Useful Arrows Week 4 - “The Arrowed Disciple”

 In my first year of college I had three roommates. Ben, Kyle, and Cody. Ben and Kyle played basketball, while Cody and I played baseball. Ben was a biblical studies major, while Kyle and Cody were studying business. Ben and Cody were over six feet tall, while Kyle was well under six foot. All of them great guys, all of them married to their first college girlfriends, all of them living successful lives right now. Ben is a pastor, Kyle is a real estate agent, and the last I heard, Cody was shoeing horses. Ben and Kyle were my groomsmen, while Cody couldn’t come because his own sister was getting married that same day, a decision I know he must regret.

You ever know people where you would say, their likable, their joyful, they’ll help you out in a pinch? That’s these three guys. Oh yeah, and did I mention, they’re all good looking too? In the 90s we would say, they’re all that and a bag of chips. These guys have the whole package.

And it’s this idea of having the whole package that brings us back to our series on being a useful arrow, where we’re going to finish it off in Luke chapter 2 starting in verse 36. And as we open up to Luke 2:36, let’s recap everything we’ve talked about so far in the last three weeks.

In our first week, we looked at the servant of Abraham who was tasked with going back to Abraham’s family and finding his son a wife from among them. We saw this servant care more for his master than for his own financial gain, that he was interested in doing what the master desired, and that he was humble in realizing that God had achieved, through him, his master’s will. This led us to the first aspect of this series, as disciples, the will of God should be the most important thing in our lives. An arrow is the archer’s to command, and so is the disciple of Jesus.

In the second week, we looked at the defining moment of Caleb the warrior. In his defining moment we saw a man who trusted God fully. When it seemed like the rest of his peers believed they couldn’t achieve what God was telling them to do, Caleb believed they could. This unwavering trust prompted God to not only allow Caleb, one of two people, into the land he had promised to Israel, whereas the rest died before entering, but God also promised Caleb specifically a piece of that land to call his very own. This led us to our second aspect in the series, as disciples, we must trust God no matter what the people around us say. The arrow doesn’t comment on the archer’s skill, and so the disciple of Jesus does question God and his will.

Finally, last week, we looked at the situation with Deborah and Barak. We saw how Barak was called by God to bring his people out of bondage, yet Barak didn’t want to. In fact, he drugged his feet every step of the way to avoid doing the will of God. Whether this is because he was a coward or he didn’t trust God, we don’t know, but what we do know is that he missed out on the glory that God wanted to give him. This glory instead went to a stay-at-home mom named Jael. When given the opportunity to kill Israel’s enemy, she took it. This led us to our third aspect, as disciple, we must take the opportunities that God has for us. The arrow does tell the archer when to fire, and so the disciple of Jesus must be used when God has use for us.

With these three aspects, of being a useful arrow in God’s quiver, in our minds, let’s look at one last person. Let’s read together Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 36.

36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. 

This is the shortest of the passages we have read, but in just three verses we get a lot of information.

Let’s start with who Anna is. First Anna is from the tribe of Asher, which was one of the original twelve tribes of Israel. They had been greatly blessed by both Jacob their father, and Moses. When they entered into the land of Canaan in Joshua’s day, they were given fertile land along the Mediterranean coast. Yet in Deborah’s day they refused to come out to help their fellow Israelites fight their enemies. But eventually they did help Gideon and they were one of three tribes that humbled themselves and shared passover with their souther kingdom brothers in Hezekiah’s day. All in all, Asher was a mixed bag of blessing and curses. They were blessed greatly by God in their land, but sometimes wouldn’t follow what he commanded. 

The next thing we know about Anna, is that she’s elderly and a widow. Her age is a bit of a mystery in how Luke writes it. This is because the way Luke writes isn’t as clear cut as some translations make it, even the one we use. We’re told that she lived with her husband for seven years. Being that girls were married anywhere from 13-16 years old, if we take the earliest possibility of 13 that puts her at 20 when her husband died. Then were given the number 84. This can be interpreted that she is either 84, like the ESV translates it, or that she was a widow for 84 years. In other words, she is either 84 years old at this moment we read about her, or she is about 104 years old, both being a huge accomplishment in this time period. Either way, Luke’s statement of, “She was advanced in years (v.36c)…” is fitting.

The final thing we know about Anna is that she lived at the temple. Now there are references to the temple structure as having rooms where the priest would reside while on duty. Since Luke tells us that Anna is a prophetess, a widow, and being that she was advanced in years, it seems likely that she was given one of these rooms as her own. Which would make sense that she wouldn’t leave the temple. 

