Up!

 The Lord said to Joshua, "Get up! Why have you fallen on your face?
Joshua 7:10 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/jos.7.10.ESV

I love how matter of fact the Lord is with Joshua, who seems to have overreacted to the situation the children of Israel were in. To be fair to Joshua, they had everything invested in conquering the promised land, and had come across their first defeat. If God was with them, why were they failing?

I suspect most of us in Western churches can empathise with Joshua. We feel like we're losing in the great commission we've been given to make disciples. Maybe there's a lesson to be learned from this chapter.

The reason the children of Israel were failing is because one of them had greedily taken what should have been devoted to destruction. A little yeast works its way through the whole batch. We need to expel immoral people from amongst us.

Joshua could have been tempted to assume that he needed every man he could get to conquer the land. God was clear that he didn't want people who were compromised with the world He was destroying. God forbid that we should be greedy for the things of the world: we cannot serve both God and stuff.

'Lord, have mercy upon us for so often getting distracted from the lives of faith You have called us to. Please bring us back on track when we go astray, in Jesus' name, amen'

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