ObeyGC2: Slaying the global evil giants virally
Pun intended. The global evil giants of spiritual emptiness (lostness), self-serving leadership (which leads to all sorts of injustice and suffering), grinding poverty, pandemic diseases, and crippling ignorance are foes so large that no one has been able to defeat them. The United Nations, the United States, business, military, government, no one. By most measures we have been losing ground on all these fronts when the global situation is considered. Perhaps the brightest of these is the battle against lostness, but even though the church is growing faster than it ever has in history, it still isn’t keeping pace with population growth.
The church has not played the role it should in any of these battles. The biggest problem has been that most of the manpower in the church is sidelined for no good reason. For some reason, most of us have been led to believe that the only significant contribution which can be made in these battles is by professionals because the giants are so big and so intimidating. The fact of the matter is that all of us who pledge allegiance to God are called and equipped to be in the battle against these giants at all times. We are all “soldiers” and “priests” and “prophets” and “kings” whether or not we are professional missionaries, trainers, business gurus, doctors, or teachers. The more quickly we can spread this message and model it for others in a “viral” fashion, the more quickly we can make a difference in the epic battle against the giants. Snowflakes by themselves are fragile, but when enough of them get together they can stop traffic, close down a city, or even create an avalanche. If enough ordinary people are involved doing the simple things they can do and getting those they are helping involved as well, the faster we can win this battle.
Let’s be like Joshua and Caleb who gave the good report after spying out the land of Canaan. The other ten spies looked at the giants and the great walled cities and said Israel would be unable to take the land. Joshua and Caleb looked at their God and said, “He will surely give us the land.” The people followed the advice of the ten and had to wander in the wilderness and die for another forty years. Joshua and Caleb alone survived from their generation and they were proved right when God did give them the land forty years later when they finally had the courage to obey Him and attack the giants.
Num 13:27-28a, 30-32 ;14:1-3, 6-10a
27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.”
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.
14:1 That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. 2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”
6 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. 8 If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”
10 But the whole assembly talked about stoning them.