By knowing these three things about Anna, we know that she comes from a people who were wishy-washing with God, that she had tragedy of losing her husband at a young age and never remarried, though she probably could have, and that for a long while she had been in the temple of God, devoting herself to seeking the Lord. 

The little information we are given actually tells us a lot of who she is, the most important thing, is that she is a devout follower of God, much like Caleb was. But it’s in verse 38, that we have a collision of events that were taking place in a bigger story.

If you walked with us through our Christmas series on the exclamations of Christmas, then you would know that the last exclamation we looked at was Simeon’s. Simeon was an older man who was called righteous and devout, and he was told by God that he wound’t die until he saw the Messiah for himself. Anna’s story fits within his. We’re told that Jesus, as a baby, was being presented in temple as was required in Jewish law. It was at this presentation that Simeon saw Jesus and proclaimed him to be the Messiah. This was followed with a very personal prophetic word to Mary about Jesus and his death. 

Now, when Luke states in verse 38, “And coming up at that hour…” he is connecting Anna’s arrival to Simeon’s prophetic word. Luke’s basically saying, just as Simeon was talking Anna walks in. And this is what I find interesting, Luke doesn’t record exactly what she said, but rather we’re just told, “…she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

This is how I see the situation. The temple is packed with people, as it usually would be. Jospeh and Mary bring Jesus in. They present their first born male child to God as the Law of Moses instructed. Simeon is prompted by the Holy Spirit to go to the temple and he sees the child Jesus. Simeon reaches and picks up the child in his arms and praises God for the blessing of seeing the Messiah in flesh. And as Simeon gives the child back to the parents, he looks at Mary and tells her that Jesus will be water shed for the world. Many will rise with him, or fall away from him. But that just as Jesus will die for this water shed to be accomplished, Mary will experience that pain of death herself because she will see it happen. 

It’s these things that Anna hears and sees. And as a result of what she hears from Simeon, she then starts going through the crowd at the temple, praising God and speaking about the redemption that has come. 

Luke writes from the first hand accounts of those who were there. So it seems that she was too excited to wait around and took off so quick that only a brief glimpse of what she was talking about could be heard by Jospeh and Mary. Where Simeon’s prophetic word was to the couple, Anna’s speech was for the temple. This well advanced in years lady, took off like a shot to let people know the redemption of God was here.

And this is why I love Anna’s story. Here’s a woman that devoted her life to God. That any hurt she had, had been brought before God and dealt with, and now her focus was on the worship of her master. God’s will was the most important thing in her life, and she dedicated everything to it. She also trust in God. and he called her to be a prophetess. Now we don’t know much about her particular work as a prophetess, but we do know that prophets are usually brought to a place where they can do nothing else but trust God. And so we can at least tell that she trusted God. Finally, when she heard the praises of God and the prophetic word coming from Simeon, she took the opportunity to share it with everyone in the temple. She took of like a rocket to proclaim the redemption of God’s people.  

This is why I love Anna’s story, she incapsulates what it means to be a useful arrow of God. God’s will being the most important thing to her, she trusts God above all else, and she takes the opportunities God has for her. She is a sharpened arrow in the quiver of her God, and when pulled out for use, she hit the target God aimed her at. And it’s all seen in three verses. A life of great devotion condensed to three sentences in the story of God.

As disciples, I think this is extremely important for us to understand. We tend to want to be recognized for what we do for God. We want the pat on the back. There’s been a lot of times when I have thought, I want to be used like Paul to write something amazing that will impact people for generations. Or I want to be used like Solomon who built something grand. But the more I study the Scriptures, and see these little moments in the lives of servants, warriors, stay-at-home moms, and widow prophetesses, I realize that’s what I want. I want to be used by God, even if it’s in a small way. Because if I’m really following him, then my desire should be his, and his desire is that I be ready for his work.

If, as disciples of Jesus, we could enter this new year with one thing to ask God to work in us, I hope it would be something like this, that we would be wanting God’s will, trusting him that he is right, and be ready to be used whenever he wants. In other words, we should want to be a sharpened arrow in the quiver of our God. The arrow is sharpened by the archer, placed in the quiver, nocked and drawn to be released at the archer’s intention. And the target could be the hay bale or the deer, but it doesn’t matter to the arrow, because it is the archer’s. 

And as the arrow is the archer’s, we are God’s to be used as he sees fit. Whether that is grandiose as a Billy Graham, or as simple as speaking one-on-one with a neighbor. The target is the archer’s to decide and we must praise him for being used. 

