Tuesday, 3/24/2015

“A great man is always willing to be little.”~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

JOSHUA 11-13

God provides rest...

23So Joshua took the entire land, just as the Lord had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war.

LUKE 4:1-32

Jesus is baptized and begins his ministry...

1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2where for forty days he was tempted^a by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

3The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

4Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’^b ”

5The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

8Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’^c ”

9The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10For it is written:

“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you

to guard you carefully;

11they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’^d ”

12Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’^e ”

13When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

JOURNAL

Joshua never takes advantage of his position.  He is fully obedient and humble to do all that God asks of him without question or grumbling.  Here we also see Jesus fully obedient and never grumbling or taking advantage of his position.  How is it that both Joshua and Jesus never abuse their power?  Not once do either of them ever act out of bitterness or a sense of entitlement.  

Joshua I more understand but Jesus?   The Son of God, full of power and love and fully capable of changing the world in the blink of an eye.  He allows questions, he allows betrayal, he allows disrespect.  He suffers and walks through the struggles and heartaches of this human condition, willingly and without a single selfish moment.  He follows this all the way to the cross and does not die valiantly in the midst of battle...but the shameful death on a cross.  

Here is one of the key differences between the life of Christ and other martyr's...Jesus had absolute power and never used it.  Jesus was the King of Kings and chose to live as a servant.  He did this out of obedience...not because he had no other choice, but because he loved us completely and knew the only way to save us was to walk the road to the cross.

6Who, being in very nature^a God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature^b of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

8And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8)