After having gleaned lessons from the “Negative events” of two action packed Books of Joshua and Acts in the previous part of the Series, today in the concluding part of the same we come back to the positive lessons to be learnt from these two glorious Books…
GLORIFICATION…
Joshua never took the glory for the mighty deeds wrought through him nor did the Apostles. Nearing the end of his life, in his rousing farewell message Joshua makes a proclamation giving glory where it is due…
“The LORD has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you. One of you routs a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised. So be very careful to love the LORD your God.” (Joshua 23:9-10)
By the same token, consider this Scripture culled from Joshua 14. After their first missionary what did Paul and Barnabas do?
“On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles” (Vs 27).
At the end of his third missionary journey too, Paul sings the same song:
“Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry” (Acts 21:19)
When it comes to evaluation of our God-ordained Ministries toeing the Pauline line would serve us well…
But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me–and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace. (1 Cor. 15:10)
DEDICATION…
If Joshua and his generation were faithful till the end, so were the Apostles.
Even at the cost of sounding repetitive, I would like to reiterate here that all throughout his life, barring a minor blip here and there (for which he cannot be wholly blamed…like falling for the Gibeonites’ guile) Joshua who stepped into the huge shoes of Moses was an exemplary leader. He led the tiring conquest of Canaan, literally and figuratively speaking “from the front”. Not for him, the cool shade of a tent, faraway from the blazing war front (Joshua 6-12) when his soldiers were shedding their blood and sweat in fighting the enemies. No wonder then, even towards the end of his life we see him coming up with an exemplary, emphatic statement in his rousing swan song speech “…as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15)! Leading from the front and setting an example was this great leader, even as it were, with his dying breath (he would die very soon Joshua 24:29)! Die, he did soon, but are not His words immortalised in that they adorn the rooms of innumerable Christian homes even today enshrined invariably in a scenic plaque? What would be Joshua’s declaration, had he been living today? Do not regard my words as those making up a mere decorative ornament, rather take em’ seriously!
“I have fought the good fight…” (2 Tim. 4:7), oh how this proclamation of victory by Apostle Paul in the last leg of his earthly journey, still continues to inspire us!!! Not for him any shedding of cold sweat, with execution imminent, rather only expression of concern for the fledgling Churches he had planted. In his final epistle to his young disciple Timothy, we see him exhorting his protege to follow the example of a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer (2 Tim. 2:3-7) — passionately in Christian service! If for Indian Ex-Prime Minister Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri the winning slogan was “Jai Jawan, Jai Kissan” (Hail the Farmer and Soldier), for apostle Paul, it could well have been “Go about God’s work like a Jai Jawan, Jai Kissan and a Jai Pehelwan” (Hail the Farmer, Soldier and Wrestler). Do not Paul’s Final words heralding victory still continue to challenge us…even after two thousand years…with the truth that the end of the spiritual race is as important as the start, especially when we consider the grim reality, just a few verses away…the fall of Paul’s associate in the Ministry namely Demas (2 Tim. 4:10), who had made such a good start (Col 4:14, Phil 1:24)?
Brothers aspire to inspire, even while you expire…because if you do that, rest assured, you would continue to inspire long after you expire.
Prayer: Father give us the will-power to end as gloriously our “Earthly” walk with Thee like we begin it, so that long after we are gone, people would remember us as those who glorified Thee both in living as well as dying. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Suresh Manoharan
(To access the rest of the “Lights, Camera, Action!” mini-series, please click here.)