Recover From Our Failings Due To Fear Or Feelings

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘And Joshua said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did You ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan!’ (Joshua 7:7); ‘(2) So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” (3) Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there…’ (1 Kings 19:2-3)

An old movie, ‘The Three Amigos’,  is of a story of three silent-movie actors who, upon getting fired, get a message they are needed in a small village in Mexico.  They get there, thinking they were there for a show, but it ended up they were needed not to act but to actually fight against a group of banditos.  They initially ran off in abject fear, but then gathered themselves up, gained ‘intestinal fortitude’, and fought the gang and in the end won, before riding off into the sunset.  This reminded me of a few Biblical events where Godly people failed, though they seemed to be strong in the Faith.  Each, though, recovered and completed the task the Lord had them do.

Joshua was to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, knowing God promised him and the tribes he would give them the strength to defeat the Canaanites.  After Jericho, Joshua didn’t follow God’s plan but instead listened to ‘aides’ who told him send a small detachment to defeat the city of Ai.  Instead of defeating Ai, the men of Ai routed the 3,000-strong detachment.  Despite being Faithful and seeing God’s plan play out, Joshua panicked and in fear was ready throw in the towel.

Elijah had just stood up to the false prophets of Baal, challenging them to call upon Baal to ignite their sacrifice, while Elijah was building an alter on Mount Carmel and with an offering of a bull ready upon it, soaked it with water so it couldn’t possibly be burned.  The Baal prophets could not make anything happen, but Elijah called upon the Lord who struck the offering and burnt it to a crisp, and dried up all the water around it.  Having just witnessed such an event, and given the power by God to outrun Ahab and his chariot to Jezreel, where he received a message that Queen Jezebel was going to kill him.  Elijah panicked and in fear ran away, despite knowing the Lord was with him and likely would have protected him.

There are more, including Peter, who witnessed the miracles and power & glory of Jesus, including the Transfiguration of Jesus from His earthly body to His heavenly glorified body, yet in fear denied Jesus three times.  Jonah may not have run away in fear of preaching to Ninevah, but didn’t feel like the Ninevites were worth being preached to, and so he tried to sail away. 

In each case, our Biblical heroes recovered from their failures in Faith and their obligations to be restored and remain obedient to the Lord.  Each were renewed in Faith and given the strength to complete their tasks.  Joshua recovered and led the Israelites to take over all of Canaan for the Jewish people.  Elijah recovered with Elisha prophesized and demonstrated the power of God to an unbelieving people (and kings) until he was taken up to heaven in a chariot at the Jordan River outside of Gilgal.  Peter recovered and with Paul led the early Christians.  Jonah of course recovered (thanks to a big fish making him return) and through his preaching won over the people of Nineveh to the Lord.

We all may fail at some point in our walk with Christ, too.  It may be failing to witness to someone, or to do something we should not do or not do something we should do.  We may have fear to move or just feeling like ‘the juice just isn’t worth the squeeze’ to do something the Lord wants us to do.  After this happens, we may realize what we’ve done and feel guilty or remorse.  The Holy Spirit gives us that conviction we ‘should’a, would’a, could’a’ but didn’t.  Well, not that it was OK not to follow the Lord in obedience – they all failed in that regard, but as we see it is not the end – God did not give up on anyone for their failures, but instead to each of them gave them correction, and lifted them up so they could be renewed and used again.

For our Biblical heroes, these were things they were likely ashamed of after the fact.  We know Peter broke down after realizing Jesus’ foretelling his three denials came true.  Yet, Jesus upon His resurrection came back to Peter and gave him the edict to lead His church.  We may drop the ball on witnessing to someone and it may be too late for us to ever witness to that person again, but when that happens, we need to ensure the next ‘someone’ we witness to.  The same can be said for the Lord providing us an opportunity to serve Him; if we ignore it while we may have a feeling of failure, we need to ask the Lord to forgive us and ask for another opportunity.  Never believe one failure takes you out of the game; it happens.  Instead, seek forgiveness and the opportunity to readdress through returning to obedience.