So, let us be used by God, by seeking his will, trusting that it is good, and looking for opportunities to accomplish that will, no matter the target we are sent to. 

My challenge for you this week is to go before the Lord and ask a simple question, “Am I trying to be a David, or Paul type of disciple, or would I be okay as an Anna?” In other words, am I seeking to just be known for something great that I do, or would I be content to being known just for being faithful to God in my life?

If we are content to being an Anna, where the will of God, our trust in him, and our taking advantage of the opportunities that God gives, then I think we will accomplish more in the kingdom of God than we could ever imagine possible. 

So let us be a people who are useful to God, sharpened and awaiting the archer’s hand. Amen.

Useful Arrows Week 3 - The Opportunist

  Depending on who ask, most people have their favorite board games. And on top ten lists of best board games, or most popular board games, or most influential board games, you’ll get games like, The Game of Life, or Clue, or Candy Land, and Scrabble. Some of those will be high or low on the list, depending on the person. And if you’re a board game enthusiast, your list might be vastly different from a standard pup culture list. But in the half a dozen or so lists that I looked up, there was one game that always cracked the top five, Monopoly. The game that brings you to the point of divorce with your spouse and alienation from your family members. 

Today, my wife and I buy one board game every Christmas as a holiday tradition, but growing up, my family didn’t play a lot of board games. I know we had Candy Land, The Game of Life, and several others, but the only one I remember that we played as a family, was Monopoly. The reason I remember that we played that game, is because when we would play it, I would methodically wear my opponents down to where they would have to sell off properties as I amassed my real estate empire. Through this I would prolong the game slowly whittling away and demoralizing my family members. It got so bad at one point, that my mom told me I was the devil, making deals that seemed to help others, but really only benefited me. 

Now I don’t even play the game, because my wife agrees with my mom’s assessment of my play style. Games that should be over in an hour, take days, because I want to gain every piece of the board before we quit. But that’s what I like about the game, it’s all about taking the right opportunities at the right time; whether that’s buying up the right properties, or making the right deals. It’s all about being an opportunist in a friendly game sort of way, unless you’re the people that I play with, then it’s the worst sort of way.

But it’s taking advantage of the opportunities that are presented to us, that brings us back to our new year series on being a sharp arrow in God’s quiver, where we’ll be returning to the Scriptures to the book of Judges, chapter 4, starting in verse 4. And as we open up to Judges 4:4, let’s look back on the first two week so far in our series.

In the first week we looked at the life of Abraham’s servant who he sent to find a wife for his son Issac. This servant loved his master more than earthly positions, wanted insight into his master’s plans, and was humble when those plans worked out. In this servant’s life, we saw how we, as Jesus’ disciples, are to be more concerned with our God’s will than anything else in this world. 

In the second week, we looked at the warrior Caleb. A man who had an undeterred trust in God. He believed that when God gave a promise, that he would deliver on that promise, no matter what anyone else said. And because Caleb believed so much in God’s fulfillment of his promises, God gave him a special promise. Not only allowing him to enter into the land when all but one other person was denied, he was given a specific area to call his own. From Caleb we talked about how we, as disciples, need to have an unwavering trust in God.  

These two follow each other, the will of God needs to be our highest importance, and trusting in God’s will is where the engine turns on. 

Now that we have these two aspects of being a sharpened arrow in God’s quiver back in the forefront of our mind, let’s read from the book of Judges, chapter 4, starting in verse 4.

4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5 She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment. 6 She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. 7 And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand’?” 8 Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” 9 And she said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 And Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. And 10,000 men went up at his heels, and Deborah went up with him.

11 Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.

12 When Sisera was told that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera called out all his chariots, 900 chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the river Kishon. 14 And Deborah said to Barak, “Up! For this is the day in which the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. Does not the Lord go out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him. 15 And the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak by the edge of the sword. And Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot. 16 And Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left.

17 But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18 And Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord; turn aside to me; do not be afraid.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. 19 And he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. 20 And he said to her, “Stand at the opening of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say, ‘No.’” 21 But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. 22 And behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he went in to her tent, and there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg in his temple.

And it’s that last sentence why this story doesn’t get talked about in children’s Bibles. 

The book of Judges is one of those books that incapsulates the whole of Scripture. There is a cycle that appears in the nation of Israel: Israel follows God and experiences peace and prosperity, then Israel stops following God and experiences war and poverty, the nation then calls out to God and he saves them. Rinse and Repeat the cycle for the whole of the history of Israel until they God breaks the cycle with an exile. 

