READING FOR DECEMBER 20, 2024: JOSHUA 1, REVELATION 13, PSALM 126 JOSHUA 1 Joshua assumes the leadership of Israel after Moses’s death. For the first nine verses all he does is listen to God. That’s key to successful leadership. We must not plunge into action before we receive guidance from God. In these verses, God repeatedly states He will give Joshua every place he sets his foot. He reassures Joshua with these famous words in verse five: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Yet, he also repeatedly tells Joshua to be “strong and courageous.” How interesting that even though God is always with us in the person of Holy Spirit, we still need to be strong and courageous. Paul puts it this way: “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” (Eph 6:10). As we near our final days in this life, now is not the time to turn into spiritual wimps. What else is essential for anyone in positions of spiritual leadership such as a pastor, teacher, or leadership council member? Verse eight: “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.”
In the next six verse Joshua organizes the people for the mobilization that will begin in just three days. He also reminds the fighting men of the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh of their promise to cross over the Jordan to help their countrymen defeat the current residents. After victory is achieved, these men can cross back over to the east side of the Jordan to settle with their family, as they had requested before (Numbers 32). The final three verses are the people’s promise to obey Joshua as they did Moses. Of course, we know they (or at least their parents) didn’t fully obey Moses nor would all of them soon fully follow Joshua’s commands with regard to items designated for destruction at Jericho. But in that case, they did follow through on their promise to put to death those who rebel (Joshua 7:25).
REVELATION 13: An unholy trinity of three characters is the focus of chapter 13: the dragon, the beast out of the sea, and the beast out of the earth. These are sometimes referred to as Satan, the antichrist, and the false prophet. The antichrist beast is said to have a head that has been healed from a fatal wound. There may be no other verse of scripture that has captured our imagination than the last verse of chapter 13. It is here that we read the number of the beast is 666. For centuries, people have tried to identify the antichrist by applying that number to people. These examples should remind us to be cautious in making such claims:
Emperor Nero, a notorious persecutor of the church: His name in Hebrew can add up to 666.
Adolf Hitler: If you assign a value of 100 to the letter A, 101 to the letter B, and so on, “Hitler” adds up to 666.
John F. Kennedy: He received 666 votes at the 1956 Democratic convention; he later died of a head wound.
Ronald Wilson Reagan: He had six letters in each name…666! He recovered from a wound that seemed fatal.
Donald Trump: The address of Trump Tower is 666 and he recovered from a head wound.
READING FOR DECEMBER 20, 2024 CONTINUED: REVELATION 13, PSALM 126
Rather than trying to figure out the identity of the antichrist, this chapter has some good advice for how we are to live when the world seems to be under the control of an antichrist spirit. Revelation 13:10 calls us to two things: patient endurance and faithfulness. No matter how bad things get around us, we remember from chapter 11 that Christ will ultimately reign over all the earth. In the end, evil will lose and Christ will be the victor. That means we can patiently endure all the chaos before that ultimate victory. When Jesus spoke to the church in Philadelphia, he mentioned Satan’s work among them, but he called them to “endure patiently.” (3:10) Those who endure patiently will join with Jesus when he reigns. Paul says, “…if we endure, we will also reign with him.” (2 Timothy 2:12)
We are also called to be faithful even when our faith is attacked. When Jesus spoke to the church in Smyrna, he told them that Satan would persecute them. But Jesus challenges the church to, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (2:10)Jesus told the church in Pergamum that they lived where Satan had his throne. A faithful servant named Antipas was killed for his faith. Jesus affirms them because they were faithful even in the midst of such attacks. (2:12-13)
No matter how bad things get on the earth. Even when the time of the antichrist comes, we do not need to fear. We can choose to respond with patient endurance and faithfulness.
PSALM 126 In this chapter the Psalmist recalls how Israel felt after God restored them to a good position, possibly the return from the exile in Babylon. It was so great that it was like a dream, almost too good to be true. They couldn’t stop smiling. This good turn of events was noticed by other countries because it was unmistakably the work of the Lord, not man. Can we remember a time like this? Maybe we felt this way when we first got married or had our first child or landed that first real job. Let’s remember that time and thank God for it. Maybe the Lord has such a time ahead of us as a church body at Yorktown. Can we dream big enough?
Verse four begins a plea for God to do it again. The Psalmist says they are currently in a desert, like the Negev (at left). But God can bring refreshing streams to even that arid land. Do we feel we are in the Negev? Let’s pray that He brings streams our way. Note, that even though this is God’s doing, we still need to work. We have to sow the seed, maybe with tears, in order to reap with songs of joy. LET’S START SOWING THE SEED OF THE GOSPEL.
