TRUSTING IN PROPS

I've been reading the book of Joshua. In chapters three through five we have the Israelites crossing the Jordan River. They came to the river at the time when the river was at flood stage. We read in 3:15, "Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest." Most of us know how the story goes. We continue the story in verse 15 again, "Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground."

Now God has them do something that militarily doesn't make sense. He has all the fighting men circumcised. Think about this - to their backs is a raging river - in front of them are the armies of Canaan that want to do them great bodily harm. With these conditions, God directs Joshua to have all the men circumcised. Remember Genesis 34? There we have the story of Dinah, the sister of Simeon and Levi. She is raped by Shechem the Hivite. He tells his father, Hamor, he's in love with Dinah and wants his father to pay the price and get her as his wife. Simeon and Levi are outraged and we read in Genesis 34:13-15, "Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob's sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor. They said to them, 'We can't do such a thing; we can't give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. We will give our consent to you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males.'"

So, Hamor and Shechem take this proposal back to the city saying, "Won't their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us give our consent to them, and they will settle among us." Genesis 34:23. So, the entire male population of the city is circumcised. Then we come to verse 25 where we read…. "Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem's house and left. The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled." Vs. 25-27. We're not told how many men there were in that city but it only took two men to kill them all.

Back to our story in Joshua. Why didn't God have them do this in the safety of the east side of the Jordan? Why would God put them in a spot where they would be so very vulnerable to their enemies?

Sometimes God wants to put us into a place where all we can do is depend upon Him. There are times when God will take away all of our props in life. That might be a person, it could be our talents or our strengths, it may be finances, it may be our occupation, or it may be our health. Whatever our props in life may be, God may remove them so we're left with nothing but Him. Which is easier to depend upon, our props or the Lord? If we're honest we must admit the answer is - our props - because they are tangible, we can see them, we can sense them, we can hold on to them to help hold us up. We know, of course, that God wants us to depend upon Him alone. Our props in life are blessing from Him but are never meant to replace Him

We're told in Proverbs 3:5-6 to "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

One of my favorite verses in Psalm 4:5. I like it because it's so simple. It simply says, "Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord." Psalm 4:5.

To me that says, "Do what's right in the eyes of the Lord and trust Him for the rest." Have the props in your life have been taken from you? If so, remember Proverbs 3:5,6.

Or, do you have any props in your life replacing God?