Day 67

God’s Methods

Read: Joshua 8-10

Someone has said, “The Seven Last Words of the church are, ‘We have always done it this way.’” We have a tendency to get in a rut, to fail to deal with opportunities creatively. Change is not to be inaugurated for the sake of change, but neither are we to keep doing something a certain way merely for the sake of tradition.

In this section of Scripture, we see that God uses a variety of methods to accomplish his purposes. In the case of Jericho, he causes the walls to fall down miraculously. Now in the second attack on Ai, he leads Joshua to use clever military strategy. Then in the attack on the Amorites, he uses the ordinary fighting of the Israelite soldiers but augments their efforts by sending hailstones and causing the sun to stand still. Following this, he uses ordinary military activities to defeat the rest of the inhabitants in the Promised Land.

God uses a variety of methods and so should we. The essential message of the church must not change, but we need to adapt our ways of presenting the gospel to a particular culture.

The miracle of the sun appearing to stand still is a greater miracle than it seems at first, because it really means the earth stood still and at the same time God kept everything on earth from shifting. We are not sure how to explain this miracle, but we believe God can do whatever he chooses.

PRAYER
Father, use us in your service. In Jesus’ name. Amen.