The real growth in the Christian life does not come by a miracle, or even by what we might call a “mountain top experience.” Instead, growth comes by both good and bad times, when we feel like we are high on a cloud and down in the pit of discouragement. Obedience in all circumstances is how we grow and make progress in the Christian life.
The real growth in the Christian life does not come by a miracle, or even by what we might call a “mountain top experience.” Instead, growth comes by both good and bad times, when we feel like we are high on a cloud and down in the pit of discouragement. Obedience in all circumstances is how we grow and make progress in the Christian life.
Now, there are great lessons in how Israel went about the capturing of Ai. One is that God uses different methods when He deals with His people. We don’t like that because we like everything to work exactly the same every time. We like God to be a computer, where as long as you push the buttons in the right way, God responds as you expect. And even if it’s God who pushes the buttons, we really think deep in our hearts that He should always push the same buttons in exactly the same order, at least when He’s dealing with us.
You know, in the Christian life when you and I run into difficulty, we have a tendency to think that probably what the Lord is teaching us is that this isn’t the way we should go. We should bypass the difficulty in order to find an easier road. I think younger people today are particularly susceptible to that kind of thinking, but it’s not that way in the Christian life. God’s way is a difficult way in some respects and easy in others. It’s easy if we depend upon Him because He prepares the way for us. He provides the victories, but He doesn’t shortcut the battles. These still have to be fought.
We come now to Joshua 8, which recounts the victory of the Jewish armies over a little fortress high in the mountains that was known as Ai. If you know the book and have read ahead, you know that Joshua has 24 chapters. So the eighth chapter is a third of the way through the book, and yet, the people have only at this point reached the second city. Now there was a long time of preparation, both before and after they crossed the Jordan. There was also a delay in the last chapter, but it was because of a great failure on Israel’s part.
Our Lord was raised from the dead and because He was raised, those who are united to Him in saving faith will be raised also. You know how the apostle Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians 15, that great chapter on the resurrection. He says that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (v. 50). But at the last trumpet, all those mortals who are united to Christ by faith will put on immortality, and what is perishable will put on the imperishable.
And so we come here to Revelation 21and see the presence of God again with His people. It’s a glorious scene. We then see something else. We see described the bride of the Lamb, that is, the bride of Christ. This bride is a holy bride, a bride without blemish, without stain, a bride who has been made perfect through the work of Jesus Christ, perfectly adorned for her husband. This bride is the Church, the communion of the saints.
So now we have this paradise, a perfect place, with a perfect man, being given perfect work to do, and with a perfect companion. And yet, as we know, through the temptation of Satan in the form of the serpent, Adam turned his back on that paradise because he turned his back on God and he sinned.
Canadian Committee of The Bible Study Hour
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