GOD CALLS THE WEAK

Reading: Joshua 1

Though you train for strength, you must battle from weakness.
This is the lost secret of the great warriors of scripture.

Moses, too weak to hold up his arms of authority,
relied on others to support him.
David, who went to war only on
the voice of God's will and promise.

Assured of God's presence and victory, before the battle.
Jehoshaphat began with blank terror before kings
arrayed against him.
Yet by prayer and worship he ended with divine intervention
and miraculous victory against three warring nations.
(I Chronicles 20) 

Your story is written either on God's page of
dependent humility or in the record of human devastation,
spawned of stupid pride.

Joshua faced a land full of mighty men.
That place was his gift from God,
but occupied with known enemies, proven adversaries.

And he was to lead his people into war
as grasshoppers against giants.

Joshua had bold confidence to follow Moses into Canaan
but when he was made the national leader by God's preference,
he was reduced to such trembling that Moses had to commission him
four times to be "strong and courageous."

Joshua had the faith for the final conquest, but needed faith
for the tedious battles it took to gain the victory.

Faith always takes root in the soil of human insufficiency.
And of all human experiences,
war is the most horrendous to face and
the most costly to win.

In no arena of mankind is death so real nor
God so needed . . . as when looking straight into
the inscrutable face of a looming war.

The greatest weapon is ancient
and the surest safety is written:
weakness and dependence provoke the heart of God
which longs to defend the defenseless.

The Word of God melded into our being and hidden
in our marrow is the stored strength of the Spirit.
It was Joshua's source and his mental occupation,
and for battle, the words of God became
the very faith of his victory.

Dependence is a "weapon," strange and frightening to
the human spirit but to those who accept its reality,
weakness becomes the very opportunity of
Divine power entering your terrible situation.

The Word of God - as the source of God Himself -
is the specific of His Might and Character.
Out of that Divine Nature, contained in words the
Spirit ignites, comes a beacon of
His personal message,
a fountain of His imparting strength,
and the very indwelling of His certainty.

In Hebrews 11, the few on this lasting record
of God's bragging
are memorialized for the faith that pleases Him.
And their secret is openly shared, freely offered:
it was frailty and weakness turned into
supernatural strength.

And what shall I say further:    
For time would fail me to tell of
Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,
of David and Samuel and the prophets,
who by the (help of) faith subdued kingdoms,
administered justice obtained promised blessings,
closed the mouth of lions.

Extinguished the power of raging fire,
escaped the devourings of the sword,
out of frailty and weakness won strength and became stalwart,
even mighty and resist less in battle routing alien hosts.
Hebrew 11:32-34 Amplified Bible

Copyright © 2003 Martha Kilpatrick