In one event within cycle that we just read, the context is that Israel as a nation was doing evil, once again. So it says that God sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan. In other words, instead of seeking the peace and prosperity that comes from serving the Lord, Israel went against their covenantal oath to follow God and began to do all sorts of things that God hated. So God sold them, which carries with it the idea of slavery. The Israelites would rather live in evil, being slaves of another human, than to be in God’s goodness and free. This is the implication of the cycle that Israel chose, and it took them twenty years living in this state before they finally cried out to God for help.

And that’s where the story of Deborah and Barak comes in. Deborah is a prophet and it’s her custom to hold court, or judgment for Israel at this certain location that came to be known as the Palm of Deborah. Her role was similar to the role that Moses held when he would  judge Israel’s problems in Exodus 18. 

But once the nation as a whole cried out to God, God moved and Deborah calls to the warrior called chose to bring his people back. This was Barak, but notice what she says to him, “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you…(v.6)”

That’s a question, and you know what that means? A part from this interaction between Deborah and Barak, God had already told Barak directly to do something. Yet he hadn’t. So from direct communication, God used one of his prophets to communicate the same thing, and when this prophet speaks with Barak, she asks him, didn’t God already tell you to do this? Implying, why haven’t you done it already?

This is something that needs to be said, when God speaks to us and tells us to do something, we don’t need confirmation, we need action. But Barak did not listen to God’s call, and had to be called twice. You ever get called by your parents more than once? How was their disposition the second time? Why do we so often make God call more than once for us to move?

But we see Barak’s hesitation for ourselves, when he asks Deborah to go with him. He won’t go, unless the prophet goes. Why? The prophet wasn’t called, Barak was. The prophet wasn’t supposed to go out to war, Barak was.

God’s call was on Barak, because for some reason, that only God knows, God wanted this victory to be done through him. But Barak rejected God’s call, and needed someone to hold his hand to follow God. So Deborah told him that because of his unwillingness to follow the call of God, not once but twice, the glory of victory he would have gain would go to a woman.

Now to our modern ears, this sounds sexist, but to his ears it’s a rebuke of his resistance to God’s call. It’s not saying that women are worth less, or that they couldn’t fight, because we know they can in this story, it was God’s way of saying to Barak that the intend glory that God wanted Barak to experience was going to someone who wasn’t even suppose to be out on the battlefield. 

And the woman that would get this glory? Not Deborah, all she did was go. There’s nothing that I read that she did any military work. She didn’t lead the fighting. She didn’t ride out onto the field of battle. She just went with him, held his hand, and told him when to go. 

And when the dust settled on the field of battle, Barak was the winner, but he didn’t get the glory. That fell to Jael. 

The enemy, Sisera, ran from the furry of battle and wound up at Jael’s tent. Jael was a woman who was cunning, she gave the man milk when he asked for water. And she was a woman who was strategic, waiting for the exhausted man to fall asleep. And when he was asleep, BAM! She drives a tent pole through his temple.

It was Jael, not Barak, nor Deborah who got the glory of victory that day. And in Deborah and Barak’s song that comes in chapter 5 of Judges, we get this, “24 Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed. 25 He asked for water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble's bowl. 26 She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen's mallet; she struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple. 27 Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead.”

Jael received the glory of defeating the enemy of Israel on that day, and because of her, Israel experienced forty years of peace, double that which they experienced in bondage. 

So what should we walk away from this example? How should the arrow be in the archer’s care? Too often I hear that this story his about Deborah and Barak, and it’s used to say, that if men don’t step up, then God will use a woman. There is a truth to that, but I think that misses the bigger point of this story. It’s not so much a man verses woman thing, though I do think that men too often give up their roles, Adam did it, and humanity is always hurt when men don’t take their God given roles seriously.

But it’s more than that. Barak wouldn’t follow the call of God. God’s will didn’t matter to Barak, and neither did Barak trust God to fulfill what he said he was going to do. No, Barak needed someone else, someone more spiritual to fight his battles. I think we tend to do this too. The moment when God says to us “do this,” it’s real tempting to say, I better get the pastor’s council first. Or when we know we should share the Gospel with someone and we say, well I’ll point them to this video instead. When we do those things, without God moving us to do them, we are bucking the call of God on our lives. Getting council is fine, except when it’s to push off God’s call for a little longer. Giving people resources is fine, except when that keeps you from directly calling someone to repentance before God. 

