Finish the job!
“…Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you are to cross this Jordan, to go in to possess this land which the Lord your God is giving you, to posses it.” –Joshua 1:11
The Israelites had followed Moses for forty years in the wilderness. As I said yesterday he was their God-representative. In effect without Moses they had no way to get to God, no way to get to His promises, so they thought. But God had already chosen a leader who would take over after Moses, and finish the work that he had started. In the first nine verses of this chapter God reminded the Israelites that they must be strong and courageous. God understood that without Moses the Israelites were going to be in chaos, and God understands that when our plans fall apart that we are usually going to be stumped at what to do next; but God also knows that when we follow His lead then we can finish the job that He gave us.
I want to look for a minute at one of the best examples we have of how we should strive to finish the job. The Apostle Paul was at one time the persecutor Saul. We read in Acts 7 that Saul was present when Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was stoned to death, and even though the Bible does not say it I bet one or two stones came from Saul’s hand. Saul was a Jews Jew, a Hebrew of Hebrews. He wrote in Philippians 3 that he had more right than anyone to brag. Saul was raised as a Jew, taught the law to be a Pharisee. He was the perfect example of a religious man. In Acts chapter 9 we see that Saul went to the leaders of synagogue, and he asked for letters, so that he could go to Damascus and throw any people who were following Jesus in to prison. Something happened to Saul on the way to Damascus; he met face to face the risen Savior, and he turned from religion to a relationship.
The persecutor Saul became the Apostle Paul, and wrote at least 11 of the books in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul began countless numbers of churches, and raised up many devoted men and women of God. Listen to his words to his apprentice Timothy just before he was put to death in II Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.”
As I have mentioned before I love Mel Gibson movies, they are manly; beat your chest, and howl at the moon kind of movies. There is one scene from the movie “the Patriot” that I automatically think of when I think about Paul. There is a scene with Mel talking to one of the American commanders in a tent. The Revolution is going bad for the Americans and the Commander tells Mel that they must “Stay the course.” We must keep that in mind, even though things may look bad we must stay the course.
Our plans have failed. Your lose your job, your spouse leaves you, your children abandon you; but you must stay the course. Jesus told us that all of that was going to happen, but He also said if we stay the course, His course, then He will make everything better. It’s like a little child who runs to his parents when he scrapes his knee because he knows that they know what to do, and after they perform their miracles the child can go back and finish what he was doing.
When we run to our Heavenly Father then He fixes our boo-boo’s and we can finish the work He called us too.
Father, let me keep You in my focus, and always follow You because then and only then will I be able to finish what was started. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The image above can be found at:
Yes, You Can Ministry 
