But if each of us had to answer the question "Will God do this for me?" what would our answer be?

Every Christian is as precious in God's sight as the people of Israel were precious in His sight. What He promised them He did for them, and what He has promised you and me He will do for us. If we step out in faith, God will work on our behalf.

The Israelites did not make the mistake at the edge of Jordan of merely reckoning on God's ability to do what He promised. They did not stand to see what God would do.

When they received their marching orders to go into the river and the priests led with the Ark, then the waters parted. Those priests got their feet wet. That is the only way faith operates.

"Your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God" (1 Cor. 2:5).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 4:1-11 Romans 6:4

Memorials of Faith

Joshua 4:1-11

Gilgal was not only established as a home base for Israel during the conquest of the land; it also became a place of remembrance. Joshua was instructed to establish a memorial at Gilgal.

Later on in the chapter we read of the setting up of another memorial, this time in the river itself. These two memorials made of stones were to be reminders to Israel of their safe passage through the Jordan River.

>From the standpoint of the types involved, these two memorials remind us of the two aspects of our identification with Christ.

First of all, the stones in the Jordan speak of the Israelites' having died to the past. Whenever an Israelite came into that area, he would see the stones and would be reminded that it was there Israel passed through the place of death as it were.

The second set of stones was set up at Gilgal, the place of Israel's first night's lodging. They speak of new life out of death.

These stones were taken out of the river as the Israelites marched through, then brought with them to the camping site. They therefore speak of Israel's new life on the other side of Jordan--a resurrection life.

"Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Colossians 3:3 Ephesians 2:5-6 Joshua 4:12-24

A Place of Spiritual Resurrection

Joshua 4:12-24

Gilgal marks the place of spiritual resurrection.

Christ not only died, but He was buried and rose again and then ascended to the right hand of the Father.

Very little is said in many Christian circles these days concerning the resurrection life, and practically nothing at all is said about the life of ascension. But we find in the Bible that these are spoken of very clearly.

We read in Joshua 4:19,20 that the people came up out of Jordan and camped in Gilgal, and the 12 stones that they took out of the river were piled together in Gilgal by Joshua.

The Jordan River speaks of the place of death and Gilgal the place of life. We repeat this because we need to remember it. The corresponding New Testament truth is found in Ephesians 2:5,6 and is very important for our learning and growth.

Even when we were dead in sins, God quickened us together in Christ and raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.

This is our ascension, not for the future but for the present. There is a time in the future when He will come and resurrect these bodies of our humiliation and give us resurrection bodies

But even now in our spiritual life we have already been raised together with Him and seated with Him in the heavenlies. In our position before God we are not only delivered from the self and sin life, but we are identified with Christ in His new life.

"For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 5:1-15 Genesis 17 Philippians 3:3

Evidence of Separation

Joshua 5:1-15

As far as Israel was concerned, there was no inheritance possible to them until they were circumcised. This was clearly stated in Genesis 17 where the covenant concerning the land was given. So now, as the nation stood at the edge of Canaan, it was necessary that they follow through on the sign of separation, which for them was circumcision. This was the sign God made with Abraham, and it was to be continued by his posterity.

The people renewed their separation through circumcision and also renewed their relationship by celebrating the Passover. Egypt with its bondage was behind them; the desert wanderings were over; Jordan, the place of decision, was crossed; and the nation was now ready to conquer Canaan. A new kind of food was necessary as Israel went against her enemies and took possession of the country.

Joshua soon discovered that he was face to face with the Captain of the Lord's hosts, the commander of the Lord's armies. Here was the Warrior and Leader, coming not to help but to take charge.

The Captain of the Lord's hosts came not only to direct the armies of Israel but also to fight for Israel and with Israel and through Israel. This is the same truth as is taught in Ephesians 6:10 where we are told to "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might."

"For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Phil. 3:3).

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