When God lays a call on our lives, we must do it. We need to be opportunistic in this way. Compare Barak’s unwillingness to Jael’s. She took the opportunity to take out Israel’s enemy. She had a shot, she took it. Did she need a call of God to do the will of God? No, because when our highest priority is the will of God, we will be seeking it in whatever we are doing. 

I don’t need to be told by God to love my neighbor, I take the opportunities given to me and to do it. I don’t need to be told by God to trust him, I take the opportunities given to me and need to do it. I don’t need to be told to share the Gospel, I need to do it. I need to be looking for opportunities to do the will of God, because I trust that he is working and leading me into situations. 

Paul states in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

What he’s saying there, is that we are to have a continued mindset of rejoicing, of praying, of giving thanks. We should be breathing and eating this stuff. This constant communication is what keeps us on our toes ready for the will of God and the trust of God to meet and our action happens. If I’m constantly rejoicing in the Lord, praying, and giving thanks, I’m like a boxer warming up in my corner before the bell dings. Barak, wouldn’t take the opportunity God called him to, but Jael did.

God seeks to give us opportunities to experience great things, but if we reject those, that’s when we start saying things like, “I don’t feel God,” or “I can’t see God at work.” We can’t because we’re not ready to pull the trigger on God’s calling.

So let’s put into practice what we know of his will, ever ready for the opportunity that God supplies.

This is what the arrow does, when it’s plucked from the quiver it’s time to fly. We need to be like the arrow, ready to fly at a moment’s notice. The disciple of Jesus seeks opportunities from God to be used. And doesn’t shove them off onto someone more spiritual. Don’t push things off on the pastor that you are called to do. Don’t push it off onto the Bible study leader, or professor, or evangelist, or YouTube personality. Those are resources for you to respond to God’s calling, not crutches to push onto others.

My challenge for you this week is this. Ask God for opportunities to be used. Take 5 minutes every morning, start with a simple prayer like, “God I want an opportunity to be used by you today,” then for the next five minutes don’t say a word, just listen for God to speak. Then spend the day rejoicing in what is happening, praying about your comings and goings, and thanking God for what he provides.

Let us be a people who seek to be used by God, so that we can see him work his greatness out in our lives. Amen.

Useful Arrows Week 2 - “The Undeterred Warrior”

 The year was 1912 and the Olympics were held in Stockholm, Sweden. One of the representatives of the US that year was Jim Thorpe, an American Native who competed in the pentathlon, the decathlon, and in both the high and long jumps. In the pentathlon he won four out of the five events, winning gold. In the high jump, he came in fourth and did his worse showing in the long jump, coming in seventh.

Now if this was all that was to the story, there wouldn’t be much of one, but Thorpe was known for what happened during the decathlon. Before the event took place, someone stole his shoes. The story goes that Thorpe quickly found a mismatched replacement pair, one being from the trash can. Thorpe would go on to win the gold medal for his first and only decathlon wearing a mismatched pair of shoes. 

Later in life, Thorpe would go on to play both professional baseball and football, being considered one of the greatest athletes to have ever lived. There’s more to the story, but it’s clear from Thorpe’s life that he was a dedicated and driven athlete that didn’t let anything, not even a mismatch trash pair of shoes stop him from reaching his goal. 

And it’s this undeterred attitude that brings us back into our New Year’s series, where we are talking about being sharpened arrows in the quiver of our God; ready to be used whenever he desires to use us. And in our second week of this series, we’re going to be looking at the life of Caleb in Joshua chapter 14, starting in verse 6. And as we open to Joshua 14:6, let’s look back on our first week to bring us up to speed.

In the first week of our Useful Arrow series, we looked at Abraham’s fateful servant Eliezer (el -e-a-zor). We saw how this servant loved and cared for his master more than himself.  We saw him desire his master’s will over his own, and was humble in giving credit to God for the journey that he had been on. From this loving servant we walked away with the understanding that as followers of Jesus, in order to be useful arrows in God’s quiver, we need to have God’s will in our lives to be the of the highest importance. When Jesus says in Matthew 6, Father your will be done, our lips and lives should say the same thing.

With this understanding of having the will of God as our focal point, we turn to Joshua chapter 14, starting in verse 6, let’s read together.

6 Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh (Jeff-foo-nay) the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. 8 But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. 9 And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.’ 10 And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. 11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. 12 So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim (Anna -Kim) were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said.”

13 Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh  (Jeff-foo-nay) for an inheritance. 14 Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh (Jeff-foo-nay) the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel.

