Adding All Of It Up
Adding it All Up
Joshua 12:1 & 7a Now these are the kings of the land whom the people of Israel defeated and took possession of their land beyond the Jordan to the sunrise, from the Valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon, with all the Arabah eastward. … And these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the people of Israel defeated on the west side of the Jordan, from Baal-gad in the Valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak, that rises toward Seir …
A catch phrase I’ve come to love of late is the phrase, “Look at the scoreboard,” often used by political leaders when chiding critics, but best used by common, everyday saints who find themselves bombarded on all sides by Luciferian lies and idiotic ideologies and poisonous policies, not to mention those inner doubts, discouragements, and sorrows that wound us most. Maybe it would lift our countenance today to respond to our scoffing enemy with a little sanctified sarcasm of our own. The next time you hear him jeer in your ear something like, “You’re unworthy,” or “You’re a nobody,” or “You’re a loser,” respond by pointing up to that cross of Christ and saying the word that best sums up your situation: “Scoreboard.”
Joshua 12 is exactly that. The Spirit halts Joshua’s narrative advancement to recount in detail, one by one, name by name, first Moses’s victories to the East of the Jordan and then Joshua’s victories to the West, and every word is another check mark in the ‘win’ column. Every line is another promise fulfilled. And I love that God inspired Joshua to write down this tally in his sacred scroll, because it means that pilgrims from generation to generation will have something to turn to, to point to, when they need remembrance of how much ground Heaven has gained and hell has lost.
Friend, sometimes, in the darkness of this present hour, it can feel like the church is losing and the world is winning. Sometimes it can appear that the little light we shine into our cosmic sphere has such diminishing returns. Oh, but that holy fire God lit at Calvary burns on, undiminished by the toxic torrents of godless men and devils. So Christian, go back to the record when your heart is feint! Rejoice in the victories God has won on your behalf! And remind the devil of it, too.