Bible Studies

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When Joshua was old and full of years, the Lord appeared to him to tell him to get up and finish the job he had assigned to his hands, Joshua 13:1.

Now Joshua was really up there in age.

I am sure he had all of the ailments, aches and pains and challenges that come with growing old, but he did not complain.
Yes, God knows about the aches and pains. And about the trick knee.

He knows every detail about the spastic colon, and the night cough.

He also knows that Jesus Christ carried our infirmities and diseases to the cross and by his stripes we were healed!
Who his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes we were healed, I Peter 2:24.

The full realization of the healing is sometimes a process for us.
He tells us to go anyway.

Healing will come as we obey. When we get busy for God, we often forget about the trick knee, and the spastic colon, and whatever else ails us.

Why didn’t God allow some of the young men to finish Joshua’s job?

They had the strength, but they did not have the wisdom. They were mighty warriors, but they did not have the experience.

Young men do not have the experience of an aged warrior. Experience and wisdom knows the territory, and it understands people.

Young men often feel the need to prove themselves and often overreact in situations that require a cool head. They need leadership.

(A statistic showed that the younger a boy was who had a gun, the more likely he is to use it. In robbery and crime scenarios, a boy of 15, 16, or 17, is more likely to to shoot to kill than one who is older).

So here we are. There were hundreds of thousands of able bodied young men in the Israeli Army, but God tells a feeble, elderly man to go back to battle.

Why? It was Joshua’s assignment to finish.

We each have our own assignments to complete for God. And our assignments are all different according to God’s will.

Nobody can complete your unique assignment from God.

Once during a terrible 2 year trial as a minister, God told me to just smile. That was my assignment. Smile.

It seems like such an easy thing to do but when you are in the midst of battle and warfare, and dealing with difficult people, the last thing you want to do is smile.

During trials you often spend a lot of time wondering why.

Why are these things happening to me?

Why are people that I trusted aloof and indifferent to me?

Why? Why? In the midst of these “whys,” smiling is the last thing on your mind.

After the ordeal was over I found that the strength of many strong people had kept the ministry from being destroyed.

We who stood had been given individual assignments to do by God to win that battle, and we prevailed. The battle was not ours anyway. It was the Lords.

Psalm 33:17 An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.

Big guns don’t always assure a victory, because safety and victory is of the Lord.


Joshua’s victory at Jericho came because of obedience and praise.

We win victories through God by wisdom and not might. He tells us beforetime that we already have the battle.

And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, [and] the mighty men of valour, Joshua 6:2.

God’s warrior cannot retire. The focus of their ministry may change, but they must daily uplift, promote, encourage, strengthen, change and endure.

Copyright 2007

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