To give a little background about what’s going on in this moment, the book of Joshua is about Israel crossing into the land that God and intended to give them through Abraham. The first half of the book deals with several of the battles that Joshua fought, while the second half of the book deals with both dividing up the land, and ending with a renewal of the covenant that the people made with God in the book of Deuteronomy.

In the passage we just read, Caleb is requesting from Joshua the land that was promised to him by God himself. But why did God promise this land to Caleb specifically? Well that answer comes from the book of Numbers chapters 13-14.

If we go back to Numbers and look at Caleb’s story there, we would see God’s original intention for the nation of Israel. See, after being brought out of Egypt through Moses’ work, God had intended to bring the Israelites straight into his promised land. So after the Israelites spent time at Mt. Sinai receiving the law of God and entering into a covenant with him, they quickly moved to Kadesh as a jumping off point for their taking of the promise land. 

This is where Caleb enters the story. God instructed Moses to send in twelve spies, one from each of the Israelite tribes, Caleb representing the tribe of Judah. These twelve spies went into the promised land for forty days investigating the battlements and capabilities of the locals for war, and to survey the land to see if it really was a place the nation could prosper.

When the men returned, all twelve agreed that the land was a prosperous land, a land flowing with "milk and honey.” They also all agreed that the the people in the land were ready for war; having large fortified cities, with the people being strong. Even saying that the Anak, or really tall and formable warriors, lived in the land.

It’s at this point that we read that Caleb speaks for the first time. He says, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it (Numbers 13:30b).”

This was responded to by ten of the other spies, who said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are (v.31b).

The testimony of the ten won out over Caleb’s, and the people chose not to enter the land. This led the people of Israel to rebel against Moses. The people were upset that Moses had brought them out of Egypt, to take them to a prosperous land, just to be slaughtered by its inhabitants. When the rebellion began rise, Caleb and Joshua, another of the spies, tore their clothes as a sign of mourning and said this, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them (14:7b-9).”

How did the people react? It says that they picked up stones to kill them. If it wasn’t for God’s intervention at that point, the people would have overthrown Moses, killing him and anyone who supported him, like Caleb and Joshua. 

For their rebellion, God would have struck them dead right then, but Moses interceded for the people and God decided that their punishment would instead be to wander the desert until all of that rebellious generation were dead except for Caleb and Joshua. And it’s in verse 24 of chapter 14, that we get God’s promise to Caleb that Caleb would later reference. “But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring him into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.”

And so, when we come to Joshua chapter 14, verses 6-14, Caleb receives his promised land and it’s alluded to that his land is quickly conquered and enters into peace.

It’s in the life of Caleb that we can see one unwavering principle that would speak to what it means to be a sharpened arrow in the quiver of God, trust. Caleb had an unwavering trust in the promise of God. God had told the Israelites that he was giving them the land. Caleb trusted it. He trusted it even though there were tall strong warriors walking around. Caleb trusted it, even though the cities were huge and fortified. He trusted it even though ten others didn’t see the possibilities of victory that he and Joshua saw. He trusted it, even when the people picked up stones to kill him. And that trust in God’s promise led him to being only one of two from that group to see God’s fulfilled promise. And that trust, at eighty-five years old, brought Caleb to his own promise land, where he lived peacefully for the rest of his days.

I think that if given the situation where someone stole his shoes, I think Caleb would trust that God would provide, and whatever was provided would lead him to victory in the situation.

This type of unwavering trust is what the arrow has in its archer. Because the arrow is inanimate, the arrow has no choice but to fully trust in the ability of the archer. The arrow can’t turn to the archer and say, how many hours have you practiced? Or, have you accounted for the wind and humidity in the air? Have you adjusted your bow to the correct poundage, or am I the right arrow for this job. No, the arrow simply fulfills the archer’s purposes. But as God’s people we tend to question the ability of our Archer to use us properly.

I can’t do that, or worse off, I won’t do that, tends to be what too many arrows in God’s quiver say to God’s will. And just like the Israelites who rebelled against God, we can do the same thing. But if we choose to not trust God in what he says can be accomplished, we won’t see the work of God. And then what tends to happen is that we complain, why can’t I see God at work, why can’t I hear him. The answer is, because when he called us to trust, we didn’t.

Caleb’s life shows us that unwavering trust in the promise of God is what God is calling each of us to. Can we inquire, yes, we saw that in the life of the servant, but when the will of God is our primary concern, our trust in what God says can happen, needs to be unwavering, so that his will maybe carried out in our lives. If not, we might miss out on the promise that God intended to share with us. The rest of Caleb’s generation missed out because they were worried about what could happen, instead of what God said would happen. Will we do the same thing?

