A Painful Lesson Joshua 5:1-9
Lessons are less painful to learn as children than adults. As adults we feel the pain a lot more and lot longer than as children. The children of the people that God led out of Egypt are about to be taught a lesson they are not likely to forget. A lesson their parents never seemed to learn. God will do what God says He is going to do. When it comes to the Lord’s will, you have two options, walk with Him in faith or be drug behind in unbelief. He will accomplish His purposes in your life and in this world. The Kingdom of God will not be stopped. It is up to you whether you want to enjoy the coming of God’s Kingdom or be crushed by it’s arrival. The people of Israel have arrived in the promised land and all the nations are terrified by their arrival we see that in verse 1. God had said He was going to give this land to the descendants of Abraham and He did. His will is being accomplished in His people Israel. From a human perspective this seemed impossible 40 years prior to the events recorded in Joshua 5:1. Due to the people’s refusal to enter the promised land, God had cursed them to wander for 40 years until every one of them had died off. Now their children are receiving the blessing that their parents refused to receive. The parents who had come out of Egypt had been circumcised. That is they had the mark of the covenant God made with Abraham. The problem was that despite seeing all that God did for them, they refused to trust Him and chose instead to be drug behind the Lord instead of walking with God. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 10:1-5. So God kept His promise but did so by replacing the people who refused to trust Him with their children. God’s will cannot be stopped but we can cause ourselves to miss out on His blessings. So now the people who entered the land are going to learn the lesson their parents never did. They did not receive the mark of God’s promises when they were born so they are going to receive it now as adults. A lot more painful than receiving it as a child. So much so that they have to take some time off “in their places in the camp!” I imagine there was not much movement by the men of Israel for a while after this process was completed. But the lesson is clear. If your parents did not teach you what it means to follow the Lord as a child you have to learn those lessons as an adult. Which brings me back to my point for this Monday morning. Teach your children to trust the Lord while they are young and the lessons they learn will be far less painful than having to learn them when they grow up. Think of all the scars you have from not knowing what it is to follow the Lord when you were younger. And if your parents were faithful to guide you in following the Lord be thankful for them, they saved you a tremendous amount of pain and agony! One more word before we go. This passage also reminds us that even when we are faithless God is faithful. The wilderness generation blew it completely but God in His infinite grace intervened and restored their children. Even as we fumble and fail in the raising of our children we can trust God's mercy and intervening grace. His grace is always greater than our sin and His greatest desire is to redeem us from our falleness. So there is always hope for our kids and those kids we see all around us who are in such need of loving care and concern. If He could restore and protect the children of the people who were so stubborn they died in the desert because they refused to take His blessings, He could sure work in the lives of children who have parents who are trusting the Lord or even just have people who are trying to show them God's love. Let’s set out today to be the examples of faith our children and the children we come into contact with need to learn so that they can learn to trust and obey the Lord while they are young so that they can avoid the painful lessons we had to learn on our own.
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