Are You Taxing Your Canaanites?

Judges 1:28 "And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites under tribute, but did not completely drive them out."

It is easy to develop a tolerance of sin. We excuse our pet sins. We even "sanctify" them as a benefit and blessing in our lives. We label them "coping strategies." We depend upon them for stress relief. And we hit the "Repeat" button in our souls.

The Hebrews struggled with the same thing. God miraculously delivered them from Egyptian slavery. Moses led them through the Red Sea, toward the promised land, gave them the law of God, and brought them to the portal of Canaan, the land of promise. Then Moses died.

Joshua was God's chosen leader for the Hebrew conquest of Canaan. God performed another miracle clearing a path through the flooded Jordan River. Circumcision at Gilgal, victory at Jericho, and the conquest began in earnest.

At the end of his life, Joshua praised God for fulfilling every promise and granting the Hebrews occupation of the entire land of Canaan, just as He had promised.

"So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. 44 The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. 45 Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass." (Joshua 21:43-45)

But there was a problem. The Hebrews failed to drive out all of the Canaanites. In doing so, they disobeyed God. The sex and religion cults of the Canaanites worship had caused God to declare that the Canaanites had so defiled the land, that they no longer were entitled to occupy it. Rather than exterminate them as God commanded, the Hebrews confined their Canaanite neighbors to villages and taxed them.

"Why obey God completely when we can turn these folks into a revenue stream?"

But the Canaanites were influential. They influenced the Hebrews with sex. The Canaanite gods, Baal and Asherah, demanded sex for worship. Sex with priests. Sex with priestesses. Sex with other Canaanites. Even sex with Hebrews. Everybody knows that "Sex sells." It did then. It does now.

The Hebrews taxed the Canaanites so that they could profit from the sex trade. The only problem was that the sexy Canaanite worship would destroy them.

They taxed the Canaanites.

Are you taxing the Canaanites of your life? Are there areas where God has said, "Exterminate these practices." Rather than occupying the land of promise, you are preserving enclaves of carnality. You may even be turning these enclaves into a revenue stream. 

Obey God. Taxing the Canaanites has never worked out very well. 

Expand Your Borders!

Joshua 19:40-48 NKJV  40 The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families. 41 And the territory of their inheritance was Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir Shemesh, 42 Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Jethlah, 43 Elon, Timnah, Ekron, 44 Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath, 45 Jehud, Bene Berak, Gath Rimmon, 46 Me Jarkon, and Rakkon, with the region near Joppa. 47 And the border of the children of Dan went beyond these, because the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem and took it; and they struck it with the edge of the sword, took possession of it, and dwelt in it. They called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father. 48 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families, these cities with their villages.

My Lord and my God,

I want to be a man after Your own heart. A man who hears Your call and obeys. I want to obey without reluctance, hesitation, or argument. I want to accomplish the task that You put before me, by Your grace and for Your glory.

The Hebrew tribe of Dan took an ambitious and aggressive attitude toward Your call to possess their portion of the land of Canaan. Joshua apportioned their land to them and gave the mandate of conquest. The children of Dan conquered the city of Leshem, the greatest city of their promised land. Upon conquering it, they renamed the city Dan, after their forefather.

But Your Word describes a spirit among the tribesmen of Dan that went above and beyond the call of duty. “The border of the children of Dan went beyond these.” Dan’s fighting men pushed their border beyond the promised allocation. Their ambition drove them farther.

I love the spirit of the tribe of Dan. I love the attitude to excel, to do more, to achieve, to push harder and go farther. Unvarnished and selfish ambition is dangerous. Sanctified ambition is beautiful.

Lord, grant me a spirit of ambition and achievement to accept Your mandate for my life and run with it. Give me courage to expand my borders beyond the limits. Grant me strength, boldness, and enthusiasm for the task.

In the Name of my Lord Jesus,

Amen.

"I have to find myself"

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Dietrich Bonhoeffer felt stripped bare in a German prison. It was late in World War II when your servant was suffering in bondage, eventually condemned to death by hanging.  Prison gave him countless hours to think, write, and reflect. Certainly, your presence sustained him in those unending hours. 

From prison, Bonhoeffer wrote: "There is something more at stake than self-knowledge."

I can only imagine the self-reflection, personal insights, and psychological explanations for one's own identity, thoughts and behaviors that could be pursued in isolation. But it could prove utterly maddening. Yet, Bonhoeffer was not alone. You were with him. His writings expose his soul, his worship, and his surrender to your cross.

It seems that the individualism of the Western world has poisoned our thoughts with a narcissistic reflection that the individual is the center of the universe. The result is that billions of egocentric universes ridiculously revolve on the orb of our planet, each insisting upon its own veracity and authenticity.

But Bonhoeffer, a man of extraordinary self-knowledge and insight, proclaims: "There is something more at stake than self-knowledge."

The ancient Greeks proclaimed: "Know thyself."

The 1960's marked an era of American Baby Boomers seeking self-knowledge in an elusive quest to "find" themselves.

But, "There is something more at stake than self-knowledge."