So I want to challenge you this week, to look at your life and seek God to reveal the times when he called you to trust but you didn’t, what did you miss out on? Right those down. Then seek God to reveal those times he called you to trust and you did, what did you see? Right those down. The goal is to see God at work in our lives, but if we choose to close ourselves off to that work, then we are dull and unusable and we will miss out on promises of God. Yet, when we have unwavering trust in our Archer, we will see great and glorious things, because that is our God, he’s great and glorious. It might take 45 years, like it did with Caleb, but when God promises something, it comes true.

Let us be a people who seek the will of God, trusting him that all the things he says will happen, because he is true to his word. Amen.

Useful Arrows Week 1 - “Loving Servant”

  The New Year always brings about one thing in our cultural mind, resolutions. There are so many. Lists can vary from one thing, to seventy-two things, and can include the likes of, setting goals, reading a book, working out, creating a balance between aspects of one’s life, save money, invest, volunteer, sleep more, sleep less, create a routine, and on and on.

I really don’t ascribe to resolutions, not because there necessarily a bad thing, but because I don’t really stick with them. In fact, I think the longer the list, the less likely you are to accomplish it, and then the more likely you are to feel bad and quit. So what I’ve done in my life is try one thing. Last year was spending more time playing with my kids. This year it’s spending more time on the gun range. Though there is overlap and differences between resolutions, they do have one thing in common, an attempt to make one’s life better.

But New Year’s isn’t just about reevaluating what we want out of this life to make it better, as a follower of Jesus, it should give us an opportunity to think about how to improve our relationships with our Savior. This can be done by reading through the Bible in a year, starting a new devotional book, or something like it. 

Whatever it is, I think doing one or focusing on one thing is a good place to start. A verse that has been brought to my mind for the last several years in thinking about my relationship with God, is from Isaiah 49:2. It reads, “He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.” You might have heard me reference this verse every once an a while. A polished arrow is a sharpened arrow. It means that it has been sharpened by the archer for the purpose of use at an appointed time. Until that time, when the arrow will be taken from the quiver, knocked on the bow string, and sent sailing through the air, the arrow waits in the archer’s quiver.

As Jesus’ disciple I want to be a sharpened arrow in my God’s quiver. Ready to be used whenever he deems me ready. So for the next four weeks we’re going to look at four people of the Bible and see how they were or weren’t ready for the work that God tasked them with. How they were either sharp arrows in the quiver of God, or not. So if you have your Bibles, we’re goin to kick off this resolution of being a ready arrow of God by starting in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, chapter 24, starting in verse 1.

And as we do, let’s bring ourselves up to speed on where we find ourselves in the Scriptures today.

12 chapters earlier God had begun a specific work in the family of Abraham. He called this man and his family away from his life in the town of Haran to travel to the land of Canaan. God promised Abraham a son in his old age and eventually gave him Issac. Through the ups and downs of Abraham’s life, we come to this point as he is facing his final days. 

Let’s read together Genesis 24:1. 

1 Abraham was now very old, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. 2 He said to the senior servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh. 3 I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, 4 but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.”

5 The servant asked him, “What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?”

6 “Make sure that you do not take my son back there,” Abraham said. 7 “The Lord, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father’s household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’—he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. 8 If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.” 9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.

10 Then the servant left, taking with him ten of his master’s camels loaded with all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram Naharaim and made his way to the town of Nahor. 11 He had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town; it was toward evening, the time the women go out to draw water.

12 Then he prayed, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. 14 May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.”

15 Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milkah, who was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor. 16 The woman was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever slept with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar and came up again.

17 The servant hurried to meet her and said, “Please give me a little water from your jar.”

18 “Drink, my lord,” she said, and quickly lowered the jar to her hands and gave him a drink.

19 After she had given him a drink, she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have had enough to drink.” 20 So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water, and drew enough for all his camels. 21 Without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful.

22 When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels. 23 Then he asked, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?”

24 She answered him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son that Milkah bore to Nahor.” 25 And she added, “We have plenty of straw and fodder, as well as room for you to spend the night.”

