Max Lucado begins Chapter 2 (“Inherit Your Inheritance”) of Glory Days with the bold assertion that it is time to declare war on a raging pestilence that goes by the name “I can’t.” This malady contaminates lives by attacking our self-control, our careers, and our faith.
Pastor Lucado says no one would have blamed Joshua if he had muttered these words. Moses had died- and their was no leader like him, Yet, in Joshua 1:2, God told Joshua: “Moses . . . is dead. Now therefore, arise.” Max states that this hints of a major theme in the book of Joshua:
“God’s power alters the score. Moses may be dead, but God is alive. The leader has passed, but the Leader lives on.”
Even so, Joshua had two additional excuses for saying “I can’t”:
- two million inexperienced Hebrews- battlefield tenderfeet
- bloodthirsty, barbaric tribes like the Canaanites and Amorites
Joshua never declared defeat because God gave him a reason for faith. God told Joshua and the children of Israel to cross the Jordan to the land He was giving to them. In other words, the land already had been transferred. The transaction already had happened. Max concludes:
“Joshua wasn’t present to take the land but to receive the land God had taken. Victory was certain because the victory was God’s.”
Today’s question (from the study guide): What do you think you can’t do that you suspect God thinks you can do? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: the latest addition to the Annotated Bibliography, The End of Me