No Time To Lay Down

No Time To Lay Down

10.23.21

When things go unexpectedly wrong it is common for humans to go through a stage of pouting and seclusion, and while this normal emotional reaction occurs often it does not mean that it is appropriate.  Yes, sometimes a quick period of reflection of what went wrong is warranted but to completely stop the progress that has been granted is not.  How many times have we felt such a stoppage when it was not needed, or that we took advantage of this time and extended our pouting exercises too long?   This action too is common and God really does not want time wasted in this manner.  The real truth is what happened and what caused such a loss that never should have been.  God does not hesitate on any issue and neither should we, we have a mission to complete and there is no way possible for us to do what God has commanded laying down and pouting.

It was basketball tournament time when I was in my early years of high school.  Granted, we were not the ones favored to win the entire tournament but we did have a good team and could win a few games before a strong opponent would be faced; this is tournament life as some sportspeople say.  During the first few minutes of the game, we could not hit a shot, not even a layup without making a mess of things while on the opposite end of the court our opponent could not miss.  I was a bit concerned about the conditions and after another basket from the opposing team, we inbounded the ball and after a few dribbling steps I called a time out.  I believed it was an appropriate time but as soon as we started walking over to the bench we all noticed our coach had a confused look on his face, then asked who called the timeout.  I spoke up said it was me, and he immediately asked me why?  Then he said never mind and sat us down and let us rest for a moment.  No instructions were given or anything else said before the breakup of the huddle.  As we were leaving the huddle he reminded us all not to waste timeouts for we may need them at the end of the game.

Even though my coach did not say much at that time his silence and his presence around us said enough and it refocused our heads and we completed the game without any further instances and even had a comfortable win over that evening's opponent.  I questioned myself for the rest of the game and for the next two games for I had realized that I did not trust my leader enough to obey everything he had said to us previously, and it caused me to stall and not be at my best for the day and days to come.  We won our next game but lost the next two and our season came to an end, but the point is in that first game, we (I) should not have panicked and should have just listened to the coach and what he had told us right throughout the season plus the important words he gave immediately before the game.  I jumped to conclusions and took a potential asset away without fully knowing why our coach said the things he did that morning.  

I know that this example does not fully comply with the title of this article but it does speak about the confusion of one who did not understand what was going on at that moment, stopped the progress of the mission to take a rest and gather up why things were going wrong.  It was unnecessary, and I just had to wait for the instruction of my coach to get the bearings back in alignment and continue forward.  There are greater and more accurate examples in the Bible than the one I just gave and the passage for this article gives us one to think about for a while.  Our passage comes from Joshua 7: 10-11 and is as follows:

Joshua 7:10-11

"And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?  Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff."

In the previous passages in Joshua 7, we find that Joshua and the army of Israel had prepared exactly how God had told them to prepare for all the battles that were before them.  However, unbeknownst to Joshua, Achan had taken things that God had forbidden and even hidden them underneath his family's tent.  This small amount cursed Israel in the battle of Ai, so much so that the entire army of Israel turned their backs and ran from the warriors of Ai before they reached the gates of the small town.  This was embarrassing and even more confusing to Joshua since for all he knew everything was done correctly and according to what God had said to do.  So, the embarrassed and confused leader threw himself on the ground after rending his garments, face down, and stayed there, did not get up.

For a certain amount of time, God allowed Joshua to lay there but after that time God needed him up and doing what was necessary which was correcting the reason why Israel ran away from their enemy at Ai.  God understands that there is a time for everything, He has said this over and over throughout His Word, but most importantly is the mission He has commissioned His people to do.  So, an idle or broken piece of equipment cannot be allowed to stall the entire mission, it must be fixed as soon as possible in order for the orders to be completed.  God could not have the leader of Israel lying flat on his face pouting and wondering why things went wrong for an extended period of time; oh and by the way, naked as well.

God wanted Joshua on his feet doing the work that needed to be done so that the order that God had ordained for Israel would be completed.  God does not like idleness and He cannot operate His Glory through such a stagnate condition, His Kingdom is always advancing and increasing.  God understands that humans become weary and troubled during tough times but at the same time God has built within us a mechanism that should take over in these times to fix the broken and continue with the advancement.  Joshua would have eventually got up and figured things out, but how much time would have passed before this would have occurred?  Would the enemies of Israel come together and overran the camp of Israel before Joshua had cleaned the house?  It is possible, but God could not allow that to occur.

God told Joshua to get up and Joshua did not argue with God and did what God said to do.  At the same time, with this initiative from Joshua God told him exactly what the issue was and that it was his responsibility to find the culprit and correct the necessary before any other actions could be taken against their enemies.  All it took for God to provide an answer to the problem is for Joshua to get up and to present himself to God for instruction.  This procedure, God is calling us to do once again, Church.  The question remains, do we even understand what our position is that God is looking at in order for this passage to apply to us?  How many times do we have to hear God ask us why are we laying down on the job and not up finding out what is going on?  We have lost battles folks, and it is our responsibility to remember what God has said to us and to figure out where the sin lies within our houses.  Our job is not to sit around in defeat, God does not know defeat, He cannot be defeated, so see, our sitting around is sin in itself.  God is not going to make things all rosy to those who disobey Him, He cannot and if we do not have the initiative to get up then we are doomed.

Do we see ourselves as Joshua was, lying face down and naked on the ground?  As in sitting in our pews and doing nothing for the kingdom of God, watching the enemy walk all over God's people, and allowing him to defeat us in our own houses of worship?  We are defeated even before we get outside the gates of the enemy.  We run away with our tails between our legs back into our tents and we really do not know anymore why this has occurred.  The leaders of the Church have been lying face down on the ground for so long that they have gone asleep and are no longer capable of leading people in the manner they should.  They ignore the Word of God and replace it with snoring so that they can remain laying down and not engage in the battle correctly.  They have no problem with the sin that is in their camps.  This is exactly why God could not allow Joshua to remain in the place that he was, he had to get up and take care of the issue before him.

If God had allowed Joshua to remain there for an extended amount of time, the sin that Israel had committed against God's Covenant would have eventually progressed into the tent of Joshua.  This is the normal pattern of sin and God could not allow sin to encompass His people more than what it already had, so God had to move.  Unfortunately, today we have ignored God's nudging and have remained in our tents with the hidden sin underneath our soil.  We have known about it but have done nothing to correct the measure; therefore, we have sat and waited and waited, and continue to wait until this very moment.  We have waited for so long that we have lost our vision to complete the mission God gave us; in other words, we no longer desire to fight for God or His Kingdom.

This action of ours is one of the main reasons God is going to shake the Church in a way that most people shall not understand.  A shaking so severe that many people will walk away from the Church and never step foot spiritually or physically in her again.  Yet, at the same time, there will be many people who catch fire for God and begin to preach the truth about His Kingdom and once again teach the mercies of our God.  It will be tough but as we see in the coming articles concerning this time period of Joshua, if we do things according to what God has told us to do and how to do it, our lives shall be better off than one can even imagine.  We cannot afford to remember that there is no time to lay down and stop the fighting, we need to get up and find out what is wrong and then carry on with God.

DLB