26 Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord, 27 saying, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”

28 The young woman ran and told her mother’s household about these things.

Stories about the lives of Abraham and Issac tend to overshadow the life of this simple servant who was tasked to get his master’s son a wife. So who was this servant that was tasked with this job? We find out that this is most likely the same servant that was mentioned nine chapters earlier. His name is Eliezer (el -e-a-zor) and he’s from the land of Damascus. At one point he was the inheritor of all of Abraham’s wealth, that is, until Issac was born. Which gives you a little insight into who this servant was. He faithfully served Abraham to the point that he was the first in line to receive his master’s estate if his master had no biological heir. Yet, even though Abraham eventually had an heir in Issac, which meant the servant no longer would gain Abraham’s estate, he was still trusted by his master to help continue his lineage. 

And this is the first of three attributes in this servant’s life that point us to being a sharpened arrow in our God’s quiver. This servant cared more for his master, then he did for what could be gained.

What is heaven like? What crown will I have? What jewels, what mansion will be mine? These are questions of the skewed heart. As a ready arrow in our God’s quiver, the things that we may gain in our relationship with God, are secondary to who we serve. This is why in the book of Revelation chapter 4 verse 10, it reads “…the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say, ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.’” These twenty-four elders come off their thrones, bend down, and lay their crowns down in front of God, because God is more important than the thrones or crowns they have. A true servant of God, is one who loves God, not for what they gain from him, but for who he is.

This leads us back to the passage where we see our two other attributes. 

In the opening of Abraham calling on his servant to find his son a wife, he asks him to put his hand on his thigh. This might sound weird to us, but it was a very personal covenant  that Abraham was asking for. This wasn’t a peace treaty, this wasn’t a property rights thing, this was a father asking his most trusted servant to embark on a very important mission for his son. The closeness of the thigh in this covenant made it a personal mission. Since we know who this servant was, a man who loved his master more than wealth, we know how close their relationship was. This is a master who trusted his servant, and a servant who loved his master. 

So when we come to verse 5, the question about bringing the son to the the woman comes from a place of wanting to know his master’s thoughts on every possible situation.

And this is the second attribute that we need to notice, the servant clarifies the master’s orders out of a desire to serve the master’s purpose. This is something that would happen again and again throughout the Scriptures. Moses, David, Daniel, Jeremiah, and more would seek to inquire of God for the accomplishment of his purposes in their lives. In fact the first time we see this inquiry language used in the Scriptures, is of Rebekah in the next chapter. If we are to be ready arrows in God’s quiver, we must be seeking the will of our Master. We must inquire of him with a ready heart for action. God has a desire that we would seek his will to accomplish his task. 

We see this again in verse 12, when the servant seeks the aid of God to know the specific girl he should be seeking. It’s why Jesus says in places like Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” We are to be ever seeking our God’s will and purpose.

The final attribute comes in verse 26. The servant has been faithful in caring more for his master than for himself and has also sought the purpose and will of his master. It’s then that he meets Rebekah. She is exactly what he had sought God about. She gave him and his camels water to drink and to top it off, she was from the extended family of his master, just as Abraham had requested. 

In response to these things, we’re told that the servant worship God. Blessing the Lord and recognizing how he has been faithful to Abraham through this whole journey. And it’s in the recognization of God’s work that we see the final attribute that we are to have as well, we are to be every recognizing and giving God the praise that is due him. 

This is why the writer of proverbs penned these words, “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths (3:5-6).”

Acknowledging God’s work helps us realize that it’s him that accomplishes things in our lives. When we recognize that he is at work, it helps us to not only stay humble in thanksgiving, but also aware of his work around us. If we are not able to recognize God’s work when it is in direct response to prayer, then we’ll never be able to see his work when he does it without our direct input.

But when we do acknowledge God’s work, then the path he has for us becomes clearer and we quickly move where he wants us to go.

It’s in the life of Abraham’s servant that we can see what it means to be a ready arrow in the quiver of God, and that’s a focus on God. The servant loved his master more than himself, he was interested in his master’s will not his own, and he worshiped his master’s God because he knew it wasn’t him that found the girl. 

As believer’s this is what we need in our lives, a focus on God that wants him more than what can be gained from him, that seeks his will over our own, and praises him for what he accomplishes in our lives. 

An arrow’s job is to do as the archer desires, and so it should be for the Christian’s life. This arrow’s (me) job is to accomplish the Archer’s purpose.

My challenge for you this week is to take the picture in your bulletins of the arrow and target, color if you’d like, but to post it at the front of your door, so that in the morning as you leave your home your mind is on the Archer’s purpose. 

Let us look to this new year as arrows ready, because we love God more than ourselves, we seek his will above our own, and we recognize that it is him that accomplish all things. Amen.