Corona Devo 3258
The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” ~Deuteronomy 31:8
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And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. (22) The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. ~Exodus 13:21-22
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The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you...” ~Deuteronomy 31:8
Do we live in confidence of this?
Jonathan did.
Jonathan was King Saul's son, and he felt moved to advance in an offensive military attack where he and his armour-beared (alone!) were far outnumbered. It was Jonathan and his buddy (alone) against the Philistine army, but Jonathan knew that the Lord went before Him, and so Jonathan advanced in faith against the opposing army.
One day Jonathan son of Saul said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side.” But he did not tell his father.
(2) Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah… (3)...No one was aware that Jonathan had left.
(4) On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff...
(6) Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men. Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.”
(7)“Do all that you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”
(8) Jonathan said, “Come on, then; we will cross over toward them and let them see us.
(9) If they say to us, ‘Wait there until we come to you,’ we will stay where we are and not go up to them. (10) But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands.”
(11) So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outpost. “Look!” said the Philistines. “The Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in.” (12) The men of the outpost shouted to Jonathan and his armor-bearer, “Come up to us and we’ll teach you a lesson.”
So Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, “Climb up after me; the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.”
(13) Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet, with his armor-bearer right behind him. The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer followed and killed behind him. (14) In that first attack Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed some twenty men in an area of about half an acre.
(15) Then panic struck the whole army—those in the camp and field, and those in the outposts and raiding parties—and the ground shook. It was a panic sent by God. ~I Samuel 14:1-4, 6-15
God had Jonathan's back...or rather: God was in front of Jonathan's plans.
You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. ~Psalm 139:5
Jonathan could not have predicted the outcome, but he trusted that God went before him in the advance.
How about us today?
Arranged.Ordained.And secured, without any foreknowledge, planning, or awareness on our part.
Will we trust Him enough to walk in His ways today?
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Rahab did.
Do we ever think that we are too used/abused/sinful/screwed-up for God to forgive us, or to use us for His purposes?
Meet Rahab.
Rahab was a prostitute, and yet God had a big part for her to play in His plans. She was indispensable in saving the lives of some of God's people.
If we have been tricked by the evil one to think that we are undesirable by our Lord or unusable by His standards, then we have been misled and misinformed.
Meet Rahab, and remember today that God goes before us with His plan.
Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
(2) The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” (3) So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”
(4) But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. (5) At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” (6) (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.)
(7) So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.
(8) Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof (9) and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you…
(15) So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. (16) She said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.” ~Joshua 2:1-9, 15-16
God absolutely used Rahab, even though she had sin. God uses broken people and He himself goes before you and will be with you (Deuteronomy 31:8).
If we will trust God, He will bring about His plans in our lives and (warning!) they will often be unorthodox (not what we expected) plans!!
Jonathan and Rahab did.
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It is not just the Israelites that God goes before (and behind) in a cloud and in fire. His Word leads and hems us in today and now.
God's provision for us is as bold and tangible today as it was for Jonathan and his armor-bearer, and the spies that needed a hiding place when Rahab offered up her home and roof.
Arranged.Ordained.And secured, without any foreknowledge, planning, or awareness on our part.
Will we trust Him enough to walk in His ways today?
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We recently moved our son into his out-of-state university, and from clothing, to toilet paper, to a desk chair, to all of the sundries of setting up a college dorm room...we had a lot of stuff. Too much stuff (we realized) to fit into our rental car for move-in morning.
We could make two (car-full) trips, but we were (gratefully!) staying with family who lived forty-minutes from campus and the assigned move-in-window was only for forty-five minutes.
However, the night before move-in, the Lord presented us with a large vehicle, perfect for hauling lots of stuff, and it was parked next to us in the driveway, being stored for a time. A quick call to a cousin for permission (Thanks, Dave!) granted us the space and provision to borrow the larger vehicle for move in.
It fit everything. Easily. Perfectly. (And it was parked next to us in the driveway!)
God gives us the Bible so that we have real-people accounts that we can read and believe in. But the Lord shows Himself to us in the same ways that He led and provided for Jonathan, and Rahab's visiting men.
Arranged.Ordained.And secured, without any foreknowledge, planning, or awareness on our part.
Will we trust Him enough to walk in His ways today?
Go for it!
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