Ultimately, my quest to know myself is a quest to find myself, and proves to be a wasted effort of self-definition. Definition demands an external point of reference.

You, alone, are that point of reference. You are my Creator, my God, my Savior, the One who knows me best. You know my failings, my weakness, my sin, yet You love me and seek to redeem my life. You seek to inform my identity at a depth that You alone know and understand. You seek to redefine my very perception of myself, not by looking at me more, but by turning my eyes to look upon You! Only in right relationship with You, may I discover who You intend me to become!

Hallelujah!

What hope! What joy! What promise!

So I turn afresh to You, Designer of my life, Master Architect of my purpose. Fulfill me in You.

In the Name of the One who knows me best, Abba Father,

Amen.

Hear and Obey

Numbers 20:2-12 NKJV

2 Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. 3 And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying: “If only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! 4 Why have you brought up the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here? 5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink.” 6 So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them.
7 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” 9 So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as He commanded him.
10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.
12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

Triune God,

Thank you for showing up in my life. Thank you for speaking to me. I am conscious of Father's love and design not only for the universe, but also for my life. I feel the shed blood of the Son of God cleansing and making me whole. I know the reality of your redeeming grace. I sense the nudges and hear the whispers of Holy Spirit, guiding and leading me. Thank you.

But I am very conscious of my ability to turn a deaf ear to you. I don't want to. I resist the temptation to do so, but I am ever aware. I know that in a moment of fervor, passion, or anger I can act with excess. I can do too much. I overact. I over-react. I impose my will on a situation that can only be addressed by your will. Discipline my Spirit-filled heart and life so that I resist the temptation to act in the flesh.

Moses over-reacted. He over-reached. He struck the rock when you instructed him simply to speak to it. His anger against the people nudged him past the realm of living in the Spirit, and he ventured into a fleshly response. It is a fine, but nevertheless definite line that he crossed. It is a line that is crossed by resisting the gentle nudges, checks, and demands of Holy Spirit. Moses deafened his ears and deadened his heart to You in that moment. He regretted his lapse into fleshly indulgence for the remainder of his lie.

You viewed Moses excess in striking the rock, rather than speaking to it, as an act of angry disobedience. Moses had to acknowledge that you judged him aright. His disobedience and anger in that moment barred Moses from entering the promised land of Canaan. He did not cross the Jordan. He did not witness Jericho fall. He did not witness the occupation of the land. Sad.

Lord God, help me to hear and obey. I want to live with a sense of your approval. I want to live away from the boundaries of my life where the checks of the Holy Spirit blink warning on the dashboard of my soul. I want your checks to be fewer and fewer as I learn to discern your will and follow you. But when you need to nudge, check, or demand of me, grant me the tenderness of heart to stop and listen. Restrain me from the rapid pace of action that would plunge me into a life of regret because I struck the rock rather than speaking to it. Gentle my soul so that I can speak more, and strike less.

I love you. I trust you. I want to hear and obey.

In the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Amen.

There is no Messiah but Jesus

We live in a superhero culture of mythological fascination. Stories of good triumphing over evil have been supplanted with narratives of conflicted sorcerers using raw power to accomplish some end that they have justified as good. No meta-narrative of right and wrong, cosmic good over cosmic evil, or redemption is advanced. Rather, the end justifies any means necessary. Brute power, moral compromise, calculated deception and graveyards filled with the victims signpost the path to power and dominance.

Throughout the centuries, humans have sought for Messiah. Whenever a powerful deliverer stepped on the scene of pain, suffering, and impoverishment, hope stirred.

“Could this be the one?”

Will this person deliver us from the oppression of our conquerors, the domination of unjust rulers, and the crippling taxation of government? Will this person be our Messiah, our deliverer, our salvation?

The fantasy persists, embellished by actors, movies, and special effects. These messiahs promise salvation through force, hope through conquest, and justice through injustice. These entertainment forms and figures stir hope within us that good ends can be accomplished by bad people doing bad things.

Real life mirrors our entertainment script. We elect evil leaders and expect them to care for the populace. We install the powerful, the wealthy, the strong, and make them more so.  We tolerate their bad acts, foolishly fantasizing that evil deeds can produce good results. Rape, murder, deceit, malice, and slander are celebrated as long as they get the job done. My side wins. My definition of virtue triumphs.

How different with Jesus!

“But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25-28 NKJV).

The sinless Christ went to the cross and died for the sins of the whole world. In death, He appeared defeated. The reality of His resurrection three days later changed the world. And He changes us today!

The resurrected Christ, the Messiah of the world, then calls us to lives of service and sacrifice.

“Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:1-11 NKJV).

National elections come and go. Strongmen rise and fall. Despots conquer and rule. Another rises to take their place. Each is esteemed by someone as their messiah. But there is no Messiah apart from Jesus Christ. He has come. He is our hope.

So, we pray for our leaders. We ask God to purify the hearts and minds of our leaders that they might serve Him in holiness and righteousness.  

In the face of political and economic turmoil, look to Messiah, not the most recent superhero on the world stage of current events. There is no lasting salvation apart from Jesus Christ.